A deception that no one would have seen coming.

 Islam is looking for a Jesus as well.

I wrote this post in 2017 (here I am in 2022, editing and adding clarifying information). Two years passed, and I was still struggling to comprehend this, just like everyone else. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit saw fit to put Glenn Beck (he used to be a commentator on Fox news and now has his own internet show) before my eyes. Glenn had the author Joel Richardson on the show, comparing Jesus to Islam's Mahdi. To say the least, I was stunned, as NO ONE had ever spoken about these things as Joel did. Within minutes I ordered Joel's book, The Islamic Antichrist, and began devouring the information there; it changed everything for me.

Now you can see how you have to, on occasion, humble yourself to learn, and honestly, how many of you would have thought to consider what a Muslim believed?

The false prophet, although they do not call him that, 

• Will be a Jew of the ancestry of Aaron and therefore allowed to be a priest. 

• He will declare himself to be a Muslim, 

• He Bow (submit) to the Mahdi (the Antichrist), 

• And he will do significant signs like calling fire down from heaven, raising the dead, and causing it to rain again. 

Although all these things sound ridiculous and improbable, they will happen. 

All this will cause many to turn from God and follow this second beast. The fact that Jesus needed to say, “see to it that no one misleads you,” indicates that SOME will be misled. In one case, we are warned that even the elect will be deceived. Who is the elect in a book centered upon the Jewish nation? The Jewish religious leadership. 

Why should some of you have a problem with this information about Islam?

Because the Bible does NOT explicitly say this will happen. 

As a brother in Christ once said, I refuse to be concerned with extra-Biblical literature. I responded with, it's fascinating that you would say that because you are already steeped in traditions of men, which are based in extra-biblical information. For example, we say that Jesus was a carpenter when the assertion was made by Jewish religious zealots, not to Jesus but about his father, Joseph. What makes this worse is that they DID NOT call Joseph a carpenter; they called him a tekton, the same word they were now using to demean Jesus. The Greek word tekton means an artisan and could even apply to poets or an artisan who works with granite. 

A recent (2020) archaeological find on the outskirts of Nazareth demonstrated that tektons worked there and that they had been making granite bowls, cups, and water pots.

That's great, the man responded, but what does that have to do with me not accepting extra-biblical information?

An archaeological dig would undoubtedly fall under the category of extra-biblical, but tie that information to the first miracle that Jesus performed publicly, turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and you have some monumental information that could shake your attitude toward extra-biblical knowledge. 

Did you ever consider that Jesus, a Jew, would have been familiar with Jewish ritual cleansing rules; yet, He sent the servants, of which we know nothing and can therefore assume that they were gentiles, to go and fill the vessels with water. Just because they were not Jews, Gentiles would have been unclean, and having them touch the “ritual cleansing vessels,” typically, pottery would have contaminated the pots, and they would have only one recourse, which was to destroy the expensive water pots. Even if the servants were Jewish, there would have been some point at which they touched those vessels, and yet, NO ONE raised an uproar, and you had to know that there were religious leaders at this wedding. 

What makes this significant is that apparently Jesus the tekton probably knew that the cleansing vessels were made of granite and NOT subject to Jewish cleansing laws because He had made those very vessels. Of course, we do not know this either.

Here is a peculiarity that no one has ever mentioned before. Several years before this wedding, an enterprising Jewish businessman was reading about the purification laws in Deuteronomy and realized that the Biblical specifications said nothing about granite. The logical assumption then was that God perceived granite to be permanently clean, and this piece of information was presented before the Jewish elders. They thought this was a great revelation and approved the usage of granite wholeheartedly. 

Why do you suppose that no concern about purification was shown at any point, and doesn't the lack of concern catch your attention?

Odd, isn't it? Perhaps Jesus knew all about this because He, being a tekton - an artisan – a craftsman – a stone mason, and had made these pots himself?  But, of course, we don't know any of that, yet we accept many things like this that are extra-biblical, and you don't even blink an eye. 

But, if I tell you that Islam has their own set of prophecies, which conflict with scripture and are in direct conflict with Christian beliefs, and you feel comfortable rejecting that understanding without even thinking about it and continue wallowing in your unbelief and misdirection; then perhaps you are the one that is deceived.

