Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
There is much in the Bible that does not require the kind of detailed understanding that you (and so many others) are wanting.
Do we need to understand everything in this detailed way because it's there (like climbing a mountain "because it's there")?
Seems that there is quite little that actually answers the question about precisely where you go when you die prior to the end times. And the terminology of what may or may not be the same or different about heaven v paradise is really not clear.
And I'm supposed to conclude that it is important to know the difference? What is that supposed to do for me?
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Obviously you didn't read the other posts.
1. the overriding principle is not that we go to paradise when we die but, as it says in Phil, we go to be with the Lord. This we feel is because our life is hid in the Lord. So when the Lord told the thief He would be with him this day in Paradise it wasn't because that is where we go, but because he was going to be with the Lord.
2. As for "the dead in Christ rising first" we determined, based on 1Cor 15 that when we die our body is sown as a seed and the in resurrection it is raised a spiritual body, like "the bodies" that Jesus had, or like those that the ones who are resuscitated report seeing. This is the reason it says "the dead in christ rise" because just like a seed sprouting our transfigured bodies will also "sprout" in type.
3. Therefore we also concluded that Christianity is not "off the mark" to say that we "go to heaven when we die" though the emphasis is wrong. Since Jesus is currently in heaven and we are going to be with Him.
4. Using the Lord's words to the thief on the cross though is clearly an erroneous basis for this teaching.
As to your question "Do we need to understand..." Paul himself in 1Cor 15 said that "some will ask ..." in reference to what happens when we die. Since Christ has been to every realm of the universe we should be able to fellowship this and it is Paul that explains this. So yes, you should be able to explain in a coherent way to one who asks what happens when you die.
As for this forum it is very relevant because it is a shining example of how the LRC thinks that they are rich and know all mysteries but are in fact blind.