coc and the Incarnation

[Matt W]

Something in this thread got me to thinking about the similarity between Catholic's purgatory and the CoC's "paradise" or "resting place" or, sometimes, "grave." I don't know what all churches of Christ teach on this, but I've always been taught that for those of us who die before the Last Judgment, we go to one of two resting places--the unpleasant one for those going to hell and the pleasant one, called Paradise, for those going to heaven. So, Stephanie, unlike what your father told you, I was never taught that we spend this time in a sleepy, unconscious state. When Jesus comes back, that is when we are freed from this grave/resting place and meet Jesus in heaven, etc.

When I read about purgatory, it really seems a lot like what we believe, although still different. I mean, in the CoC, when you die, you receive what Catholics would call a particular or individual judgment until the Last Day when you are resurrected and receive your full reward, something Catholics might call the general judgment, according to that article I linked to. I guess the big difference is mainly that in Catholicism, it's a (tortuous?) cleansing process.

But about the resurrection, yeah, it wasn't until recently that, despite whatever my church may have taught all along, I began to really believe in a truly bodily resurrection, and for some reason I used to think that when Christ arose from the grave, he was more of a ghost, but that is so ridiculous when I think about it now. I began to really learn about resurrection when I began reading some stuff by N.T. Wright, if any of you have heard of him. Smart dude. But yeah, I think my early thoughts on Jesus' and our own resurrections did have something to do with modern views of "physical" and "spiritual."

[Joseph the Worker]

Just to answer matts question, the Church is silent on the nature of purgatory other than it is purification. Whether or not it is physically painful is a theological debate

[Matt W]

Thanks for catching that question in the midst of all my ramble.

[blueyedmule]

The Incarnation!! Yeah. I've been grinding away at this lately. It affects everything. Literally. Our entire sacramental world hinges on the Incarnation. It goes a l'il sum'n like this!

God-become-man is divine spirit incarnated in flesh, unified. Two natures, one person. One. Singular. He therefore redeems all matter which in the beginning was proclaimed GOOD, but along with mankind fell from grace through original sin. His spirit transmits his life to others through the matter of his flesh, as when he touches someone and heals them, or spits in mud and puts the mud on a blind man's eyes to heal them. He uses his voice to say "you're forgiven". We too are this mad mating of flesh and spirit, so it makes absolute sense that this Incarnated God uses matter to transmit his life to us, reanimating our "dead" spirits through water, and then continuing to feed these little scrawny leppy souls through the body into the spirit through the Eucharist. When we fall, we need to hear the words "you're forgiven" because we're not just intellects, we're souls and bodies and intellects all entangled and interwoven so tightly that you have to destroy the body to pry the soul out of it, committing unrepairable violence to it. We're intellects, and emotions, and psyches, and bodies, and souls, all One. Singular.

[mllevaleur]

The Incarnation!! Yeah. I've been grinding away at this lately. It affects everything. Literally. Our entire sacramental world hinges on the Incarnation. It goes a l'il sum'n like this!

God-become-man is divine spirit incarnated in flesh, unified. Two natures, one person. One. Singular. He therefore redeems all matter which in the beginning was proclaimed GOOD, but along with mankind fell from grace through original sin. His spirit transmits his life to others through the matter of his flesh, as when he touches someone and heals them, or spits in mud and puts the mud on a blind man's eyes to heal them. He uses his voice to say "you're forgiven". We too are this mad mating of flesh and spirit, so it makes absolute sense that this Incarnated God uses matter to transmit his life to us, reanimating our "dead" spirits through water, and then continuing to feed these little scrawny leppy souls through the body into the spirit through the Eucharist. When we fall, we need to hear the words "you're forgiven" because we're not just intellects, we're souls and bodies and intellects all entangled and interwoven so tightly that you have to destroy the body to pry the soul out of it, committing unrepairable violence to it. We're intellects, and emotions, and psyches, and bodies, and souls, all One. Singular.

[Mozartboy]

The Incarnation!! Yeah. I've been grinding away at this lately. It affects everything. Literally. Our entire sacramental world hinges on the Incarnation. It goes a l'il sum'n like this!

God-become-man is divine spirit incarnated in flesh, unified. Two natures, one person. One. Singular. He therefore redeems all matter which in the beginning was proclaimed GOOD, but along with mankind fell from grace through original sin. His spirit transmits his life to others through the matter of his flesh, as when he touches someone and heals them, or spits in mud and puts the mud on a blind man's eyes to heal them. He uses his voice to say "you're forgiven". We too are this mad mating of flesh and spirit, so it makes absolute sense that this Incarnated God uses matter to transmit his life to us, reanimating our "dead" spirits through water, and then continuing to feed these little scrawny leppy souls through the body into the spirit through the Eucharist. When we fall, we need to hear the words "you're forgiven" because we're not just intellects, we're souls and bodies and intellects all entangled and interwoven so tightly that you have to destroy the body to pry the soul out of it, committing unrepairable violence to it. We're intellects, and emotions, and psyches, and bodies, and souls, all One. Singular.

+1