Seelenschlaf und die Übergangszeit. Wohin gehen wir, wenn wir sterben?

 Die Motivation zum Schreiben begann in diesem Fall mit dem Studium, das ich über die Offenbarung gemacht habe, wo wir uns im Moment in den Kapiteln 21 und 22 befinden. Diese Kapitel konzentrieren sich auf einen neuen Himmel und eine neue Erde.

Ich teile diese Studien mit den Jungs, mit denen ich sitze, und sie haben immer Fragen. Zum Beispiel fragte einer der Männer nach dem Tod und dem Himmel, was ihn dazu veranlasste, ein Exemplar des Buches Heaven von Randy Alcorn zu kaufen. Ich habe ein Exemplar dieses Buches, aber bis vor kurzem habe ich es nie geöffnet. 

Das Kapitel, das ich zuerst verfolgte, begann auf Seite dreiundzwanzig. Als ich bei Kapitel fünf, Seite 41, ankam, war ich auf diese bizarre Aussage von Randy Alcorn gestoßen, und um ehrlich zu sein, war ich fertig. 

„ Wenn ein Christ stirbt, tritt er in das ein, was in der Theologie als Zwischenzustand bezeichnet wird, eine Übergangszeit zwischen unserem gegenwärtigen Leben auf der Erde und unserer zukünftigen Auferstehung zum Leben auf der Neuen Erde. ”

Ein Pastor, mit dem ich vertraut bin  , sagt in seinem Buch Countdown , dass „ einige Kultreligionen an einen Seelenschlaf glauben “. Das Problem ist, dass die Bibel den Ausdruck Seelenschlaf nicht verwendet  ; Es spricht auch nicht ausdrücklich von  einem Zwischenzustand  oder  einer Übergangszeit,  während  wir Gläubigen unsere „zukünftige Auferstehung“ zu unserem Leben auf der „Neuen Erde “ erwarten, wie Randy Alcorn sagte. 

Die Möglichkeit, dass dieser Zwischenzustand oder Übergang dasselbe ist wie der Seelenschlaf, ist nicht so schwer zu erkennen. 

Aufgrund der Fragen, die Gläubige stellen, und der widersprüchlichen Aussagen aus Büchern und von der Kanzel, habe ich das Bedürfnis verspürt, das biblische Verständnis des Todes und unseres Übergangs in unsere himmlische Heimat zu untersuchen. 

Unsere Erziehung zum Tod beginnt damit, dass wir begreifen, dass  die Seele niemals stirbt . 

• Der endgültige „Tod“ ist die Trennung von Gott, nach dessen Ebenbild du geschaffen bist. 

  Am besten lassen Sie diese Aussage auf sich wirken. 

  Da die gesamte Menschheit nach Gottes Ebenbild geschaffen wurde, betrachten Sie den Dummkopf, der sagt, dass es keinen Gott gibt, während seine Seele aufschreit, weil sie sich danach sehnt, Ihn anzubeten, und, weil Sie sich entschieden haben, Gott die Augen zu verschließen, die Felsen wird das Lob Gottes singen.

  Das, was wir Tod nennen, wird also verteilt – gewissermaßen zwischen denen, die Nachfolger Jesu Christi sind, und denen, die es nicht sind.

• Für den Nachfolger Christi gibt es eine herrliche Hoffnung, und zwar darin, in der Gegenwart der Liebe selbst zu leben.

  Der Apostel Paulus sagte uns in 2. Korinther 5:1-8, dass wir lediglich in Zelten aus Fleisch leben , und wenn diese Zelte abgebaut – zerstört werden, sind wir sofort in der Gegenwart Jesu , gekleidet in die Herrlichkeit und die Gewänder des Himmels . 

  Der verwendete Ausdruck lautet: „ Wir haben .“ Es ist das griechische Wort echō. Thayers Definition vermittelt, dass dieses Wort bedeutet: haben, halten, besitzen und besitzen – wie im Sinne des Tragens eines Zeltes.

