If anyone really had the answer to this wouldn't they have a huge, wealthy, and prosperous religion in place with people lined up to join?
glad I don't know...oompa
What happens when we die?
by Tatiana 55 Replies latest jw friends
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emy the infidel
First I cannot begin to understand your loss and I am very sorry. When I look at my little boy, who is four, I can see him coming into understanding of what is right and wrong. At one time he did not have any understanding and was innocent, although born into sin that we all experience and soon understand. But once we understand we become accountable. Your grandbaby was not yet understanding of this world or of any right or wrong.
I think that there are many promises concerning this very thing in God's Word. During one of Jesus' conversations with the deciples about eternal life he said the following "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also." John 14:18,19. Chapter 14 of this John is full of His promises of life after we leave this body. I encourage you to seek truth in what Jesus promises, not what mankind's search for God has in other other beliefs such as Buddism.
I am saddened to read that still many former JWs have been deceived into believing, even after leaving the WTS, that the physical death is the end.
Praise our Lord! His whole purpose was and is to defeat death. You will see your grandbaby again, that is our Lord's promise. If not, then why did God send Him to earth?
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Barbie Doll
I am so sorry for your loss.
With deep sympathy and understanding
and the sincere hope that time will bring comfort
and help to heal your sorrow.
Our thoughts are with you now.
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Skimmer
The Catholic view of death is not easily summarized in a few words.
For a somewhat official Catholic expository, see:
http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/lastmenu.htm
Summary of Doctrine on the Last Things
The last things are death, judgment, heaven and hell.
Death is the separation of man's mortal body and immortal soul. It comes to all men as a result of original sin. It is a temporary state, for at the end of the world, all men shall rise again to be judged by Christ. Thus the whole man, body and soul, will be rewarded for the good or evil that he has done, body and soul, in this life.
At the moment of death, each human person is judged by God based on his conduct in this life, and goes immediately to his reward or punishment.Moreover, at the end of the world, Jesus Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. At that time, God's whole plan for the world shall be revealed, and his mercy and justice demonstrated.
Heaven is the eternal state of perfect happiness resulting from the face to face vision of God, which is the reward of those who have served Him in this life.
Hell is the eternal state of torment and despair which awaits those who, in this life, have freely rejected God and the happiness which He offerse.
Before the end of the world, there will be an intermediate state called purgatory. There, those who are bound for heaven, but whose love for God is still marred by some imperfection, undergo a temporary period of purifying suffering. When this purification is complete, they are fit to enter God's presence and are admitted to the joys of heaven. -
nvrgnbk
Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity
An interesting alternative perspective...
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Tatiana
nvrgnbk..that was a great link. Thank you. This is a quote from the late novelist Anthony Burgess in his memoirs, You've Had Your Time: The Second Part of the Confessions. The following paragraph is from his meditations about death.....
Something else happened today. My daughter got a call on her cell from the coroner. They want to visit her at home. We thought it was finished, and SIDS was the official COD, since they didn't contact us, and it's been almost a month. Now we are terrified it DID have something to do with the sitter. Yet, they can't see my daughter till NEXT Thursday. So, we wait and wait, and hold our breath. Please don't let it be that. PLEASE.....Am I happy? Probably not. Having passed the prescribed biblical age limit, I have to think of death, and I do not like the thought. There is a vestigial fear of hell, and even of purgatory, and no amount of rereading rationalist authors can expunge it. If there is only darkness after death, then that darkness is the ultimate reality and that love of life that I intermittently possess is no preparation for it. In face of the approaching blackness, which Winston Churchill facetiously termed black velvet, concerning oneself with a world that is soon to fade out like a television image in a power cut seems mere frivolity. But rage against the dying of the light is only human, especially when there are still things to be done, and my rage sometimes sounds to myself like madness. It is not only a question of works never to be written, it is a matter of things unlearned. I have started to learn Japanese, but it is too late; I have started to read Hebrew, but my eyes will not take in the jots and tittles. How can one fade out in peace, carrying vast ignorance into a state of total ignorance?