February 26, 2012 – Hebrews 11:12 - 11:40

Again, a very full list of actions brought on by faith. None of these figures are praised for having faith alone, but acting on that faith.

We had the reading about the mother and 7 sons martyrdom yesterday. In this reading it talks about the many that died for God before Christ. The theology of what happened to them while they were waiting for Christ is very interesting. I will explain it the way I understand it. The afterlife was divided into two parts. There were those that were destined for Heaven and those destined for Hell. A couple of things I don’t know is whether those destined for Hell were actually in Hell yet and those that would have had time in purgatory had a similar portion before Christ. But there was a great divide between the two (see parable of Lazarus and the Rich man). Those destined for Heaven could not get there because Christ had not bridged that gap yet. They were just waiting. I have always been interested in time in the afterlife. I cannot believe it works in any way we can understand. There appears that there is chronology to it if you look at Revelation, but other than that, we really don’t know. So, whether Abraham was waiting the full 2000 years for Christ or whether it seemed much less, we don’t know. But after Christ died, that gab was bridged and Christ went down to the section of those waiting for Heaven and led them all up. (Obviously the directional are not really certain either. The waiting area and Heaven are not physically above, below or anywhere we can physically get to) That is something that we don’t seem to recall around Easter. Imagine the celebration of that group that was waiting for that moment. All at once they lead a grand procession into Heaven of all the grand characters that we read about in the Old Testament. Reflect on that celebration.