on resurrection

On Resurrection
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 8:24 PM
From: "Carlos Burman"
Dear Eiko Onoda,

As i told you last week at the meeting, sorry for the long delay in sending an email back to you.
i have been abit busier than i had anticipated..

Now we are both just about over jetlag, at least for the most part.

Your question from the 16th June was about the resurrection of human life.

9 humans including Jesus, are recorded in the Bible to have been resurrected.

Just to name these occasions and the people involved in no particular order:

1. Elijah resurrected the widow son at zeraphath- 1 kings 17:17-24
2. Elisha resurrected a son of a widow- 2 kings 4::32-37
3. Jesus Christ himself was resurrected after 3 days in a tomb- Matthew 28:5-7
4. Lazarus was resurrected by Jesus- John 11:39-45
5. Jairus' daughter resurrected by Jesus- Luke 8:40-56
6. Dorcas(Tabitha) by Apostle Paul- Acts 9:36-42
7. Eutychus by the Apostle Paul- Acts 20: 7-12
8. Man who died ,was thrown into the burial place of Elisha,touched his bones and came to Life.- 2 Kings 13:20,21
9. Son of a widow at Nain resurrected by Jesus- Luke 7:11-17


You mentioned in that email that shadrach, meshach and abednego were also resurrected.

Well, this isnt entirely true...the account in the book of Daniel show us that at no time did they die.
It is true they were preserved alive in the burning fiery furnace,but at no time did they die.

A person must die for him to be resurrected...Daniel 3:19-25

Anyway back to your question...does it allow for interpretation that some of us or even all of us,when we die, we will be resurrected not to earth but to heaven?

Well, looking at the context of all these accounts of those who died and who were resurrected again,it becomes fairly obvious as to the answer.

The only one person to be resurrected to heaven was Jesus Christ...

Who was Jesus Christ?

The Bible recognizes him as Jehovah Gods son. Gods only begotten son...the master worker who helped create the earth.

The bible describes Jesus as a "Mighty god"- Isaiah 9:6,7

There are many many titles and indications of Jesus authority written about in the bible.

Jesus when on earth was no ordinary man.

He came for a purpose...he was originally a spirit in Heaven dwelling there for countless aeons..Thus,logically thats where he belongs and where he would return..so at death..he went back to heaven because he accomplished Jehovah Gods will for him on the earth..everything was finished for him to do.

However,the other 8 resurrected people were just ordinary people..they were born Human,had physical flesh..and when they died ,they were to go back to the ground,as did Adam and Eve when they died and every other human since that time.

Genesis 3:19 after Adam had sinned, God sentenced him: "You will return to the ground,for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return."

Ecclesiastes 9:5 also says:"The living are conscious that they will die,but as for the dead,they are conscious of nothing at all".

Psalm 146:3 and 4 says that when a person dies ..."he goes back to his ground,in that day his thoughts do perish."

Ezekiel 18:4 says: "The soul that is sinning...will die".

Yes all humans are sentenced to death because of Adam and Eve and we will all go back to the ground,as it were...to death where no consciousness exists,just like a deep sleep.

They have no thoughts,no feelings...they cannot work ,nor think.

All humans were born sinners except Adam,who was sentenced to death directly by Jehovah himself.

However,Jesus was sinless...a perfect man...his purpose for being on the earth was to redeem mankind from sin and death by giving of his own life by dieing for us on the torture stake.(John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world so much,so he sent his son to die in behalf of us...and Hebrews 9:15 also...and many other scriptures.) This was Jesus Christs assignment.

There are no scriptures indicating that any of the other 8 resurrected persons came from heaven or went to went to heaven afterwards or who had a special assignment to the magnitude of Jesus'...If the Bible is a work from God...would not at least one of the returnees to life had mentioned about having gone to heaven or somewhere else while dead?

Surely so.

However,never is this mentioned in the scriptures or elsewhere and the scriptures show clearly that at death a normal human being not sent by God on an assignment from heaven dies and goes back to the ground.

Jesus was clearly an exception...He was raised to heaven after the 3rd day and he was raised above all other angels, second only to Jehovah God himself.

Now,today, while we wont go to heaven at death unless we are one of the 144,000 mentioned in the book of revelation who will rule with christ as judges, we can still look forward to a future time not so far in time when all righteous ones will be resurrected to perfection..now Jehovahs witnesses in general look forward to this.

We are not scared of death...of course we dont want to die...but we have knowledge of the Bible which gives us comfort.

So to your question as to if the Bible leaves interpretation as to us being resurrected to Heaven,through my personal study and analysis, i cannot find anything indication of this theory you mention....... also our organization who are avid and sincere bible students havnt either.

I hope this answers your question...i will email you again soonish with the answer to your other email that you sent me a week or 2 ago.


Carlos Burman













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Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:56:00 -0700
From:
Subject: On Resurrection
To:



Hello good evening Br Carlos,

I hope your flight was nice and safe.

I understand resurrection in Bible almost always meant get life again on the earth as a physical being. Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego were so and some people in early Christian congregation were so.

However in the case of Jesus. He was resurrected in a physical being once, but he ascended to heaven soon after he appeared in front of his acquaintances.

I'm afraid this is not exactly a resurrection on the earth. This description suggests he lived after his death in heaven. This allows the interpretation there's a kingdom of heaven after our death.

How do you think of the meaning of his resurrection.

Best wishes,

Eiko