THE CHRISTIAN DILEMMA
by Greg Stone
In Christian theology, we transcend earthly existence after death and make the transition to a spiritual realm where we reap the rewards of our past actions (and/or are saved by the grace of a benevolent Savior). This Afterlife spiritual realm is captured in the concepts of heaven and hell. But what is it that transcends to the spiritual realm? What enjoys everlasting peace in heaven, or everlasting torment in hell? This question, when pursued diligently, exposes a dilemma that challenges the coherency of Christian theology.
Does our body rise to heaven upon death? One can observe this is not the case. Do we rest peacefully, six feet under, waiting for the body to resurrect? That does not seem to be the case for many reasons that are fairly obvious (not to mention the problem created by cremation). Theologically, how do we get to our Afterlife destination?
Most would answer that it is the soul or spirit which makes the journey. Upon death, we separate from our flesh vehicle and present ourselves, in spiritual form, in the spiritual kingdom. Where was this soul or spirit when we were alive? Some, speaking from the point of view of "being the body," claim they "have" a soul which ascends. This argument treats the soul as a possession, something one keeps around, an ethereal balloon one launches upon death. You die, but your possession (the soul) finds a new home in the Afterlife. Why would one spend time ensuring their possessions ended up in heaven? The idea doesn't make sense.
Instead, based both upon theology and evidence, we can conclude we are the spirit that travels to the spiritual realm upon death of the body. We don't "have" a soul or spirit. That is who we really are. The body is merely a vehicle we inhabit. The body is secondary and ultimately disposable. The body is the possession. Jesus frequently alluded to this reality, noting one does not take earthly possessions to the spiritual kingdom. Jesus did not come to save your possessions. It is you, the spirit, he came to save.
What is the nature of this spirit? It is not the body. It lives beyond the death of the body. As it is not identical to the body and can be separated from the body, it has a life of its own. That life, independent from the body, therefore must have preceded the body. In other words, just as the spirit transcends body death it also transcends the birth of the body. The birth of the body is not one and the same with the birth of the spirit. This very important concept creates problems for much of contemporary Christian theology. Christians face the dilemma of having to explain the spirit's relationship to the body and its independent origin.
Some seem to assume the body is an incubator that creates a spirit. This idea messes with the thinking of Templeton-style theologians who see spirit as an epi-phenomenon of brain activity. They see spirit as little more than a brain fart. This thinking assumes that, when one says "God created you," he created the body and the body (the brain) then conjures up a spirit. These same Templeton Theologians, however, believe evolutionary processes, not God, created the body. They have a point. The image of God as a puppet-maker in heaven hand-crafting each body strains credulity. We know that is not how bodies come into existence. The Templeton folks, however, go on to assume evolutionary processes also create the chimera of spirit, the pragmatic fantasy of spirit. Templeton Theologians drift into convoluted materialist reasoning and stray from both scripture and evidence. They wander from the spiritual path onto a dead-end trail and end up chatting with monkeys in their search for a mud-based theology. We see no possible answer coming from their quarter. One can safely say they are lost.
Fundamental Christianity has avoided straying into the absurdity of material-istic philosophy, but their inability or unwillingness to address the question of spirit may be that which sent the Templeton Theologians on their wild chase in the first place. We must ask: What is this thing called spirit that ascends to the Afterlife, and what is its relationship to the body? Without answers, Christians face a dilemma. They are left promoting that which they cannot explain. This is rarely a formula for success, particularly in an age in which we are accustomed to seeking and finding answers.
What is it about spirit that is so hard for Christians to explain? If one dismisses equivalency of spirit with body and the equivalency of the birth and death of the body with the birth and death of the spirit, an obvious truth (that modern Christians wish to avoid) arises—reincarnation.
As noted previously, Jesus did not come to save our earthly possessions, such as our biological form, he came to save us. He came to save spirits who have "fallen" into inhabiting material forms. Spirits who need to know they can and do transcend body death. Spirits who are lost and have forgotten their past, including their true spiritual nature. They are in need of being "saved." Christ's teachings make this clear; our compulsive attachment to the human form, however, obscures his teachings.
We ask, what is everlasting life? The answer turns out to be simple. The body dies and you, the spirit, continue to exist. You are not the body, which does not possess everlasting life. You are immortal spirit, who do not cease to exist. That was Christ's message.
Reincarnation, a fact that accompanies the existence of immortal spirit, played a role in early Christian thought, but was later expunged in an act of theological surgery. That the patient (Christianity) survived in spite of this brutal operation, is a testament to its robust health. As the patient ages, however, it may not be strong enough to withstand the removal of so vital an organ.
Christian theologians must face the dilemma: they lack a cogent view of the spirit with which to minister to spiritual beings in preparation for the Afterlife. They lack the cogent view of spirit needed to ward off the attacks of philosophical materialism. Those who launch those anti-religion attacks are motivated by no less an agenda than the total eradication of religious and spiritual thought. If Christians do not stand on solid spiritual ground, they will be swept away. They will become Templeton Theologians. Culture Wars, battles fought over evolution versus intelligent design, secular agendas clashing with religious agendas in the body politic, are all side shows to the main event. The real question concerns the nature of the universe in which we live. Is this a universe comprised of both the spiritual and material, the supernatural and the natural, or is it a universe of only material causes and effects? Without a clear understanding of the existence of the spirit and its relationship to the material realm, Christian theology will falter and give birth to Templeton Theology, which searches for the spirit in the brains of primates.
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