Absolutely! After all God is spirit and yet to think of him as being any less substantial than physical things is absurd. Thus this is the difference between the spiritual remnants of those who are spiritually dead and those who are spiritual alive let alone “a life giving spirit” as Paul describes the “Second Adam” to be in 1 Cor 15. But I really covered all of this already above and it is time to stop repeating myself and be satisfied that I have stated my position.
I have explained what I have in mind ad-nauseam already. It is the words of Paul in 1 Cor 15 who says NOT a physical/natural body but a spiritual body, NOT of dust or the earth but of heaven, and NOT subject to the laws of nature which limit (make us weak) and decomposes making us perishable. Or to put another way quite simply science has nothing whatsoever to do with the resurrected body – that was kind of the topic of this whole thread.
Yes, there was no reason to be defensive. What you post simply sparks ideas in other people and it is inevitable that 50% of what most people are doing is thinking out loud. Hopefully we can avoid some misunderstanding in our next exchange. And with that I am bowing out…
I have yet to find any other interpretation for “spiritual” body to mean anything other than:
“a physical body that defies corruption”.
There is really no way to know for sure what else Paul could have meant… even Augustine wasn’t sure what Paul meant. So I really don’t think you can be any more sure than Augustine.
Indeed. (And at the risk of repeating things that may have already been hashed above…)
Anybody that wants details on the immortal form “nailed down” while being faithful to both biblical and present physical realities is forced to thread needles while weaving in between passages like: “touch me - watch me eat this fish in front of you” but then on the other hand “they will be like angels in heaven, neither marrying nor given in marriage.” Even without trying to draw science in it, the reflective reader will find much in scriptures alone to trouble any given dogma on the subject. One eventually gets the idea that the faithful Christian life must not consist in trying to get this all figured out. Else Jesus might have spent more time on it.
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
I go to St Thomas Church, 5th Avenue. The great scene of Thomas meeting the risen Lord is beautifully carved into the reredos at my church. Yes, the risen Christ had scars. Thus we see that there is continuity and discontinuity between the pre-resurrection body and the post-resurrection body.