Q: If Lazarus died and rose again, did he get to see what heaven was like before he was risen from the dead?

A:  Truth be told, this is a question that I cannot fully answer with certainty.  Mainly because this is a wonder that is not fully explained to us as it is miracle that Christ performs, but also because it is not addressed in the Bible.  It's just something that we have to take by faith as truth and trust that what the Bible tells us is in fact what happened.

I will say that when we die, our bodies are not resurrected, it is our souls.  For Christians (which is the case for Lazarus), we are told that are souls are taken to heaven as we have been redeemed by Christ's sacrifice and forgiveness.  Our bodies are left "as is" until the 2nd and final coming of Christ in which case our bodies and souls are resurrected. 

Again, the case of Lazarus is a phenomena that we cannot understand.  God does, what God needs to do.  For more information, please go HERE. 

[answered by Pastor KJT]

If a Christian is cremated, how does his/her body "rise from the ground" when Jesus coming in the 2nd coming?

Great little question. The answer is straight-forward: Christians will be given new, glorious, resurrected bodies. Our old bodies do not rise; they stayed burned in the ground. Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Jesus will return one day and give us new glorified resurrected bodies. Think of a seed that is buried in the ground and dies. After a while, it will emerge as something more glorious and beautiful than we could ever imagine. When a Christian dies, we too are buried but likewise spring forth with a glorified resurrected body. The difference between our body now and our future resurrected body is that our body now is mortal and can be subject to sin, but our glorified body is not. It cannot be subject to sin or suffering.



[Answered by Pastor HM]

Q: Is the rapture a reasonable possibility?

Yes. According to Scripture, there will be a time before Jesus returns which is known as "the tribulation" (Matthew 24:21). This is a time of great distress, where there will be:

- Persecution (Matthew 24:9)

- Apostasy or the "abandonment of faith" (Matthew 24:10)

- False prophets (Matthew 24:11)

- Love turned cold (Matthew 24:12)

- Gospel preached in the whole world (Mattthew 24:14)

- Signs in the heavens (Matthew24:29)

- The coming of the Man of Sin and the Rebellion (2 Thessalonians 2:1-10)

Following this Jesus will appear to take away those who are His.  This is known as "the rapture."  The rapture means “caught up” where Jesus gathers all believers (those who have died or those who are still living) to be with him. 

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

At this time Christ will return visibly and judge the nations and establish his kingdom.

At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other (Matthew 24:30-31)

Look he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, event those who pierced him; and the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him (Revelation 1:7)

 

[Answered by Pastor HM]

Q: Jesus had a twin brother?

What do you say when a non-Christian tells you that he doesn't believe that Jesus rose from the dead - that Jesus had a twin who came out from the tomb?

At first, theories like this "twin brother" theory seem creditable. There have been others that have proposed this theory, so your friend is not the first to make this assertion. For instance, Dr. R. Cavin of the University of California Irvine argues that Jesus had an unknown identical twin brother who began a hoax about the resurrection.*

Thankfully, there are scholars like Dr. William L. Craig. I would suggest you carefully listen to Dr. Craig's first presentation starting at the 8 minute mark. He does a masterful job attacking all the weaknesses and problems with this theory. who have refuted these theories. Listen to his debate here.

Here are my notes:

1. The "twin brother" theory cannot explain many aspects of the historical evidence for the resurrection including the supernatural appearance of Jesus (after the crucifixion) and the wounds/scars of Jesus.

2. Jesus was born in solitary in Bethlehem. For the "twin brother" theory to work, you must assume that Jesus either had a twin brother (there is no historical evidence for this) OR that the real Jesus was switched for a baby who had an identical twin brother. The problem with the 2nd scenario is that (1) there is no historical evidence that Jesus was "switched at birth" and (2) it is highly improbable (there weren't even other people around at the time, let alone another a crazy mother who decided to switch her babies with the real Jesus).

3. The "twin theory" assumes the twin brother is (1) a moron (Why would he want to "become" a person that the Jews want to kill as a heretic?) and (2) an unethical person (you'd have to be one in order to "trick" people into believing you were the resurrected Messiah).

4. Jewish tombs were sealed with a disc-shaped stone, which required several men to remove it. It is not possible that the "twin brother" could have taken out several elite Roman warriors and moved the massive stone all by himself.

5. The "twin brother" theory goes beyond what is known, i.e. it cannot explain all the other pieces of historic evidence for the resurrection. For instance, it cannot explain the eye-witness accounts, the radically changed lives of the disciples and the rise of the Christian church. Only the resurrection can. This is what Dr. Craig considers the weakest part of the "twin brother" theory.

Please note these are simply my notes. Dr. Craig's explanation includes more precise detail, so please LISTEN to the debate carefully. Dr. Craig does a great (and humorous) job in explaining why the "twin brother" theory is ridiculous. So friend, take heart. The resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact. The "twin brother" theory ... is just a theory.

[Answered by Pastor HM]

*R.G. Cavin in William Craig vs. Robert Greg Cavin. Dead or Alive? A Debate on the Resurrection of Jesus. (California: Simon Greenleaf University, 1995).