Yes, I believe Noah's Flood was global and in the past. I see evidence of it every day.
The only way anyone gets to heaven since 9 Av 70 AD is to die and then (if they are saved) they immediately go to heaven without first having to "sleep" in Hades. This is the teaching and it's right here.
Heb 9: [SUP]26 [/SUP]He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. [SUP]27 [/SUP]And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, [SUP]28 [/SUP]so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
I don't see any mention of a resurrection in the above, do you? I don't see a word about any rapture, do you? I don't see any exceptions to the rule about dying, do you? Notice also that Christ appeared to put away sins by His sacrifice "AT THE END OF THE AGES." Do you see that? I realize two people didn't die, Enoch and Elijah. I get that. But the above gives no exceptions. It doesn't say, "it is appointed for men to die, except the 2.1 billion which will be raptured."
DEATH >>>> JUDGMENT
That's it. That's how it works and has worked since 70 AD. This is how you will get to heaven. It is how I will get to heaven and everyone else who is saved. "All things have been restored" and our path to heaven is now wide open and clear. I get that it is very appealing, the idea that maybe you won't have to die. Who wants to die? In the history of the planet only two mortal men didn't die PERIOD and I can't find any passage where this happens to anyone else.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news VCO, but you are going to die someday. I hope it won't be for a very long time and may you live to 105. But when you are approaching that day and haven't been raptured, think of me and have comfort that you will be with the Lord in mere moments after you pass.
Man, you really do not have much of an idea about what we teach and believe, do you? I am totally amazed at how little you know about our beliefs. I will start with your bottom comment and work my way up.
I certainly am ready to die at any minute HE WANTS TO CALL ME HOME. I AM EAGER TO BE IN HEAVEN, but as long as HE wants me here, I am also EAGER to continue to Serve HIM. So dying is NOT BAD NEWS, it is GOOD NEWS, and Staying is also GOOD NEWS, because it means HE has more people for me tell about what all JESUS has done in my life. When my brother-in-law died of cancer, he was asleep on his side, when suddenly he jerked, rolling over on his back, pointed at the ceiling, and shouted HALLELUJAH! He took three more breaths and died. The Hospice lady who did not Believe in GOD, was in the room, and she became a Christian because of what she saw that day. NOW THAT IS A GOOD WAY FOR A CHRISTIAN TO DIE. So your thinking that a Born Again Christian dying is "bad news" is TOTALLY FALSE.
No, I do not see dying, as bad news, I see it as EXCITING, when I have finished the work HE has for me to do here. Should the LORD choose to Call His Bride Out before I die, that would just be all the more EXCITING.
2 Corinthians 5:1-8 (NCV)
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1 [/SUP] We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a house for us. It will not be a house made by human hands; instead, it will be a home in heaven that will last forever.
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2 [/SUP] But now we groan in this tent. We want God to give us our heavenly home,
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3 [/SUP] because it will clothe us so we will not be naked.
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4 [/SUP] While we live in this body, we have burdens, and we groan. We do not want to be naked, but we want to be clothed with our heavenly home.
Then this body that dies will be fully covered with life.
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5 [/SUP] This is what God made us for, and
he has given us the Spirit to be a guarantee for this new life.
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6 [/SUP] So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord.
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7 [/SUP] We live by what we believe, not by what we can see.
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8 [/SUP] So I say that we have courage. We really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord.
AT THE END OF THE AGES, obviously is an expression that spans at least 2000 years. And my opinion of Encoch and Elijah not dying, may be a CLEAR indication that GOD janked them out of Their period of time, and put them in the TIME following the Church-age, to be the TWO WITNESSES who play a very big roll in getting the majority of the NATION ISRAEL to believe, JESUS IS YOUR MESSIAH.
You are again hinting that there was a resurrection before in 70 AD. PURE HOGWASH! Had something like that happened, EVERY HISTORIAN FROM THAT TIME WOULD HAVE MENTIONED IT.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (HCSB)
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20 [/SUP] But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have
fallen asleep.
{The nice Hebrew way of saying they died.}
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21 [/SUP] For since death came through a man,
the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.
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22 [/SUP] For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ all will be made alive.
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23 [/SUP]
But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at His coming, those who belong to Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:40 (CSBBible)
[SUP]40 [/SUP] There are heavenly bodies {NO we will not be Resurrected as a spirit being.} and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is different from that of the earthly ones.
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 (CSBBible)
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51 [/SUP] Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep
{DIE}, but
we will all be changed,
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52 [/SUP] in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and
the dead will be raised incorruptible, and
we will be changed.
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53 [/SUP] For
this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this
mortal body must be clothed with
immortality.
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54 [/SUP] When
this corruptible body is clothed with
incorruptibility, and this
mortal body is clothed with
immortality, then the saying that is written will take place:
Death has been swallowed up in victory.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (CSBBible)
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16 [/SUP] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel's voice, and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first.
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17 [/SUP]
Then we who are still 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.
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18 [/SUP] Therefore encourage one another with these words.
YES WE BELIEVE THAT IS ALL LITERAL, not symbolic.
THE APPEARING IS NOT THE SECOND COMING, IT IS NOT A COMING UNTIL HIS FEET TOUCH THE GROUND ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. He APPEARED TO Stephen, and He APPEARED to Paul three or four times, and they did not count as a COMING. THAT IS WHY TITUS 2:13 is my favorite verse:
Titus 2:13 (HCSB)
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13 [/SUP] while we wait for the blessed hope and
appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
As I said, "He sleeps in the grave" is nothing more than a nice way to say someone DIED, and it is a common expression among Israelites. However
the REALITY OF AN UNBELIEVER'S human spirit being in HADES, is absolutely REAL TORMENT and the beginning of the ENTERNAL TORMENT OF THE LAKE OF FIRE. NO SLEEPING GOING ON IN HADES.
You said
"if they are saved", which poses another question. I have to ask, because your Beliefs as SO DIFFERENT THAN MINE: How do you believe us sinners are SAVED? I am asking if you believe if: Works, climbing into a Baptistry, adhering to the doctrines of Preterism, or anything else has a part in getting a person SAVED?
I am Glad you do Believe in the Reality of the FLOOD in Noah's time. That is the first thing in quite awhile you and I have totally agreed on. I found petrified sea shells in a road ditch, when I was in the third grade, when I grew up on a farm in Nebraska. Thus I, had no problem believing in a Biblical Flood. In fact the massive amount of Water gushing up out of the ground, may have been the cause of a lot of new mountains being formed.