The question of what happens after death has fascinated human beings for as long as we’ve had any sense of spirituality. There have been popular books, stories of speculative fiction, reports of visions, and serious Bible studies attempted to explain to us what happens at death and beyond. In Death, Immortality, and Resurrection, Dr. Edward Vick explores this question from the viewpoint of a philosopher and theologian. In this book, he examines scriptural sources along with a variety of philosophers over the millennia, and looks at such questions as what happens to the body, what we mean be identity and survival, whether we are innately immortal, and what is the meaning of resurrection. This is a serious work, but comprehensible to the student willing to take the time to study these issues. The reader is invited to give consideration to those issues that have challenged philosophers and scholars through the ages. The book is suitable for study groups.

Life is the most important possession we have. Without it, there is nothing. Only by the resurrection at the second coming of Christ will anyone have life after death. After the resurrection, the fate of those who are in Christ: [1] Eternal life [Romans 6:23] [2]"Shall inherit eternal life" [Matthew 19:29] [3] After the judgment they "shall go away into eternal life" [Matthew 25:46] [4] Will "have eternal life" [John 3:5] [5] Christ will raise them up on the last day [John 6:40] [6] Will be immortal after the resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:51 56] [7] Will have incorruption [1 Corinthians 15:42] [8] Will have glory [1 Corinthians 15:43] [9] Will be like Christ "We shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is" [1 John 3:2] [10] Are "heirs according to the hope of eternal life" [Titus 3:7] [11] Will have a spiritual body [1 Corinthians 15:44] [12] "And as we have borne the image of the earthly (The earthly flesh and blood body of Adam was made to live on this earth but it "cannot inherit the kingdom of God" 1 Corinthians 15:50), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (Shall be like the spiritual body of Christ for life in Heaven) [1 Corinthians 15:47 56] [13] "Will never perish" [John 10:28] [14] Forever with the Lord [1 Thessalonians 4:17] [15] Many mansions in my father's house: "In my Father's house (Who is in Heaven, Matthew 5:16; 5:45; 5:48; 6:1; 6:9; 7:21; 10:32 33) are many mansions...I go to prepare a place for you."

THE RESURRECTION AND IMMORTALITY Is man born with an immortal soul, or do the saved put on immortality at the resurrection? This is one of the most important questions of all times. It has more influence on our conception of our nature, our view of life in this world, and life after death, the nature of God, than any other question. The resurrection and an undying immortal soul are not compatible. If one is true, then the other one cannot be. YOUR WHOLE THEOLOGY [what you believe] IS DETERMINED BY YOUR VIEW OF THE SOUL. Not only does man now having an immortal soul make the resurrection impossible, it makes the judgment be passed; and the second coming of Christ pointless for there could not be a resurrection or a judgment at His coming. The resurrection doctrine of unconditional immortality are contradictory to each other. You must choose one or the other. You cannot believe both. Christ taught the resurrection. It is our only hope of life after death, not now having immortality and never dying. The undead cannot be raised. If the soul is immortal and never dies ----- there cannot be a resurrection of those not dead If there is to be a resurrection of the dead the dead cannot be alive, cannot be living immortal souls The doctrine of unconditional immortality: Changes the nature of God, makes Him cruel and sadistic Changes the message we preach to the lost and their fate, whether they will have an eternal life with torment or a second death form which there will never be a resurrection Changes the nature of man, whether he is now mortal or immortal Changes the nature of the resurrection of Christ, whether He was dead and raised by God or only His earthly body was dead and He justcame back from Heaven to it Changes the nature of our resurrection, whether we are dead and resurrected or just come back from somewhere The resurrection an immortal soul. The wages of sin is death the wages of sin is an eternal life of torment.

In Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through reference to Hellenistic Judaism and its literary forms.

A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion is an indispensable resource for students and scholars. Covering historical and contemporary figures, arguments, and terms, it offers an overview of the vital themes that make philosophy of religion the growing, vigorous field that it is today. It covers world religions and sources from east and west. Entries have been crafted for clarity, succinctness, and engagement. This second edition includes new entries, extended coverage of non-Christian topics, as well as revisions and updates throughout. The first edition was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year.