  Einer der Verse, auf die wir uns konzentrieren, ist 2. Korinther 5:6. Hier scheint der Denkprozess rückwärts zu laufen; wie Paulus sagt, 

  „Deshalb sind wir immer zuversichtlich und wissen, dass wir, während wir im Körper zu Hause sind, vom Herrn abwesend sind.“ 

  Wenn wir einen mathematischen Begriff verwenden,  umgekehrt , ist es leicht zu verstehen, dass wir uns danach sehnen, in unsere ewigen Körper gekleidet zu sein und mit dem Herrn gegenwärtig zu sein, ein Ereignis, das sofort eintreten wird.

  Während ich dir nicht sagen kann, ob du mit Jesus in den Wolken herumhängen oder auf goldenen Straßen tanzen wirst, kann ich dir sagen, dass der Übergang von hier nach dort augenblicklich sein wird .

  Bitte fragen Sie mich nicht nach den Gründen dafür, dass Gott uns wieder mit unserem physischen Körper in Verbindung bringt, da ich nicht viel mehr Informationen habe als Sie. Dennoch ist klar, dass Gott uns diese Körper mit Gefühl und Gefühl aus einem bestimmten Grund gegeben hat und sie daher in einem weitaus besseren Zustand wiederherstellen wird, als wir sie hinterlassen haben.

  Nachdem ich das alles gesagt habe, kann ich mir vorstellen, wie Jesus mit den Jüngern am Meeresufer sitzt und Fisch isst. In seinem unsterblichen Körper muss er das nicht, aber er hat es getan.

  Ist es, weil er es immer noch genießen konnte und die Gemeinschaft – eine Emotion?

  Niemand versucht Ihnen jemals zu sagen, dass Er in Seinen letzten Tagen auf Erden nicht die Not fühlen konnte, die die Jünger empfanden. Sie hatten Ihn, verloren Ihn, gewannen Ihn zurück, und jetzt ging Er wieder zurück zum Vater. Was für eine Achterbahn der Gefühle. Vielleicht könnte nichts davon ohne den Körper erfahren werden.

Der Tod von Menschen außerhalb einer Beziehung zu Jesus ist anders. 

• Auch hier stirbt deine Seele nie. 

  Wenn Sie also das Pech haben, es auf den großen weißen Thron zu schaffen, besteht die traurige Möglichkeit, dass Ihr Name NICHT im Buch des Lebens aufgeführt ist. Wenn das passiert, wirst du in den Feuersee geworfen, direkt hinter deinem furchtlosen Anführer – Satan. Sie werden die ewige Trennung von Gott und die ewige Qual erleben, die für Satan und seine Horde gefallener Engel bestimmt ist. 

  Während die Gläubigen sofort in die Gegenwart Jesu gebracht werden, ist dies nicht der Fall für diejenigen, die Ihm nicht folgen wollen. 

• Ich behaupte, dass die Toten für den Ungläubigen nichts wissen. 

  Was bedeutet das? 

  Es bedeutet, dass deine Seele einfach da liegt, irgendwo, ohne einen Gedanken. Die meisten Menschen denken dabei an Schlafen. Ich weiß es nicht, weil ich alle möglichen Träume habe, von denen einige in die Kategorie der dämonischen fallen, wenn Sie mich fragen. Aber ob du schläfst oder einfach nur gedankenlos bist, macht keinen Unterschied, wie du bist, egal wie lange es dauert, nichts tust, nirgendwohin gehst. 

  Welche Beweise habe ich für die obige Aussage? 

  Wie wäre es zum Beispiel mit Prediger 9:5 ? 

  „Zumindest wissen die Lebenden, dass sie sterben werden, aber  die Toten wissen nichts . Sie haben keine weitere Belohnung, noch wird an sie erinnert.“ ( NTL )

  Mir ist bewusst, dass einige dies anders interpretieren könnten, also habe ich andere Zeugen gefunden. Psalm 146:3-4 ist ausgezeichnet.

