Struggling with this. Do you believe you see your loved ones again ??

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I can't find anything in Scripture which says you do, but many people I've known believe that you do see loved ones again.

Can anyone comment please.

I'm struggling with this for a while.

I definitely believe in an afterlife and that I'll see friends and family again.

Thanks for replying @gabsdot45.

If it's not too personal, can you explain why you believe it??

It comes from my faith, my religious beliefs. What I have learned. It makes sense to me that this life is just a part of our existence.
Jesus taught about meeting in the" kingdom of my Father". Stands to reason that we will meet people we know there.

I do not think we will meet loved ones in an afterlife, at least, not in the way we comprehend 'a meeting' to happen.
I am a (constantly striving, yet failing to be a good) Christian, so I believe in Heaven but do not believe we can understand/explain it from the prospective we have on earth.
I think somehow our souls will intertwine with those we care for after our/their death, but not in a the way a child may view Heaven i.e. skipping over hills with hands entwined.
I know my view is pretty incomprehensible, even to me! Good luck with your struggles.

No, I believe when you die there is nothing. I am an atheist and have no faith though.

I do believe and hope for this. Luke 20:27-40. I can’t be sure, but I think living in hope that God notices every good thing is the best I can do.

I do believe in an afterlife, I am an atheist though.

I did a course at our local church and this question was asked . I'm afraid the answer / thoughts of this has played in my mind ever since . Yes our loved ones will be there but we will not have the same care for them because we are in the presence of the almighty - God .
That makes me feel quite sad in a way.

But christian dogma tells us it will be only other believers that will go to heaven.
If your loved ones are heathens then you won;t see them in the afterlife.

Thanks everyone who replied.

It's something I really struggle with.

@VictoriaBun Yes, that is the jist of what I can find in the Bible.

No.

When you die, you die. Throughout history, humans have invented fairy tales about what happens to ‘spirits’ and ‘souls’ after death. These are coping mechanisms for people who can’t handle reality.

The only form of ‘afterlife’ is the memories of those who knew you when you were alive.

Yes. And because I believe it, it will happen.

The alternative is nothing happens at all, and if that’s true, you won’t know anyway.

I believe the afterlife is whatever you believe.

So if you believe in nothing after death, then nothing will happen to you.

I believe that my deceased family (and pets) are there waiting for me. In this life I can’t comprehend exactly how that will look/feel - will it be just my soul rejoining them, or a full body? Unsure.
But I know I will feel comfort and I will be in the presence of my mother again.
I don’t wish for death but I’m not afraid of it either.

I had this conversation with our best friends last year. They admitted that they think as non-believers, we will go to hell and they will go to heaven.

Even if I weren't an atheist, I'm not sure I would want a part in a religion which condemns good people I love to eternal damnation.

I can understand peoples wish to believe in an afterlife, and if it helps comfort them in the enormity of Death then that is fine.

Me, it's like a light bulb being switched off.
Absolutely nothing. This here and now is it, and I am absolutely fine with that !

Christian belief in life after death is complicated because there is no one view. The mainstream view is the at death there is a period of sleep, of nothingness, which ends with the day of judgement and the renewal of all creation. Heaven is the place where God is. Jesus in the resurrection gives us a hint of what that new life might look like.

Some, mostly Protestant, denominations are big on hell and that only the elect will get into heaven. Many other denominations including the C of E hold that if there is a place or state called hell it is empty.

Every funeral I do I preach on the sure and certain hope of the resurrection which I hope holds the tension between faith and hope that there is more to come.

Yes, I believe you do, if they are also Christians.

To answer a PP’s point, then yes we and they will be different and our whole experience will be something we cannot comprehend from our current perspective. However, I look at the example of Jesus after the resurrection and there is great hope in that he was recognisable as himself and he showed the same care towards his disciples as he did before the crucifixion (look at his compassionate response to Thomas’s struggle to believe). So I believe that everything will be different but there will still be enough the same too, if that makes sense?

Atheist here

I choose to believe that there's life after this, because the alternative is too much to deal with (but no @agelikewine it's not 'reality' because we don't KNOW what happens & there's no need for your horrible comments)

The finer details are a little unclear as there are many impracticalities, but I can live with that, as long as I have hope I can see my loved ones again.

