Re: a question for monists

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Charles Carrigan
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 10:08 AM
  Subject: Re: a question for monists

  Speaking of Easter - when the repentant theif hanging on the cross next to Christ asks the Lord to remember him when he comes into his kingdom, Christ responds with "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." To me, that sounds like he was going to heaven right away. Luke 23:39-43. If that theif is still dead and in his grave waiting to be resurrected, I don't understand why Christ would speak those words to him.

  But I freely admit that the whole truth about heaven and the resurrection is difficult to understand.

  Indeed - & a major reason these things are hard to understand is that scripture gives us only hints about what happens to people between death and final resurrection. Moreover, those hints are from different parts of the Bible & different viewpoints. We have to take what we have (e.g., the story of the thief on the cross) seriously, but should resist the temptation to oversystematize, take verses out of context & cobble together what we think is "the biblical doctrine of the afterlife."

  Shalom
  George
  http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
Received on Tue Mar 29 12:02:22 2005