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Your questions are the same ones asked by the souls of the righteous dead in the places where God is keeping them waiting: "How long must we wait here? When will the day of judgment come, when we will get our reward?'
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The archangel Jeremiel answers them, "It will happen as soon as the complete number of those who have suffered as you have are here. For God has weighed this age,
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measured the years, and numbered the days. Nothing will be changed until time has run its predetermined course.'"
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"But, sir," I replied, "all of us here on earth are such wicked sinners.
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Is it possible that because of our sin the righteous dead are having to wait for their reward?"
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His answer was, "Can a pregnant woman keep her child from being born after her nine months are up?"
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"No, sir, she cannot," I answered. And he continued, "In the world of the dead, the place where God has stored the souls is like a womb.
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It is as eager to return the souls entrusted to it from the beginning of the world as a woman is to end her labor pains.
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When that happens, you will have the answer to all your questions."
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"Please, sir," I asked, "if you think I am able to understand it, can you
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tell me one more thing? Is the time that is still to come longer than the past that has already gone by?