webenda wrote:...
Basically, we're scared shitless, not KNOWing for an absolute certainty what comes next, after the coffin lid closes, if anything.
[color=#4000FF]Maybe God's words on death can quell some of your fear.
Ecclesiastes 9:4-5 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
5 The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun.
That gives real meaning to RIP, doesn't it?
The memory of the dead is not lost to God. That is not my interpretation, the Bible interprets itself....
Encouraging and comforting interpretation offered by you, and I thank you, most sincerely and respectfully, for explaining and Scripture-evidencing what we both
believe to be true. However, all of that would be a matter of FAITH and BELIEF, not
KNOWing. Knowing is a matter of facts. Faith and belief are another matter, in my humble opinion.
The Egyptians believed they knew what happened after death, and they were very, very devout about what they believed. At least, one of them believed in one god (Pharaoh Ikhnaton, a probably Nefertiti). Did they know facts about what they believed about the Afterlife? Nothing. Not one thing, other than decay. Not one fact, other than death itself occurring, notwithstanding they had something in writing, in their Book of the Dead.
Judeo-Christian believers have plenty in writing to guide and teach. You have kindly quoted some of it here. These passages are matters of faith and belief, of
our faith and beliefs, I would submit for your consideration.
I respect and love your zeal and vigor in your believe and faith, in which I share. I feel the same about Transubstantiation, and I even take it as fact, far beyond belief. You can take that on faith from me.
Murph the frank