Posted on 10/24/2024 9:59:29 AM PDT by fwdude
Those in heaven will not/cannot grieve over events on earth. They are in a whole different reality.
There is only one who intercedes with the Father, and that is the Son, Jesus Christ.
And is why we don't "pray to the Saints".
Jesus didn’t go to hell, which doesn’t exist yet. He went to a holding area called “paradise,” a holding area for all the departed, which was comprised of two compartments, one for the damned and one for the redeemed. That’s what is described in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The two could talk to each other.
Jesus released the redeemed out of that place when he descended. That’s where the thief was to be with Him.
All Christians go to Heaven at the same time. In the Rapture. Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us until the Rapture. Jesus was asked twice how we should pray: both times he said: Our Father who art in Heaven. There is no praying to Saints, to Mary or anyone else.
You are welcome to believe you can pray to someone else but you would be ignoring the Scriptures...
Paul called ALL Christians Saints.
Death is uniquely a “self” event. Anyone with a lick of sense, on the event of dying forgets Earthly matters when they pass. Just as those left behind, forget about their relatives who have died over time. It is the nature of things.
Bad punctuation. Jesus said, “I tell you today (right now), you will be with me in paradise.”
“”””I have always wondered how happy one can be in Heaven, when able to see loved ones suffering downstairs.”””””
Easy, because we will know and we will understand, people also ask if their pet or ice cream will be in heaven, I don’t know, but you won’t miss them and long for them if they aren’t, things will be right for you in heaven and you won’t be the you that you are here.
Nope. Read revelations. The saints offer the prayers of the faithful to God using the imagery of incense.
Your statement also goes again 2000 years of Church teaching. You’re wrong.
Exactly. We don’t know because scripture does not say.
So if we have a belief about the afterlife in this area, it is only speculation.
One picture we do have - Jesus story (not parable) about Lazarus. Jesus said, “There was a rich man....” telling us that he is relating a true but past story. The rich man was in Hades - BUT HE “saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” It did not say he could see earth or what was transpiring here. He was in torment and in anguish. He cried out to Abraham - not to God! for relief. Ponder that.
What’s next is most interesting. There was some good in the rich man! He showed deep concern for his five brothers! He wanted them to repent! How could this be in one condemned?
He was told the gulf between him and Abraham was unpassable, and that his brothers had Moses and the prophets - but had not believed them.
There is no indication that the rich man could see his brothers and clearly he could not communicate with them.
Please remember that a saint is a born again Christian...these are the Christians’ prayers.... Please also note this is after the resurrection and everyone is in Heaven!
The scripture says the elders and the angels offer up the prayers of the saints (christians). It does not say the saints offer up the prayers
After my twin sister died from a form of muscular dystrophy, I had a dream about a month later, that I was at her house for something like a wake. Her body was laid out on a table not in a casket. As I was grieving, she got up off the table and came over to console me. She told me not to be upset that she was fine. I believe that she was reaching out to me from beyond the veil. That dream brought me some comfort to believe that she was in fact okay.
I believe that is true. How do we separate a lifetime of love and devotion with death if we live in a spiritual world. There is no way. I have two amazing stories and they are true, as god is my witness, and I love my Lord. I will tell one, the other is too amazing. My brother who was thirteen years older than me died very suddenly about fourteen years ago he was a unique, complicated man but one knew they were special when he was around. So when I was little maybe four or so, he would babysit for me if our parents were out. His girlfriend was our next door neighbor, my brother in our small town was THE Elvis Presley. LOL. So when he babysat for me he would put me on the couch with coloring books crayons and put feathers on the floor in front of the couch. He told me they would chase me if I got off the couch, then he would take his girlfriend upstairs to make out. I got chicken pox and was terrified, which no one could understand. It was a family thing that we would talk about in later years, he was so sorry and don’t think he ever forgave himself. So after he died years and years later, it was devastating. About four five months after he died, I had a bad time, I missed this man and was grief stricken. One particularly bad morning I missed him beyond measure. I went out on my covered porch, sobbing and sat in the chair I always did every morning, but before I sat down there was a small feather on the seat of my chair. I gave it no thought when I saw the feather, picked it up and threw it over the deck. The next morning as usual, I went out on the deck with my coffee and there it was another tiny feather laying on the same chair. I picked it up and discarded it. Believe it or not, the next morning there was that feather………I GOT IT. That was my brother, letting me know he was with me, stop thevgrieving, stop being so sad, we are ok. This is the truth so help me.
“I have always wondered how happy one can be in Heaven, when able to see loved ones suffering downstairs.”
If they CAN see, which they probably can’t, it won’t make them sad.
Revelation 21:4-6. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”
“I felt my mother’s presence at her funeral”
We were hoping that Mom was hovering at her funeral. Not sad at all. Tons of laughter. We put the “fun” in FUNeral.
Afterward, the meal morphed into an impromptu Trump rally, and she would’ve loved that, too. I hope she was watching.
“How else could the saints in Heaven hear our prayers, and intercede with God on our behalf,”
They CAN’T! Except in fairly tales.
The soul/spirit returns to the Maker that sent it at the ‘conception’. In Genesis ‘breath of life’ equals ‘soul’... The ‘soul’ is the spirit body that came from above at the time of conception ... ALL souls were created at the same time...
What I do not know yet, is why the ‘soul’/spirit intellect is placed in any given conception! Meaning I have NO clue why I was planted in the family I was planted!
“Read revelations”
Are you Bill O’Reilly? He also thinks there’s an “s” at the end of The Revelation. People who pretend to be experts re Scripture should actually educate themselves on Scripture.
“Your statement also goes again 2000 years of Church teaching.”
Church teaching? You mean the Catholic denomination? The one invented centuries after Christ as a revenue-generating operation? That determination?
To the contrary of all-consuming selfishness, while there is valid appeal to avoid suffering and obtain bliss, yet to be a true believer requires consent of sacrifice of self and all else in choosing to follow the Lord, and which includes unselfish dedication to the welfare of others. And perfect love is one of motivation to see God honored and others be one with him, even if it would mean your own damnation, though that result would be a contradiction of faith.
"Hate" of family pertains to loyalty to them over God, as in obeying the gospel and being baptized, etc. Using comparative terms, as as dedication to one equating aversion to a competing object, a true convert must also "hate" and his own life:
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
Watch https://tubitv.com/movies/507867/the-pilgrim-s-progress for an illustration as concerns family (begin at 6 min mark if pressed for time illustration is around 8:30) .
That, in context, is as regards this life, and as the natural man perceives it. But as regards spiritual reality, this is no more Divine Truth than is,
There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. (Ecclesiastes 2:24)
Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:15)In contrast,
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (Matthew 25:41) 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
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