Historical Understanding of the New Heavens and Earth
Foremost, it is necessary to clarify the historical understanding of the new heavens and earth according to the biblical narrative pointing to the afterlife. Plantinga at al. write “Given the full biblical story, this final state of redemption is best understood as a ‘new heaven and earth’ – that is to say, a renovated and glorified cosmos”. The Apostle’s Creed refers to the afterlife as “the life everlasting”, and the Nicene Creed clarifies it even more, pointing out that “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come”. Historically, the church at large was in agreement that the place where the everlasting life will emerge is what Bible names as “the new heavens and earth”.
Even though various eschatological subjects were given enough consideration by the theologians through the history of Christianity, still the topic of the new heavens and earth was not studied much until the modern times. In the early church, the eschaton was discussed by Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35-107 AD), Tertullian (c. 160-225), and Origen (c. 185-254). However, further study of
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Then later in the nineteenth century, the English evangelicals began giving up the doctrine of the bodily resurrection in favor of a spaceless disembodied heaven. Recently, some theologians such as Paul Tillich and others started accentuating the new heaven as a place for embodied spirituality – “Heaven is not a place beside others but a ‘place above all places’; nevertheless, it is a place and not spaceless “spirituality” in the dualistic sense”. Donald G. Bloesch also mentions that “Scripture does not endorse a timeless, spaceless heaven, nor one that is purely spiritual. Instead, it envisages a heaven-earth as the final eschatological
1. Upon entering the bar for the first time, Frank displays many of the motivational theories listed in the book. Frank enters the bar in order to find a place for his homosexual preferences to be shown. Instinctually he prefers men to women and is driven into the dark alley and the bar by this biologically determined need. We learn from his wife’s reaction when the girls are having daiquiris that she and Frank are not having sex very often which according to the book is a basic need, so Frank according to the drive-reduction approach is driven to the bar to fulfil himself. This lack of sex that he is having at home also can lead to the application of the Arousal approach to motivation where Frank is trying to seek out sources of stimulation and activity because his home life doesn’t provide any. Finally, cognitive approach to motivation implies that Frank was motivated to go to the bar in search of fulfilling a goal. In this case the motivation was intrinsic he only was interested in enjoying himself, he knew that nothing tangible could come from this, for it must be kept a secret. All of Frank’s actions and motivations fit into the pyramid developed by Maslow. In order to attain a state of self-actualization Frank needed to develop all of the steps below. He tried through work, his wife, and a large house to make himself believe he was fulfilled but with out the basic physiological need at the bottom of the pyramid he never would be truly happy.
Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy lay out four possible ideas as to what the creation story in Genesis of the Bible means and how we should interpret it in terms of the age of the earth. The first interpretation they propose is the Young Earth View, which suggests the Earth was created in the recent past and is the most commonly accepted reasoning for the timing by most Christians. It states that each day is a twenty-four hour period because of the use of the Hebrew word “yom” which is used solely to refer to a twenty-four hour period. The second option they offer is the Day Age view which paints the Earth as being created throughout different ages of time and each “day” of creation being within a different age until it got to the 6th day where God created man and thus began the story of Adam and Eve and the progression of the Bible from there. The third possibility they consider is the Restoration View which touches on God restoring a fallen creation and Adam and Eve being the second creation after a time of darkness. This fallen creation is said to be the time described in the Old Testament as the battle between God and Satan, and the eventual fall of Satan into the darkness of the void. The last viewpoint and the one in which this paper will lend its focus, The Literary Framework View, which says that the timing of the events in Genesis do not need explanation or a literal interpretation of the chronology, but rather are there to show the power of a single God in bringing order from nothing and setting up the story for which the Bible is based upon. The Literal Framework model makes the most sense for three reasons, the fall of Satan is not chronologically placed within the creation s...
The fundamental ideals behind the afterlife have vastly changed between Grecco-Roman Tartarus and Christian afterlife; specifically pertaining to the idea of hell and punishment. While there are also essential commonalities between the two afterlife views, the adaptation that has occurred over time contrasts the two views harmoniously. Fear is the underlying theme that eventually connects yet juxtaposes the ideas of life after death.
Davis, S. .. (2010). Traditional Christian Belief in the Resurrection of the Body. In S. Brennan, & R. J. Stainton, Philosophy and Death Introductory Readings (pp. 77-98). Canada: Broadview Press.
