Death
What happens when I die? is a question we sometimes
ask, but if someone close, and perhaps too young, dies then what happens to
them becomes a very important and emotional Question..
The claim of traditional Christianity is that if you
believe in Jesus Christ you will be saved and some Christians (especially
the noisy ones) will quote Jesus's words from John's Gospel Chapter
14 No-one comes to the Father except by me and use it to exclude people of other faiths and none.
But Jesus did not come to exclude people but to include them and much more
comfortingly also said: In my Father's House are many Dwelling Places , if
it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
In the Book of Revelation there is a the prophesy of a New Heaven and an New Earth where there will be no more pain and every tear will be wiped dry.
The Bible also mentions Paradise:
In Luke's Gospel only,
(Chp23 v43): Jesus tells one of the thieves crucified with Him: Today
you shall be with me in Paradise. That word Paradise
occurs only three times in the New Testament. Originally it meant a Garden
or what we would now call a Wild Life Park.
The second use of the word
(2Corinthians
12 v4) is where St Paul is describing being taken up to Heaven in what might or might not have been a vision.
And
the third (Revelation
2 v7) is a clear back reference to The Garden of Eden.
|
