Hey Bluesky and Aristotle,
The past 6 months or so, I've been listening to Pastor Doug Batchelor's radio show "Bible Answers Live" on my way to work in the mornings, and often on the way home again. He appears to be quite knowledgeable of the bible, and backs up every answer to every bible question with scripture in a manner that sounds like it makes sense.
According to him, when Christians die (presently, before the second coming of Christ) they do not go straight to heaven. Although their "next conscious thought" is the judgement day, people do not go to heaven or to hell at death. He refers to this as a "sleep", and according to his website "amazingfacts.org" "In death humans are totally unconscious with no activity or knowledge of any kind".
Is this a common Christian belief? I was under the impression that "most" (whatever that means) Christian denominations believe that you go to heaven immediately. By Pastor Doug's reasoning, virtually no one has *yet* gone to heaven, as they are awaiting the return of Christ.
They way he explains it, and the considerable scripture he uses to defend this actually sounds biblical.
Thoughts?
KaL
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