Is the Christian hope to just be happy in your unhappy life because once your dead you’ll be happy in restoration?

No physical body or reality. Eternal peace of god that passeth all understanding.

Richard

I have no problem with atheism. Sound nice… almost too nice – sound a little bit too easy to me. I think there is more. Doesn’t have to be. But I think there is more. More life – and I think that is what Jesus promised. What Paul described was not, no body or no reality but a bodily resurrection to a spiritual body which is more powerful, more glorious, and imperishable (1 Cor 15), and Jesus described God’s house as a place of many mansions (John 14).

Atheism?

I just have no interest in a physical body with all that entails.

Richard

But the spiritual body is more not less. That is why what you say here makes so little sense to me. I feel like we are running into the problem of multiple meanings of the word “physical.” There is the meaning in the sense of “physical exercise” and the meaning in the sense of “physical sciences.” So Paul taught a physical/bodily resurrection not to a physical/natural body but to a spiritual body, not capable of less as the resurrected Jesus did no less but capable of more beyond the limitations of physical reality.

I am sorry, but your view of the Spiritual body is not mine.

And I do not see having no physicality as being less or a problem. I find eating, sleeping excreting and so on tiresome to say the least and have no desire to do it for eternity.

Richard

Doubtless… probably… but then I don’t see much comprehension of my view of the spiritual body in what you have said. And so the substance of this claim is a bit lacking…

Such consequences of the limitations of material physical reality don’t seem all that likely to me… But the spiritual reality I see is one of desire and the people desire different things. The resurrected Jesus ate with His disciples. I doubt this means that eating is a necessity for the spiritual body, but we can see that there is no lack in capability. For you it may be tiresome, but for others, cooking is a creative work and sharing their work with others is as godly and spiritual as other things we do.

You do not seem to understand either.

I want no distractions, just to be with God. I see that as utter fulfillment.

Richard

And other people are just as religiously and single mindedly devoted to football.

Just proves that you have no idea what I am talking about.

Richard

Possible… but I very much doubt that understanding what you are talking about requires narrow horse blinders to see only what you choose to see, or value only what you choose to value.

I am reminded of the difficulty I have with the usual Christian formula for scripture as inspired. I just don’t see the inspiration of God being so small and exclusive. To me it looks like the inspiration of God rains down upon us in a torrent filling most of the things we see in life. For this reason I think the Bible being the word of God has more to do with His proprietor rights prohibiting fixing the Bible as we see fit and about the Bible’s authority for the Christian religion.

So some find the inspiration of God hiking in nature, others in music or art, other people find it the work of discovery in science, others find it in a good book or movie, while others find the inspiration of God in the interactions with people – even simple service, whether cleaning up after them or cooking and serving them food.

Thanks for that, Mark!

This experience is an example, why I don’t see “Fundamentalism” everywhere it is often claimed to be sighted. I would call that church deeply fundamentalist. The Big Three "I"s are often cited around the neighborhood as proof of fundamentalism. But there are real differences in how the ideas of inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility are understood and applied. This church is probably not even a worst case scenario , but it certainly was not good.

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