I'm sorry but it does not seem to me that a God who lovers us would let us sleep for however long it takes for Him to rapture the church, with us being without a conscience or thought or anything like that.
Our thinking can be wrong, which is why we need to always go to the word of God, for right (God's) thinking on anything, as God never contradicts Himself therein. You seem to think that to sleep (death) in the dust of the earth, and to not be aware (alive, conscious), is 'unfair' of God toward us? Why? Before you were born, did you know you were not born yet? Of course not. It is just of God, and merciful. The prophet Isaiah said of it:
Isa 57:1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
Isa 57:2 He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.
Job said:
Job_17:13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
Notice that Job agrees with what was stated by Solomon in Ecclesiastes:
Job 14:21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
When a person goes to a grave marker, etc, and visits those who have died before, the dead (those asleep) do not know that a person visited. They are dead-asleep, knowing nothing. They only await in the grave for the Voice of the Son of God:
Joh_5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. [both future tense]
1Th_4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Notice the word "rise" (earth to Heaven), not "descend" (Heaven to earth), in regards the resurrection. It is Jesus that "descends" to us, but we that "rise" to Him.
Indeed, please notice your own words, carefully, compared to what Scripture has given, in proof. God has not left us in darkness, or ignorance of these things:
1Th_4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
God desires you to know for certain and to understand His glorious way and plan. To reject that way or plan, is to accept the way or plan of satan, which is spiritualism, occultism, and in truth, deception, which leads to maligning God's own character, for truly these things are not merely about us.
but I believe that we will be with Jesus right after we die
What Bible verses do you think would teach this? Please carefully and prayerfully read them in their context, and also in harmony with all that is written in scripture on the subject from Alpha (Genesis) to Omega (Revelation). Then let us look at them together and compare our prayerful study. For truly, the NT persons cannot gainsay the OT persons.
, but we will not yet have our new bodies.
That is the spiritualism, or occultism, of satan. Describe with words this existence without using body language (as you have said that those are without "new bodies"). How do you communicate with a mouth, vocal chords, hands, lips, tongues? How do you see without eyes or a brain? How do you hear without ears or a brain? How do you experience touch without flesh, nerves, or brain?
Please consider reading (only 8 small pages, click the "pg" button to move forward or backward) -
Personality of God, Page 1 -- Ellen G. White Writings
Jesus, when He was resurrected had a glorified body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39), and ascended to a real "place" (John 14) that is filled with trees, fruit, unfallen creatures, rivers, water, etc and stones.
I take back what I said about the resurrection as I see now that that thinking was against scripture.
Ok. I appreciate those who are sincerely honest in conversation, and are willing to change as needful, as God's word instructs us. I have had to come into harmony with God's thinking in many places, as I did not always think as I do now. The Bible is very much my corrector, and so long as it is also for you, we move closer together in understanding God.
But I DO still stand on the theory
Notice the word used, "theory". A "theory" is not "fact", nor even "truth". You stand upon shifting sand by so doing. Please do not think me harsh, but come stand with me on scripture, which is no theory, but already tested, and proved.
that God is outside time and space, because he knows what is going to happen before it happens.
My response in no way diminishes God's attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence or omnipathy. Yet, do not think that God does not have "form", "shape", "likeness" (all words in scripture, describing God, citations upon request), and does not also exist in 'time'. When persons say that God is 'outside' of time, they generally do not know what that means, but they simply say it, as it sounds as if it were to attribute to God something grand. God is eternal, always existent. There is never, and never can be, a 'time'
in which God is not. 'Time' is something for creation to be under in regulation by God, see Genesis 1 for instance. It is the difference between dealing with 'finite' (limited) and 'infinite' (eternal).
I'm not making him to be like a Pantheon spirit saying He is in everything lik the trees and leaves, but that He is aware of every little thing that happens on earth and in heaven, He knows what is going to happen before it happens and He has the power to do whatever he wants with us after we die.
That God knows all things is not in question. That which is in question is the understanding of God's nature or attributes of God's Being, as far as He has enlightened us about such through the word of God, the Scriptures, as you and I are presently differing on that subject, not the subject of God's omniscience.
Most people have a confusion, not about God's omniscience (though some do), but rather His omnipresence, which in that confusion breeds pantheistic and panentheistic ideologies about God, which are untrue. When the "form", "shape", "likeness", "image" and even location ("in Heaven") of "place" are vaporized into airy non-things, it makes of God into a vaporous perfume, a nothing aether, and in effect erases God, all but in semi-description. All satan's plan of course to erase God from the mind/heart of man.
I also would like to point out he scripture in Revelation where it talks about the elders above in heaven- now is this before or after the rapture?
The 24 elders, and 4 living beats (creatures) already exist in Heaven as real tangible and unfallen beings. They existed before the earth was even created (see Job, Revelation 12, etc) They are not human, mankind. They are representatives of the unfallen worlds and universe.
So if it is before the rapture of the church, explain how they are already in heaven?
The 'rapture', I assume, you are referring to:
1Th_4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:17 επειτα ημεις οι ζωντες οι περιλειπομενοι αμα συν αυτοις αρπαγησομεθα εν νεφελαις εις απαντησιν του κυριου εις αερα και ουτως παντοτε συν κυριω εσομεθα
The being "caught up" together when Jesus returns is for
mankind. The 24 elders are not of mankind. They are of the unfallen races of Heaven (which needeth no repentance, see Luke 15:6-7; Revelation 12:10, having never sinned). They already have crowns (as Adam had at the beginning before sin; Psalms 8:5, etc), of which mankind do not receive until their resurreciton:
2Ti_4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. (Rev. 4:4)
They are already ruling with God, before the earth was even created, already have thrones and crowns. They are the "ancients" that the book of Isaiah speaks of.
If there could be some discussion on this I would appreciate, I like learning from this place.
Sure thing. Always glad to have a study with those who love to study God's word.
'tai lava.