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To: BibChr
With all due respect, my response is not a QED if you are referring to a “case in point.” You intimated that “duplicity” is well illustrated by Catholics who claim not to pray to the dead. I must point out that if you define those who live in God's heavenly glory as being “dead”, than you profess a very different religious definition of “life” and “death” than that promulgated by biblical and historical Christianity. Hardly a quod erat demonstrandum.
19 posted on 07/16/2008 7:39:06 AM PDT by DogwoodSouth
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To: DogwoodSouth
I must point out that if you define those who live in God's heavenly glory as being “dead”, than you profess a very different religious definition of “life” and “death” than that promulgated by biblical and historical Christianity.

Okay...



 
If, as some say, the BELIEVERS are already in Heaven now, at the Fathers side, what do we make of THESE Scriptures?
 
NIV Philippians 4:3
   Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
 

NIV Revelation 3:5
   He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
 

NIV Revelation 13:8-9
 8.  All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
 9.  He who has an ear, let him hear.
 

NIV Revelation 17:8
   The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.
 
BELIEVERS are in the BoL
 

Revelation 20
 
 1.  And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
 2.  He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
 3.  He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
 4.  I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
 5.  (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
 6.  Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
 7.  When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison
 8.  and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth--Gog and Magog--to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
 9.  They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
 10.  And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
 11.  Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.
 12.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
 13.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
 14.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
 15.  If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
At the great white throne, EVERYONE comes before GOD to be judged; there is NO ONE who gets 'pre-judged' early that I can see.
 

NIV Revelation 21:27
   Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
 
If this is true, then the 'requirement' for 'entering Heaven' is being FOUND in the BoL, which is NOT opened until TGWTJ, therefore, it appears than none who have died, after Christ, are there yet.

 
 

42 posted on 07/16/2008 11:20:18 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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