Astutely reading the writings of early Christianity as part of the lively conversation of the Graeco-Roman world, Robert M. Grant helped reshape the study of the New Testament and early Christianity for scholars in the United States and Europe. Reading Religions in the Ancient World honors his work with sixteen essays by his colleagues and students, arranged under the headings of Classical Studies, New Testament Studies and Patristic Studies. These essays reflect and extend the research interests of the honoree; signal the breadth and depth of Professor Grant’s own scholarly interests and productivity; and contribute to each of these important aspects of religion in the ancient world.

An archeological study of burial grounds across England, shedding light on pagan executions, the Black Death, and much more. In the heart of North Yorkshire, at a place called Walkington Wold, archeologists unearthed twelve skeletons—ten without heads. Later examination revealed the place to be a cemetery for ancient Anglo-Saxons who had been sentenced to death. In the Middle Ages, those who committed suicide were subjected to desecration, a practice that went largely unrecorded. While plague pits, mass graves for victims of the Black Death, have only recently started betraying their secrets. Although unpalatable to some, these burial grounds are an important record of cultural history and social change. Burying the Dead explores how these sites reveal the attitudes, practices, and beliefs of the people who made them.

Jan A. Sigvartsen seeks to examine the immense interest in life after death, and speculation about the fates awaiting both the righteous and the wicked, that proliferated in the Second Temple period. In this volume Sigvartsen explores the Apocrypha and the apocalyptic writings in the Pseudepigrapha. He identifies the numerous afterlife and resurrection beliefs and presents an analysis that enables readers to easily understand and compare the wide-ranging beliefs regarding the afterlife that these texts hold. A careful reading of these resurrection passages, including passages appearing in Sirach, Maccabees, the Sibylline Oracles and the Ezra texts, reveals that most of the distinct views on life-after-death, regardless of their complexity, show little evidence of systematic development relational to one another, and are often supported by several key passages or shared motifs from texts that later became a part of the TaNaKh. Sigvartsen also highlights the factors that may have influenced the development of so many different resurrection beliefs; including anthropology, the nature of the soul, the scope of the resurrection, the number and function of judgments, and the final destination of the righteous and the wicked. Sigvartsen's study provides a deeper understanding of how the “TaNaKh” was read by different communities during this important period, and the role it played in the development of the resurrection belief – a central article of faith in both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.

In Debates over the Resurrection of the Dead, Outi Lehtipuu highlights the striking observation that in many early texts the way that belief in resurrection is formulated is used as a sign of inclusion and exclusion, not only in relation to non-Christians but vis-à-vis other Christians. Those who teach otherwise have deviated from the truth, are not true Christians, and do the works of the devil. Using insights from the sociological study of deviance, Dr Lehtipuu demonstrates that labelling was used as a tool for marking boundaries between those who belonged and those who did not. This was extremely important in the fluid conditions where the small Christian minority groups found themselves. In a situation where there were no universally accepted structures that defined what constituted the true Christian belief, several competing interpretations and their representatives struggled for recognition of their views based on what they believed to be the apostolic tradition. The most hotly-debated aspect of resurrection was whether it would entail the body of flesh and blood or not. When resurrection would take place was closely related to this. Controversies died since the scriptural legacy was ambiguous enough to allow different hermeneutical solutions. The battle over resurrection was closely related to the question of how scriptures were to be understood as well as to what constituted the human self that would survive death. To demonstrate this a wide variety of texts are studied, from theological treatises (including relevant Nag Hammadi texts) to apocryphal acts and martyrologies. Acknowledging the complexity and diversity of the early Christian movement, this volume views early Christian discourse as part of the broader ancient discursive world where similar debates were going on among both Jews and the majority population.

Both Alexander Schmemann and Joseph Ratzinger insist that the human person remains shrouded in mystery without God’s self-disclosure in the person of Jesus Christ. Like us, Jesus lived in a particular time and location, and therefore time and temporality must be part of the ontological question of what it means to be a human person. Yet, Jesus, the one who has time for us, ascended to the Father, and the bride of Christ awaits his return, and therefore time and temporality are conditioned by the eschatological. With this in mind, the ontological question of personhood and temporality is a question that concerns eschatology: how does eschatology shape personhood? Bringing together Schmemann and Ratzinger in a theological dialogue for the first time, this book explores their respective approaches and answers to the aforementioned question. While the two theologians share much in common, it is only Ratzinger’s relational ontological approach that, by being consistently relational from top to bottom, consistently preserves the meaningfulness of temporal existence.