Posted on 12/13/2005 4:06:17 PM PST by emiller
Fine. But then a tree didn't exist before it was born from a seed, and after it dies and rots away into the ground, it continues to exist in the earth in another form. What do Christian theologians say about it, I wonder.
Well... sure I'll buy that.
I will become nematodes and bacteria after I die (as a matter of fact, many of the lil' buggers are within me (and you) as we speak... just WAITING for the chance to take possession of this mortal coil!
I understand.
I lost my dearest Grandmother (much more than a mere grandmother - a deep friend) on August 31st of this year.
I'm not even close to being "over" it.
The answer in a nutshell Scroll down to "Heaven"
thanks for the link.
"Heaven. Where Is It? How Do We Get There" (Barbara Walters will tell us how- on ABC)"
One place I'm sure it never was was in Barbara Wah-Wah's arms.
You're welcome.
Actually, the Bible says absent from the body, present with the lord. If you die tomorrow, you will be in heaven tomorrow.
This "sleep" nonsense is a new invention in Christianity.
I don't think it's nonsense at all. I think you need a body in order to be conscious- as a human being. So dead, without a body, we go offline, like a piece of software being taken out of a computer. But when our hardware gets upgraded, and our spirits again have a new body through which to express itself, we come back online, and to the individual, no time would have passed. I think the sleep metaphor is for the living, to help us understand something that happens in timelessness. If you were to die tonight, as a Christian, your eyes would close, and then immeadiately seem to open in your new body, at the rapture. Several years or decades may have passed, (by earth's reckoning).
It's nearly over, but have to say it was pretty even handed. Many viewpoints expressed.
At one point Walters talked to a jailed failed muslim terrorist.
She also speaks with a moderate Imam.
Besides the terrorist foaming about how everyone but muslims will burn forever in a fire "70 times greater than the hottest fire on Earth", both he and the Imam mentioned sex in the afterlife repeatedly.
What strikes me about Muslim views an afterlife is a description of a decadently hedonistic selfish eternity.
The Imam interviewed bascially said muslims when they enter paradise will all get to have orgies forever.
How evil and twisted.
By the way, that "moderate Imam" that she spoke with ... I got the distinct impression that he was being dishonest, giving answers that he knew would be palatable, and dodging any question that would be awkward.
And I certainly agree with your description that, for martyrs, Muslim heaven is just orgies all the time. Yeah, that's a religion to be proud of. Union with God means celebrating your animal nature. Pigs.
did anyone else think that Barbara kissing the Dali Lama was so ridiculous , contrived and goofy?
Barbara was goofy, yes.
But Buddhists are goofy too. I have no use for them. The Dalai Lama just laughs all the time. And Richard Gere ...! Man, he came really, really close to saying "You know, a molecule in your fingernail might be, like, a whole universe to someone else. Wow!" The guy is a deep thinker like a 17-year-old stoner.
She just wanted attention. I thought his reaction was really normal.
It is not nonsense. For those dead in Christ, they have yet to receive a glorified body which will occur at the Rapture of the Church. Believers who have died in Christ are said to be asleep in Jesus. I Thess. 4:13-16
Scripture says these words:
"absent from the body, present with the Lord."
When we die, we go to heaven immediately. It is NOT the same as when we are resurrected bodily and brought to heaven, but the orthodox position of the church has always been in opposition to the novel "sleep" theory that is only a recent introduction into the doctrine of some Christians.
Merry Christmas from a buddhist!
I agree but what about I Cor. where Paul says for this cause because of not observing communion properly many are weak, sickly and some sleep. Sleep seems like it means soul and spirit leaving the body. The body of loved ones decompose in the ground but the soul and spirit go either to Heaven or Hell.
Tony D'nunzio: Another Rob Roy Bishop?
Bishop Pickering: You never ask a navy man if he'll have another drink, because it's nobody's goddamned business how much he's had already.
Judge Smails: Wrong, you're drinking too much your Excellency.
Bishop: Excellency, fiddlesticks, my name's Fred and I'm a man, same as you.
Judge: You're not a man, you're a bishop, for God's sakes.
Bishop: There is no God...
That'd be the same Bishop Pickering that got the ZOT while he was playing golf on Sunday, yes?
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