Why is it called the afterlife?

[GrimKingGrim]

No seriously, why? What happens there exactly? Is it a life after life has been lived? Or is it a setting that is after life? What's in this setting? If it's a life after life is there a life after it? What makes it so important?

 

[Received]

What makes it important, psychologically, is that it answers the problem of death. The Christian conception -- and the Jewish one at least presented in the Old Testament is incredibly murkier -- breaks into a few views: whereas most people think "heaven" in the Bible refers to a place we go when we die, the term is actually better understood as "heavens", and indicates basically physical space (in varying degrees), used to connote the place where God is, and not a place after we're dead.

The pretty clear theological conclusion is that "heaven" is really a recreated "heavens and earth" (i.e., the universe), and that we're meant to live in physical bodies pretty much like we live now. All this comes packaged with the resurrection. So what happens to the person while he's dead but not yet resurrected? The New Testament refers to this as "sleep", and doesn't clearly speak of some heavenly place (except at one or two controversial passages) as an intermission between life as we know it and resurrection.

What happens at this recreated earth is probably a lot like what we have going on now, just without all the merde.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Its like the after party where most people wake up with a serious headache.
Seriously, you disappear from earthland and continue as a person on another plane.

 

[grasping the after wind]

Its like the after party where most people wake up with a serious headache.
Seriously, you disappear from earthland and continue as a person on another plane.

By plane do you mean the vehicle for flying transport or the geometric flat two dimensional surface?

 

[SkyWriting]

No seriously, why? What happens there exactly? Is it a life after life has been lived? Or is it a setting that is after life? What's in this setting? If it's a life after life is there a life after it? What makes it so important?

The biggest issue is that you're no longer alone. People are designed to have companionship
and it is devastating when people we love do not reciprocate in kind. The setting is one
of perfect companionship that never ends.

Those who do not accept the creators offer, miss out of being what they were designed for.
It will feel like you're in the wrong job, in the wrong place, and your decision will torment you forever, alone.

 

[Crowns&Laurels]

Your soul if intrinsically involved with the physical body, but it is nonetheless ethereal. The afterlife is the life after your body, in which your soul is taken up to particular salvation or damnation.

At the end of times, your soul returns to your body, which is either decrepit or renewed, according to your judgment.
The condemned will return to bodies of bone and decay, coming out from the graves to their eternal damnation while the vessels of the saved are glorified.

Old Christianity has it's charms.
Should be utilized more often when others want to mock or trivialize the afterlife, instead of talking about it like it's just a mere idea.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

The biggest issue is that you're no longer alone. People are designed to have companionship
and it is devastating when people we love do not reciprocate in kind. The setting is one
of perfect companionship that never ends.

How does that work? What if a widower remarries? Does he end up married to both of his wives in the afterlife? And do they both have to feel okay with that? What if your child, who you can't bear to be without, dies in sin and doesn't make it to heaven? Will you forget about them? Or will God create a facsimile for you that will look and act like your child, but that you know is not actually your child? Or will he make it so that you do believe it's your child, even though it's not?

Relationships require reciprocity. Unless God is going to micromanage our mental states and is micromanaging our lives so that everybody dies in permutations of relationships that will be ideal in heaven, then I don't see how it's possible to have a heaven like you describe that involves more than one person that everybody would find satisfying.

 

[grasping the after wind]

How does that work? What if a widower remarries? Does he end up married to both of his wives in the afterlife? And do they both have to feel okay with that?

Matt: 20: 23-30
Marriage at the Resurrection

23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24“Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

29Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’b ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

33When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Matt: 20: 23-30
Marriage at the Resurrection

23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24“Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

29Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’b ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

33When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

This seems a different model of heaven than the one SkyWriting proposed. In fact, it seems that heaven will be less concerned with interpersonal relationships and companionship than Earth is.

 

[AHH who-stole-my-name]

I think the afterlife wasn't term coined by theists, but theists subscribed to the notion of it. I don't see the death of the body as of any significance, since we end up one place or the other. I think death is a transition, though I don't know of it's instantaneous, but it is permanent. We go up or down depending on our actions here and that's where we stay.

 

[grasping the after wind]

This seems a different model of heaven than the one SkyWriting proposed. In fact, it seems that heaven will be less concerned with interpersonal relationships and companionship than Earth is.

The Resurrection does not occur in Heaven. I cannot tell you what heaven is like nor what the Resurrection will be like from a personal viewpoint as i have experienced neither and the biblical account is somewhat vague about both. As always with Christianity, faith is the key element for accepting the premise that it will be very good. Without that faith one has no reasonable hope of trusting in that outcome. Paul made it clear that if our faith of the Resurrection is misplaced we Christians are the most pitiful group of people on the planet. If our faith is not misplaced then it must be sufficient as no further details will be forthcoming before the end.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

The Resurrection does not occur in Heaven.

