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(Date Posted:12/07/2009 02:51:21)
Food for thought: Am reading a book by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham called “Surprised by Hope.” This book deals with Eschatology and on page 39, Wright makes this point: “ ..do we have immortal souls, and if so what are they? Again, much Christian and sub-Christian tradition has assumed that we all do indeed have ‘souls’ that need ‘saving,’ and that the ‘soul’, if ‘saved’, will be part of us that ‘goes to heaven when we die.’ All this, however, finds minimal support in the New Testament, including the teaching of Jesus, where the word ‘soul,’ though rare, reflects when it does occur underlying Hebrew and Aramaic words that refer, not to a disembodied entity hidden within the outer shell of the disposable body, but rather to what we would call the whole ‘person’ or ‘personality’, seen as being confronted by God. As to immortality, 1 Timothy 6:16 declares that only God himself has immortality, and 2 Timothy 1.10 declares that immortality has only come to light, and hence is presumably only available, through the gospel. In other words, the idea that every human possesses an immortal soul, which is the ‘real’ part of them, finds little support in the Bible...” any comments ???
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