I learned something about Judaism for the first time and it surprises me.

A jewish acqaintance revealed to me that there is not even any mention of the concept of an afterlife in the Jewish religion.
I don't get that for several reasons.

One, it would seem to me that most human beings since the beginning would ponder on what if anything happens after death. So I just can't imagine that a major religion like Judaism would not explore that concept and just choose to ignore it.

And additionally, why would Christians adopt the Jewish Old Testament as part of their Holy Bible when it completely ignores even the idea of an afterlife when the afterlife is so important to the Christian religion.

Go figure.

They also missed out on the TV evangelist shtick.

Sure to offend every one.  Even Nazis Enjoy LOL

Bob wrote:A jewish acqaintance revealed to me that there is not even any mention of the concept of an afterlife in the Jewish religion.  
I don't get that for several reasons.

One,  it would seem to me that most human beings since the beginning would ponder on what if anything happens after death.  So I just can't imagine that a major religion like Judaism would not explore that concept and just choose to ignore it.

And additionally,  why would Christians adopt the Jewish Old Testament as part of their Holy Bible when it completely ignores even the idea of an afterlife when the afterlife is so important to the Christian religion.

Go figure.

Bob: The "afterlife" was the key selling Christianity crapola -- you know, how Jesus gave his life on the cross so you and me and George Zimmerman and Markle too, can all live forever . . one way or another.

In fact, what differentiates the Christians from the Jews is the claim that Jesus was the "messiah" the "son of God." The guy who made it possible for everyone who "begs forgiveness" to enjoy the "afterlife." The Jews knew better.

Just sayin . . . LOL

Mr Ichi wrote:They also missed out on the TV evangelist shtick.  

According to wiki, the word "evangelist" (translated) is not found in the Bible until the Book of Acts which is the New Testament. That concept is not found in the Old Testament either.

And that adds to my confusion. The Old Testament and the New Testament form the Christian Bible and both worship the same god. But the god in the Old Testament in many ways had an entirely different take on stuff than the god in the New Testament.
It would be like a political party called the Democrat/Republican party and the same political party would have the ideas of both.
It's quite odd.

Wordslinger wrote:Bob: The "afterlife" was the key selling Christianity crapola -- you know, how Jesus gave his life on the cross so you and me and George Zimmerman and Markle too, can all live forever . . one way or another.

In fact, what differentiates the Christians from the Jews is the claim that Jesus was the "messiah" the "son of God."  The guy who made it possible for everyone who "begs forgiveness" to enjoy the "afterlife."  The Jews knew better.  

Just sayin . . .   LOL

Well I get it that the afterlife was the key to selling Christianity.
But what I don't get is that the same God didn't want the Jews to give a hoot about an afterlife.

Every human being who has ever lived has pondered on the concept of what if anything happens after we die.  It makes no sense to me whatsoever that the same God who created everything including the afterlife,  would have left that out for the Jews.

You got an unorthodox Jew Bob. Many Jews do believe in an afterlife. The unorthodox Jews believe they must do all they can do for their children because they live on through their offspring.

TEOTWAWKI wrote:You got an unorthodox Jew Bob. Many Jews do believe in an afterlife. The unorthodox Jews believe they must do all they can do for their children because they live on through their offspring.

This page...

http://www.everlastinglifeministries.com/faqs/faq6.asp

... tends to confirm that with this sentence, teo...

"An orthodox or conservative Jew is more likely to believe that the righteous dead go to a place similar to the Christian view of Heaven."


BUT the same page prefaces that with this sentence...

Jewish theology for the most part contains little on the subject of the after life and leaves a great deal of room for personal interpretation.

It's becoming very clear to me that God is not a very good communicator.
He emphasizes to Christians that they need to accept his "son" god so they can go to heaven. But he left the Jews hanging bigtime on the question of heaven so most of those poor bastards must be rotting in hell through no fault of their own.

It would be like if he created a football field. And then showed some of the players the goal and the rules, but didn't tell the other players about the goal and the rules and left them to their own devices to play the game.
As I said, it's quite odd.

I wish Brother Carl was here. He's been able to explain every religious puzzlement anyone has ever thrown at him. Including how Obama is both a muslim and a marxist at the same time. So this oddity would be a piece of cake for him to explain.

I think the Jews have it right.They don't promise an Afterlife or Heaven because they have enough sense to know that nobody else knows either.

Yella wrote:I think the  Jews have it right.They don't promise an Afterlife or Heaven because they have enough sense to know that nobody else knows either.

Well I go along with them if they believe nobody knows what happens after death.  
BUT,  I have to part company with them too because they make such a celebration of "Passover".
I will never for the life of me understand how anyone living in 2013 can celebrate the fact that his god punished adults by killing their children.
That god needs to be behind bars.

I can get behind them on the "eye for an eye" thing.  But not "a child's eye for an adult's eye".  No sir.  Not even if I'm threatened with an eternity in hell could I ever go along with that.

Hell that's the same goddamn thing Al Qaeda does.  Punishes adults by blowing up children.  
And I aint about to worship no Al Qaeda.  So I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I worshipped any god that did that too.  And I don't care if he created the universe or not.  It's wrong regardless.

It's all myths and superstitions. None of the shit is true. How much room do you think they have in heaven and hell?

More room in hell!

Wordslinger wrote:

Bob wrote:A jewish acqaintance revealed to me that there is not even any mention of the concept of an afterlife in the Jewish religion.  
I don't get that for several reasons.

One,  it would seem to me that most human beings since the beginning would ponder on what if anything happens after death.  So I just can't imagine that a major religion like Judaism would not explore that concept and just choose to ignore it.

