Thought this might be interesting to a few -
Continue reading “N.T. Wright on the Resurrection, Heaven and Hell”
Feb 23 2010
Luke 23:43 and Soul Sleep
This is an interesting post that I’ve found a while ago, but haven’t had time to respond. Thought I might get the conversation going:
As I’ve indicated numerous times, I’m a physicalist. I don’t think that I’m an immortal ghost/soul living inside a body. I think that I’m a physical creature. Long before I encountered philosophy of mind or neuroscience, I became convinced that this is what the Bible teaches, making its teaching on human nature stand out like a sore thumb against the pagan Hellenistic theology of the first century.
…..
Holding and expressing these views rubs some of my fellow conservative evangelicals the wrong way, but for the most part there’s really no disputing that the Bible presents human nature and death this way literally dozens of times in fairly clear language. Affirming dualism and the view that we live on as immaterial spirits after death and go somewhere is a point of view held in the teeth of the biblical evidence. This fact too, I suspect, rubs some of my fellow conservative evangelicals the wrong way.
Read the rest here:
Feb 03 2010
Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? A Lengthy Debate
Thought this might be interesting:
Continue reading “Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? A Lengthy Debate”
Nov 09 2009
Why fundamentalism will fail
Oct 29 2009
The Resurrection in the Psalms of Solomon
Concern for the afterlife is not something predominantly found in the Hebrew Scriptures, but as we begin to move into 2nd Temple Judaism, we find that the issue of the resurrection started to become more pronounced. For the Jews under the yoke of foreign rules, it was a means not only of escape but of vindication[1]. We find the maturing of this idea, in which righteous works lead to a righteous vindication expressed clearly in the Maccabean books[2]. In the Psalms of Solomon (PssSol), we find much the same idea that the righteous will rise at some future time, while the unrighteous will perish.
Continue reading “The Resurrection in the Psalms of Solomon”
Oct 05 2009
The Shroud of Turin a Fake? Scientist Repeats the Process
I don’t know about you, but whew, glad that that mystery is once for all settled
An Italian scientist says he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, a feat that he says proves definitively that the linen some Christians revere as Jesus Christ’s burial cloth is a medieval fake.
The shroud, measuring 14 feet, 4 inches by 3 feet, 7 inches bears the image, eerily reversed like a photographic negative, of a crucified man some believers say is Christ.
Continue reading “The Shroud of Turin a Fake? Scientist Repeats the Process”
Sep 19 2009
Ted Kennedy: The Resurrection Gave Me Hope
At one point, he kind of turned to me and he said: So, how do you think it’s going? And I told him … I said, I’m not sure I really understand how you’re feeling about things, and I don’t understand how you’ve lived with all of this loss. And he heard that, and he didn’t say anything at the lunch table. He moved on. And then he went upstairs and he took a rest. And then he came down about an hour later, and he said there’s something I want to talk to you about. And that was when he told me how he had dealt with it all the years. And he described it as being in a state of restlessness and always trying to keep moving so that he could stay ahead of the darkness and not be swallowed by it. And that was really when I felt like I was beginning to understand him.
And then he talked more. And he started talking about how important his faith was, and he was talking about it in very specific language, about how the resurrection gave him hope. And I’d never heard him talk about the resurrection before, and I said to him, I said, you know, have I missed something? I’ve never really heard you talk this way. And he looked at me with surprise, and he said, well, of course I haven’t talked this way. I mean, this is personal. And that’s when I realized that the public Ted Kennedy was a lot different from the private Ted Kennedy.
Ted Kennedy: The Resurrection Gave Me Hope – God & Country (usnews.com).
Jul 08 2009
The Prophet Amos and the Resurrection, Part Two
Esteban has posted another post in his series on reading Amos 9.11-12.
He qoutes from Cyril of Alexandria:
The tabernacle of David means the race of the Jews. It must be known that after Cyrus has freed Israel from captivity, they returned to Judea and built the temple of God. Then, after they had again fortified the cities that had been destroyed before, the lived in security day by day for a long time, that is, for many days and long periods. They became and example and an assurance for all the other nations that it was necessary thereafter to turn to God. . . . This is an explanation of the history of these things, but a more hidden and truer interpretation would be in Christ [ὁ δὲ ἐσωτέρω καὶ αληθέστερος εἴη ἂν ἐν Χριστῷ]. Indeed after he came back to life from the dead in his tabernacle that had fallen into death, that is, after God has raised his earthly flesh, then at that very moment he brought all human things back to their original ordering and all our things that had been overthrown have been brought to a new dignity. For, if as Scripture states, anyone in Christ is a new creation, we have then been raised together with him. So whereas death demolished the tabernacles of all, God the Father rebuilt them in Christ.
I will not give away his ending, so please go read his article, here. The passage in question is this:
“On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,” Says the LORD who does this thing. (Amo 9:11-12 NKJ)
I am enjoying the series, even though I eventually may disagree. I would like to point out that in the Zadokite Fragments (Damascus Document), we read this interpretation:
These tendencies came to a head in the Zadokite Fragments. Therein the glorification of the Zadokite priests is carried out pari passu with the disparagement of the Davidic family and claims and an attack on Judah. David is accused of ignorance of the Law (vii. 5). The title ‘king’ ($lm) is replaced by that of ‘prince’ (ayXn vii. 4). In ix. 7 the passage from Amos ix.11, which promises the setting up of ‘the tabernacle of David that is fallen’, is explained in such a way that all reference to David is got rid of; for ‘the king’ is said to denote ‘the Congregation’, and ‘the tabernacle of the king’ to denote ‘the books of the Law’. Having thus explained away the Davidic expectation, a prophecy of the Zadokite Messiah (see ix. 8) is discovered in Numbers xxiii.17. (R. H. Charles, D.Litt., D.D. – Old Testament Pseudepigrapha)
Apr 12 2009
Evidences of the Resurrection: Rufus
Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross. (Mark 15:21 NKJV)
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. (Romans 16:13 NKJV)
What do you think happened in the twenty to thirty years between the Cross and Paul’s letter to the Romans which not only say Rufus as a Christian but drew the family of Simon so close as to have Paul associate Rufus’ mother as his own?
Could it be that Simon a sojourner to Jerusalem during Passover who was forced by the Roman soldiers to help carry the cross of Christ received more of the gospel that day than many of the disciples of Christ had for the three years that they had spent following Him?
Could Simon who had invested a small amount of himself into the cross later found himself in that upper room?
Something happened that day that did not let Simon go. We know of the tragic tale of Alexander, but we know that the family become a patron of Paul, so close so that only blood separated them.
Could it be that Simon stayed through Passover only to recieved the Spirit of God based on those moments with Christ, bloodsoaked, near death, carrying Him to the foot of the Cross? Think of Simon, and think of us. Are we not like Simon, carrying the cross of Christ and thus bringing Christ to Calvary?
Something happened that day, and just a few days later, that caused Simon and his family to follow Christ.
May it happen to you today.
Nov 26 2008
Pastors' Prayers Fail to Resurrect Limbe SG
Where’s Todd Bentley when you need him?
A college of Pentecostal pastors tried in vain to resurrect the Secretary General of the Limbe Council, John Moleli Luma, who died abruptly Monday, November 17. Even after doctors at the Limbe Provincial Hospital stated that the SG was clinically dead, the pastor believed that a miracle would bring him back to life.
Moleli reportedly suffered from a sudden malaise in his house by 5:30 am and was ferried to the Limbe Provincial Hospital by family members at about 6:00 am. A battery of doctors, some from the SONARA medical unit are said to have been rallied to reanimate the SG. The doctors, according to witnesses, found out that the man had already died.
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