Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Resurrection or eternal life in heaven?

Ok, have to explain what is going on here. I took a NT theology class with a prof. from SWBTS, Dr. E. Earle Ellis, called the theology of Jesus. In this class Dr. Ellis taught from the Bible something most people refer to as "soul sleep." This is the idea that there is no dualism, i.e. there is only body, not body spirit, and those who believe in body/soul/spirit are just followers of Plato, but because there is only a body, when we die, we die. We are in heaven corporately in Christ, just as when we become Christians we are "in Christ" meaning the Father no longer sees us but Christ's work on the cross, and Christ's life. So corporate personality is what allows us to be justified. So when we die, we remain dead until Jesus' return, at that time judgment will occur, and those who are in Christ will be resurrected, to live eternally on the new earth. So when we die, our next conscious moment will be at judgment. This allows Christians to be materialists.

I contrast Dr. Ellis' view with that of the pop-theology we usually hear in church that when we die we go to heaven where the streets are paved with gold and then we stay there forever, as a disembodied (very platonic) soul.

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