Ozzie,
You keep saying NOTHING ... there being no substance to what little you DO say. You have been charged with side-stepping the issue (or didn't you notice that?), and indeed you have done that very thing ... more than once now. Also, I'm rather disappointed in you for another reason as well: Since I've asserted that those who go to heaven are due to return to being the fleshly creatures they first were, the least you could have done as a comeback would be to have called my attention to the scripture that goes something like "Thus we shall ALWAYS be with the Lord." But, hey, don't let me put ideas into your mind!
Remember there will be a "new heavens and a new earth"?
Am I to assume that you have adopted the belief that God has plans to dispense with the multitudes of galaxies that he has caused to exist, and then replace them with an entirely new material universe (heavens)? That's what you seem to be implying! If so, you are becoming more and more unreasonable by the minute.
I'm not sure how you come to the conclusion that the apostle Paul had a pre-human existence but perhaps I've misunderstood you.
You misunderstood. I said that Paul and his sort, after their tenure is up of reigning in heaven with Jesus for the 1000-year period, will shed the spiritual body that they will have been given in order to make life in heaven possible, and take up a fleshly body once again to live out the rest of eternity here on earth. Just as Jesus, a heavenly creature to begin with, was not created to live permanently in the material realm (earth) to which he had been transferred, likewise, Paul and his sort, having first come into existence as being fleshly creatures, were not created to live permanently in the spiritual realm to which they will be transferred at the time they are resurrected. In other words, spirit creatures were created to be heavenly creatures and fleshly creatures were created to be earthly creatures. Neither group were ever intended to permanently switch their identities, nor will it EVER be allowed. Because there were those certain angels in Noah's day that had actually done that very thing God expressed his disapproval by imprisoning/confining them to a lower area of the angelic heaven (named Tartarus). There, they are not free to mingle with the rest of the angels as they once had the freedom to do. So the whole point of God punishing those angels was to demonstrate their wrongness in desiring to change their habitation -- from being spirit creatures to becoming fleshly creatures -- which goes to prove that YOU have an unnatural desire by your longing to put off your fleshly body and permanently become a spirit creature. Those who will in fact do such a thing should know that it will only be a TEMPORARY experience, and that they are in for a return trip so to speak. It's NOT a one-way ticket for those few that go to heaven to rule with Christ.
the matter of New Jerusalem coming down (uniting) with the earth.
Do I REALLY need to address that? I already have, haven't I? You're idea of New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as meaning no more than being in touch with earth is absurd. It means exactly what it says, that New Jerusalem (referring to the group that ruled with Christ during the millennium) will forever leave heaven and take up residence again on earth. End of story! You, like all of Christendom, Ozzie, need EDUCATION! Or perhaps you would prefer me to go easy on you in such a way as to make you feel comfortable in your ignorance?
Friday
Edited primarily to correct the word "was" to say "way" in the last sentence.
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Edited by - Yadirf on 19 September 2002 15:58:42