Question 154, from Paul, United Kingdom

What is the Christian view of ghosts? Are they just demons trying to trick us and take our eyes off of God?

As inferred in previous articles on freelance theology, the general Christian view is that human beings are holistic and so body and spirit are interdependent – one cannot exist without the other. This is why there has always been an emphasis within Christian teaching on physical resurrection. The New Testament view on the afterlife seems to imply that there is no time-lag between death and resurrection/judgement day, from the point of view of the person who has died.

Strictly speaking, then, there is no room for ‘ghosts’ in the Christian view of life after death. However, there are a couple of interesting Biblical references to ghosts. Also (more…)

Question 149, from George P

What kind of bodies will unbelievers get at their resurrection?

There are two verses in the New Testament that seem to support the idea that unbelievers experience a physical resurrection. These are:
John chapter 5, verse 29, when Jesus is reported as saying “those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”
Acts chapter 24 verse 15 when Paul refers to “a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked”.
(more…)

Question 144, from Robert S
What happens to your soul when you die? Do our souls leave our body, and stay in Hades? And when Jesus returns, then will the believers’ dead souls be taken to heaven first, and then the living join them?

There has been some debate about what happens to the soul in Christian theology over the centuries, partly because there has been a tendency to view the soul as almost like an ‘inhabitant’ of the body. This is an idea found more in Greek philosophy, which separates body and soul as two quite distinct entities. However, the Jewish view of human nature is much more ‘holistic’, in that body and soul are seen as indivisible, and it is that belief which appears to inform the New Testament emphasis on the resurrection being a physical, bodily event.

However, (more…)

Question 128, from Ron, USA

I have read that Jesus only spoke in parables. I would like to know your thoughts on the subject of “The rich man and Lazarus”. I would just like to know if it is a true story or just a story to make a point.

‘The Rich Man and Lazarus’ is a parable of Jesus which is only found in Luke’s gospel (Luke chapter 16, verses 19 – 31). The basic thread of the story is that a rich man and a beggar, Lazarus, both die. The rich man goes to hell and sees Lazarus in “Abraham’s bosom” (a phrase equating to paradise or heaven) and begs Lazarus to come and bring him water. Lazarus can’t help him because he cannot cross the gulf between heaven and hell.

This parable has sometimes been cited as evidence that Jesus taught a ‘literal’ doctrine of hell – a place of eternal torment for the wicked – which, the theory goes, Jesus, as the pre-existent son of God would be able to describe from a position of knowledge. However, despite the popularity of this story as ‘evidence’ for hell, the fact remains it is a parable and no definite conclusions to its literal truth can be drawn. (more…)

Question 127 from Joy, UK
Do clones have souls?

The Christian idea of a ‘soul’ is itself an example of an ‘evolving doctrine’. In the Old Testament there is a concept of a ‘shade’ dwelling in ‘sheol’ (often translated as ‘the grave’), hinting at some undefined continuance of human life. In the New Testament, life after death is described predominantly in terms of bodily resurrection, with virtually no sense of a ‘soul’ existing apart from a physical body.

As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, a belief in souls as a part of a human being, distinguishable from the body, was soon assimilated into Christian thought. Souls, in pre-Christian philosophy were regarded as immortal, and some Christians have taken a view that when a person dies their soul continues to exist, in a diminished capacity, until it is reunited with its body at the resurrection.

Technically, whether the soul is accepted as immortal or not, the Christian view of humanity is (more…)

Question 118, from RF, Australia

This answer is sponsored by Xen10.com – the web hosts with standards.

I have a question about hell. What do you think of a God who says (to paraphrase Brian McLaren), ‘If you don’t love me, I’ll torture you forever in hell’? If the lake of fire scenario is right, then the vast bulk of humanity are going to be eternally tortured in ways that make Guantanamo seem tame. I want to be faithful to the Scriptures, and to God, so what do you think? Is annihilation-ism an unscriptural cop-out, or a better rendering of the biblical evidence?

One of the big issues of Western theology since the Enlightenment has been the application of moral judgements on theological statements. Frequently the debate about hell descends into a moral debate: is it right for people to suffer eternally, regardless of what they have done? Can Christianity assert on the one hand that God is loving, and yet equally willing to condemn people to hell?

