[AlwaysDayAfterYesterday]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Thank you so much to you all for your replies. It is something to think about. I respect Christianity..as I do all religions but I sometimes struggle to understand some statements especially if they are preached a certain way in church. I have found this in the past. My position on it now is that I do not hold with one belief as I have found truth in lots of faiths. I find interest in it all and fully respect peoples views.

Thank you again.

The genuine answer we can give is that we do not know. All scripture is wrong view unless understood with right view. My favorite way to see this is a quote from Rumi the Sufi. If you like this and want more, download his Discourses. After reading the Discourse, move to the Masnavi. From there, any book store has his poetry. He's the most read poet in America.

“Within us are many things. There is mouse in us, and there is bird. The bird carries the cage upwards, while the mouse drags it down. A hundred thousand different wild beasts are together within us, but they are all converging on that moment when the mouse will renounce its mousehood and the bird its birdhood, and all become one. For the goal is neither going up or down. When the goal shows itself clearly, it will be neither above nor below.”

A woman lost something. She looks left and right, in front and behind. Once she has found that thing she no longer searches above and below, left and right, in front or behind. All at once she becomes calm and collected. Similarly, on the resurrection day all people will be of one eye, tongue, ear and understanding.

When ten friends share a garden or a shop in common, they speak as one, they plan as one, and their work is with one thing since their objective is the same. So, on the resurrection day, since the affair of all will be with God, they will all be one. In this world everyone is preoccupied with a separate affair. One is in love with women, one is in love with wealth, another is engaged in acquiring possessions, another in acquiring knowledge.

Everyone believes that their cure, their joy, their pleasure and comfort can be found in that one thing. And that is a Divine mercy, because when they search they cannot find, and so they return. After they have waited a while, they say again, “That joy and pleasure must be looked for. Perhaps I didn’t try hard enough. I will search again.” Then they look again, but still they cannot find their desire.

So they continue, until that time when Truth removes Its veil. Then they know. But God has certain servants who know even before the resurrection.