alan@syacus.acus.oz.au (03/22/91)
>Luke is full of the Parables of Jesus and this is clearly a parable among >other parables. Wrong. Show me in Luke where this is mentioned as a parable? If it is not introduced as a parable in the passage, one cannot assume that it is. Rich men and beggars are common; there is no reason why Jesus may not have had in mind a particular case. In no parable is an individual named. >Let us see what conclusions we come to if we allow a literal interpretation >of this parable: 1) If taken literally then the rich go to hell and the >poor go to heaven. 2) When buried we go to hell along with our fingers, >eyes, tongue etc. {But when graves are exhumed we do find physical remains} I don't see how you interpret rich men going to hell and poor people to heaven. Your interpretation is severly distorted. Jesus was describing two INDIVIDUALS, not rich men and poor men in general. Luke 16:23 "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom;" verse 24 " And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that e may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame" The word hell in verse 23 is translated from the Greek word hades, "the unseen world" - revealed as the place of departed human spirits between death and resurrection. The word occurs Matt 11:23, 16:18, Luke 10:15, Acts 2:27,31, Revelation 1:18, 6:8, 20:13,14, and is equivalent to the Old Testament "sheol" The passages in which the word hades occurs make it clear that hades was formerly in two divisions, the abodes respectively of the saved and the lost. The former was called "paradise" and "Abraham's bosom". Both designations were Talmudic, but adopted by Christ in Luke 16:22, 23:43. The blessed dead were with Abraham, they were conscious and were "comforted" (Luke 16:25). The believing malefactor was to be , that day, with Christ in paradise. The lost were separated from the saved by a "great gulf fixed" (Luke 16:26). The representative man of the lost who are now in hades is the rich man of Luke 16:19-31. He was alive, conscious, in full exercise of his faculties, memory etc, and in torment. After Christ acscended a change has taken place in "paradise" Paul was "caught up to the third heaven...into paradise" (2 Corr 12:1-4). Paradise, therefore, is now in the immediate presence of God. It is believed that Ephesians 4:8-10 indicates the time of change. "When he ascended up on high he led a multitude of captives". It is immediately added that He had previously "descended first into the lower parts of the earth" ie the paradise division of hades. During the present church-age the saved who died are "absent from the body, at home with the Lord". The wicked dead in hades, and the righteous dead "at home with the Lord", alike await the resurrection (Job 19:25, 1 Corr 15:52). Also, after Christ ascended, Scripture does not reveal any change for the unsaved dead. At the Great White Throne judgement, described in Rev 20:11-15, hades gives the dead and are cast into the lake of fire, where Satan, the beast and the false prophet are. There is most definitely eternal punishment for the lost. It is characteristic with God's nature. The infinite God is infinitely angry with your sin, and therefore deserves infinite punishment if you are a lost soul. Do you believe in hell? Are you a Christian or a Jehovah's Witness? I ask this because most people who don't believe in a literal hell and eternal punishment usually are JW's or with beliefs similar to them. >Dave (David E. Buxton) >From the Silicon RainForest of the Northwest Alan