As I was reading the next chapter for book discussion this morning, a chapter about living forever, I started to revisit the whole idea of death and afterlife. Our current understanding is that when a person physically expires and breathes his or her last, the body is placed in the grave, and the immaterial soul goes (whatever that word means) to heaven to be with Jesus. The body then awaits the last day when it will be reunited with the soul and raised to life to live forever without decay. This teaching was stated very clearly in the book we're discussing.
I completely agree that there is a dimension of our makeup that is immaterial and cannot be dissected and examined. I also have no problem calling this "soul" or "spirit". One of the passages cited by the author of the book was Ecclesiastes 12:7-- The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Is the author of Ecclesiastes giving us an instruction of what literally happens to our dichotomous human makeup when we expire (almost like a science lesson), or is he speaking in images with which his audience was to ascertain a very deep spiritual reality? Ecclesiates 12 is chock full of images and metaphors of aging, but also I sense that we need to go back to Genesis 2:7 to get somewhat of an answer.
How do you understand Ecclesiates 12:7?
Douglas Hoag
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Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Lenox, Illinois.
I'm married with two children.
My MBTI type is E/INFP, in case that means anything to you.
My prayer: Lord, help me finish everything I sta
Most importantly, I believe that the reality and personage of God was uniquely and fully realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. No one else comes close.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for the seizures and/or convulsions you may experience while reading this blog.
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I'm married with two children.
My MBTI type is E/INFP, in case that means anything to you.
My prayer: Lord, help me finish everything I sta
Most importantly, I believe that the reality and personage of God was uniquely and fully realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. No one else comes close.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for the seizures and/or convulsions you may experience while reading this blog.
Doug Hoag's Profile
Create Your Badge
1 comment:
see, here's my problem too... i love emmet fox but can't quite get over his psycho reincarnation crap.
i detest the idea of having to live over and over again, and hate the idea that there are theologies who support it.
i know you're not writing about emmet, but i am convinced that the nazi's wrote that stuff to discredit him during ww2.
anyway, God must certainly somehow reverse the fall in order for us to get to heaven...
hrm!
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