  „Vertraue nicht auf Fürsten, auf Sterbliche, bei denen es keine Rettung gibt. Sein Geist geht, er kehrt zur Erde zurück; An diesem Tag vergehen seine Gedanken. “ ( NSB ) 

  Denken Sie daran, es sind zwei oder drei Zeugen, also schauen wir uns einen weiteren an. Es spielt keine Rolle, wie viele Beweise ich hier aufführe, da einige von Ihnen Ihre Meinung nie ändern werden. Psalm 115:17 unterstützt auch die Idee eines gedankenlosen Zustands. 

  „Nicht preisen die Toten den HERRN,  noch die Schweigenden ;“ ( NSB )

  Es scheint offensichtlich, dass die Toten den Herrn nicht preisen würden, aber woher weißt du das? Wenn man bedenkt, wie manche, die „von den Toten zurückkommen“, schreckliche Qualen sehen und fühlen, warum sollten sie dann nicht den Herrn preisen wollen?

Ich habe das Gefühl, dass ich eine angemessene Arbeit geleistet habe, um Ihnen ein Verständnis des Todes zu vermitteln und dass die Toten nichts wissen, und ich habe meine Behauptungen mit der Schrift untermauert.

Soll ich jetzt von irgendeinem Pastor als Kultreligion angesehen werden, nur weil er in seinem Buch diejenigen, die glauben, dass es einen Seelenschlaf gibt, als religiösen Kult betrachtet, und er tut dies, indem er sagt: „ Einige Kultreligionen glauben an eine Seele schlafen ."? Ich glaube nicht, denn ich glaube an die Schrift, Gottes Wort und eine Beziehung zu Jesus . Und wie dieser Pastor dem Publikum oft sagt, predige ich das reine Wort Gottes. Aber offensichtlich ist das für einige Pastoren nicht der Fall. Wenn dies irgendetwas bewirkt, rückt es Männer wie diesen Pastor in die Kategorie der falschen Lehrer, die möglicherweise korrigiert oder ignoriert werden müssen, weil keiner von uns das Recht hat, biblisch klingende Aussagen zu machen, die keine biblische Grundlage haben. 

Du folgst jedem, der dein Boot schwimmt, weil ich nicht die Kirchenpolizei bin. Aber machen Sie sich wenigstens geschickt mit der Schrift und urteilen Sie selbst. Wenn das, was sie predigen, durchgehend falsch ist und du ihnen folgst, dann wird das, was sie sagen, mit der Zeit deinen Glauben schwächen und dein Verständnis von Gottes Charakter untergraben.

Soul sleep and the transitional period. Where do we go when we die?

 The motivation for writing, in this case, initiated with the study that I have been doing on the Revelation, where, at the moment, we are in chapters 21 and 22. Those chapters focus on a new heaven and a new earth.

I share these studies with the guys I sit with, and they always have questions. For example, one of the men asked about death and Heaven, which prompted him to buy a copy of the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I have a copy of that book but, until recently, never opened it. 

The chapter I pursued first started on page twenty-three. By the time I got to chapter five, page 41, I had run into this bizarre statement by Randy Alcorn, and to be honest, I was done. 

“When a Christian dies, he enters into what is referred to in theology as the intermediate state, a transitional period between our present lives on earth and our future resurrection to life on the New Earth.”

A Pastor I am familiar with, in his book Countdown, states that “a few cult religions believe in a soul sleep.” The problem is, the Bible does not use the phrase soul sleep; nor does it speak explicitly about an intermediate state or a transitional period as we believers await our “future resurrection” to our life on the “New Earth,” as Randy Alcorn stated. 

The possibility of this intermediate state or transition being the same as soul sleep is not that difficult to perceive. 

Because of the questions that believers ask and the conflicting statements from books and the pulpit, I have felt the need to look into the biblical understanding of death and our transition to our heavenly home. 

Our education into death begins by grasping that the soul never dies. 

• The ultimate “death” is separation from God, in whose image you are made. 

  It would be best if you let that statement sink in. 

  Since all of humanity was made in God’s image, then consider the fool that says there is no God, all the while their soul cries out as it longs to worship Him, and, because you chose to turn a blind eye to God, the rocks will sing out the praises of God.

  So, what we call death is distributed – in a sense, between those who are followers of Jesus Christ and those who are not.

• For the follower of Christ, there is a glorious hope, and it is to live in the presence of Love Himself.