This contradiction is a common criticism of Christianity. The cartoonist Scott Adams sums this up in one of his earlier books when he illustrates (more…)

Question 107 – from ER and BR, United Kingdom

ER: Is there wine in heaven?
BR: If so, is it alcoholic, as some people say that ‘wine’ in the Bible was merely grape juice?

While the Bible is never fully clear on the subject of what ‘heaven’ is like, there are references to eating and drinking. In Luke chapter 22, verse 18, Jesus is reported as saying of a cup of wine that “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Whether this is a reference to his appearances after the resurrection, or in heaven is hard to know. However as he was (more…)

Question 103 – from CP, United Kingdom

In your post about the time lapse between bodily death and resurrection, you say: “The deceased are already resurrected and to them it would have felt instantaneous.” It seems to be your belief that those who achieve a life ‘with God’ and with Jesus in this life are the ones who are resurrected. And The Bible says those who believe in Jesus and ask for forgiveness will be resurrected. However, it seems strange that lots of very ‘good’, charitable, loving and kind people who might not believe in Jesus or might be vague about it will not be resurrected with the others. Where do they go? How about the difficult person who causes a lot of upset to others but who believes in Jesus all along or towards the end? Why would that person be resurrected before the charitable person? I understand to the degree that we ALL inevitably sin in our lives and Jesus is the key to being re-united with God. However, this type of question still puzzles me. How does it all work?

This question in one form or another has perplexed Christians for many years. Loosely speaking there are three basic alternative solutions:
i) universalism – the belief that everybody is granted eternal life,
ii) annihilationism – where the ‘saved’ (or righteous/good) receive eternal life, while the unsaved (bad) cease to exist, and
iii) judgement – where the saved/good go to heaven and the unsaved/bad go to hell.

There are problems with all three doctrinal positions, so it comes as no surprise to discover modified and hybrid opinions as well. However, put simply, universalism does not allow for free choice, because human beings get saved whatever they do. It also has very little Biblical basis. It does, however, emphasise God’s grace, mercy and forgiving nature, and has a long pedigree among freethinking Christians (often regarded as heretics). One notable theologian who adopted this view was the third century scholar Origen, who went so far as to claim that even the devil would eventually be redeemed.

Annihilationism is often argued from the reference in Revelation to the ‘second death’ endured by those who are thrown into the lake of fire in chapter 20, verse 14. As with the more typical ‘division between heaven and hell’ judgement scenario, annihilationism does take human sin seriously. In fact, human sin is the reason why those judged unrighteous are annihilated. However, this goes against the Biblical statements about hell, which seem to infer a continuing, conscious existence (see Mark chapter 9, verse 48).

The judgement scenario has always been very popular in Christian thought, particularly among ‘fire and brimstone’ preachers. In some ways the concept of hell feeds the social insecurity caused by religion, in that while Christians may feel that they are a persecuted and threatened minority, they can at least take comfort in the fact that they will be proved right on judgement day. However, this simplistic approach – that believers automatically go to heaven and unbelievers automatically end up in hell – has intrinsic difficulties, both in its Biblical support and internal logic.

For a start, it has often been pointed out that it was the religious leaders that Jesus warned about hell. Jesus clearly saw a distinction between words and deeds, with words on their own not enough to save a person (Matthew chapter 7, verses 15-23). So it appears that a person who “causes upset” will be judged for it, regardless of whether they have said the ‘right’ formula of words (e.g. a ‘prayer of salvation’).

Reducing the effects of salvation merely to the afterlife takes the emphasis away from doing the will of God in the here and now, which is clearly part of Jesus’ intended message. In Luke chapter 4, verse 18, Jesus launches his ministry with a declaration of intent borrowed from the prophet Isaiah and promises “To preach good news to the poor”, liberate prisoners and the oppressed, and heal the blind. Later in Luke many of these phrases are repeated to authenticate Jesus’ status as the messiah to the imprisoned John the Baptist (chapter 7, verse 22).

