“Saved” means having salvation; receiving the sanctifying grace necessary to enter heaven. We are being saved from eternal damnation.
Since "heaven or hell" were never held out as opposite destinations for Adam, don't you think it would have been remiss of God not to warn him of the possibilities of these outcomes? Yet no mention is made of any afterlife at all for Adam. He is said to have simply gone back to where he came from.
Since Adam was responsible for the death of the entire human race, (Rom 5:12) and since there is not one statement of remorse or a single sacrifice offered to God by him in repentance, would Adam have gone to "hell" in your way of reckoning? He was perfect originally without the defect of sin, so he had no excuse for what he did. So where did Adam go? Where did God say he went?
There would be no point in living on earth forever.
If that was the case, then why put humans here with everything needed to live forever (including the tree of life) and then take them away from paradise here to another paradise, there? That makes no sense. Angels were not previously humans and they were created to dwell in heaven with God. Adam was never told that he would go to heaven....ever.
Jesus made plenty of references to eternal life, none of which were ever misunderstood to mean eternal life on earth. Even the earth itself is not eternal.
There is technically no such thing as "eternal" life. Only one being in existence is "eternal" in the true sense of the word. It means "no beginning and no end". "Everlasting" life, on the other hand, has a beginning but not necessarily an end. The earth also had a beginning. And the Bible says it isn't going anywhere. Why should it? Its perfect.
The reason why Jesus spoke about everlasting life is because after man's fall into sin, life became limited by sin. Only during his ministry on earth did Jesus choose a specific number of humans to join him in heaven to share in rulership over the earth. The kingdom that Jesus told us to pray for is a governmental arrangement in heaven designed to specifically undo all the damage inflicted by Adam's decision to disobey his God.
The ones ruling in that kingdom are specially chosen for that assignment.....
"but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and they will rule as kings with him for the 1,000 years." (Rev 20:6) They alone have "the heavenly calling" (Heb 3:1)
Everlasting life is not the same as immortality. There is a big difference. Humans can live everlastingly in the flesh under the right conditions, but immortal spirits are literally indestructible. "Mortal" doesn't mean a creature HAS to die....it only means that they CAN. Since angels can also be destroyed, it means that they are not immortal either, yet they can live forever.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) That doesn’t sound like the hope of heaven to you?
No, it doesn't. That is because there are two "hopes" held out to humankind. The ones resurrected to heavenly life are said to experience the "first resurrection" which naturally means that another resurrection is to follow. Jesus spoke about these ones in John 5:28, 29. Jesus calls these ones from their graves, which means that the dead are all still in them. They are called out to life on earth under the rulership of his kingdom. (Rev 21:2-5)
And the Jews were God’s first priority.
The Jews fulfilled a role....their lineage produced the Messiah. But their conduct all through their history was one of relying on God's end of the bargain, whilst failing to live up to their part. Jesus himself pronounced sentenced upon them. (Matt 23:37-39)
The apostle Paul then spoke of a new nation, the one with whom Jesus made a new covenant. "The Israel of God" (Gal 6:16) was not exclusively "Jewish" according to the flesh, but "Jewish" according to God's adopting them as "sons". This new nation, made up of both Jewish and gentile Christians, then became Christ's "brothers" and it was for supporting these ones in their assignment that the sheep are rewarded, in Jesus' judgment between the sheep and the goats.
They were expecting the Messiah to be a warrior king who would solve all their temporal worldly problems. Those who could see the bigger picture understood his true purpose and followed him. Those who didn’t see it rejected him.
Why were they expecting Jesus to be the liberator they so desperately needed to free them from Roman oppression?
Because it was in their prophesies that he would do this.....just not at that time. They were so busy thinking about themselves that they, as a nation under poor leadership, missed the point of his entire ministry.
And you are right, those who put faith in Jesus understood his role, but not fully at that time. (Acts 1:6) At Pentecost, the holy spirit revealed it all to them and anointed them for life in heaven.
