Quite correct, you have the promise of eternal life now, and provided you maintain your faith you will receive it at the GWT. Greek verbs? So what; it is the basic meaning and the logical understanding that counts.
keras,
You do not accept what I wrote about John 3:36 that believers have and continue to have eternal life as long as they believe. That's Bible.
NT teaching: Hebrews 9:27 our lot is to die once, with Judgement to follow. John 3:13 No one goes to heaven... 1 Thess 4:13...those who sleep in death... Rev 14:13 Happy are those who die in their faith...let them rest...
The idea of the dead going to live in heaven, is just a false assurance spoken at funerals to grieving relatives.
No; Eccl 9:5, Job 14:10-12, Psalms 22:29, plus many others are NOT superseded by the New Testament.
Heb 9:27 says that 'Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment' (NIV), AFTER THAT does not state that it happens instantly they die.
As for John 3:13, 'No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man' (NIV). However, where did the thief on the cross go at death?
'Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise"' (Luke 23:43 NIV). So, absent from the body and present with the Lord for the thief meant at death he went to Paradise. Today's believe can go to no better place at death.
As for 1 Thess 4:13, it teaches, 'Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope'. Do you support soul sleep? The Bible doesn't! See my article:
Soul Sleep: A Refutation.
New Testament scholar, Dr. N. T. Wright, wrote that “when ancient Jews, pagans and Christians used the word ‘sleep’ to denote death, they were using a metaphor to refer to a concrete state of affairs.We sometimes use the same language the other way round: a heavy sleeper is ‘dead to the world'” (Wright 2003, p. xix).
When my father died and I saw him in his coffin, he looked as though he was asleep. This is how we are to understand the language of sleep associated with death in the Bible. “Sleep” of the body is a metaphor that refers to death.
Remember the story of Jesus and Lazarus in John 11:5-44? Of Lazarus, it was said that he “has fallen asleep” and Jesus was going “to awaken him” (v. 11). Jesus was very clear what he had meant by “sleep.” “Now Jesus had spoken of his death” (v. 13). “Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died'” (v. 14). Jesus explains further: “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (v. 26).
So, in this situation we have this kind of language used: Lazarus died and he looked as though he was asleep but the truth was that, because Lazarus believed in Jesus, Lazarus would never die. That sounds paradoxical. He died but he would never die! As we will see, this means that the believer who dies physically and appears to be asleep (a metaphor), does not die because his unseen soul goes immediately into the presence of the Lord, thus meaning that the believer never really dies. At death, the believer’s real being (his/her soul) goes into the presence of the Lord (see 2 Cor. 5:8).
You claim the Christian dead going to live in heaven gives a 'false assurance'. Really?
Who is Jesus coming back for at his second coming? The body that is turned to dust after death is not at home with the Lord. It will be the time of union of spirit and body. The resurrection body is described in
1 Cor 15:35-49 (ESV).
Ecclesiastes 12:7 (NLT) tells us what happens at death, ‘For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it’. So, at death our spirit returns to God and the body becomes dust in the grave.
What, then, is the meaning of
1 Thess 4:16-17 when it states that ‘the dead in Christ shall rise first’?
As indicated with Stephen, when he died from stoning (
Acts 7:55-60) and looked into heaven, he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God in heaven and Stephen’s spirit was received there (
Acts 7:59). Whether one calls it paradise, heaven, ‘my father’s house’, at death, the spirit of Christians goes to that place and the body goes to the grave to become dust. At the last day when Christ returns, the body as dust will be raised and there will be a union of the resurrected body and the glorified spirit. Then we will be with the Lord forever.
Oz
Works consulted
Wright, N. T. 2003,
The Resurrection of the Son of God, series in Christian origins and the Question of God, vol. 3, Fortress Press, Minneapolis.