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Post by Soulgazer on Sept 27, 2013 16:12:50 GMT -5
"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied."~ Apostle Paul..... Sorry Paul, you are all wet on this one. The philosophy of pacificism was new and then untried, but the power in it has since been proven. The examinations of conscienceness, the refusal to accept mere fate as our ultimate arbitar and the scores of other things Christ taught lead to a life RIGHT HERE that is far superior to a life ignorent of them. If all I get is this life, the self that I have traded for an improved version of me was well worth the price. I think Jesus prediction to Peter in Gnostic Peter was accurate: " And they will cleave to the name of a dead man, thinking that they will become pure.".....meaning, if you don't do the spiritual elbow grease, don't be surprised if nothing but pseudo rightiousness comes from it.
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Post by phantasman on Sept 29, 2013 9:55:08 GMT -5
Interesting. I've always been a believer of the "I felt bad because I had no shoes till I saw a guy that had no feet" philosophy. It's all in focus and perception.
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unix
Junior Member
busy with full-time studies
Posts: 82
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Post by unix on Nov 3, 2013 11:53:41 GMT -5
15:16–19. Paul intensifies the argument by insisting that a faith without resurrection of the dead is idiotic (15:17b). He gives three reasons: you are still in your sins (15:17c); those who have died in Christ are destroyed (15:18); and if we have placed hope in Christ for this life only, we are most miserable of all people (15:19). A hypothetical Corinthian debater could challenge each item in the list. The tradition cited associates forgiveness of sin with the sacrificial death of Christ, not resurrection. So why couple salvation with belief in resurrection as the mode of postmortem existence? There are other options for individual immortality that do not require restoring bodily existence, a fictional opponent might retort. Cultural anthropology shows that societies in which most of the population struggles to secure the bare necessities of life on a daily basis have little interest in or ability to conceive a long-term future (Toner 2009, 15). Paul may be asking for a conceptual stretch that is beyond many in his audience. For most devotees in the temples of ancient Corinth, religious rites were performed so that the gods would assure devotees health and prosperity in this life. Therefore, the mocking tone of Paul’s conclusion or tomb inscriptions aside, having hoped in Christ in this life (15:19a) would be the default religious orientation. An alternate reading of 15:19 avoids that objection. If we refers to Paul and not to believers in general, then the point is comparable to what Paul says in 15:30–31. Paul claims that his personal example of self-sacrifice in imitation of Christ makes no sense if he is not convinced that the dead are raised.
Perkins, Pheme (2012). First Corinthians. (M. C. Parsons & C. H. Talbert, Reds) (pp. 182–183). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
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Post by Soulgazer on Nov 3, 2013 18:43:25 GMT -5
I think Paul (in this verse) looked too far forward, and not at what Christ had accomplished for him in this life. Even if when the lights go out the room goes dark, the teachings of Christ have made a great difference in many lives.
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