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NASB | Luke 16:23 "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 16:23 "In Hades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom (paradise). |
Subject: Do the dead praise God? |
Bible Note: Dear Humility, Jesus speaks in John Chapter 5 about His relationship to the Father. Verses 21 through 24 is a beautiful picture of who Christ is and His authority. The people he was speaking to did not believe in Him, verse 38. But those who believe have eternal life, verse 24. These two verse 28-29 refer to a physical, bodily resurrection. The spirit has already left the body and gone to its place, either heaven or hades. Here is the defination of sleep/asleep. I looked up the definition of Asleep, Sleep in Vines’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words by W.E.Vine, Merrill F. Unger and William White, Jr. Number 2. koimaomai (2837) is used of natural “sleep,” Matthew 28:13; Luke 22:45; John 11:12; Acts 12:6; of the death of the body, but only of such as are Christ’s; yet never of Christ Himself, though He is the “firstfruits of them that have fallen asleep,” I Cor. 14:20; of saints who departed before Christ came, Matthew 27:52; Acts 13:36; of Lazarus, while Christ was yet upon the earth, John 11:11; of believers since the Ascension, 1 Thess 4:13-15; and Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 7:39; 11:30; 15:6,18,51;2 Peter 3:4. Note: “This metaphorical use of the word sleep is appropriate, because of the similarity in appearance between a sleeping body and a dead body; restfulness and peace normally characterize both. The object of the metaphor is to suggest that, as the sleeper, so the dead person continues to exist despite his absence from the region in which those who remain can communicate with him, and that, as sleep is know to be temporary, so the death of the body will be found to be … “That the body alone is in view in this metaphor is evident, (a) from the derivation of the word koimaomai, from keimai, to lie down (cf. anastasis, resurrection, from ana, “up,” and histemi, to cause to stand); cf. Isa. 14:8 where for “laid down,” the Sept. has “fallen asleep; (b) from the fact that in the NT the word resurrection is used of the body alone; (c) from Dan. 12:2, where the physically dead are described as “them that sleep (Sept. katheudo, as at 1 Thess 5:6) in the dust of the earth,’ language inapplicable to the spiritual part of man; moreover, when the body returns whence it came, Gen. 3:19, the spirit returns to God who gave it, Eccl. 12:7. “When the physical frame of the Christian (the earthly house of our tabernacle, 2 Cor. 15:1) is dissolved and returns to the dust, the spiritual part of his highly complex being, the seat of personality, departs to be with Christ, Phil. 1:23. And since that state in which the believer, absent from the body, is at home with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5:6-9, is described as “very far better” than the present state of joy in communion with God and of happy activity in His service, everywhere reflected in Paul’s writings, it is evident the word “sleep,” where applied to the departed Christians, is not intended to convey the idea that the spirit is uncounscious… “The early Christians adopted the word koimeterion (which was used by the Greeks of a rest-house for strangers) for the place of interment of the bodies of their departed; thence the English word for ‘cemetary,’ ‘the sleeping place,’ is derived.”* From Notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine. P. 172. The bible is composed of 66 books. We cannot disregard entire passages but must look at the complete 66 books in our studies. If we believe in the inerrancy of scripture we must take the passages to heart rather than try to fit scripture into a theological box. Rather our theology should line up with scripture as Scripture is the final authority as God’s living Word. Sincerely, Val |