QC and SG accountability (13/4/18)
We talked about two recent sermons in church. In the first, the preacher spoke about 'hell' and mentioned that Christ in His resurrection set imprisoned spirits in the part of Sheol (death, the grave) free. There is certainly evidence that there are two separate areas where the dead go in the OT (Lk 16:19ff): "Abraham's bosom" for the saved, and..somewhere else for the unsaved. We may take Abraham's bosom as a way of describing the complete happiness and satisfaction found when the righteous leave the world to be with God. So descriptions of Sheol in the OT where we are told that "in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise" (Ps 6:5) or "there is no work or thought or knowledge of wisdom in Sheol" (Ecc 9:10)are best seen as descriptions of the inability of the dead to participate in the course of events contrasted with the ability of the living, rather than statements of Sheol as a limbo-like state without awareness or activity.
It is certainly possible to interpret 1 Pe 3:19 as a description of Christ setting saints free from the 'good' part of Sheol, but I do not think this interpretation is warranted by Scripture. In His preaching only to "imprisoned spirits"...who..."were disobedient in the days of Noah" a perfectly orthodox explanation for the verse is that Christ preached through the Spirit in the days of Noah through Noah. (c.f. 1 Pe 1:11, 2 Pe 2:5). So I would regard the destiny of all saints after death, both in the OT and the NT, as immediate entry into the presence of God. There is no idea of 'soul sleep' where the soul is unconscious from death to resurrection, since Scripture never teaches that there is an intermediate state (Lk 23:43, 2 Cor 5:6, Phil 1:21). However, although being in the presence of God may equate to "going to heaven", we will not be in our final embodied state in a new heaven and new earth (mPhil 3:21) after we have risen (1 Thes 4:16) from the dead with new bodies (1 Cor 15:12ff).
With respect to the second sermon, we also mentioned why it is inappropriate to speak of Christ 'resuming' His divinity after His ascension. After the incarnation of the Son, Jesus is forever truly human and truly divine, and remains so eternally. His physical body is at the right hand of the Father (Mt 26:64, Ac 2:33, 7:55; Ro 8:34), even as regarding His divine nature He is omnipresent.
We also discussed why Jesus is said to have 'half brothers'. This is not a term found in the gospels - His siblings are only called His 'brothers'. Looking back, Christians conventionally use the term 'half-brothers' because Jesus shared a biological mother with His sibling, but did not have the same biological father. His earthly family (James, Joses, Judas, Simon and sisters, Mk 6:3) seems not to have believed Him at the time of His earthly ministry ("for they were saying, 'He is out of His mind'". Mk 3:21) and "not even his brothers believed in him" (Jn 7:5). This would be a good reason why at the cross Jesus entrusted the care of His mother to the beloved disciple John (Jn 19:26-17)
It is certainly possible to interpret 1 Pe 3:19 as a description of Christ setting saints free from the 'good' part of Sheol, but I do not think this interpretation is warranted by Scripture. In His preaching only to "imprisoned spirits"...who..."were disobedient in the days of Noah" a perfectly orthodox explanation for the verse is that Christ preached through the Spirit in the days of Noah through Noah. (c.f. 1 Pe 1:11, 2 Pe 2:5). So I would regard the destiny of all saints after death, both in the OT and the NT, as immediate entry into the presence of God. There is no idea of 'soul sleep' where the soul is unconscious from death to resurrection, since Scripture never teaches that there is an intermediate state (Lk 23:43, 2 Cor 5:6, Phil 1:21). However, although being in the presence of God may equate to "going to heaven", we will not be in our final embodied state in a new heaven and new earth (mPhil 3:21) after we have risen (1 Thes 4:16) from the dead with new bodies (1 Cor 15:12ff).
With respect to the second sermon, we also mentioned why it is inappropriate to speak of Christ 'resuming' His divinity after His ascension. After the incarnation of the Son, Jesus is forever truly human and truly divine, and remains so eternally. His physical body is at the right hand of the Father (Mt 26:64, Ac 2:33, 7:55; Ro 8:34), even as regarding His divine nature He is omnipresent.
We also discussed why Jesus is said to have 'half brothers'. This is not a term found in the gospels - His siblings are only called His 'brothers'. Looking back, Christians conventionally use the term 'half-brothers' because Jesus shared a biological mother with His sibling, but did not have the same biological father. His earthly family (James, Joses, Judas, Simon and sisters, Mk 6:3) seems not to have believed Him at the time of His earthly ministry ("for they were saying, 'He is out of His mind'". Mk 3:21) and "not even his brothers believed in him" (Jn 7:5). This would be a good reason why at the cross Jesus entrusted the care of His mother to the beloved disciple John (Jn 19:26-17)
Comments
Post a Comment