I didn't imply it did.

Without that faith one has no reasonable hope of trusting in that outcome.

Indeed. Some would even question whether trusting in an outcome for which there is no compelling evidence is reasonable. It's certainly not by the strict definition of the word, as faith does not rely on reason.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I didn't imply it did.

Well then what was it you were doing ? I am confused as to why you mentioned heaven in relation to my earlier post if you were aware that the Ressurction and Heaven were not equivalent terms.

This seems a different model of heaven than the one SkyWriting proposed. In fact, it seems that heaven will be less concerned with interpersonal relationships and companionship than Earth is.

Indeed. Some would even question whether trusting in an outcome for which there is no compelling evidence is reasonable. It's certainly not by the strict definition of the word, as faith does not rely on reason.

But people do it all the time. And not just in relation to religious or spiritual matters. Look at the majority of government programs.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Well then what was it you were doing ? I am confused as to why you mentioned heaven in relation to my earlier post if you were aware that the Ressurction and Heaven were not equivalent terms.

Your earlier post was a reply to my post, which was asking questions about the model of heaven SkyWriting had set out. I had assumed that as you had posted it in reply to my post that you believed it to be relevant to that post. If you now believe that it is not, then fair enough.

But people do it all the time.

This does not make it sound reasoning.

 

[grasping the after wind]

Your earlier post was a reply to my post, which was asking questions about the model of heaven SkyWriting had set out. I had assumed that as you had posted it in reply to my post that you believed it to be relevant to that post. If you now believe that it is not, then fair enough.



This does not make it sound reasoning.

I assumed your post was a question about the afterlife not about heaven. If you want to know about heaven then asking about human marriage after death would be irrelevant as the afterlife has nothing to do with heaven.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

I assumed your post was a question about the afterlife not about heaven. If you want to know about heaven then asking about human marriage after death would be irrelevant as the afterlife has nothing to do with heaven.

That's not the way the term is used generally, or the way it has been used in this thread.

 

[ViaCrucis]

No seriously, why? What happens there exactly? Is it a life after life has been lived? Or is it a setting that is after life? What's in this setting? If it's a life after life is there a life after it? What makes it so important?

The phrase "afterlife" simply denotes that it's what happens after this life.

Though I'd agree with N.T. Wright that, at least as concerns Christian theology, what is of bigger significance is "life after life after death". Namely the resurrection of the dead and the age to come; in distinction from what is often popularly conceived of as "heaven".

-CryptoLutheran

 

[grasping the after wind]

That's not the way the term is used generally, or the way it has been used in this thread.

Many terms are misused generally but if you are actually curious about the marriage thing we need to be precise in our terminology. Otherwise you will have a complete misconception of what Christian belief on the subject actually is based upon the misuse of a term.
.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Many terms are misused generally[...]

Actually, the fact that English is a living, non-prescriptive language means that what you're saying is impossible. Words, in English, mean whatever they are commonly understood to mean, regardless of whether or not some think that this is a "misuse" or not. This is especially true if it's a minority attempting to displace the meaning understood by the majority.

[...]but if you are actually curious about the marriage thing we need to be precise in our terminology. Otherwise you will have a complete misconception of what Christian belief on the subject actually is based upon the misuse of a term.
.

I also have to question whether your interpretation of the word "afterlife" to exclude heaven is consistent with all Christian belief. In fact, your info panel says that you're a Lutheran, and while I can find no evidence that heaven is generally excluded from the Lutheran definition of the term "afterlife", I can find evidence that it is not:

http://proudlutheran.weebly.com/afterlife-and-salvation.html
http://www.livinggraceomaha.org/?sermons-category=afterlife

 

[grasping the after wind]

Actually, the fact that English is a living, non-prescriptive language means that what you're saying is impossible. Words, in English, mean whatever they are commonly understood to mean, regardless of whether or not some think that this is a "misuse" or not. This is especially true if it's a minority attempting to displace the meaning understood by the majority.

If you want to talk about the common usage of heaven then you will not be learning anything of what Christian theology says about the afterlife or what marriage means in the afterlife as Christian theology does not place the afterlife in a place that conforms to the common usage of the word heaven. The common usage of the word heaven amounts to a fairy tale place above the clouds that is paradisaical in nature but no such place is even hinted at in the Bible. To call the Christian conception of the afterlife the equivalent of the common conception of the word heaven is a misuse of both terms.