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[Kathy]

If we must argue semantics, so be it. You state the ‘netherworld’ has a place for the righteous. Tell me what you call that place, so we can get to the point I asked about…is there sorrow in this place where people go after death?  I believe people are composed of 2 parts, the physical and the spiritual. The heart, mind, soul, spirit, nephesh, all mean the same thing, a person’s spiritual self. The dead body sleeps in the grave, awaiting the resurrection. Souls who are completely righteous through faith in Jesus go to be with Him after death. Souls who are completely wicked go to hell. Very few people are completely wicked. Only those with a full knowledge of God and still reject Him and His Son are completely wicked. The vast majority of people are neither completely wicked nor completely righteous, including those who lived prior to Jesus life on earth. Those people go to a waiting place, for some future judgement which the Bible doesn’t give many details about how God will deal with people who haven’t had an opportunity to know Jesus. There is no other name under heaven whereby men may be saved, other than the name of Jesus though, so eventually, everyone must be given an opportunity to accept Him or reject Him, if God is fair, as I believe Him to be. Since the first commandment was to multiply and fill the earth, I think everybody will be here during the 1,000 years when Jesus rules. In the story of Cain and Able, God told Cain “If you don’t straighten up, sin stands at the door.”  It is of note that God doesn’t hold Cain responsible for his sin until God Himself has corrected him and given him an opportunity to do right. During the 1,000 year reign of Messiah, Jesus Himself will show the world who and what He really is, and people will be shown the ‘correct’ way to live.  After 1,000 years, Satan is let out for a time, then people will make their final decision, for Jesus, or against Him. Those who hold on to Jesus until the end will be saved. This is fair. This is what I think happens, but I’m not dogmatic about it because the Bible isn’t really clear about what happens to people who have never been given an opportunity to know Jesus. I believe there is more than one judgement. I’ve read some commentaries on them but haven’t spent any time studying them. They don’t concern me. Basically, people are judged immediately after death to determine where they go, then later, there is another judgement of the righteous, to determine their rewards. In the book of Enoch, God locked up some of the fallen angels for a time. Why do you think He wouldn’t do the same with people who reject His Son, sending them to a place to wait on a future judgement?

[Kathy]

1 Cor. 5:8, ‘To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’. ‘Heaven’ is where Believers’ spirit goes after he dies, to await the return of Jesus to earth, where we will ‘rule-and-reign’ with Him. The 1,000 rule of Jesus is also called the ‘kingdom of heaven’. That is when people will inherit the earth, as you say, but meanwhile, where do you suppose Believers are, if not ‘heaven’? Moses and Elijah were men, yet they were in heaven after they died, because they came back to visit with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

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