I guess I accept it's not going to be how I want it to be, but if there's nothing then I won't know about it and if there is I (unfortunately) have plenty of loved ones waiting for me and it'll be whatever it is 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry if that's not the philosophical answer you were hoping for Good luck with finding an answer that's what you need. It's

Also an atheist. I don't believe in any sort of afterlife, simply because the universe functions perfectly well without the need to go inventing one just to make ourselves feel a bit better about death. Personally I find the thought of eternal nothingness enormously liberating and reassuring, as it just means things reverting back to the way things were before I was ever conceived. The universe will go on perfectly happily without me, which is all I need to be perfectly content. I think you can take solace in the fact that departed loved ones live on in the memories of those who still live.

I'm a Christian and I believe in atonement. But I don't believe in Heaven as a "place" where I will meet my loved ones in the way we understand that. I guess I believe in being at one (literally the root of the word atone) with God. It's hard to explain. The most powerful heaven imagery in scripture (to me) is in Revelation 21.1-4. I won't go into the theological reasoning but the "new Jerusalem" is very powerful.

A PP mentioned that only Christians go to heaven. I don't agree. Now there are a number of accepted atonement theories. But I believe in universal salvation. I don't believe God loves believers more than non-believers. God is love.

@PurBal If it was my comment you were referring to, then I should perhaps have elaborated further - by “Christian” I mean anyone who knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ and accepts him as their Saviour. And that’s it. Nothing more complicated or intricate than that. And it doesn’t matter whether someone became a Christian at an early age or later in life, all are welcome, all are equal. And I agree about universal salvation. And that God is love. God loves everyone equally regardless of what choices they make. So the way I square that in my head (and I’m not sure there is Biblical precedence for this...) is that everyone gets the same chance to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Saviour - my understanding of a judgement day. For those that chose that in life it’s an obvious result, for those that didn’t it’s like a one last chance, when faced with the majesty and beauty of God, to make that choice. As I said, just my interpretation, but it gives everyone chance to acknowledge God and receive eternal life with him. So the comfort comes from knowing that those who are already Christians will be there. For those that weren’t in life, it’s a bit less certain but there is always hope!

I don't think so. I don't think I believe in heaven as a 'place' where we go and where there are others. I think heaven is being in the eternal presence of God, and it's something that happens in our hearts / spirits, but I don't think we will be congnisant enough to 'know' we're with God, or to recognise others (even if we had a body of some sort, which I don't think we will).

PurBal that may be your interpretation, but not universally shared by most christians.
THe bible points out hundreds of times that the only way to heaven is by accepting jesus as saviour.

The is the whole point of christianity. You have a choice- to accept jesus as your saviour and have a happy afterlife or be a heathen and be doomed forever.

Everybody is on their own spiritual path. The majority of people will be cynical about psychics and channellers mediums. It is always healthy to be sceptical and maintain an open mind but try and lose the cynicism.You will only ever believe if you have your own experience. If you find a good medium who tells you several things that are impossible for her to know you will be more open. You may still doubt and think it was a fluke. But the more experiences you have a more you start building up your own belief system. However, you cannot persuade anyone else to believe something they are not ready to believe. I had my own experience in 1994 and have totally changed my belief system since then. Personally I have no doubt that when you die you cross over. And that you meet your loved ones again. I am no longer afraid of dying. I do not see it as a negative experience.

You need to start listening to your inner voice and your gut instinct. This is what tells you the direction that you should be going in. This is also where you get your inspir(it)ation from and your guidance from spirit. When you get shivers down your spine that normally means that spirit is around you, usually a loved one. You need to talk to them and ask them for guidance. They will find a way of communicating with you and leading you down the right path but you have to be open to their guidance. Listen to songs on the radio. They are often used to send you a message by the other side. Be aware of the fact that people are put into your path to help you.

You might think it's a coincidence when you bump into someone you know who you haven't seen for awhile but they have actually been put into your path that day for a reason. You just have to figure out what it is. It might be for example that they tell you that they found a lump in their breast and went to get it checked out. It might be that you have also had a lump in your breast for awhile and have been meaning to get it checked out but that the conversation with this friend is what finally persuades you to go to the doctor. That is spirit trying to get you to do something.

Of course finding a good medium is the best way to communicate but you have to be aware of the con artists. Again use your gut instinct. I found the channellingerik.com website. It features a lot of good psychics mediums and channellers.

Of course most people that read what I have posted will think it's rubbish. But more and more people are coming out of the spiritual closet now and discussing these experiences. So do try to maintain an open mind. Find a good medium. Read "conversations with God" Read books by Dolores Cannon. Watch Alba Weinmann doing regression hypnosis that takes people back to their many previous lives. Look up psychics John Edward and Matt Fraser on YouTube. It may not convince you at all. Or It may just change your life.

@WiseOldBird are you on the right thread?