The second and last class for this summer session, that I am
taking, is very disturbing. It is title “Christian Anthropology.” I have to
differ in opinion that it is anything but Anthropology. It is based on all
these theories such as dualism, materialism, physicalism, Cartesianism, and
many others. What it boils down to in simple explanation is the survival of the
soul outside the body. It is an argument among the high academic scholarly over
the death of the body and where the soul dies with it or has an actual
everlasting life. In my opinion, this is the incessant argument that God warns
us about in the biblical Word.
Is all of this type a study a deterrence on the righteous living
to teach and do God’s work? Is this more like being applicable to Greek or
Egyptian studies like thanatology or post-mortem lividity? Should this subject
be separated from the words of Christian Anthropology and re-titled Philosophical
Anthropology by Christian Scholars? I fail to see the value of this type of
learning referencing the morality of the individual or the souls of a society
in this particular manner. At this juncture in our overall society, it is in
pretty sad shape and needs major intervention.
When arguing with fools, don’t answer their foolish
arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are. When arguing with fools,
be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own
estimation. Trusting a fool to convey a message is as foolish as cutting off
one’s feet or drinking poison! In the mouth of a fool, a proverb becomes limp
as a paralyzed leg. Honoring a fool is as foolish as tying a stone to a
slingshot. A proverb in a fool’s mouth is as dangerous as a thorn bush brandished
by a drunkard. An employer who hires a fool or a bystander is like an archer
who shoots recklessly. As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his
folly. There is more hope for fools than for people who think they are wise.
The lazy person is full of excuses, saying, “I can’t go outside because there
might be a lion on the road! Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!” As a door
turns back and forth on its hinges, so the lazy person turns over in bed. Proverbs
26:4-15.
I honestly feel it is possible to be intellectually wise and
still be a fool!
We should guard ourselves against being an intellectually wise fool.
God formed us. It matters not what the theological scholars
think as to the creation story in Genesis being literal or literary. There was
no time put on the creation or the Bible other than what time “man” has deemed
scientifically acceptable.
Were there other societies outside the Bible? Yes and to
think otherwise is just plain ignorant.
Does life exist after death? Life as we know it on earth
does not exist after death.
Where is that life after death? It is eternal. Ask God after
you die or one of his many hosts of Angels.
If you intellectually wise find a truthful answer that
differs from God, are you going to tell everyone we are wrong in our thinking? Are
you going to take the responsibility in destroying the internal self’s of
millions of people?
There is a war in me internally and guess who the winner
will be? God and His son Jesus will score the winning and final point.
Our physical life is temporal. We have no idea when the soul
enters the body but it happens during the womb. The soul and the body grow
together. If we accept God and Jesus faithfully, keep the faith and do their
work the spirit will continue to grow and live. The body dies.
Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is
decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I
see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:22-23
Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41
Our body will die one day. That time is unspecified and will
never be known because God’s time is not our time. There are many things
important in understanding life, death, and our soul.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the
Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter
3:8
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with
God.” Luke 18:27
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on
your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make
straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
The most important thing I have to say is that God is
concerned with the living. The soul is house in a living body and not a dead
one. When certain aspects of theology start to become too concerned with the
dead, then the possibility to do God’s work or teach it will be a mishap among
the living. What is in our hearts and our actions in our life is what it is all
about. Yet death is part of life—they are very much intermingled. But eternity
after death is only in God’s hands period without question and without man’s prophecy
of foolishness.
For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when
there was borne such a voice to him by the Majestic Glory, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased: and this voice we ourselves heard borne out of
heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount. And we have the word of
prophecy made more sure: where unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp
shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your
hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private
interpretation. For no prophecy ever cam by the will of man: but men speak from
God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:13-21
We have many burdens in life. Sometime far too many of these
burdens; however, some are self inflicted but the majority are inflicted by men
who are not in the spirit of the Lord. We also have to keep in mind that
burdens are also acts of God. Why? Life is not perfect because we are humanly
creatures. After the original sin, God turned the earth over to man to hold
dominion over it. In all truthful honesty look what man has done? We are off
kilter with nature. We have polluted nature. It is hard to grow anything in the
soil naturally because of the chemicals, trash, or concrete. Think about this? In
all the pollution, we have polluted ourselves. We should also be concerned
about what is not only happening at home in our hearts, but in our society as a
whole and in the world.
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, said the
Lord, which stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth,
and forms the spirit of man within him. Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of
trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both
against Judah and Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome
stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in
pieces, though all the people of the earth will be gathered together against
it. Zechariah 12:1-3.
Should we be concerned more about the living souls or the
dead? Pray that God and Jesus lead us through the Words of God and his son, our
Savior. For in life, we so desperately need that intervention.
Keep each other in prayer.
May God bless and keep us safely in His Arms.
