Is there any NT verse that is suggestive that only the ultimately elect would be awakened/resurrected, and the rest would stay asleep? Matt’s resurrection of the saints has a little of this feel – but that may just be suggestive of saints “first” (a la Paul’s ordering of who meets Christ in the air) rather than “only”.
I’m not aware of any, but there’s a lot I’m not aware of, so that doesn’t mean there aren’t.
The problem is that by the time most of the NT was written, they were already transitioning away from the Kingdom, towards Heaven and Hell, which is about the soul, not the body. The concept of the dead physically rising lives on in Christianity to this day, but in a very muted subordinate way.
So it’s very hard to say what the Pre-NT Christians thought. Paul typically avoids committing himself (his idea was probably along the lines of Jewish Apocalypticism, which many Pharisees embraced).
But even if you talked to some of them, via a time machine or whatever, you’d probably get a variety of answers. And as to what Jesus believed, I think he thought it was just the living who’d be judged. What he thought happened to all those who came before is probably just–nothing. They’re dead, and there’s no reward or punishment. The goal is a better world, not everybody who ever lived getting what’s coming to him/her.
The workers in the vineyard. That’s unfair, right? Why should people who came in at the last possible moment get exactly the same wages? Because it’s not about just labor practices. It’s about reforming your life.
I am sorry to hear you took that quote seriously. Obviously those were not your precise words (as anyone could see), though you did say something that sounded an awful lot like that.
i know you hate being misunderstood, but after a while, seems like you would get the notion that maybe you have to be more careful in the way you express yourself–could start to get a bad reputation.
You claim to know what irony and sarcasm are, but seems like your reception is a bit spotty.
And it really does seem like you never want this exchange to end.
Serious question, not even one iota of sarcasm here–do you have Asperger’s?
Because I do not have this problem with everybody else I talk to online.
If you were capable of real discussion, I’d stay.
The stuff you dislike is just my frustration over the poor level of conversation here breaking out. And that’s true whether I’m involved in it or not. It’s pretty damn bad.
And I’m very sure it isn’t just me who’s thought so. (And I’ve gotten privates messages asking me to stay, but enough is enough.)
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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