Why is it called the afterlife?

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

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.

I'm not sure if you're genuinely being serious, here. What we were discussing was not the definition of the word "heaven", but the definition of the word "afterlife", and the post you quoted makes that quite explicit.

 

[ToBeLoved]

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.

That is not my understanding at all.

After death, we will recieve new spiritual bodies. These are bodies without a physical body as we know it to be now.

 

[SkyWriting]

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.

We will not be with our earthly families. Fellow humans will be brother and sister with the Father.

 

[Received]

That is not my understanding at all.

After death, we will recieve new spiritual bodies. These are bodies without a physical body as we know it to be now.

Well, maybe I should have said glorified bodies. Because the body of Christ upon resurrection is very clearly physical, it just has certain spiritual qualities to it.

 

[muichimotsu]

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.

Wait, so I'll come back as a zombie? Or a revenant, perhaps? Lots of different undead possibilities, but apparently in your soteriology, our souls aren't tortured in fire and brimstone or separated from God in some Great Divorce manner, but God becomes a necromancer and condemns us to undeath.

I mock the afterlife because it trivializes the life we have now.

 

[Received]

Wait, so I'll come back as a zombie? Or a revenant, perhaps? Lots of different undead possibilities, but apparently in your soteriology, our souls aren't tortured in fire and brimstone or separated from God in some Great Divorce manner, but God becomes a necromancer and condemns us to undeath.

I mock the afterlife because it trivializes the life we have now.

The afterlife doesn't intrinsically create nihilation of this life. It's probably more correct to say that nihilation of this life (brought on by ressentiment toward those in the world) creates a wishful afterlife. If we understand the Kingdom of God as God's rule starting in the present with the afterlife as an extension of this present, there's no problem.

 

[sahjimira]

Why is it called after life?....because it's life after this life after we die

 

[muichimotsu]

The afterlife doesn't intrinsically create nihilation of this life. It's probably more correct to say that nihilation of this life (brought on by ressentiment toward those in the world) creates a wishful afterlife. If we understand the Kingdom of God as God's rule starting in the present with the afterlife as an extension of this present, there's no problem.

The afterlife is wishful thinking that desires an absolute justice of everything rather than pursuing justice in the here and now because you can't accept imperfection in any sense with finality. Without acceptance of death as a transition away from actuality, you keep sliding into a delusion that you'll meet your loved ones and friends again rather than appreciating those who are living now and preserving the memory of those before you.

I don't want an afterlife to begin with, what does that make me?

If you just want God to rule, there's no need to change the title of it based on a particular point in time, unless you're saying that God's power comes in stages, which would imply less than omnipotence in regards to the world

 

[Received]

The afterlife is wishful thinking that desires an absolute justice of everything rather than pursuing justice in the here and now because you can't accept imperfection in any sense with finality. Without acceptance of death as a transition away from actuality, you keep sliding into a delusion that you'll meet your loved ones and friends again rather than appreciating those who are living now and preserving the memory of those before you.

I really don't see how it couldn't be both: desiring justice now and, as an extension of the now, attaining justice in the afterlife. The concept of the Kingdom of God -- God's rule, which starts in the present and extends into an afterlife -- entails both/and, therefore you're presenting a false dichotomy.

I don't want an afterlife to begin with, what does that make me?

Honestly, I just want life. And I think you do too, so that would open you up to an afterlife.

If you just want God to rule, there's no need to change the title of it based on a particular point in time, unless you're saying that God's power comes in stages, which would imply less than omnipotence in regards to the world

I think it comes in stages, and oh well for omnipotence.

 

[muichimotsu]

I really don't see how it couldn't be both: desiring justice now and, as an extension of the now, attaining justice in the afterlife. The concept of the Kingdom of God -- God's rule, which starts in the present and extends into an afterlife -- entails both/and, therefore you're presenting a false dichotomy.



Honestly, I just want life. And I think you do too, so that would open you up to an afterlife.



I think it comes in stages, and oh well for omnipotence.

