This blog explores both historical and current events guided by the thought of the leading thinkers, past and present, of this school or movement of theology. Refer to the Classic Posts, Great and Contemporary Thinkers, various links of all kinds, in addition to the Archives themselves. David is the founder and manager of this website, but many friends contribute to it on a regular basis.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Rapture, if real, would be a reversal of the Incarnation. Discuss.
Reacting against Gnosticism, we often take unfair advantage of the Incarnation. A good example of this is the way we’ve developed the adjective “incarnational” as a stand-in for material. That something is situated in space and time hardly makes it “incarnational”, otherwise paganism, with its holy places, time, people, etc. would be more “incarnational” than Christianity. A bizarre argument indeed for a Christian to make.
Another, more pertinent example is the way we’ve almost completely sidelined or ignored New Testament references that suggest a spiritualized or quasi-bodily existence in the next life. In his comments on marriage, for example, Jesus likens human beings to angels (you can’t get more spiritual than that!). Also, both Paul and Peter speak of their present bodies as “tents” from which they desire to escape. Paul uses a special phrase to speak about “spiritualized bodies” which of course aren’t simply the flesh-blood-and-bone “bodies” we have now.
It’s good for Christians to accent the Incarnation, but we can’t be sloppy.
I’d suggest that areas like virtual reality (esp. virtual bodies) and transhumanism offer promising resources for thinking about what the Scriptures mean when incarnation, transfiguration, and resurrection are discussed.
1 comment:
Reacting against Gnosticism, we often take unfair advantage of the Incarnation. A good example of this is the way we’ve developed the adjective “incarnational” as a stand-in for material. That something is situated in space and time hardly makes it “incarnational”, otherwise paganism, with its holy places, time, people, etc. would be more “incarnational” than Christianity. A bizarre argument indeed for a Christian to make.
Another, more pertinent example is the way we’ve almost completely sidelined or ignored New Testament references that suggest a spiritualized or quasi-bodily existence in the next life. In his comments on marriage, for example, Jesus likens human beings to angels (you can’t get more spiritual than that!). Also, both Paul and Peter speak of their present bodies as “tents” from which they desire to escape. Paul uses a special phrase to speak about “spiritualized bodies” which of course aren’t simply the flesh-blood-and-bone “bodies” we have now.
It’s good for Christians to accent the Incarnation, but we can’t be sloppy.
I’d suggest that areas like virtual reality (esp. virtual bodies) and transhumanism offer promising resources for thinking about what the Scriptures mean when incarnation, transfiguration, and resurrection are discussed.
That said, I think the so-called rapture is bunk.
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