Death and the Afterlife Flashcards
Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom
- Jesus taught that his life and death were a sacrifice - an atonement for sin which would bring about a new Kingdom.
- taught the Kingdom to be three-fold:
- A present moral and spiritual state calling for reform . now
- A future redeemed state
- A place of punishment and justice
Problems with ‘The Kingdom’
- JUDGEMENT: confusion as to final judgement versus individual judgement.
- BIBLICAL: purgatory does not seem to be a Biblical idea – more, a teaching that arises out of human thought on the need for an opportunity to be forgiven.
- There is ambiguity as to WHERE this ‘Kingdom’ will be.
Matthew 12:32
‘anyone who speaks against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but none who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age, or the age to come’
Teachings and Beliefs on Hell
- ORIGEN described Hell as a spiritual state of someone separated from God
- GREGORY OF NYSSA described Hell is a guilty conscience before Christ
- DANTE describes Hell as the antithesis to Heaven
- TILLICH describes Hell as a symbol of alienation - “heaven and hellmust be taken seriouslyas metaphors for the polar ultimates in the experience of the divine”
- CATHOLICS, Hell is an eternal separation from God for those who have committed mortal sins.
Teachings and Beliefs on Purgatory
A Catholic and Protestant way of providing the possibility of repentance outside of this mortal life. There is no clear teaching on this in the New Testament.
-For CATHOLICS, purgatory represents a stage in the soul’s journey to salvation with prayers for the dead dating back to pre-Christ.
- Some PROTESTANTS reject purgatory on the basis of lack of Biblical support. There is one clear mention of a possible purgatory, in Peter’s first letter:
“Having been made alive, Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison”. (1 Peter 3:19)
Teachings and Beliefs on Election
There are different Christian ideas about who will be saved, including limited election (only a few will be saved); unlimited election (that all people are called to salvation but not all are saved); and universalist belief (that all people will be saved).
Hick and Universalist belief of Election
all people will be saved seems necessitate by a belief in an all-loving and all-good God. It would seem wrong for a person’s upbringing to exclude them from being reconciled with God and the fact we have free ill implies that salvation should at least be possible for all.
John Hick – Jesus’ resurrection triumphs over death. Jesus’ God is not exclusivist.
Single and Double Predestination
Single predestination is the idea that God elects only those going to Heaven. Supported by Catholic teaching, Thomas Aquinas said that the Fall did not wipe out human free will. For Catholics, hell is the result of a wilful turning away from God – no one is predestined for Hell.
Catechism of the Catholic Church and predestination
“God predestines no one to go to Hell; for this, a wilful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end” (Catechism of the Catholic Church para. 1037).
Calvin on Predestination
God foreknows what will happen but His will is hidden from the limited knowledge of humans.
Even if God has chosen particular individuals, both the elect and the non-elect have a duty to act morally and the Christian duty is to spread God’s word to all kinds of people.
Limited Atonement
Christ died for the sins of the elect
Unlimited Atonement
Christ died for the sins of all
EXAM QUESTION:
‘Purgatory is a state through which everyone goes’ Discuss.
Definition and Context:
idea that there are different beliefs about purgatory, Heaven and Hell as actual states, spiritual states and Symbolic states. The Catholic position of purgatory as a purifying process.
Paraments and opposition:
no/very little evidence in the Bible
