George,

The bible says that, but the earth is not eternal, our sun is getting cooler very slowly and will expand into red giant and burn up the earth in the distant future.

Also the Book of Revelation states that the heaven and earth will pass away and god will make a new heaven and earth, unlike this one and it is there that one can exist forever.

There is fundamental law or constant called entropy that makes it impossible for our universe and world to exist forever. Entropy just really means the whole universe is getting colder and colder or putting it another way it is running out slowly of useful energy just like our earth and sun is

Take Care

Alan

Recoverer,

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The rapture is not scriptural but an event concocted by an 19 centaury theologian

It is just a dogma of escapism, some people have believed this type of thing to the extent that they gave away all their possessions and waited on a mountain at the precise moment they believed Jesus was coming to fetch them The Millerrites now known as Seventh Day Adventists

Alan

my opinion is the rapture is an internal affair which sort of turns into a wave, but it starts with the individual who then effects the next person and all whom they come in contact with...sort of the 100th monkey is born with new talents then, just knowing already what the others had to learn by trial and error. encoded into the DNA with the new births..sort of. hard to talk about stuff in the bible, as you gotta realize, they had a different language then, a different life style. like burning bushes, that's a symbol for getting a guides message. I'm sure no bush caught on fire, and if it did, it was just a way to get him to listen to his inner voice,  as fire gets attention.

the mind at attention, is an awesome place to be born new ideas of significance to the rest of us..

but rapture, it signifies energy wave to me, all is energy. even our bodies are broken down to energy particles in movement..

we're not as solid as we think we are. and neither is our surroundings.
love, alysia

oh wait, hi George!  yes, I think we will someday allow heaven to be one with Earth. however, I'm not giving you a date! 

and by the time earth disappears, I assure you it won't matter to us here now, but just as it disappears, some other planet is born, the way I see it.

George, after all those years of reciting that I believe in the resurrection of the body, I had to start to learn that if the kingdom of God is within, what do you need a body for?

Are you a literalist? I am curious as to why a literalist would be interested in afterlife stuff.

I don't think that Jesus is coming back to earth to set up a kingdom. That's not saying he hasn't reincarnated or will not incarnate again. He may have that need or there may be others of his disk group that require him to do that in order to progress. (It could be that we are all apart of that same group.) I don't think that he would need to set up a kingdom, with him at the top or as the king. As this would not reflect love but be an expression of ego.
Joe

When your Savior comes back --- He/She will appear to your eyes and faith as YOU want he/she to be. That is the truth.

identicat

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How do you know this? Are you sure ?

Alan

devayan..


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I said the sun would cool down and turn into a red gaint in about six billion years

But George asked if we are going to live forever on an eternal earth and I said no

But your point is taken as far as us mere mortal that time span is as good as eternal to us

I have two brothere and their families living in Ausie, one in Sydney and the other in Bribane

Alan

Heck!! I keep making keystroke errors My eyes are stll adjusting

Alan

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I've been thinking about this a little for a while now. Clearly one needs to define one's terms!

'Literal' used to mean to me something that could be defined in physical terms or in physical reality. I guess I think it is a characteristic of C1.

Do I think that Jesus (as he appeared 2000 years ago) wll literally return in the physical and the lions will play with the lambs?

Probably not.

But then I am left with the problem of defining (for myself if for no one else) what is symbolic and what that means. For instance, when I read a poem that resonates with me, and I know the symbolism is not meant to be taken literally, then what is happening? What is Reality?

And are there...things...that are literally true even though not expressed physically?

I think you mean to say that 'literal' means that it is real (whatever real means). Did anyone ever refer to the afterlife as merely symbolic?

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One thing related to this that tickles my mind is noticing how spiritual truths can be taken different ways....each person thinks they have the 'literal' meaning.

This morning as I moived through the tv channels, one caught my ear. An eveangelical type minister was quoting New Testament verses and commenting on them.  It struck me that what he was saying was pretty close in essence to what some things in The Secret say, and to some things that Eckard Tolle writes. Yet from the results, I would guess that each group interprets the same thing slightly differently. This illustrates some of the problem of defining what 'literal' means.

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I like the symbolic level but I don't know why.

I also like Blake:

Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bade thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, wooly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little lamb, I’ll tell thee;
Little lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a lamb,
He is meek, and He is mild,
He became a little child;
I a child, and thee a Lamb,
We are called by His Name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!

Quote Lucy: "For instance, when I read a poem that resonates with me, and I know the symbolism is not meant to be taken literally, then what is happening? What is Reality?"
It's just that our means of perception aren't working as some modern models are suggesting, that everything comes in bit for bit and then these bits are connected. It's more like whole packages, like Monroe's rotes, so that we know precisely a whole situation, without being able to tell about the details.
We are context-sensitive. When we hear about lions and lambs within a context, we know for example it means peace on earth.
There is this thing called "Nonverbal communication". That's something one becomes familiar with when meditating in the TMI- and Bruce Moen-style. You don't know what you communicated in words, but still you know it- only it takes some effort to express it in words afterwards, and never the wording is totally correct. I guess we all do this nonverbal thing, but in it's pure form it is so different from our verbal thinking/communicating, that it can be scary sometimes, as it is a bit like loosing structure and control.

Spooky