AutumnSummers said in post #24:
Christianity as a whole, does not believe that we are all brothers & sisters in any sense of the meaning?
That depends on what you mean by "we":
1. If you mean all we Christians, then we are all brothers and sisters (Matthew 23:8b).
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2. If you mean all we humans, then we aren't all brothers and sisters insofar as God doesn't consider nonelect humans to be of his family, but considers them to be the children of the devil instead (John 8:42-47, Matthew 13:38-42).
Elect humans are those individuals who were chosen (elected) and predestinated by God before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-11, 2 Thessalonians 2:13b), before they were born (Romans 9:11-24), to become initially saved at some point during their lifetime (Acts 13:48b). This initial salvation is possible only because of Jesus' sacrifice (Romans 3:25-26), which was also foreordained by God before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8b, 1 Peter 1:19-20).
Everyone on his own is wholly corrupt (Romans 3:9-12), and so it's impossible for people on their own to ever believe in Jesus Christ and the gospel and be initially saved (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, John 20:31, 1 John 5:13) through their own will (Romans 9:16, John 1:13, John 6:65) or through their own intellect (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16). Unsaved people can't possibly understand the gospel (1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 1:18) because only initially saved people, who have received the miraculous gift of some measure of God's own Spirit, can understand it (1 Corinthians 2:11-16).
The nonelect can't possibly believe in Jesus Christ and the gospel and be initially saved, even when they're shown the truth (John 8:42-47, John 10:26, Matthew 13:38-42), because the ability to believe in Jesus Christ and the gospel comes only to the elect (Acts 13:48b) wholly by God's grace as a miraculous gift from God (Ephesians 2:8, John 6:65, 1 Corinthians 3:5b, Romans 12:3b, Acts 13:48, Hebrews 12:2) as the elect read (or hear) God's Word the Bible (Romans 10:17, Acts 13:48, Acts 26:22-23), just as the ability to repent comes only as a miraculous gift from God (2 Timothy 2:25b, Acts 11:18b). Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers so that on their own they can't repent and acknowledge the truth of God's Word (2 Corinthians 4:4, 2 Timothy 2:25-26).
God doesn't love everyone: he hates the nonelect (Romans 9:11-22). During their lifetime, God hardens the nonelect in their sinfulness instead of showing them his mercy (Romans 9:18), because he created them to be vessels of his wrath (Romans 9:20-22, Proverbs 16:4); they were of old ordained to condemnation (Jude 1:4); they were appointed to disobedience (1 Peter 2:8b, Acts 2:23). But God never forces them or anyone else to commit sin; he never even tempts anyone to commit sin (James 1:13-15). All people will be justly held accountable on judgment day for their deeds (Romans 2:6-8) because neither election nor nonelection takes away the free will of people.
God created nonelect people to be vessels of his wrath instead of vessels of his mercy so that he might eternally make known his wrath and power (Romans 9:21-22, Proverbs 16:4, Revelation 14:10-11), just as God created elect people to be vessels of his mercy so that he might eternally make known his mercy, glory and wisdom (Romans 9:23, Ephesians 3:10, Ephesians 1:8,11).
God wants these aspects of his nature to be made known both to humans and to angels (Ephesians 3:10), neither of which group yet knows experientially the full extent of God's qualities and abilities (1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 Peter 1:12b). For example, the full extent of God's wrath won't be known to humans and angels until the devil and his fallen angels and all of unsaved humanity are cast into the eternal punishment of the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11), and saved humans and holy angels go forth from the city of New Jerusalem on the new earth to witness the punishment of the unsaved in the lake of fire (Isaiah 66:24), the eternal hell (Mark 9:45-46), and realize by actually seeing it not only the extent of God's wrath, but by it (by way of contrast) the extent of God's mercy toward them (cf. Lamentations 3:22-23).
Just as "up" can't be eternally known for what it is without the eternal co-existence of "down", so God's mercy can't be eternally known for what it is without the eternal co-existence of his wrath.
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3. If by "we" you mean all we creatures (whether human, animal, or other), then in one sense all creatures are brothers and sisters insofar as they all have God as their Creator (Colossians 1:16, John 1:3).
Mark 16:15's command for Christians to preach the gospel to "every creature" means to every kind of created thing, not just humans; just as Ezekiel was commanded to speak God's Word even to mountains (Ezekiel 36). Also, he was commanded to speak God's Word "unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field" (Ezekiel 39:17). St. Francis of Assisi preached to birds. See also the great old hymn "
All Creatures of Our God and King".
