Many Christians (and the official doctrine of many churches) assert that resurrection does not come soon after death on an individual basis; but is delayed - perhaps waiting until some version of a judgment day, when resurrection happens "communally", for everyone all at once - albeit individuals are "judged" individually.
However...
The Fourth Gospel does not include a "second coming" or "day of judgment"; and its narrative is consistent with resurrection happening as an individual process, and happening soon after each person's death - with its examples of Lazarus and Jesus himself, both resurrected within days.
Jesus also seems to describe rapid individual resurrection - for example, as I understand the following two passages:
4: 31 - In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
I understand this to be Jesus talking (poetically, metaphorically as we regard it) of how he is finishing the work of "him that sent me" - meaning both that this work was incomplete, and that Jesus has - here and now, not at some future point - finished it.
Everything has been done, everything is ready.
No need for delays.
5: 21 - For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. ... Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
...
I understand this to be stating that those who believe and follow Jesus will have everlasting life - i.e. resurrection - and will pass from death into life, will pass through death into resurrection.
No delay.
Further, that this benefit also applies to those who died before the advent of Jesus.
"Christianity" ought to be much clearer on this subject; and more focused upon the promise of resurrected eternal life; and that this shall come to each to wants it and follows Jesus, and "soon" after death.
No delay, no waiting for indefinite periods until a day of judgment.
This also means that there are many of the dead who have resurrected already.
And therefore, in principle, these living resurrected people are a potential source of direct personal evidence for the reality of resurrection, available to living people now.
In other words; we are not necessarily dependent, ultimately, on second-hand sources such as theology, scripture, or the teaching of religious authorities.
Because there is a possible "proof" of the truth of Jesus's promise - a proof that might be accessed by many people, here-and-now.
This assuming that there can be contact between individual living mortal Men such as you and me; and at least one or more of those who have died and been resurrected.
Hasn't folk Christianity for centuries believed that those who were good Christians in life become angels or something like them after death. Not just the saints.
ReplyDelete@h - Yes. Although becoming angels doesn't necessarily imply resurrection - it depends on how angels are being conceptualized.
ReplyDeleteI think you missed John 6.40 and John 5.28.
ReplyDelete@SW - You seem to assume I am proof-texting? *Very* far from it!
ReplyDeleteThe central argument of the post is that our most fundamental and strongly-motivating convictions require something much more personal and experiential than "second-hand sources such as theology, scripture, or the teaching of religious authorities."
We can use secondhand sources as sources - as sources for illustration, stimulus, ideas, concepts etc - but, ultimately, that is all they are or ever can be.
Even our best source, the Fourth Gospel; is subject to errors, excisions, interpolations, subversion and sabotage; as well as the inevitable constraints of copying, translation, and interpretation.
(All this I have explained in the Lazarus Writes book and earlier posts linked in the blog post - which I why I did not think it necessary to re-explain here for the nth time!)
Scripture never can be, and never genuinely is, our primary source. But the attempt to make it so, has been one of (but not the only one!) major causes of mass apostasy, and the severe/ fatal enfeebling of church-Christian faith (most clearly revealed in 2020).