I agree with Brother Macca! I also would ask? are there exceptions to the rule?? Like brother Macca said,both Enoch, and Elijah who did not see death,will have glorified bodies,when Elijah comes back to signal an end time prophesy. But What about those who have died, for a time, and then have come back to life, in there natural bodies? I guess there are two forms of death,one the lasts,till we get a new glorified body,and then one,which has purpose for the person,who had died and come back to life. We know in Scripture,it is appointed for a man to die once,then judgment,which is true,but the form in which death can take for a period of time,like Lazaeras,then have life return to him, from Jesus himself,to me is still a mystery. I guess that only the person it may happen to,knows only the real story, of coming back,from the dead.

I believe that we can go to heaven before our physical death. Indeed many have. Many reading this post will have expereinced the heavenly unity for which our souls crave. This life is not supposed to be a test with a reward at the end for those that pass. GOd is not a cruel headmaster with chocolates in one hand and a big stick in the other!
Heaven is there for all of us to experience. we dont have to wait for our physical death, for this death is but an illusion. Life goes on for all of eternity as does God for God is life and GOd is love and this is the heaven that is here for us right here right now.

Originally Posted by palms25

Life goes on for all of eternity as does God for God is life and GOd is love and this is the heaven that is here for us right here right now.

Are you referring to life as we know it here on earth; that we can/will be "beamed up" in our current earthly form? I don't think I want that kind of heaven. I'm looking forward to having a healed, glorified body and eternity with Jesus. And I'm going there when my work here is finished.

SLE

I know the Lord is in heaven. I know Angels are in Heaven. People die and then….

Well this is what I am trying to figure out some say immediately after we die, then shall come the judgment. But when you read other verses you wonder where they went.

Enoch first was taken. Where? Elijah was taken up in a chariot. I guess we assume Heaven but now look at this. Lazarus was dead for 4 days. Jesus raised him from the dead. If he was a man of God would he not already be in Heaven?
Why would God suck Lazarus out of heaven to come back down here in an immortal body? Then Jesus died. He said just as Jonah was in the Belly of the whale for 3 days so shall the son of man in the Belly of the Earth.

This doesn’t sound like Heaven. And then we got the rapture deal. It says both who are dead and alive in him shall be caught up with him. If these people died and already in Heaven how can they be raptured? Where are they? Where is the Dead? Who is saved? Where is the dead non saved at this time? I don’t know. I only know one day a person will go Heaven or to Hell one day.

I can’t answer this one but to say one must die first before going to Heaven. In my belief of the rapture not even then will anyone enter the literal Heaven God abides for 7 years. I’m a post trib believer. I was a pre tribber for 13 years but no longer today. Post trib sounds more Biblical. It defies our logic but it stays correctly but what the Lord actually says from what we actually believe.

It's more common now to die , but alot of people have out of body experiences where they went to Heaven. And from my understanding if we are Raptured out we are just translated when we go. Also Enoch and Elijah went to Heaven alive. So I guess the answer to your question is no. It is all in God's hands who has to die and who doesn't.

Is it a trick question? Death and Heaven? On the one hand, Jesus says:

"...And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." John 11:26

And then...

"And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." John 3:13

But then Paul writes:

"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven." II Cor 12:2

If there is more than one death as at least one post indicated and there is more than one heaven as Paul's words suggest, perhaps before answering the question of the thread title, we need to be sure we are all using the same meanings for words.


I have some ideas; some, which are believed; some, which are probably known; and some, which are likely wrong.

For starters didn't Jesus mean to say here that unbelievers are dead?

"Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead." Matt 8:22

Originally Posted by amadeus2

didn't Jesus mean to say here that unbelievers are dead?

"Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead." Matt 8:22

Tn my opinion, this account is of a young man who is afraid of being disowned by his father if the father learns that he's become a follower of Jesus; "...for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue" (Jn 9:23). The young man was torn between his belief in Christ and Jewish tradition. No one knows whether or not he eventually became a fully committed believer. Those who refuse to believe are spiritually dead.

SLE