The Incarnate Jesus is both fully human and fully divine.
Yes he was fully man but he was not God incarnate. His divinity meant that he was god-like because he was a divine creation of his Father. (Col 1:15, 16; Rev 3:14) There is not one scripture stating that Jesus is God Almighty. Jesus never said it and God never said it.
He came to us and departed from us the same way – in the body. His ascension was witnessed by the apostles. Why would you say that he did no go to heaven bodily, as they say he did?
Read the scriptures again. The angel said that Jesus would come again "in the same manner", not in the same body.
What was the manner of his departure? It was not witnessed by the world at large, but only by his closest companions. He did not dematerialize until he was covered by a cloud which hid him from their view. Only then did he return to heaven.
Are you questioning the mind of God?
No, just reasoning on the scriptures as we are encouraged to do. The whole of scripture tells the story, not just selected bits of it read from a mistaken notion given to us by others. Examining the scripture with fresh eyes reveals a lot.
A parable told by Jesus is always a literal story.
Jesus' parables were always about real scenarios. Otherwise the people would not have been able to relate to them.
Putting names to the characters in them didn't make them real stores about real people. Lazarus was a common name back then.
The Omniscient God knows every detail of every human experience. He does not need to fabricate imaginary events to make a point.
Neither do we but we use illustrations ourselves from time to time. Who isn't struck by a good comparison? Jesus knew that illustrations are a great teaching tool.
The rich man had stepped over Lazarus when he was sick and hungry, ignoring him rather than offering any act of mercy whatever toward a fellow soul. "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy…” (James 2:13)
It is literal because Jesus was not talking about an event in the future, but in the past, which means it was clearly before His crucifixion. And that means it had to have taken place in Sheol.
And to Jesus' Jewish audience, Sheol was the grave where there is no conscious existence. (Eccl 9:5, 10)
How does one in an unconscious state speak and reason? It is clear that Sheol here is a metaphor. Just as Jesus used death as a metaphor many times.
No human souls were in heaven or in hell until after Jesus died on the cross and descended to the dead to preach the gospel of salvation and then take or send them to their final respective destinations.
There is no Biblical reference for this. If you read the scripture, you will see that the "spirits in prison" were the rebellious angels who were responsible for the wickedness in Noah's day.....not the dead of mankind. The Bible does not teach that we have an immortal soul that departs from the body at death. That is a platonic Greek idea that infiltrated Christianity during the foretold apostasy.
Jesus spoke about hell (which he called Gehenna) many times, but it suits Satan very well if we can be misled into believing there really is no such place.
Again, Jesus' Jewish audience knew exactly what "Gehenna" was. It wasn't a place of eternal conscious fiery torment....it was Jerusalem's garbage dump just outside the city walls. The carcasses of dead animals and bodies of executed criminals were cast into the flames for destruction. What the fire missed, the maggots finished off. To a Jew, that destiny meant no burial tomb...no final resting place with the family name and lineage inscribed. To them it meant that God would not remember them in the coming resurrection. It was a symbol of everlasting death....which is the proper opposite of everlasting life.
Translating "Gehenna" as "hell" is very misleading. Neither Gehenna nor hades have everlasting torture attached to them.
The “life or Death” in Deuteronomy is salvation and being with God in heaven or damnation and being separated from Him in hell.
No such scenario was ever held out to the Jews, or to the Christians. Jesus never taught such a repugnant thing.
Obedience means life....disobedience means death. It was always that simple. Christendom made it hopelessly complicated and had to invent places for disembodied spirits to go. The truth is, there are no disembodied spirits of the dead that go anywhere. Either we are alive....or we are "sleeping in death" as the Bible says. The good and the bad all go to the same place as the animals when they die. (Eccles 3:19, 20) Death is death....not another form of life.
You need to understand what resurrection meant to a Jew. (John 11: 23, 24)
