Channel C²

Okay, so they don't go to be with Jesus when they die but the soul goes somewhere, a conscious existence, to await the resurrection of their body? And that was the place Clement said Peter and Paul went to? -- sort of like the place called Abraham's bosom where the angels took Lazarus to?

There's a passage in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History that describes Jesus going to hell, the abode of the dead and taking believers out of it to heaven with him -- let me get the exact wording: "..how he was crucified, and descended into hell, (hades,) and burst the bars which had never yet been broken, and rose again, and also raised with himself the dead that had slept for ages. And how he descended alone, but ascended with a great multitude to his Father."

This is attributed to the apostle Thaddeus (Thomas?) who was sent to King Agbarus in Edessa

after Jesus' death. Is it something we can consider truthful?

Libby

TomCabeen wrote,

: Libby wrote,

: : Hi Tom, and thanks for your response.

: :

: : If their souls did not go to heaven, then they

: : probably have not yet gone with Jesus to the place

: : he prepared for them ['in my Father's house there

: : are many abodes']? Would it be at their

: : resurrection then that Jesus would come to take

: : them to the place he had gone to prepare for them?

: :

: : Thanks, Libby

:

: Yes, that would be how I would understand it. As

: Paul puts it "We believe that Jesus died and rose

: again and so we believe that God will bring with

: Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ...For

: the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with

: a loud command, with the voice of the archangel

: and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in

: Christ will rise first.... And so we will be with

: the Lord forever." (1 Thess 4:14-17) and "as in

: Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

: But each in his own turn: Christ, the

: firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong

: to him." 1 Cor 15:22-23.

:

: It appears that all Christians are raised to life

: together, at one time, not one at a time as they

: die. And that happens "when he comes", not before.

:

: But I may be wrong, so don't put too much weight

: on my opinion! :-)

:

: Tom