From: Don Winterstein (dfwinterstein@msn.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 2003 - 02:17:53 EDT
Debbie wrote in part:
> the life that follows is
> certainly
> > not physical. The immortal life is spiritual.
>
Bob Schneider commented in part:
> Debbie's point about the discussion in 1 Cor. 15 is well taken. There
> Paul is wrestling with the mystery of the resurrection. In his mystical
> language he characterizes the resurrection body as a spiritual body,
making
> clear that the resurrection of the dead is not a physical resuscitation.
Many Christians, no doubt including the apostle Paul, believe that the
resurrected body will be like Christ's resurrected body. Jesus went out of
his way, by eating and asking people to touch him, to demonstrate that his
resurrected body was physical. Jesus said to his disciples(Luke 24:39),
"See my hands and my feet, that I am he. Feel me and see, because a spirit
does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." (My literal translation.)
Paul in I Cor. 15 acknowledges the resurrected Christ as the "firstfruits,"
the one who was raised from the dead before any of us. Hence Paul would
have considered the resurrected Christ, as an already resurrected man, to
have already put on the "spiritual body" he claims the rest of us will have
after resurrection. So the spiritual body Paul talks about is physical;
it's just an improved version of what we now have.
In any case, what might a spiritual _body_ be if not something physical?
Spirits don't have bodies of any sort. And one could argue that we wouldn't
truly be ourselves without a body of some sort.
Don
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