I would like to ask a question regarding a statement left by many of my friends, as well as my Christian brothers and sisters in Christ. The statement is “Rest in Peace” to Whitney Houston. I know according to the Bible that no one is in Heaven yet. We all go to Hades either in Abraham’s bosom” Paradise”, or across the other side of the great gulf which is a place for the sinner. Both sides are waiting to be judged. I can’t understand how these people put people in Heaven when we have not been judged yet. My question: Is it wrong for a Christian to say “Rest in Peace?”<\/p>\n\t
We know from the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus that the righteous go to Abraham’s bosom where there are rest and peace. “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom<\/em>” (Luke 16:22). But such wasn’t true for the rich man. “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented” <\/em>” (Luke 16:25). While Judgment Day had not yet arrived, a person’s place while awaiting the final sentence of Judgment does reflect in where he awaits.<\/p>\n We as humans are not in the place to judge anyone. Even Michael would not make a judgment against Satan. “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” <\/em>” (Jude 9). It is not that we make no judgment about right and wrong action. “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment<\/em>” (John 7:24). But we do not put ourselves on the Judgment Seat of God and speak as if we are God.<\/p>\n Thus, we know that Whitney Houston’s choice to abuse drugs violated God’s law to be sober. “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ<\/em>” (I Peter 1:13). What she did was wrong. Where she will go for eternity is in God’s hands.<\/p>\n Along with this, it is important to remember God’s warning. “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him<\/em>” (Proverbs 24:17-18). It is a time of sadness that a person did not know the joy and peace of serving the Lord.<\/p>\n But in answering your question, when we know a person has been violating God’s law, it would not be right to say “Rest in Peace” because that is judging the destiny of such a person. It would be better to say, “If possible, may the Lord be merciful to her soul.”<\/p>\n\t Thanks a bunch, brother Hamilton. you’re awesome!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I would like to ask a question regarding a statement left by many of my friends, as well as my Christian brothers and sisters in Christ. The statement is “Rest in Peace” to Whitney Houston. I know according to the Bible that no one is in Heaven yet. We all go to Hades either…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[109,1505,713],"class_list":["post-32120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-death","tag-funerals","tag-judging-others"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16621,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-are-we-judged-at-death-or-on-the-judgment-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":32120,"position":0},"title":"When are we judged, at death or on the Judgment Day?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here is something that I am confused about. In I Thessalonians 4:17 Paul told the Thessalonians \"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 shall we ever be with the Lord.\" Now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52677,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-hades\/","url_meta":{"origin":32120,"position":1},"title":"What is Hades?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do I understand correctly that there is one place called \"Hell\" and another place called \"Hades\"? And Hades is where the souls of the dead go until the final day of judgment? Answer: The term Hades is a general reference to \"the realm of the dead\".\u00a0 By itself, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9202,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-people-physically-go-to-heaven-or-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":32120,"position":2},"title":"Do people physically go to heaven or hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where is paradise? Is it above the earth or below? When Jesus was raised, how can he be lifted up in the flesh? By flesh, will a man go to heaven or hell? When Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus in what form did they appear, flesh or spirit?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51516,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-exactly-is-judgment-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":32120,"position":3},"title":"What exactly is Judgment Day?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have several questions: What exactly is Judgment Day? If I die and go to heaven, can I somehow go to hell after Judgment Day if my sins outweigh the good that I had done? Can a person go to hell, then on Judgment Day go to heaven? What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42276,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-i-be-aware-of-my-body-decomposing\/","url_meta":{"origin":32120,"position":4},"title":"Will I be aware of my body decomposing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a random question about death that I was hoping you could answer. When I die will I be aware of my body decomposing? I'm afraid of that and afraid of bugs and worms eating my body. Will I truly not be in the grave? And is cremation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51453,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-you-misquote-ii-samuel-128\/","url_meta":{"origin":32120,"position":5},"title":"Why did you misquote II Samuel 12:8?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I just read through some of your pages. This one I found particularly interesting:\u00a0Didn't God support polygamy by offering David more wives? Did you or whoever wrote this \"answer\" deliberately misquote this passage of the Bible to support a thesis? Every version of the Bible including the NKJV\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n