Why People Are Confused About the Earliest Christian View of Resurrection of the Dead

Another great blog by James Tabor that provides readers with a great opportunity for not only becoming aware of ancient texts related to the subject, but also on how those texts are read. And, as I said in the previous blog, regardless of one’s beliefs, this provides important insights about how one should examine his or her beliefs. In the religiously polarized environment in which we live today, unexamined religious belief systems are no longer acceptable. Everyone has a right to believe what they want, but if those beliefs affect the safety and quality of life of others – those beliefs must be examined.

There is a lot of confusion among Christians today–as well as among Jews and secularists for that matter–as to what the term resurrection of the dead means, whether as applied to Jesus and the Easter event, or more generally to humankind at the end of days. Most often the notion of resurrection of the dead is confused with a somewhat different Greek idea, the immortality of the soul–but these two ideas are quite distinct from one another as we will see below. . . .

The whole concept turns on the notion of how the created world is viewed — as something to abandon and escape, or something to be transformed and changed. That is why the Bible speaks of a “new heavens and a new earth,” rather than leaving this earth to go to heaven (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1). The kingdom of God is when the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. In both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament the ideal future is when God comes down to the renewed creation, not when we leave a hopeless world to join God in heaven (Revelation 21:3).

Take a moment to consider the implications of the underlined text above and how it affects the thoughts and actions of 2 billion Christians today. Read James Tabor’s complete blog at -- https://jamestabor.com/why-people-are-confused-about-the-earliest-christian-view-of-resurrection-of-the-dead/