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First, Matthew and Mark both state that Jesus ONLY spoke to the people in parables--NO exceptions:
"Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables;
he did not say anything to them without using a parable."--Matthew 13:34
“But without a PARABLE spoke He
spoke not unto them…” Mark 4:34
(note too, they repeat it
twice--making it emphatic)
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is GROUPED with other parables. People keep saying Jesus used names, but of course it can't be a true story given the details---they simply do not align with what scripture clearly states.
- One huge problem is how are they in heaven or hell before THE JUDGMENT has even occurred?
- Where did either of them get bodies from since the believer does not receive their immortal bodies UNTIL Christ's Second Coming?
- How are they able to converse across a great Chasm?
- How does one in torment even carry on a conversation?
- How is it that people in heaven and hell can even see each other? Not much of a heaven if you could see people in torment for all of eternity.
- How are they even able to locate each other if people have gone to heaven (circumventing the judgment)--there would be billions of people on either side!
Clearly this is a parable--to take it as a factual account of heaven and hell flies in the face of what scripture clearly states, not to mention rational reasoning:
"30 Let both grow together
until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers,
“First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” --Matthew 13:30
"And he will send his angels and
gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. "--Mark 13:27
"So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are
eagerly waiting for him. "--Hebrews 9:28
"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. "--1st Thessalonians 4:16-17
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."--John 14:3
"For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. "--2nd Corinthians 5:10
Clearly we DO NOT go to heaven until Christ's Second Coming!