In two ways then, the Biblical stories undermine the simplistic heaven/hell divide. There is also the question of rational understanding. If hell is a ‘physical’ place or dimension it must have been created specifically for that purpose, but there is no Biblical record of that taking place. In fact it seems from the Old Testament that the idea of hell ‘evolves’ or develops as time goes on, from ‘sheol’ the grave, through to ‘gehenna’ in the New Testament.

If hell is defined as ‘separation from God’ (as it often is in ‘softer’ versions of the judgement theory), then logically how can any place be separate from its creator? Hell will always bear the creative mark of God. Added to that is the sense that if people are condemned to hell for eternity, then evil has won, and God is not the triumphant victor that Christian tradition has always proclaimed. The question why God would allow human souls to be ‘lost’ is an inexplicable mystery.

Perhaps the best answer to this query is to say that the destiny of unbelievers remains uncertain. In contrast, the future of the believer is assured in the Bible and in Christian theology. While many missionary endeavours have been spurred on by the belief that people are being saved from hellfire, it would be as inspiring to give people the opportunity to replace uncertainty with the certain knowledge of eternal life.

Thanks for your question, CP.

Question from MN, USA

What is the state of the soul or spirit, after the death of the body until resurrection? So often, usually at funerals, you hear that the person in question is now in Heaven with those that have gone before, but nowhere does it state that. Resurrection occurs with the return of Christ and “believers will receive new, immortal, perfect bodies“. I am interested in the time between bodily death and resurrection.

One of the big problems in the early church, as seen by references in the New Testament, was what happened to the believers who had ‘fallen asleep’ (i.e. died) before Christ’s return. Within New Testament studies, the difference between the earlier books with an emphasis on the imminent return of Christ (parousia), and the later books when it seemed that said return was not going to happen immediately, is frequently referred to.

Various ideas were proposed. For example, the ideas of ‘limbo’ and ‘purgatory’ as holding areas for souls after death and before the end-times resurrection developed in the middle ages. However, there is no need for a celestial waiting room, when one aspect of God’s nature is considered. If God is eternal, not bound by time, or the restrictions of the physical universe, then this ‘time lag’ becomes irrelevant. For those ‘with God’, chronological time is already wrapped up. Another way of saying this would be to describe death as crossing into another dimension. In that place, outside time, Christ’s return into the physical universe has already happened, the world has ended, judgment day has come. For those still living in the physical universe, all these things are yet to take place.

It is confusing, but the idea that the ‘God’s eye view’ of the universe is one of past, present and future, underlies several attempts to understand how ‘prophecy’, for example, works. It also means that there is no hanging around for disembodied souls. The deceased are already resurrected and to them it would have felt instantaneous.

Thanks for your question, MN.

Question from DH, Australia

When Jesus returns to earth and raises the dead what form will they be in? This is a question given to me by an elderly man in a nursing home and I cannot come up with a suitable answer for him.

The traditional Christian doctrine relating to the resurrection is that believers will receive new, immortal, perfect bodies when the dead are ‘raised’ (see 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 35-55). This emphasis on a physical body follows the Jewish holistic way of regarding the complete person as inseparable, in marked contrast to the Hellenistic Greek idea that the body and soul parted at death and only the soul survived.

Paul makes it quite clear that whatever the eventual fate of the body, the believer has already been ‘buried with Christ’ through the rite of baptism (Romans 6, verse 4, see also Colossians 2, verse 12). This is the death that matters to Paul – the death of the ‘old self’. The resurrection, when it happens, will occur ‘in the twinkling of an eye’ when ‘the dead will be raised imperishable’ (1 Corinthians 15, verse 52).

In the passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul notes that, as with seeds, there is a difference between what is ‘sown’ and what is ‘raised’ and there is also continuity. Wayne Grudem comments: “On this analogy we can say that whatever remains in the grave from our own physical bodies will be taken by God and transformed and used to make a new resurrection body.” [Grudem, Systematic Theology, IVP 1994, p.833] This explains how the sea will ‘give up the dead who are in it’ on judgment day, as described in Revelation chapter 20, verse 13.

The Bible is quite aware that bodies decompose; dust returning to dust (Genesis 3, verse 19). Yet it would seem that is not a problem to God, who can take whatever remains and refashion the physical body in a perfect and incorruptible form, recognisably the same, yet different.

Thanks for your question, DH.