Do you believe people go to Paradise or Rest In Peace until the Resurrection?

Answer 1

Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would be with him in paradise that day.
Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Answer 2

Jesus NEVER said, "to be absent from the body is to be present to to the Lord".....that was Saint Paul but his quote was that he preferred to be absent from the body and present to the Lord: 2 Cor. 5:8 -- We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

He did not say that one equaled the other.

As far as Jesus and the "good" thief on the cross next to him.....Paradise was not above but below....to the souls of the dead ... all of the righteous who preceded him in death. He could NOT have accompanied Jesus to heaven We know definitively that Jesus was the first to enter into heaven -- yet he did not do this until his ascencion -- 40 days after his resurrection. Do you believe that Jesus died, dropped some guy off in heaven, went back to the grave and rose from the dead and ascended 40 days later while this so-called thief got into heaven before the sinless one? Semantics plays a big role in the use of "Today".

Paul seems to think that there is a place of final purification: "May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day" (2 Tim 1:18). "That day" is, of course, referred to as the judgment day. If Onesiphorus is heading to hell, no mercy can help him. If he is going direct to heaven, he has no need of mercy.

Answer 3

Eccl.9:5; the living are conscious that they will die but as for the dead they are conscious of nothing at all"

see also. Ps.146:4; Ezek.18:4; Isa. 53:12; Ecck,9:6; Isa.26:14

some one said something about Luke 23:43 First it is important that people look up all not just one scripture to find truth...

"and he said to him "truly I tell you today. You will be with me in Paradise."

Now if we move the period or comma it would read.
"and he said to him. "Truly I tell you. Today you will be with me in Paradise."

This is why you must search for truth..... There are allot of scriptures that can change with just moving the punctuation around...

Answer 4

The latter then the former. I'll try to explain. Here it goes. Do you remember what it was like for you when you were younger waiting for Christmas day? You're 4, 5, 6, 7, or so years old. You've waited almost all year for the day to come to get your presents. Anticipation builds and builds until you get to Christmas Eve. Then you try to stay up all night just to get a glimpse of the presents and maybe ol' st. nick (if you go for that sort of thing). You try to stay awake and end up going to sleep without trying. You wake up miraculously in your bed and it's Christamas day. Then you celebrate a day that feels like forever when you're a kid. Translation. You spend whatever time you have in this world whether you realize it or not in quiet anticipation of eternity. One day the sleep of death will overtake you and then you wake up to your just reward on a day that will be forever. Paradise for some, torment for others. Presents for some, coal for others. It depends if you've been "naughty or nice" all year. In this case the parent is God.

Answer 5

The Bible talks about people being asleep in death. I can't imagine that God would yank people out of Paradise to bring them back for a resurrection. It doesn't even make sense.

Answer 6

Jesus Christ spoke about the condition of the dead. He did so with regard to Lazarus, a man whom he knew well and who had died. Jesus told his disciples: “Lazarus our friend has gone to rest.” The disciples thought that Jesus meant that Lazarus was resting in sleep, recovering from an illness. They were wrong. Jesus explained: “Lazarus has died.” (John 11:11-14) Notice that Jesus compared death to rest and sleep. Lazarus was neither in heaven nor in a burning hell. He was not meeting angels or ancestors. Lazarus was not being reborn as another human. He was at rest in death, as though in a deep sleep without dreams. Other scriptures also compare death to sleep. For example, when the disciple Stephen was stoned to death, the Bible says that he “fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60) Similarly, the apostle Paul wrote about some in his day who had “fallen asleep” in death.


The Bible teaches that the dead “are conscious of nothing at all.” They are not alive and have no conscious existence anywhere. The account of Lazarus confirms this. Upon returning to life, did Lazarus thrill people with descriptions of heaven? Or did he terrify them with horrible tales about a burning hell? No. The Bible contains no such words from Lazarus. During the four days that he was dead, he had been “conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Lazarus had simply been sleeping in death. John 11:11.
The account of Lazarus also teaches us that the resurrection is a reality, not a mere myth. Jesus raised Lazarus in front of a crowd of eyewitnesses. Even the religious leaders, who hated Jesus, did not deny this miracle.

Think about this too: If Lazarus had been in heaven for those four days, would he not have said something about it? And if he had been in heaven, would Jesus have made him come back to earth from that wonderful place? Of course not!

Yet, many people say that we have a soul, and they say that the soul lives on after the body dies. They say that Lazarus’ soul was alive somewhere. But the Bible does not say that. It says that God made the first man Adam “a living soul.” Gen. 2:7, Adam was a soul. The Bible also says that when Adam sinned, he died. He became a “dead soul,” and he returned to the dust from which he had been made. The Bible also says that all Adam’s offspring inherited sin and death too.

The Scriptural teaching of the resurrection, however, is not compatible with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. If an immortal soul survived death, no one would need to be resurrected, or brought back to life. Indeed, Martha expressed no thought about an immortal soul that was living on elsewhere after death. She did not believe that Lazarus had already gone to some spirit realm to continue his existence. On the contrary, she showed her faith in God’s purpose to reverse the effects of death. She said: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:23, 24) Likewise, Lazarus himself related no experiences of some afterlife. There was nothing to report.

Clearly, according to the Bible, the soul dies and the remedy for death is the resurrection. You enjoy the best sleep ever, until Jesus resurrects you, sometime in the future.

Answer 7

When you die your spirit continues to live. It is just seperated from the body. You transition into another state but are still conscious of your new surroundings. This evidenced by the fact that we are told that during the three days that Jesus was dead he began the work of preaching His gospel to many who had died before.

Christians often interchange this intermediate step of life after death with heaven but it is not truly heaven. That is only attained after the judgment and the resurrection.

Answer 8

Well, yung man.. I'll put it like this...
"You eat, sleep, and die... And if u aint livin right, Ull go to Hell"
Now if ur righteous, when u die UlL go to sleep until jesus comes and gets you(ressurrection day). But if ur weak and full of sin... UL got to the Jail of Hell. Where u will wait for Judgement day.

Answer 9

Since many cemeteries have been destroyed, individual graves disturbed, people never buried, cremations, etc., I think "Rest In peace" can be ruled out for many people.

Answer 10

I could never get a strait answer out of Christians, they seem to be conflicted about when heaven and hell is going to occur and why they say 'he's in heaven' when they don't believe anyone gets there til judgement day...

confused...