Quote:
Originally Posted by Timmy
I don't see in Luke 16 that either of them went to Paradise. Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom and the rich man went to hell, and was tormented in flames. Begged for a drop of water to cool his tongue. So, what assumptions do we make that aren't true? |
Lol, ok, you're going to make me read Luke here, and adjust--ok, you'll please allow me some latitude for a minute, as the lesson of the rich man and Lazarus is different than what I am saying, number 1; the rich man is here "in hell," which can't tally very well with the definition of hell in Revelation, and now has me wondering if I should find a better example for my illustration, but maybe not. We'll give this a shot, but I'll tell you that this is coming from me, and can prolly be shot with holes; it's like something I see, but incompletely, ok? But the point here is that the rich man is in "torment" the same way someone on earth thinks they are rich but they are ignorant, blind, and naked. the rich man is "thirsty," which we naturally assume some water would satisfy, but of course he is dead, and has no mouth, or tongue to put a drop of water on. He is thirsty for knowledge. The sense in which
there is no change in his state, from his life on earth to the point when he's asking for a drop of water to put on his non-existent tongue, is the sense I'm trying to get at. And yes, I am able to read the same description as you are, it is also true, but it leads to a literal understanding only, which works well enough for the stated lesson in the parable.
The day of the rich mans death was better than the day of his birth, and if you asked him, there with his "tongue" hanging out, if he would like to return to earth even if he could not warn his brothers, or even ever see them again, he would decline! Yikes, I can hear the howls now, how is it I can see this so clearly, but can't seem to clarify it? Lol, whenever you bump up against a "well, but I thought
this was true..." trust that there is the sense in which
both are surely true, but there has been a perspective shift that the reader must consciously participate in.
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