Justice in an absolute sense and justice in a realistic sense are markedly different: one is the wishful thinking that wants everything to be perfect when it cannot be. The afterlife is a life that has a distinct quality to it: if you're trying to negate the afterlife as a specific point in time, then what you want is still a life with a quality that is unrealizable and unrealistic.

You're oversimplifying things to a point that ignores the mere desire for life and desiring a life that is meaningful as opposed to persisting in perpetuity. Wanting life doesn't follow to wanting it in excess, which is what an afterlife constitutes.

 

[Received]

Justice in an absolute sense and justice in a realistic sense are markedly different: one is the wishful thinking that wants everything to be perfect when it cannot be. The afterlife is a life that has a distinct quality to it: if you're trying to negate the afterlife as a specific point in time, then what you want is still a life with a quality that is unrealizable and unrealistic.

Well, if the afterlife exists I don't think it's farfetched to claim its justice would be realistic, given that any deity who can resurrect folks can probably take care of all injustices. Only if the afterlife doesn't exist is it unrealistic to hope for justice in an absolute sense.

You're oversimplifying things to a point that ignores the mere desire for life and desiring a life that is meaningful as opposed to persisting in perpetuity. Wanting life doesn't follow to wanting it in excess, which is what an afterlife constitutes.

I really don't understand how a person wouldn't want life in excess if it was offered to him. Maybe it's the Nietzschean in me.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

We will not be with our earthly families.

I'm pretty sure that many people wouldn't want that. I can't count how many times I've heard people talk positively of the idea of meeting up with people they've lost when they die.

 

[muichimotsu]

Well, if the afterlife exists I don't think it's farfetched to claim its justice would be realistic, given that any deity who can resurrect folks can probably take care of all injustices. Only if the afterlife doesn't exist is it unrealistic to hope for justice in an absolute sense.



I really don't understand how a person wouldn't want life in excess if it was offered to him. Maybe it's the Nietzschean in me.

Justice being perfect would practically negate free will in any meaningful sense. Wrongs should be righted, but not all wrongs are equal, so to speak. Sometimes forgiveness is the practical solution.

Excess is hardly something good in any context: not to mention I doubt Nietzcheans would necessarily want life in excess, merely that they can exercise the will to power to its fullest. Eventually, death would be an inevitable part of life, would it not?

 

[Received]

Justice being perfect would practically negate free will in any meaningful sense. Wrongs should be righted, but not all wrongs are equal, so to speak. Sometimes forgiveness is the practical solution.

Excess is hardly something good in any context: not to mention I doubt Nietzcheans would necessarily want life in excess, merely that they can exercise the will to power to its fullest. Eventually, death would be an inevitable part of life, would it not?

Justice isn't a matter of preventing actions, but of correcting actions. Justice is always retrospective. Unless you mean that free will creates all sorts of injustices that could be prevented if we didn't have free will. That's a bit like cutting off your head to cure a headache.

Excess of life isn't bad in any context; an excess of anything in particular usually is. I actually don't know what an excess of life would look like other than speaking hyperbolically. And Nietzsche would be down with what we're talking about, and he would simply say that the expression of the will to power is precisely what an excessive life is all about.

 

[muichimotsu]

Justice isn't a matter of preventing actions, but of correcting actions. Justice is always retrospective. Unless you mean that free will creates all sorts of injustices that could be prevented if we didn't have free will. That's a bit like cutting off your head to cure a headache.

Excess of life isn't bad in any context; an excess of anything in particular usually is. I actually don't know what an excess of life would look like other than speaking hyperbolically. And Nietzsche would be down with what we're talking about, and he would simply say that the expression of the will to power is precisely what an excessive life is all about.

If it's retrospective, the goal should still be to look to the future in spite of also looking to the past.

If God respects free will, then the only way to make a complete and final justice is to render humans unable to sin, which tends to mean a form of genocide, where all the sinners are "eliminated"

Will to power is enthusiasm for life, from what I recall, but not to the point of self harm or undermining your potential by getting perfection. Greatness and absolute greatness are miles apart.

 

[frdpwr427]

There is no life after death(this life) we are asleep(like Jesus said about Lazarus in John. 11:11). We go back to dust and wait there until Jesus return and raises the died.