Can you still be a Christian if

[Trevorum 24]

Packsaddle wonders if the resurrection isn't merely a "special case of reincarnation?"

 

I don't think so. In every other example of reincarnation that I know of, the "spirit" returns to reside in a wholly different corpus. In this case, the spirit returned to (or never left) the original corpus. See safety coffins:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_coffin

 

[BDPT00 41]

The Lutheran North American church dates all the way back to 2010.

 

** I know this sounds picky, but I'm sure you mean the North American Lutheran Church. And "whatever" isn't an appropriate answer. "Lutheran USA" was the main thing I was aiming at.

Thanks, BDPT00

[packsaddle 753]

Trevorum, I can always count on you to show the hidden flaw...thanks, I think.

But I was responding to BadenP's comment, "St.Paul basically says that if there is no resurrection than we have no afterlfe to look forward to after our death."

To me this implies that resurrection applies more broadly to the idea that all of those who are 'saved' or something along those lines will experience something like resurrection (maybe in just about 4 days? Maybe the dead rising happens some time after the rapture, I keep getting all this mixed up - BTW the rapture already happened as far as I'm concerned)

 

To me, the metaphorical application of the idea is that we 'live on' after our deaths through the good that we have done and through whatever contributions we've made to ideas and human experience. In a physical sense, we live on when our genetic and material being literally is taken up by other organisms (reincarnation) and by so living on, our material content, at least, is 'resurrected'.

H.G. Wells gave another nice metaphorical notion to this when he noted that no life is lived in vain...when one considers even the tiniest incremental contribution to evolution, even shortened lives make a contribution.

To me the idea of resurrection, in these senses, has a lot in common with reincarnation.

[KC9DDI 11]

acco40 - I like it, thanks! I'm going to have to track down a hamster patrol patch from somewhere.

 

Do you think I'll get in trouble for singing "I used to be hamster, a good old hamster too" around the WB folks?

[Scoutfish 16]

"....dates all the way back to 2010"

 

 

Wow! All the way back then?

 

I suddenly feel really old. I date back to "Long ago, far, far away" ...in 1971 !

 

Edited because I am still learning this italics stuff!(This message has been edited by scoutfish)

[qwazse 4345]

pack - nice thoughts, but not necessarily Christian.

 

As I mentioned in other threads, that "label" was applied by folks outside the faith for what at the time was considered a Jewish sect that had this obstinate persuasion that a certainly dead Christ came back to a certain vibrant physical life. Nothing metaphysical about it.

 

If you believed in the resurrection of the body with Jesus as the first example (the down payment, if you will), someone was going to call you a Christian. If your belief involved some more nuanced abstraction, they'd call you something else.

 

Not sure why anyone would want to bother trying to fiddle with the definition after 20 centuries.

[neil_b 10]

I think even a severly retarded person who has no capability of understanding the concept of a resurrection can be called a Christian on the basis of their being a member of a Christian family and/or being baptized into the faith by a Christian church.

 

Personally, I doubt a person with understanding can totally reject the resurrection without also rejecting the Gospel as a whole. However, there are people who don't believe in a literal physical resurrection but still leave room for a spiritual one. This makes the question more complicated.

[Eagledad 2779]

Thanks folks, I guess the consensus is you can't be a Christian if you don't believe in the resurrection. I didnt even get into the virgin birth side of the article.

 

Sorry BDPT00, I honestly didnt know what you were saying or who you were responding too, Ducks in a row? I thought I was quoting the news article.

 

Worm food as the resurrection? LOL,

 

We do seem to live in a complicated world these days where many feel the need to include their own theological interpretation to get spiritual satisfaction. For me, that goes completely against the intention of the creator. If one has to deviate from the thousand year old interpretation of the faith, they failed in their faith because religion guides or directs the follower in a disciplined life of serving other people and/or God or a spiritual entity. I dont know of any spiritual discipline that teaches how to serve one self. If a believer lacks discipline and chooses to follow their own interpretation, they are serving themselves and thus have diverted from the main premise of serving others. They have put themselves above God and become their own god. The Old Testament calls that idol worship. We all seem to suffer from some sort of idol worship I guess.

 

Barry

 

[The Blancmange 67]

 

Sorry BDPT00, I honestly didnt know what you were saying or who you were responding too, Ducks in a row? I thought I was quoting the news article.

I think part of the confusion is that no one else has seen the article to which you are referring. Could you post a link? I would be curious to read it.

[Eagledad 2779]

Monday front page Daily Oklahomam

 

I'm having a hard time accessing the archives however.

 

Barry

[BDPT00 41]

The reason I was picky is because we've seen ALC, LCA, ELC, ELCA, LCMS, LCMC, etc.

They're all different, and it matters.

BDPT00

[shortridge 184]

Was it this article?

 

http://newsok.com/edmond-church-severs-ties-with-main-lutheran-branch/article/3568429

 

[BadenP 93]

Being a Christian is NOT:

 

1) Being able to define the miracle of the Resurrection by the very limited understanding human knowledge can provide.

 

2) Defining your faith by what particular Denomination you are since all of them were created by humans and not God. Jesus showed us how to live our lives he did not create a religion, humans did.

 

3) Dictating to others what and how to believe, thinking your way is the only true way.

[SSScout 1615]

May we PLEASE have a "Faith and Chaplaincy" forum?

[Eagledad 2779]

>>Was it this article?