Just seriously interested in what the Word says about this. When Jesus calls Lazarus to come forth from his grave, if Christ said, Lazarus come down, then that might have implied Christ was calling Lazarus down from heaven? But it wasn’t, Christ likened death to a sleep?
I think much of the confusion has come from religion or from what we embellish in our minds from the Word of God.
We know the Word does not contradict itself …
Jhn 11:14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead .
and
Luk 14:14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
And Jesus could not have denied the abundance of scripture from the Old Testament like that of
Ecc 9:5 6 &10
And…. how do we get around this?
Jhn 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
That revelation was given to John about 80 A.D. …to which I am sure, with Jesus being in heaven He would know if anybody else was there.
While people may get comfort thinking their loved ones are in heaven... others might get comfort thinking their enemies are being sautéed in hell…. Neither of those are true. The truth that God extends to us about those who are asleep “in Jesus” is written in
1Th 4:13 –
17 …..with verse
18 stating, that is where our comfort is → Within the hope of the return of Jesus for the Church of God, both those who are alive and those who have died “in Christ”.
Phl 1:21,
2Co 5:8 Are a couple of scripture that some use to support going to heaven when you die. But this is where embellishment enters. It does not say that Paul or anyone else goes to heaven in fact when you read the context it is almost opposite. In fact Paul calls death and enemy in
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Additionally No place in the Bible does it state we go to Him ….it is always Him coming for us.
The soul
Lev 17:11 For the life [
nephesh]
of the flesh is “in the blood”: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls [
nephesh]:
for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul [
nephesh]
The word
life in this verse is the same word for
soul (
nephesh) ….Soul life is in the blood. And soul life ceases upon death unless it is carried on through progeny. But flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (
1Co 15:50)