It seemed so easy for the thief on the cross to be saved.

[FireDragon76]

Luke 24


Came in the Flesh, and was risen in the Flesh.
something hard, tangible, and people died professing they saw Jesus in the flesh resurrected from the dead despite being separated from each other.
God made a hard, tangible, physical universe that He operates on.
and will make a tangible, physical recreated universe that He will live in.

When people go off to claim everything is just "spiritual" often times, it's just because they have no hard evidence.

When Harold Camping claimed the date of the rapture was May 11, 2011, and it didn't happen... he tried to excuse it, and say that a "spiritual rapture" happened.
Following in the traditions of the creation of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who got their rapture date wrong, and .. just said it was spiritual.

So when people promote "kingdom now" theology... yeah
I still see people suffering and dying and sinning, I still see this Earth as cursed, not a New Earth perfected as promised. I still suffer the effects of this cursed ball of sin myself.
abstracting it to "heaven is a state of mind" or just trying to throw "spiritual" out like some sort of gotcha doesn't fly. It makes God disappointing if this is the best He can do.

I don't believe that, I believe God will do better, and there will be no more sin, and no more death.
Anything else is a charlatan.

The potential confusion here is assuming some kind of rigid dualist metaphysics, that the only possible alternative to some kind of supernatural "swoon" hypothesis (Jesus resurrection was merely a resuscitation), was that Jesus was merely a spirit, vision or delusion, without a bodily form. But that's a false dichotomy born of metaphysical presuppositions that aren't necessarily in keeping with the biblical accounts. So what we are left with is something of a mystery that points beyond itself, seemingly towards a spirit that you can touch, or even hang out on a lakeshore with, and bodies that can enter locked rooms, appear as strangers, or instantly appear and disappear.

It's supposed to blow your mind. That's the whole point. That's why Thomas basically says "Oh my God!" when he meets the risen Jesus. There's nothing left to say. Jesus has shattered every other reality in Thomas' mind, and what is left is radical, divine love that has already broken the power of sin and death, bringing eternity into the present, the infinite into the finite. And this shattering leads to the first inkling of crystalized Christian conviction: who else but God could be the source of life, love, and resurrection?

We wrote a contemporary hymn based on a detailed Bible study of this passage, using DeepSeek and Suno. I think it's pretty good at encapsulating the themes at the end of the Gospel of John:

https://suno.com/s/WdZeXulZVQJF3HXj

 

[Jamdoc]

The potential confusion here is assuming some kind of rigid dualist metaphysics, that the only possible alternative to some kind of supernatural "swoon" hypothesis (Jesus resurrection was merely a resuscitation), was that Jesus was merely a spirit, vision or delusion, without a bodily form. But that's a false dichotomy born of metaphysical presuppositions that aren't necessarily in keeping with the biblical accounts. So what we are left with is something of a mystery that points beyond itself, seemingly towards a spirit that you can touch, or even hang out on a lakeshore with, and bodies that can enter locked rooms, appear as strangers, or instantly appear and disappear.

It's supposed to blow your mind. That's the whole point. That's why Thomas basically says "Oh my God!" when he meets the risen Jesus. There's nothing left to say. Jesus has shattered every other reality in Thomas' mind, and what is left is radical, divine love that has already broken the power of sin and death, bringing eternity into the present, the infinite into the finite. And this shattering leads to the first inkling of crystalized Christian conviction: who else but God could be the source of life, love, and resurrection?

We wrote a contemporary hymn based on a detailed Bible study of this passage, using DeepSeek and Suno. I think it's pretty good at encapsulating the themes at the end of the Gospel of John:

https://suno.com/s/WdZeXulZVQJF3HXj

I believe that kingdom now theology actually sells God short. It makes it seem like all God is capable of doing is changing your mind, and being an internalized coping mechanism.
It glorifies the mundane and accepts mediocrity.
and the only payout of it is... you can feel extra religious.

Jesus is coming back.
There will be an actual new heavens and new earth
and there will be no more death, and no more sin.

I do not accept half measures like 'well sin is forgiven so the power of sin is broken' as a substitute for there not being any more sin, not when murder, theft, adultery still exist.
I do not accept a half measure of "well the power of death is broken by the Cross, they're spiritually resurrected when they die!" Not from the Creator of all things. He says a resurrection, and the apostles say a body like Jesus' resurrected body, anything less is a joke.

I refuse to believe that this is the best an eternal, all powerful, all knowing God can do.
Because I know He will do better.

 

[Jeff Saunders]

Is it that easy for us too ? , or is John Macarthur correct in saying millions of Christians will go to hell after they die , and then gives his reasons.
No need to watch the entire vid if you don't wish to , 5 or 10 should give you the drift.

Of course Macarthur believes this, Calvinism has its roots in Gnostic thinking.
Gnostics believed that only a few go to heaven and most go to a eternal hell, the ones that go to heaven are those who are chosen by God to have the secret knowledge that he gives to those who are chosen.
So no surprises that he would say that.

 

[Jamdoc]

Of course Macarthur believes this, Calvinism has its roots in Gnostic thinking.
Gnostics believed that only a few go to heaven and most go to a eternal hell, the ones that go to heaven are those who are chosen by God to have the secret knowledge that he gives to those who are chosen.
So no surprises that he would say that.

Well a couple of caveats.

Now that I look closer at the video, and having viewed it I'm getting spammed by AI generated fake John MacArthur videos on channels other than his official "Grace to You".
Now mind you for years people have put his real sermons on alternate channels, but it was really John MacArthur's sermon, He really said those. This sermon does sound something like He'd preach and has preached before.
However, I believe this particular video is AI. Some things would be snipped and put out of context and sometimes full passages generated entirely with AI that John never said.

Now what John and many other preachers who've come out of a baptist background, and yes calvinists especially would say is things like a sinner's prayer does not give salvation, and they will preach as if you're going to hell, and convict you, it's as I mentioned in my first post in this thread, a technique that convicts you and makes you examine yourself to see if you're in the Faith, makes you examine the gospel and cling to it, cling to Jesus for dear life, because they'll seem like they're saying it takes more than God's grace to save, or that faith isn't how you get saved, and then tie up their sermon by stressing that it is faith that saves alone. Ultimately they're not works based salvation preachers, even if it sounds like they would be at first. Now there are doctrinal issues with a lot of what MacArthur says, being a full 5 point Calvinist is loaded with problems (namely Limited Atonement and Irresistable Grace, there is election by God, but also a choice made by humans to receive the Gospel and believe it. The best I can put it is God chooses who He knew would choose Him).

However I'd take this particular video with a grain of salt because I think it's AI.