  The Apostle Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 that we are merely living in tents of flesh, and when those tents are taken down – destroyed, we are immediately in the presence of Jesus, clothed in the glory and garments of Heaven. 

  The phrase used is, “we have." It is the Greek word echō. Thayer's definition conveys that this word means: to have, hold, own, and possess - as in the sense of wearing a tent.

  One of the verses we focus on is 2 Corinthians 5:6. Here the thought process seems to run backward; as Paul says, 

  “Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” 

  If we apply a mathematical term, inverse, it is then easy to understand that we long to be clothed in our eternal bodies and be present with the Lord, an event that will happen instantly.

  While I can't tell you if you will be hanging around in the clouds with Jesus or dancing on golden streets, I can tell you that the transition from here to there will be instantaneous.

  Please don't ask me about the reasons behind God associating us back with our physical body, as I don't have much more information than you do. Still, it is clear that God gave us these bodies, with sensation and emotion, for a reason and will, therefore, restore them in a condition far better than what we left them in.

  Having said all that, I can picture Jesus sitting at the sea shore with the disciples, eating fish. In His immortal body, He doesn't have to, but He did.

  Is it because He could still enjoy it and the fellowship – an emotion?

  Nobody ever tries to tell you that in His last days on earth, He could not feel the distress the disciples felt. They had Him, lost Him, gained Him back, and now He was going back to the Father once again. What a roller coaster of emotions. Perhaps none of this could be experienced without the body.

The death of those outside of a relationship with Jesus is different. 

• Again, your soul never dies. 

  So, if you are unfortunate enough to make it to the great white throne, there is the sad possibility that your name is NOT listed in the book of life. If that happens, you will be cast into the lake of fire, right behind your fearless leader – Satan. You will experience eternal separation from God and the eternal agony designed for Satan and his fallen angel horde. 

  While the believers are taken immediately into the presence of Jesus, this is not the case for those who would not follow Him. 

• I contend that, for the non-believer, the dead know nothing. 

  What does that mean? 

  It means your soul just lies there, somewhere, without a thought. Most people think of this as being asleep. I don't know about that because I have all kinds of dreams, some of which fall under the category of demonic if you ask me. But whether asleep or simply thoughtless makes no difference, as you are, for whatever amount of time that takes, doing nothing, going nowhere. 

  What evidence do I have for the statement above? 

  How about Ecclesiastes 9:5, for one. 

  “The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered.” (NLT)

  I am aware that some could interpret this otherwise, so I found other witnesses. Psalm 146:3-4 is an excellent one.

  “Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.” (NASB) 

  Remember, it is two or three witnesses, so let's look at one more. It doesn't matter how many pieces of evidence I put up here, as some of you will never change your mind. Psalm 115:17 also bolsters the idea of a thoughtless condition. 

  “The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor do any who go down into silence;” (NASB)

  It seems obvious that the dead would not praise the Lord, but how do you know that? Considering how some who “come back from the dead” see and feel horrendous torment, why wouldn't they want to praise the Lord?

I feel as though I have done an adequate job of giving you an understanding of death and how the dead know nothing, and I backed my assertions with scripture.

Am I now to be considered a cult religion by some Pastor just because, in his book, he deemed those who believe there is a soul sleep as a religious cult, and he does it by saying, “a few cult religions believe in a soul sleep.”? I don’t think so, for I believe in scripture, God's word, and a relationship with Jesus. And, as this Pastor often tells the audience, I preach the pure Word of God. But obviously, for some Pastors, that is not the case. If this does anything, it moves men like this Pastor into the category of false teachers, who may need correction or be ignored because none of us have the right to make Biblical-sounding statements that have no Biblical basis. 

You follow whoever floats your boat because I am not the church police. But at least get yourself skillful with scripture and judge for yourselves. If what they preach is consistently wrong, and you follow them, then in time, what they say will weaken your faith and undermine your understanding of God’s character.

Hebrews 12:2 The act of fixing my eyes on Jesus. An edited repost.

This idea of fixing my eyes on Jesus will not let go of me.

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The KJV puts it this way:

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;"

The Greek word for fixing or looking is aphorao and means to consider attentively.