On March 26, 1997, in what has become known as one of the most noteworthy mass suicides in history, thirty-nine men and women affiliated with the Heavens Gate cult took their own lives by ingesting a combination of Phenobarbitals mixed with applesauce and alcohol. Each was dressed all in black, their faces covered by a purple shroud. Those who wore glasses had them neatly folded next to their body, and all had identification papers for the authorities to find. The house was immaculate, tidier even than before the victims had moved in. It was as if, in preparing for their death, they were heeding the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” And while their abrupt end may seem rather strange, the way they lived is even more perplexing.
Many Christians believe that when a person dies, they enter into complete oblivion - a state of non-existence. They remain in dormancy. At the time of the second coming of Jesus, the dead are resurrected and judged. Those who had been saved while on earth will be given special bodies and go to Heaven unlike the unsaved who will go to Hell for eternal punishment (Robinson).
As the first book of the Old Testament convey, Genesis, and its Greek meaning “in the beginning,” life originated with God in the Garden of Eden. Accor...
The first two parts of the book discuss the kind of theological-historical perspective and ecclesial situation that determines the form-content configuration of Revelation. The first section attempts to assess the theological commonality to and differences from Jewish apocalypticism. Fiorenza focuses of the problem that although Revelation claims to be a genuinely Christian book and has found its way into the Christian canon, it is often judged to be more Jewish than Christian and not to have achieved the “heights” of genuinely early Christian theology. In the second part of the book, Fiorenza seeks to assess whether and how much Revelation shares in the theological structure of the Fourth Gospel. Fiorenza proposes that a careful analysis of Revelation would suggest that Pauline, Johannine, and Christian apocalyptic-prophetic traditions and circles interacted with each other at the end of the first century C.E in Asia Minor. She charts in the book the structural-theological similarities and differences between the response of Paul and that of Revelation to the “realized eschatology”. She argues that the author of Revelation attempts to correct the “realized eschatology” implications of the early Christian tradition with an emphasis on a futuristic apocalyptic understanding of salvation. Fiorenza draws the conclusion that Revelation and its author belong neither to the Johannine nor to the Pauline school, but point to prophetic-apocalyptic traditions in Asia Minor.
Hany Abu-Assad, the director, spends nearly twelve minutes in constructing Said’s character before Said is approached by Jamal, who informs him that he and Khaled have been selected for a suicide mission. Jamal is a spiritual leader of an unnamed militant group in Nablus. He says, “We decided to answer the assassination of Abu Hazem … There’s an operation planned for tomorrow in Tel Aviv.”
Theologians have been stuck on this topic as well. Without the Resurrection, the Christian’s faith
Throughout history, the concept of death and an afterlife has always been present regardless of the culture or religion. It has also been very influential in literature and other writings. In the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, there is a portrayal of the Greek beliefs of the afterlife. The Bible addresses this theme as well in the gospel of Matthew. Between these two works, there are noticeable differences about the beliefs of death due to the different cultures in which they were written. Despite the many variations, there are some slight similarities regarding the afterlife. Although the two writings were composed in different cultures and time periods, the notions of an afterlife in each piece can be easily related.
First, let us analyze the particulars of the Christian Genesis story as to begin formulating the basis of comparison and contrast. We shall look at the two parts of Genesis, the first discussing the formulation of earth and its inner particulars, in concert with the first few verses associated with the second part of Genesis, which touches on the creation of the first man and woman:
In this paper I will discuss three similarities and four differences between Enuma Elish-The Epic of Creation (King,1902) and Genesis 1:1-3:24 as described by Michael Fishbane (Fishbane, 1979). These writings are selected to describe the story of creation of the earth and the inhabitants of the earth. However, each author has a very different view and way of explaining what they have interpreted the sacred texts to mean.
Earth is a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird over the watery abyss.” The Message. There is a long-standing debate over whether the universe sprang into existence as "singularity", or whether God created it. Singularities are, in the simplest of terms, black holes.
If I had no limits as to how much I could spend on a vacation, I would take a trip to different cities in Mexico. My dads side of the family is Latino and many of my relatives live in Mexico. My month long trip would consist of a variety of cities I have visited before and others that I would be visiting for the first time. I would take advantage of Mexicos rich culture by participating in the peoples customs and getting as much experience as possible. The trip would be very meaningful because my heritage is something that I am very proud of and passionate about.