Thanks so much for joining us on the hashtag STRS podcast.

Greg, this first question comes from M. Deo.

If the church teaches that we go to heaven after we die, then how does the new earth and New Jerusalem mentioned in Revelation tie in? Also, only Elijah and Enoch were taken directly to God's presence. Surely we are not as worthy as they were. I just can't see that we would be transported directly to God once we die. Scripture hints and alludes to many things about the afterlife,

but lacks defining it. Are we perhaps misleading people based off assumptions? This idea was greatly debated until Milton wrote Paradise Lost, then it became generally accepted.

I guess, well, I'm not sure about Milton and Paradise Lost and what was debated, and then

something became generally accepted.

I think going directly to heaven when we die, as opposed to later on.

Okay, there is a difference between heaven and the new heavens and the new earth. Okay? So there, and I think this is a fairly

standard eschatology, depending on how people may divide it up a little differently, but when we die,

we go to be with the Lord. That is, our souls go to be with the Lord.

Our bodies stay behind until the resurrection.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Exactly.

And Jesus said to the thief on the cross,

today you will be with me in paradise.

So, excuse me, so this is very standard. And to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord is decisive as a statement.

So there is no, I think, lag time, no significant lag time.

I mean, there may be a kind of an existential journey.

You experience something, and people have NDE's near-death experiences.

Sometimes we'll talk about things happening before they finally get to heaven and then are sent back or whatever.

But basically, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

But you are present in an disembodied state.

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