What happens after you die?

petosiris said:

If 49 books with more than 40 different authors are persuasive to be divinely inspired by showing incredible knowledge of matters that would take place and are taking place, the remainder of what they all said about sheol or the resurrection of the dead on earth should not be dismissed. They did not use demonstration in their sayings and writings for being filled with the Holy Spirit they were witnesses to the truth above all demonstration, and also on account of the signs and wonders they performed which only glorified the Father of all things and proclaimed his Word.

Click to expand...

JUPITERASC said:

Click to expand...

AppLeo said:

I have no idea what you just said.

And 49? I thought the Bible was one book.

Click to expand...

petosiris said:

The word Bible derives from a Greek word for books in plural. The scriptures never refer to each other as one book, but they refer to books of different authors. Sometimes they refer to books that (by the will of God) don't survive. Two or more witnesses testifying to a matter gives more credibility - ''On the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every saying be established''.

The protestant Bible is a collection of 66 books - 39 called Old Testament and 27 called New Testament. However, the Jews count and order the 39 differently as 24 books called TaNaKh. In antiquity these 24 were counted as 22 by merging 2 more books (according to the numbers of the letters of the alphabet). For example, the martyr Stephen refers to the book (or scroll) of the prophets in Acts 7:42 which clearly doesn't mean a book of Amos in the synagogue, but a book of the Twelve.

Also in antiquity there existed a debate about the inspiration of certain books in Hebrew such as Ecclesiastes, Esther and Sirach (the last was rejected) and Greek such as Hebrews, Revelation and the Shepherd (the last was rejected). The Roman Catholics include 7 more books in the OT and some churches in the east include 10 or even more, the Ethiopian church, which is very ancient, contains even more OT and NT apocrypha up to 81 books in total, some of which survive only in translation.

The 49 canonical books can be divided into eight parts - Torah, History, Wisdom, Prophets, Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Revelation

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Joshua, Judges (including Ruth), Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Esther
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
Isaiah, Jeremiah (including Lamentations), Ezekiel, Daniel, The Twelve
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
Acts
Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
Revelation

Click to expand...

AppLeo said:

Oh I see...

Click to expand...

david starling said:

The best-seller is "The Book of Revelation".

Click to expand...

petosiris said:

The passages most pertaining to the topic at hand are Luke 16:19-31 and 1 Cor. 15. (There have always been Christian materialists who said that the rich man and Lazarus are a parable without bearing any witness to the existence of an incorporeal soul, but I can show that this is incorrect. I changed my mind on this matter after studying the topic more closely.)

I haven't noticed a lot of copies of Revelation selling other than its misuse in false and misleading journalism hype. The book itself does contain an implication that the souls of some martyrs are or will be in a heavenly place rather than in the bosom of Abraham in Sheol/Hades/the so-called Hell - Rev. 6:9 before their resurrection and reign on the earth.

Click to expand...