Death

Death » Bosom of Abraham

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

They are not still in the bosom of Abraham because Jesus took everybody out of the bosom of Abraham and took them into heaven. Ephesians 4 says he led captivity captive and took them out of that holding place, that stage of waiting. That’s where Catholics get the idea of purgatory. There is no purgatory. But at the time, there was in a sense of purgatory. It was Abraham’s bosom. It was a holding pattern. It wasn’t a place where God decided whether somebody was going to heaven or not. It was a place where all those who put their faith in the coming Messiah would stay until Jesus could take them into heaven. Remember to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When you die physically, you will immediately be with Jesus in heaven. I believe that based on the Scripture I see.

Death » Animals

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Just because dogs and animals do not have living souls (according to Genesis 1 and 2) that doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be animals in heaven. It’s just that the souls of those that die here on this earth don’t go to heaven or hell. They don’t have a soul at all; they just cease to exist. But rather than focus on that, remember the good news is that God is going to give you every desire when you get to heaven. All of your desires are going to be satisfied, and you are going to be completely fulfilled.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

And that’s really the issue I think that I want to address is that grief of any kind is something that God wants to heal you from, your mother from, your relatives from, whoever is dealing with that. God wants to deliver us from grief. Jesus bore our grief in his body. He bore our grief in his soul and carried it on the cross, so that we could be free from grief and free from depression and free from the sadness from a sense of loss. Grief comes from any sense of loss. Whether you’ve lost a loved one. Whether you’ve lost a pet. Whether you’ve lost a business. Whether you’ve lost money. Whether you’ve lost your mind, for that matter. We all have an opportunity to grieve when we lose something, and so God wants us to overcome that grief. And the Bible says to put on the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

You know, even if I’m wrong. It would be great if I am, and you saw your pets in heaven. But the main thing is God doesn’t want you to live in grief. He wants to comfort the ones who grieve. And He does that by his Holy Spirit, so I encourage you to encourage your mom. Pray for her, and we agree with you for the comfort of the Holy Spirit in a time of loss. But we will see our loved ones in heaven. That’s for sure. If they’re believers, if they’re born again. And that’s really the only way to get to heaven, to put your faith in the blood of Jesus. So that would be another reason why an animal probably would not be able to go there, but I believe there will be all sorts of life in heaven that you’ll be blessed with, and will more than make up for whatever loss you had on this earth.

Death » Suicide

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

What matters is what he believed when he died. Did he believe that Jesus died for his sins and rose from the dead? If he did, then he is saved; he’s in heaven. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And if this boy believed in Him, then he will not perish. But make no mistake about it, if he did not believe in Jesus as his savior, then he did not go to heaven. It wouldn’t matter if he was killed, if he died at 99 years of old age, if he didn’t believe in Jesus, he’s not in heaven. But if he did, no matter what, he’s in heaven.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

But don’t be discouraged just because she took her own life. And I’m not encouraging anybody to take their own life. But somebody taking their own life is no guarantee that they’re in hell. The fact is that there are people who have gotten to the place where they’re in such deep depression and such deep despair that they feel like they have no other alternative. There’s always another alternative, but they might feel like there is not one. They might believe in Jesus, believe that He died for their sins and rose from the dead and so, I have a hard time believing that if somebody takes their own life, that they’re going to go to hell. Just as if you took somebody else’s life.

In other words, taking somebody’s life, or taking your own life, that’s not what sends somebody to heaven or hell. What sends somebody to hell is them rejecting Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their life and rejecting faith in His blood and forgiveness that comes through His blood. The only thing that will get us to heaven is receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior and putting our trust completely in and only Him for our eternal salvation. I hope that helps. I believe that it does. If she did believe in Jesus, then you’ll see her again. Don’t let how somebody dies determine whether they’re saved or not. But at the same time, take it as a wake up call that people around you need prayer, people around you need compassion. People around us all.

When I was fifteen years old, one of my best friends committed suicide and it shook me to the core of my very being. We had just talked a day earlier and had just set up our schedule for our Junior year in High School and we had all our classes together and we changed everything so that we could make sure that we had it all together. And then I found out at three in the morning that night that he had died, that he had taken his own life, that he had killed himself. We found out the next morning. His parents were looking for him early that morning. That really shakes a person. And I had to ask myself after that, “Well, what’s keeping me from doing the same thing?”

It really caused me to open myself up to the gospel and that’s when I started a search, that’s when God started searching for me, really, and started chasing me down. And my heart was open. Please take advantage of the opportunity that your lived ones and friends who knew your sister and loved your sister. I’m sure their hearts are still open to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I hope that you’ll use this, as you probably already have.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

The Bible talks about the renewing of your mind in Romans 12. This is where depression and suicidal thoughts enter in, through the mind and the emotions. If your spirit is born again, according to John 3 and Ezekiel 36, it is your spirit that will spend eternity with God. You cannot damage your spirit by committing sin; you cannot damage your spirit by committing suicide. Because depression and suicidal thoughts come from the soul realm, if someone does commit suicide and Jesus Christ is that person’s true Savior, then I believe he or she will go to heaven. It’s also my belief that if someone is truly saved and truly born again, that person is not going to want to commit suicide. If you are born again and you still have suicidal thoughts, then you need to go to the Bible and hope that God can change you. That’s the most important thing of all.

The real issue is, Why commit suicide if God has a wonderful purpose and destiny for your life? The bigger lesson is, Don’t commit suicide . . . understand that salvation comes to your spirit. If your spirit is born again, your mind and emotions need to find a way to live life God’s way.

