Hi Ray,
Greetings once again from South Africa.
Although I agree with all your teachings I have read
and come across (simply because they're biblical),
there is still something that I have been wrestling
with for many years and I would like to speak to you
about it. It's this: Yes, the fact of the matter is
that dead people ARE dead, and I agree that they are
in their graves. They have NOT ascended into heaven
as Christendom teaches because we both know that if
that were true, then Jesus would be telling an untruth
when He says that "NO man" has ascended but Himself.
However, that is true for us in the "here and now"
because we are still bound into "time and space". God,
however, being spirit and not mortal, is not bound to
or by or is also not subject to them (time and space).
Only in terms of time (which is still ticking away for
mankind on this earth) this is true? This is an honest
question and not a dogmatic statement.
Now I know I might be splitting hairs, but surely from
God's perspective or from the perspective of any other
spiritual being (that might or might not exist) that is
not bound into time and space, these people are already
in the presence of God. The reason I say this is &
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because surely the moment I or you or anyone else for
that matter dies, it is the same instant (in terms of
the timeless state that God exists in) as when Abraham
or Adam died? The reason being, that the moment we die,
we pass from this restrictive realm of time and space.
The age (or ages) in the grave will surely be as a
moment before we are awakened and raised from the grave
at the glorious coming of our Lord?
After wracking my brain for many years, the only answer
I can come up with is that dead people are STILL
subject to time and space until the great day of the
resurrection. Is that true?
Now, why all this conjecture of mine? Simply because I
wonder if those are indeed so terribly wrong who tell
mourners that their believing loved ones are in fact
"with the Lord." From the perspective of the living on
this earth this is technically wrong, but from the
perspective of the Lord Himself or from the perspective
of those who understand the restriction of time, this
is in fact not the reality at all because we both agree
that the spiritual realm is far more real than the
physical realm we are bound to in this lifetime.
I just wish I had some more light on this subject. If
you have time or if you have an answer, or if you have
dealt with this matter somewhere, would you please
point me in the right direction.
Kindest regards to you Ray, and thank you so much for
your patient teaching and labour of love.
Jo
Dear Jo: Why be bothered about this in the least? What does it profit you one way or the other? From my perspective my son has been dead and in the grave and NOT in the presence of the Lord for about 27 years now. I know that this is a Scriptural fact. I know that from God's perspective, I am still alive and my son is still dead in the grave. And from my son's perspective........excuse me........my son DOESN'T HAVE A PERSPECTIVE, as he is dead in the grave. "...the dead know NOT ANYTHING" (Ecc. 9:5). So what can you possibly gain by thinking that any of these scenarios can be changed or thought of as different. While it is true that "God counts things that are NOT as though they are." But that is how God counts it. The truth is, that the things that God "counts" as thought they are now, will not actually be, until they become now, because they still, at present, "ARE NOT." Try to meditate on more profitable things.
God be with you,
Ray