To be honest, I have a problem with this idea of looking, because it implies distance, and distance suggests that I can never get close to God. Some churches I have been a part of, with their superstar pastors, have demonstrated what it is like to have a leader that is untouchable, and I have had more of that than I can stand. I have also, because of choices I made, experienced infidelity in marriage and divorce. The battle I had to fight was learning that God did not act like the people who have created false imagery in me. While God may never leave me, I sometimes wonder how embarrassed He is with how I talk or act. In the worst of conditions I have never experienced any distancing toward me on God's part, but I can assure you I have felt significantly distanced at times. There is no doubt in my mind that this distance I felt was because of my selfish indulgences.

The NET version says: "keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,.." This version has pulled in both concepts; keeping our eyes on Jesus, and the idea of our fixation upon Him.

Why would you fix your eyes on something?

Detectives do it because they are on the hunt for something. Artists study or set their eyes upon a subject so that they can capture what they see. We, as believers, are told to fix our attention, vision, thoughts, and emotions upon Jesus because I believe that God wants us to live in a state of peace that passes understanding.

To be filled with peace, at a time when it is illogical, passes my understanding. Yet, having read this, and desired it, I find it easier to comprehend knowing that was God in the situation, though I did not know it, and He only wanted good for me.

Hebrews, the faith book, is meant to train us and establish us with the benefit of a solid information, and believable eyewitnesses. If I could equate this life to a trial, the evidence for the prosecution would be overwhelming and beyond a reasonable doubt. In reading Hebrews, I find out that the peace I just spoke of, requires faith, and is wrapped up in my faith.

Is it my faith or God's?

I suppose both. I have to exhibit some degree of faith in the process of accepting my position within the family of God; I have to act in faith upon God's promises to me to live in this world; And, God has placed His confidence in me that I will succeed and join Him in eternity. Example: There was a brief time in my life that I was keenly aware of a tremendous faith for healing.

How would I know that? I was a shy person who for the longest time was very timid. Speaking out boldly, or placing my hands upon someone for healing, would have been out of character for me. However, in several circumstances, I saw God's hand at work in extraordinary ways. Here is where the faith aspect comes in. God's word tells us to lay our hands on the sick, and they will recover. There is no emotion needed in that, merely obedience. The faith part is acting and letting God do what he said he would.

"Not with bodily eyes, for at present he is not to be looked upon in this manner, but with the eye of the understanding, or with the eye of faith; for faith is a seeing of the Son;" ( John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible)

Having read several commentaries on the passage, I agree with Gill. I believe that the intent is to focus on Jesus at all times and in every circumstance, but that seems impossible to do. When I was at work, I was barraged by customers, to the point that I barely had time for a thought of my own.

Where and how do I squeeze God into this hectic scene?

I know I am not alone in this struggle, because it is a human struggle, and it does not take a detective to realize that few people invest quality time with God to the degree that He becomes predominant in their thinking. For me to say, I am looking at Jesus with the eye of my faith makes it sound like I am very spiritual, although I sometimes wish I could be like Enoch and simply walk off the earth, that will never happen. In reality, this ability to stay focused on God seems to imply some act of our inward man that can operate aside from the circumstances the body is experiencing. What we are talking about here could be nothing more than the ability to reason, and that ability to reason would have to include the mind, would it not?

For the skeptics who think this inward man talk is something new age, I give you Paul's own words.

2 Corinthians 4:16 NASB 16) Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

If you consider our beginnings then this inward man idea may make more sense. In Genesis 1:27 we see God creating man in His image.

NASB “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

God's image is a spirit, therefore the man was a spirit, and, just like the Father, eternal. We don't see a body on the man until Genesis 2:7, after the completion of the earth.

John 4:23-24 NASB "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24) "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

This plays a role in our understanding of death as well, for the spirit never dies. Since the spirit never dies, then how did Adam understand this death that was to come upon him should he partake of the forbidden fruit? Because of the eternal nature of the spirit, death, in one regard, would have to mean eternal separation from the Father God. God, in the form of Jesus, had no intention of allowing that to happen as long as He could do something about it, and therefore, through Christ's activities in “death”, we were redeemed. Paul, in Ephesians, speaks of a mystery.