Death » What Happens After Death

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

1 Thessalonians 4 says, “those who are alive and remain shall be caught up with Him in the air and we shall ever be with the Lord.” So if we are alive and remain, we shall be caught up with Him. And then He will descend back onto this earth for a thousand years millennial reign. And we will be with Him for those thousand years and then we’ll be with Him forever and ever. So in either case, whether you’re alive when Jesus returns or whether you’ve already died, you will immediately, either the moment He returns or the moment you die, you are in the presence of God if you are a believer.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Let’s talk about getting into heaven. The only way to get to heaven is to accept what Jesus did for you and for all of us. The blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross is the only thing in the universe that can cleanse us from sin. And when we receive that cleansing, when we put our faith in that blood, put our faith in His death, burial, and resurrection, then we are saved. Indeed, at the very moment that we put our faith in the blood of Jesus, we receive eternal life. And when the time comes for us to enter into heaven, we will be in the presence of God forever and ever . . . to worship Him and serve Him.

Now, it’s true that we don’t know everything about our life in heaven. But we do know, from the Bible, that we will recognize people and that we will recognize Jesus. It will be a place to live with God because He’s making mansions for us in heaven. It will be truly incredible. Everything that we could possibly imagine and well beyond.

Sadly, it’s going to be equally as bad for those who do not accept Jesus. And yet the fact that hell is burning and fire is actually minimal compared to hell’s real punishment: the complete absence of the presence of God. That’s the worst part of hell! Heaven is ultimately the fullness of the presence of God in physical manifestation to us. And while I’ve tasted and felt the presence of God at times, none of us has ever been saturated in the fullness of that presence. When we do, it will be joy forever. The Bible says that in His presence there is the fullness of joy, in His presence the times are refreshing, in His presence the mountains melt like wax. And so the greatest benefit of heaven is being in the pure, unadulterated, unhindered, unlimited presence of God for all eternity.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Now, that is not when the judgment takes place. It will be when Jesus returns, He will judge the living and the dead, meaning those who are alive and those who are already in heaven, and not judged for salvation because we’re already saved through the blood of Jesus, but our works will be judged. Now, I don’t know. I don’t think that we have scriptural evidence to validate whether when we get to heaven immediately God judges our works and says, “Okay, you did good. Well done good and faithful servant.” We don’t know that, but the implication is that since He says “well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master,” chances are that as soon as you get there, there is some sort of evaluation of what you’ve done and an evaluation of how you lived and how you honored God.

But we know for sure that when we die, we’re going to be present with the Lord. Then we’re going to be given a new body. Jesus is going to give us a new body when the corruptible puts on the incorruptible in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and I believe that that happens at the resurrection. At the time when Jesus actually comes back to the earth is when we’ll be given a new body. And He’ll bring us back with Him with a new body and we’ll meet those who are raptured up at the same time. We’ll be caught up together in the air according to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I know that that may not answer all that you’re asking, but I can only answer what I know for sure and that is that yes, as soon as we die physically, we are at home with the Lord, and we are present with Him.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Death » General

Question:

Answered on 03/22/06:

I have learned to have patience with not only my Catholic friends, but myself as well because there are things I have said that I would later like to go back and say, “You know what? I shouldn’t have said that.” As I have studied the Bible, I have found that the legitimate place from where Catholics derive the teaching on purgatory from is in Luke 16 when the rich man died and he went to Hades and the poor man died and he went into Abraham’s bosom. There was a holding place, if you will, that people went to who were believing in the Messiah to come, but Jesus had not yet died for our sins and risen from the dead. So, there was a place called Abraham’s bosom in Luke 16. I think that is probably where the Catholics got the teaching of purgatory from.

It is not an accurate teaching that it is a place that everybody goes to and then God decides, people pray for you, the saints pray for you, and you can make it into heaven. That’s not it at all, but they got it from that teaching where it was Abraham’s bosom. Ephesians 4 also talks about how Jesus went and led captivity captive. I believe He took those were held in that holding place, in Abraham’s bosom, after He rose from the dead, He took those souls into heaven with Him and presented them before the father sprinkled by the blood of His own body. That’s where I believe that came from.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

There’s no use in speculating about their friend and their death and if they were an unbeliever or not or whether they’re in heaven or hell. The best thing that you can do is to let them know, “Look, let’s not be concerned about the condition of our friend who has died. But rather, let’s be concerned about the condition of your soul right now and about what’s going on in your life and that God is available to you, that you can cry out to Him right now.

You don’t have to get into the issue of whether your friend is in hell. You need to get into the issue of “God is a loving God.” And God wants to save everybody. And God doesn’t want anybody to go to hell and let us not have another death without somebody having absolute assurance that they’re going to heaven. This is the best approach that I would encourage you to take when it comes to somebody who is not a believer. Let them know God loves them. Give them a reason to believe for God in their life. I believe that when you do that, you get the emphasis off of their friend and on their soul and on God’s love for them.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

The real question, to return to a core perspective, is your reason for doing it. If it’s just your personal preference, no problem, If it’s because you want to scatter your ashes over the sea because you were in the navy, no problem. Organ donation is actually a very good thing because you could save someone’s life. If that person is not saved, not born again, your donated organ might give him or her a few more weeks, months, or years to live and have the opportunity to be saved.

Death » Cremation

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

And so, no, there’s nothing that I find in the Scripture where cremation is a sin. Because we’re all going to turn to dust eventually, anyway, physically, and God is going to give us a new body when he returns. All of our bodies are going to decay, and even if it turns to dust, that’s what we came from. God can take it. He can do it again. If he did it once he can do it again. He’ll gather up all that dust, he’ll call forth all the dust that has your DNA on it and he’ll say, “Come forth!” and he’ll give you a new body. God can do anything. So, I wouldn’t worry about that.