Every kind of created thing, not just humans, can hear the gospel (Mark 16:15) and can even worship God at some level (Revelation 5:13), because consciousness isn't something which requires a human brain. For a human soul remains conscious outside of the body, whether the body is still alive (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) or has died (Revelation 6:9-10). And a soul can have consciousness based on something even more fundamental than itself: spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
All consciousness ultimately being based on spirit would make sense, for God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and he can be thought of as being an infinite consciousness because he's aware of everything everywhere (Jeremiah 23:24). And if spirit is the same as consciousness, then every kind of created thing can have some consciousness (Revelation 5:13, Mark 4:39-41, Luke 17:6, Matthew 17:20), because everything exists within God (Acts 17:28a), in that everything is brought into and maintained in existence by God's Spirit (Psalms 104:30).
A scientific way to think of this would be that, even though spirit isn't physical, the relationship between the spiritual and the physical may be analogous to the relationship between energy and matter: Just as the relationship of energy to matter (that which has mass) is summarized by the equation e=mc^2 (superscript 2), which means that immense amounts of energy are congealed and compacted, as it were, in order to form each tiny particle of matter; so the relationship between spirit and energy could theoretically be summarized by, for example, the equation s=ec^2 (superscript 2), meaning that immense amounts of spirit may be congealed and compacted, as it were, in order to form each tiny photon of energy.
So if all matter is based on energy, and all energy is based on spirit, and all spirit is consciousness, then all matter is ultimately based on consciousness, and so all matter can have some consciousness. This would explain how a puff of wind, a wave of water, a tree or a mountain can obey a human command (Mark 4:39-41, Luke 17:6, Matthew 17:20), and it would explain how every kind of created thing can worship God at some level (Revelation 5:13).
AutumnSummers said in post #24:
How does Christianity view Heaven?
There are three different heavens in the Bible (2 Corinthians 12:2b). The first heaven would be the sky, the atmosphere, in which the birds fly (Genesis 1:20b). The second heaven would be outer space, where the sun, moon and stars reside (Deuteronomy 4:19). Where God resides is called "the third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:2b, cf. Revelation 4:1-2), and so it would be beyond outer space, such as in a "higher" spatial dimension.
The third heaven is a physical place, because Jesus Christ ascended there in his physical, resurrection body (Acts 1:9-11, Luke 24:39), and Paul the apostle said that he could have visited the third heaven in his physical body (2 Corinthians 12:2). In the third heaven, there is currently a literal city 1500 miles cubed (Revelation 21:16) called New Jerusalem. In the future, God will create a new earth (a new surface of the earth) and a new heaven (a new first heaven, a new atmosphere for the earth) and will descend from the third heaven to the new earth in New Jerusalem to live with humans on the new earth (Revelation 21:1-3). It's New Jerusalem which has the pearly gates and streets of gold (Revelation 21:21) that people ascribe to "heaven". So what people think of as "heaven", in the sense of living in bliss with God, will eventually be on the new earth.
Currently, the souls of the dead remain conscious, either in the third heaven with Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:21,23, Revelation 6:9-10, Luke 23:43,46) or in fiery punishment in Hades (Luke 16:22-24). Only the physical bodies of the dead in their graves are euphemistically "asleep" (1 Thessalonians 4:13, 1 Corinthians 15:18,51). At Jesus' second coming, he will bring with him from the third heaven all the souls of all believers who have ever died (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and they will descend to the earth where the graves of their bodies are and their bodies will be resurrected into immortality at that time (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 15:21-23,52-53, Revelation 20:4-6).
After the subsequent millennium and Gog/Magog event (Revelation 20:7-10), all the souls in Hades will be resurrected into bodies, judged and cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:12-15), which is the second death (Revelation 21:8). So the people in the lake of fire won't be immortal; they will be in the state of the second death. And yet the people in the lake of fire, though dead, will still be conscious and will suffer punishment along with the devil and his fallen angels forever (Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11, Matthew 25:41,46, Mark 9:45-46, Isaiah 66:24).
AutumnSummers said in post #24:
And how does Christianity believe our spirits were made?
By God breathing his Spirit into our physical bodies (cf. Genesis 2:7, Isaiah 42:5).
I think Judgment has everything to do with this! I find all of Scripture to be very consistent with this POV. I'm not sure at all about our own spirit, what it might be, if it's separate from the Holy Spirit, in the process of being joined, or what. I think it's there though. And since we're fallen, when we're changed into His image, it will also need to be re-made. I think we are to be "about our Father's business" of engaging that process.