Ephesians 1:6-9 NASB to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8) which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9) He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him.

It is almost overwhelming when you let it all sink in.

It would seem that the spirit, which wars against the flesh, can function independently of the body.

Galatians 5:17 NASB For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

If that is the case then I should be able to have a conversation with you and the Father at the same time. In truth, I am not that good. If I have too many conversations going on at the same time, then someone is going to lose in the battle for my attention.

I believe that Paul was speaking to this distinction between the spirit and the flesh when he wrote:

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 1 Corinthians 14:14 NASB

Perhaps I am missing the point. It may be that Paul is saying that the spirit bypasses human reasoning. I have never been able to pray in the spirit without involving my mind, as something had to initiate this conversation. That does not mean that if I am praying in the spirit (that means praying in tongues to me,) that I am always keenly aware of what I am praying, but I always have a general idea.

Do not despair at the apparent futility of this exercise of the tongue for James tells us that God gives wisdom to those that ask. Is he talking about understanding everything that you might say in tongues? Probably not, but at least we have the opportunity to understand a great deal of what we say in tongues.

Since the topic had to do with fixing our eyes on Jesus. I think we have found that there is so much more to this simplistic phrase. Fixing my eyes on Jesus entails all of me, body soul and spirit. And, the spirit wants to take a well-needed advantage of the desire to commune with the Father. Now, this is where I could move into an entire teaching on aspects of our communications with, not only the Father but the body of Christ as well.

Back to my struggles with fixing my eyes on Jesus (A funny thing happened as I wrote this. I slipped up and wrote ears instead of eyes; I have since fixed that error. Why that might be funny is because if we could hear what God is saying, and respond, then maybe we would be walking as Enoch did. We have no evidence that Enoch saw God. So then, any seeing would have been by faith. Hearing, on the other hand, is a different story altogether.)

So, as I was trying to deal with the continual onslaught of customers at work, I could at the same time be praying in the spirit on the inside If I can pray in the spirit, then I can have communication with the Father at the same time too. I think it would primarily be Him talking to me.

The trick in this is to fine-tune your listening skills.

You should be aware that there are too few of us that have any clue how to listen to others. With your insight, you picked up on something. How does one fine-tune their listening skills so that God becomes the focus? Prayer, which is merely conversations you are having with God, often on behalf of others; that, and spending time in His word. The words that God uses currently, are no different in theme, from those he has already spoken. Trust me on this one, God can speak your language. How many translations of the Bible are there?, many, and yet He has brought innumerable lives into the family by speaking their language or slang. There is always the skeptic who does not believe that God speaks all the time. While God is not just incessantly rambling to hear His head rattle, as we often do, but there is a purpose in everything He says.

Keep this in mind as you read your Bible; everything in that book has a purpose. For example, why does the Gospel of John emphasize things like the cloth that was folded so precisely in the tomb (there was a reason); why is the trip to Samaria a three-day journey?; Why did Jesus go to the Samaritans, they were effectively Gentiles, and going there was contrary to his stated mission? There are things that all throughout the Bible that seem like nothing and yet the Jewish leadership believes that when the Messiah returns (he already did) that he will explain even the spaces between the letters; they are that serious about God's word. If only we were that serious about His Word as well.

This idea of paradise, where we go when we die, and false teaching.

An observation was made in Monday morning Bible study about where we go when we die. The statement excluded us from heaven by placing us in paradise, where we are held until the Harpazo or rapture, and then we, the church, are all taken up.

However, that is not what 2Corinthians 5 implies.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NASB 6) Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-- 7) for we walk by faith, not by sight-- 8) we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5 is the only place we find a reference like this, and, when we are in the mood, we use it to imply that it means in dying here, we take our next breath in the presence of Jesus. It is a common passage at funerals. Logic also tells me that if I absent from the Lord while in my body, then to be present would mean I am dead. I admit that I could read these passages as some future hope and speculation, and, without a context that would probably be true. That is why we have to look beyond the verse that is leaving us with gaps in our understanding and consider the whole of the thought. For us, that is 2 Corinthians 5:1-9.

