From: Chris
To: The Path of Truth
Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2016 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: Diabolical Doctrine: “Soul Sleep” (The Dead in Christ Are Unconscious)
I may be misunderstanding what you are saying in (Diabolical Doctrine)
Are you saying that when someone dies in Christ they immediately go to heaven upon the death of the physical body ? I understand that those dead in Christ are dead to this world . Can you explain to me Revelation 20:4-6 . I appreciate you getting back to me . Thank you for this.
Chris
From: Paul Cohen
To: Chris
Cc: Victor Hafichuk
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 8:28 AM
Subject: Re[1]: Diabolical Doctrine: “Soul Sleep” (The Dead in Christ Are Unconscious)
No, we’re not saying that when someone dies they immediately go to heaven. Heaven is a spiritual state and isn’t accessed by means of physical death but by living faith.
“Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, ‘The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, Look, here it is! or, There it is!; because the Kingdom of God is within you’” (Luke 17:20-21 GNB).
Hell is also within.
You ask about these verses:
Revelation 20:4-6 MKJV
(4) And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast nor his image, nor had received his mark on their foreheads, nor in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
(5) But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
(6) Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. The second death has no authority over these, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him a thousand years.
The Scriptures are talking about the first resurrection – a spiritual one that occurs when one is revived by God’s gift of faith:
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4 EMTV).
“But if the Spirit of the One Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One Who raised up Christ from the dead shall also make your mortal bodies alive by His Spirit Who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11 MKJV).
These things can only be received and understood in the faith of Christ, Chris.
Paul Cohen & Victor Hafichuk