Resurrection - Eternal Life

[~Anastasia~]

Our Faith is in Yhwh the Creator Himself, and in Jesus' Faithfulness.

Indeed. Which is as it should be, and as All4Christ said, so is ours.

My response:
~Anastasia~ said: ↑
Then how can you have faith in the Scriptures they compiled?

Was particularly to someone else, regarding the practice of deriving one's beliefs from one's own interpretations of the Scriptures. To the degree that one does so, yes, one's faith is in both the Scriptures and in one's own interpretation. But perhaps I should have better said "how can you believe in the Scriptures they compiled?" or better yet, "how can you base your beliefs on the Scriptures they compiled?" That would have been a better way for me to have phrased my comment.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

When Faith is in Yhwh, trusting and relying on Jesus' Faithfulness, and not in men, as Yhwh and His Word says over and over,
then when what men say or said is revealed by Yhwh to be not of Him,
the Faith is not shaken.
Nothing man can do can shake our Trust in Yhwh, in Jesus, when He has Granted us such Faith.

 

[mmksparbud]

.
Heb_9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Judgement after death---the lost die, then are resurrected unto judgement---then comes the 2nd death for them.
The saved die once---then Jesus comes and resurrects them--that is it. They die once, not twice.

Rev_20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I believe in the authors of the scriptures, not so much those who interpret those scriptures.

But yet you seem to disagree with those authors, and those who decided which ones were reliable for you.

That wasn't meant to be an insult in any way. Just making the point that humans are fallible, and your church is governed by humans.

And as All4Christ already answered, we do certainly agree that human beings individually are infallible. That's one reason we don't have a pope. But we DO believe that the Holy Spirit guides the Church as a whole.

I'm trying to understand where your belief that human beings cease to exist comes from, and why you can trust that belief, if you admit that humans are fallible? That idea came to you either from yourself (a human) or from another human - who is fallible, in either case.

It's really not my intent to argue or convince you. This forum is not that place for that anyway. But it is also not the place to argue against what Christianity has traditionally believed.

 

[~Anastasia~]

When Faith is in Yhwh, trusting and relying on Jesus' Faithfulness, and not in men, as Yhwh and His Word says over and over,
then when what men say or said is revealed by Yhwh to be not of Him,
the Faith is not shaken.
Nothing man can do can shake our Trust in Yhwh, in Jesus, when He has Granted us such Faith.

Exactly.

 

[All4Christ]

When Faith is in Yhwh, trusting and relying on Jesus' Faithfulness, and not in men, as Yhwh and His Word says over and over,
then when what men say or said is revealed by Yhwh to be not of Him,
the Faith is not shaken.
Nothing man can do can shake our Trust in Yhwh, in Jesus, when He has Granted us such Faith.

In our Tradition, if a man says something that is unscriptural and false, even if he is a metropolitan, bishop or any other leader, the people are able to join together to keep Orthodoxy on the right track. It is rare, but it has happened.

Perhaps some may wonder what makes a church council binding. In the Orthodox Church, a council is binding not solely because all parts of the church are represented, but through the corporate community of believers affirming the council and the results of the council. We aren't bound by human opinions, but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the community of believers in the Church. To sum it up, the ecumenicity is determined by the reception of the whole body of the Church. Our faith is not in the guidance of men, but rather in the guidance of the Church through the Holy Spirit. (Admittedly, it is a bit more complex than than my explanation, but I think it covers the high points).

I didn't realize this before coming into the Orthodox Church. It was a novel concept to me then, but it makes perfect sense now.

ETA: I too am not trying to convince you that I am right, but rather I want to explain and clarify our view, as it seems like there are some misunderstandings. Blessings to you.

 

[cordie]

What do they mean by the Last Day-I hear this all the time & as a science person-to me that means when the sun ends its life. That means billions of years to go. So does it mean that all that rest in the grave are essentially lifeless pieces of mass. When is this resurrection? Why do then ministers often say that oh the loved one is in a better place now. I mean what is the status of people like the Apostles, Isaiah, Moses, Joshua, Nehemiah, Isaac, King David, Esther...

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

What do they mean by the Last Day-I hear this all the time & as a science person-to me that means when the sun ends its life.

The Last Day doesn't mean the sun goes out. Why would it?
As written in Revelation 22, "The Last Day" means there is no more night, never, not ever again,
"Every curse shall exist no longer." and "they do not have need of the light of a lamp nor of the sun because the Lord God shall shed light upon them." There "shall be night no longer".

 

[ViaCrucis]

What do they mean by the Last Day-I hear this all the time & as a science person-to me that means when the sun ends its life. That means billions of years to go. So does it mean that all that rest in the grave are essentially lifeless pieces of mass. When is this resurrection? Why do then ministers often say that oh the loved one is in a better place now. I mean what is the status of people like the Apostles, Isaiah, Moses, Joshua, Nehemiah, Isaac, King David, Esther...

In the Nicene Creed we confess, "He [Jesus] will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end." It is the Christian hope that Jesus, who died and rose on the third day, and who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father will come again. The day of His return (Greek: Parousia) is the Last Day, because His return is the consummation and the conclusion of history. When Christ returns He comes as judge of the living and the dead, to raise the dead, and to make all things new. That last statement, "to make all things new" refers to the hope mentioned in places like Isaiah where the Prophet says God will make a "new heavens and a new earth" which is echoed again in the Apocalypse of St. John, "And I saw a new heavens and a new earth ... And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new!'" (Revelation 21:1, 5)

Because Christians believe in the renewal of creation, the restoration of creation, St. Paul in Romans 8 says that at present "creation groans" looking forward to the "appearance of the sons of God" by which he means the future resurrection of the dead at Christ's coming, "For He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies".

This is what the Gospel is about, it's the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection. Jesus died, conquering death by death, for the sins of the world; and in rising has triumphed over death, hell, and the devil. In Him God is renewing and restoring creation, and we in Christ having our sins forgiven, union with Christ, and the hope of the future world when God restores all things; which includes the resurrection of our bodies.

So that is what "Last Day" means. The day when Christ returns, bringing conclusion to history, and bringing wholeness and newness to the whole created order.

From a Christian perspective entropy is a fundamental wrong in the universe--death is an injustice which God is healing in Jesus. If left to its current course the sun will in about five billion years expand, consuming the earth, and--given current cosmological models that I am familiar with--the universe will eventually in trillions upon trillions of years die a slow heat death. That fate, would say a Christian, will not be because God is saving His creation. We look forward, therefore, to Christ's return when all will be made new, at the conclusion of history. When this will be, we don't know. Tomorrow maybe, or maybe ten thousand years after tomorrow; but we believe and hope and trust in His return, His glorious Parousia, on the Last Day.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[LastSeven]

What do they mean by the Last Day-I hear this all the time & as a science person-to me that means when the sun ends its life. That means billions of years to go. So does it mean that all that rest in the grave are essentially lifeless pieces of mass. When is this resurrection? Why do then ministers often say that oh the loved one is in a better place now. I mean what is the status of people like the Apostles, Isaiah, Moses, Joshua, Nehemiah, Isaac, King David, Esther...

The last day is the day of the Lord. The day we are all resurrected.

John 6:40
For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

And the day we take possession of the new earth where there is no more night.

Revelation 21:23-25
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there

Revelation 22:5
There will be no more night.