2 Corinthians 5:1-9 NASB 1) For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2) For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3) inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4) For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5) Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 6) Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-- 7) for we walk by faith, not by sight-- 8) we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9) Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

• “the earthly tent” - Which happens to be our bodies.
• “which is our house is torn down,” - Equates to death.
• “ in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,”

Scripture tells us that all of creation groans, longing to be released from the damage placed upon them with the fall of man, and so do we.

So then, the context is about death and where we, as believers, go after death.

We say that, but apparently, we are not so convinced, as those same people who made the statement at last week's funeral will also tell you that there is a “paradise” for you to wait, much like we see in, "The Inferno" by Dante Alighieri. A fictional story in which people he knew, who had been negligent or criminal in the positions they held, were placed by him in horrific levels of hell until they could come to some form of repentance and then maybe be moved to a lesser hell.

Perhaps the problem lies in our not having multiple corroborating witnesses. Do we have other methods of corroborating Paul's assertion that there is a heaven awaiting us? The answer, though not so direct, is yes.

Such a statement comes from James 2:26a where we are told, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead,” From this I can ascertain that the body is just a useless hulk without the spirit or soul. However, denoting that the body is useless without the spirit does not answer the question as to where the soul goes as Paul did in his letter to the Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NASB 42) So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43) it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44) it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Once released from the bondage of the body we recognize that our life merely continues with the Lord in Heaven, or the Eden that defines paradeisos.

Strangely, all three instances of paradise, found in the New Testament, use the same word – paradeisos. It is clear that what Jesus described for Lazarus was no park like setting, and we assume that this is the same place that the thief on the cross was taken.

Luke 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

G3857 paradeisos / par-ad'-i-sos. A park, that is, (specifically) an Eden (place of future happiness, “paradise”): - paradise.

What does not make sense here is the definitions assignable to this word, because we assume that the thief went to Abraham's bosom as well.

Paul wrote about an experience he had. I too have had two of those experiences in my life. One happened while I was playing golf, so there is no chance I was asleep. However, for those seconds nothing else existed in my mind. The other was what I believe to be a dream, but it was so vivid that it exists in my mind as real. In it, Jesus came to me and laid my life out before me. I thought I would never forget this and chose not to write anything down. All I remember now is that He was there, that every detail of my life was explained to me, and that I awoke with such joy. I will say that having lived most of my life now, I am hard pressed to understand the joy aspect.

2Corinthians 12:4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Paul is telling us that he was caught up in a park-like setting, the place of future happiness – heaven, where Jesus is at.

The Apostle John had seen the most incredible vision when he saw into the heavens. In Revelation 2:7 he calls it paradeisos.

Revelation 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Having given some thought to this idea of paradise, it seems to me that we make the assumption or maybe connection with the story, which I happen to think were real people that Jesus had experienced, that we find in Luke chapter 16. There is no mention of paradise there, but there is the concept of a beggar now being comforted in Abraham's bosom, while the rich man, a Jew, was now in torment – in Hades.

Since this is lacking the terminology and the park-like setting, it is inappropriate and invalid as a witness and does not have a tie-in to the idea of paradise. As I mentioned a moment ago, the thief on the cross was told, you will be held in Abraham's bosom until I can get you out of there. No, he was invited into paradise, a park like setting, an Eden where Jesus could be found.

No, there is no paradise in hell, and, we know that Jesus snatched the keys to hell, fear and the grave, out of Satan's hands. (Yes, I said fear, because death has nothing less than fear attached to it.) Death has been conquered by Jesus and so has Satan. Since he does not seem to believe that, you may occasionally have to remind him and put him in his place through the name of Jesus.

I am hoping that you picked up on the fact that I am writing to those who should have an understanding of the things of God. Sadly, most of us in the church have no understanding at all. In saying that I am saying that we do not understand God's nature and character, and therefore attribute garbage to Him that He does not deserve.

If you don't know Him, you can. Merely start by saying, I believe in you, Jesus. You paid the price for me, to set me free and I accept you into my life. Trust me on this. Jesus Christ will flood into your life and start a process of changes that will boggle your mind if you let Him. I implore you to let Him, for time is short. Look around you, and you can see that.

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