And additionally,  why would Christians adopt the Jewish Old Testament as part of their Holy Bible when it completely ignores even the idea of an afterlife when the afterlife is so important to the Christian religion.

Go figure.

Bob: The "afterlife" was the key selling Christianity crapola -- you know, how Jesus gave his life on the cross so you and me and George Zimmerman and Markle too, can all live forever . . one way or another.

In fact, what differentiates the Christians from the Jews is the claim that Jesus was the "messiah" the "son of God." The guy who made it possible for everyone who "begs forgiveness" to enjoy the "afterlife." The Jews knew better.

Just sayin . . . LOL

No, the Jews expected some militant type leader to show up riding chariots and cracking whips that would drive away their enemies at the time. No, you don't have to beg forgiveness...you just have to accept that he took the world's sins in his dying on the cross so that you wouldn't have to. I don't know what God really plans to do with HIS chosen people, but I do know that Messianic Jews are really cool people.

Nekochan wrote:More room in hell!

I think hell is pretty full. its probably right here on this planet.  

and heaven cant be full because its in space and it only absorbs energy... 

Yella wrote:I think the Jews have it right.They don't promise an Afterlife or Heaven because they have enough sense to know that nobody else knows either.

Bob's friend is mistaken because if there is no heaven, then how did Elijah ascend into heaven as described in the Old Testament which is Jewish history. See 2 Kings 2.

Dreamsglore wrote:It's all myths and superstitions. None of the shit is true. How much room do you think they have in heaven and hell?

Some preachers will guarantee you Hell ain't even half full!

PACEDOG#1 wrote:Bob's friend is mistaken because if there is no heaven, then how did Elijah ascend into heaven as described in the Old Testament which is Jewish history. See 2 Kings 2.

We're talking about an afterlife (what happens after death).

Elijah did not die.  He was taken to the place God resides while he was still alive.
There is no mention anywhere in the Jewish Bible of people going to their reward in heaven after they die.  Or anything else about an afterlife.
Sorry,  Charlie, no cigar.

Bob wrote:

PACEDOG#1 wrote:Bob's friend is mistaken because if there is no heaven, then how did Elijah ascend into heaven as described in the Old Testament which is Jewish history. See 2 Kings 2.

We're talking about an afterlife (what happens after death).

Elijah did not die.  He was taken to the place God resides while he was still alive.
There is no mention anywhere in the Jewish Bible of people going to their reward in heaven after they die.  Or anything else about an afterlife.
Sorry,  Charlie, no cigar.

Here it is, folks. There are THREE Heavens.

cg.org/booklet/heaven-and-hell-what-does-bible-really-teach/heaven-gods-reward-righteous/did-elijah-go-heav/

Yella wrote:
Here it is, folks. There are THREE Heavens.

cg.org/booklet/heaven-and-hell-what-does-bible-really-teach/heaven-gods-reward-righteous/did-elijah-go-heav/

The link in your post is broken, yella, but I managed to find the page...

http://www.ucg.org/booklet/heaven-and-hell-what-does-bible-really-teach/heaven-gods-reward-righteous/did-elijah-go-heav/

As you noted, yella, there are three heavens. One is the place where God resides, one is outer space, and the other is in the Earth's atmosphere.
And for pacedog, this page explains that all Elijah did was go in the heaven that's in the atmosphere. Not the one in outer space and not the one where God resides.

Careful study shows that three "heavens" are actually discussed in the Bible. One is God's dwelling place—the place of His throne—and the heaven where the resurrected Jesus is today. Speaking of Christ, who is our High Priest, the Bible says, "We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" (Hebrews 8:1
). Heaven is specifically called God's dwelling place (Deuteronomy 26:15
). The apostle Paul calls this heaven the "third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:2
)—showing, as noted, that there are two others. It's described as the "third" because, being in the spirit realm, it is beyond the other two, which are in the physical realm.

Another heaven discussed in the Bible, second in proximity to us, is what we call outer space. It is the domain of the moon, planets, comets, asteroids, sun and stars. David spoke of this when he reflected on the awesomeness of God's creative handiwork, which he described as "Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained" (Psalm 8:3
). Many scriptures mention "the stars of heaven" (Genesis 26:4
; Deuteronomy 1:10
; 28:62; Isaiah 13:10
).

Yet another heaven, closest to us in proximity, is the envelope of air that surrounds our planet, consisting of oxygen and other gases. This heaven—earth's atmosphere—is mentioned in such passages as Genesis 7:11-12


, which describes the great flood of Noah's day: "The windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights." The Bible also speaks of "the birds of heaven," those that fly overhead (Job 35:11
; Jeremiah 16:4
).

To determine which heaven is meant in a Bible passage, we must carefully consider the context. It was into the lower reaches of this first, closest heaven—the earth's atmosphere—that Elijah was taken. Let's notice the proof.

Frankly,  in all seriousness,  I have never seen anything so convoluted as happens when people try to fit the nonsense of the Bible into the modern world.  
It's like attempting to explain a modern automobile by using the owner's manual for a donkey cart.  lol

Bob wrote:Frankly,  in all seriousness,  I have never seen anything so convoluted as happens when people try to fit the nonsense of the Bible into the modern world.  
It's like attempting to explain a modern automobile by using the owner's manual for a donkey cart.  lol

There could be a separate heaven for every species, people,dogs,cats, bullfrogs, germs, and whatnot.

Yella wrote:
There could be a separate heaven for every species, people,dogs,cats, bullfrogs, germs, and whatnot.

The only heaven I care about is the one which has pups in it.  lol

p.s.  that's an inside joke that only yella will understand.