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I've heard a couple of different explanations of this, and I'd like to know what the general consensus is. Jesus is supposed to come again to judge the living and the dead, right? And then all good souls will be brought into the kingdom of heaven, or heaven will come to earth.
But when someone dies today, people say, 'he's in a better place,' or 'she's with Jesus.'
So which is it? Are souls brought immediately to that better place, or are they in limbo until Jesus comes again for final judgment?
Some scriptures might lead you to believe that people are "sleeping" so to speak, until the final judgment, but I think other scriptures point to the fact that a soul is in some form of heaven or hell until the final judgment. For example, St. Paul states that he desires to go on and be with the Lord. In Revelation, you have a scenario described in which people are in heaven speaking (before the final judgment) and in Jesus tells a story about the man who wanted to go back and warn his brothers "not to come to this place." These would indicate that people are either in heaven or hell of some type prior to the final judgment. At least, that's my take on it from reading the scriptures.
I believe that this is the main reason why most Christians do not want to be cremated.
They believe that once you loose the ashes (by accident or other) there is nothing to resurrect.
So which is it? Are souls brought immediately to that better place, or are they in limbo until Jesus comes again for final judgment?
Hi, there are many scriptures which speak of the body and soul being dead, meaning that they are not consciously existing in a place. The body is in the grave or wherever the remains are and the soul no longer lives. The soul is in Hades, the unseen state. The spirit returns to God, but I don't believe that the spirit is conscious. This is the glory of the resurrection because if people are automically sent to heaven when they die and consciously living there, why is there a need for the resurrection? People would already be living forever in heaven. Paul says that Jesus alone possesses immortality (1 Timothy 6:16) and I believe that we obtain immortality when we are resurrected.
God bless.
Last edited by ShanaBrown; 11-27-2007 at 06:47 PM..
It's kind of a moot question, really. The New Testament tells us that 144,000 Jewish adult male virgins (good luck) will be taken to Heaven in what we now call The Rapture. Then they will rule over the world along with Jesus for 1000 years until Judgment Day when all the good people will be sent to Heaven and all the bad people will be thrown into a lake of burning fire (NOT hell). The problem is, Jesus said in several places in the Gospels (Matthew 24, for example) that the event we now call The Rapture would happen during the lifetimes of his Apostles (say, by about 70 C.E.). That means Judgment Day would have happened between 1000 and 1100 C.E. Since that obviously didn't happen, I think it's reasonable to assume that the whole story is fiction. The truth is, Jesus was the leader of a doomsday cult. He was convinced that the world was going to end soon, and he spent a lot of time trying to convince his followers that if they were obedient little servants until that day, they would have eternal life in paradise.
Some people will object to my interpretation, citing verses from the Gospels that say only God knows when these events will happen. To me, this is like talking about when a football game will end. I can't tell you exactly what time the game will end before the game starts, but I can be reasonably sure that the game will end within 6 hours of beginning, and absolutely certain that the game will either be officially completed (or cancelled) by the end of the season. Jesus gave us a range of about 20-30 years, which I've extended another 5-10 years to come to a date of 70 C.E. All he's saying is that it will happen without warning sometime during that timeframe.
Keep in mind that I don't have a Bible on me, and this is all from memory, so I could be a little off. The point, though, is that according to the Bible, all the events in Revelation would have happened a long time ago if they were ever actually going to happen.
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I believe that this is the main reason why most Christians do not want to be cremated. 
moot question
