Re: Physical Resurrection

This does not mention the PHYSICAL resurrection
Michael
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Janice Matchett
  To: Dawsonzhu@aol.com
  Cc: asa@lists.calvin.edu
  Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 5:13 PM
  Subject: Re: Physical Resurrection

  At 11:27 AM 4/10/2006, Dawsonzhu@aol.com wrote:

  I'm not the theologian here, but what is prudent to understand here is that there are a number of conflicting issues that have _always_ troubled the church. Out of the many, one is the question of how Christ can be both divine and human (the divinity/humanity issue). If you put any thought to it, you will soon recognize that the divinity/humanity issue is not trivial to explain. When you push the divinity too far, you end up denying Jesus died, and when you push the humanity too far, you wind up with an unrisen Christ. Either extreme calls our salvation into question, as the former implies that there was no sacrifice and the latter means we should be pitied. Many a great mind has wrestled with this, but there is yet no answer to the best of my knowledge.

  by Grace we proceed, Wayne ...What exactly Michael means by that short statement, but knowing something of how well read he is, it certainly requires more inquiry.

  @ The Christian faith is what it IS. "Watch, stand fast in THE faith, be brave, be strong." [1 Cor. 16:13]

  The fact that some professing Christians down through history have been/are emotionally "troubled by certain issues" --- which causes them to want to find excuses to get rid of the Scriptures that don't fit their personal "theology" --- isn't germane. ~ Janice

  "The Christian faith is a definite system of beliefs with definite content (Jude 3) ... Because these central doctrines define the character of Christianity, one cannot be saved and deny these."

  Theology http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c45.html

  A cult of Christianity is a group of people, which claiming to be Christian, embraces a particular doctrinal system taught by an individual leader, group of leaders, or organization, which (system) denies (either explicitly or implicitly) one or more of the central doctrines of the Christian faith as taught in the sixty-six books of the Bible.
    1.. "Central doctrines" of the Christian faith are those doctrines that make the Christian faith Christian and not something else.
      1.. The meaning of the expression "Christian faith" is not like a wax nose, which can be twisted to mean whatever the speaker wants it to mean.
      2.. The Christian faith is a definite system of beliefs with definite content (Jude 3)
      3.. Certain Christian doctrines constitute the core of the faith. Central doctrines include the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith. These doctrines so comprise the essence of the Christian faith that to remove any of them is to make the belief system non-Christian.
      4.. Scripture teaches that the beliefs mentioned above are of central importance (e.g., Matt. 28:19; John 8:24; 1 Cor. 15; Eph. 2:8-10).
      5.. Because these central doctrines define the character of Christianity, one cannot be saved and deny these.
      6.. Central doctrines should not be confused with peripheral issues, about which Christians may legitimately disagree.
      7.. Peripheral (i.e. non-essential) doctrines include such issues as the timing of the tribulation, the method of baptism, or the structure of church government. For example, one can be wrong about the identity of "the spirits in prison" 1 Peter 3:19) or about the timing of the rapture and still go to heaven, but one cannot deny salvation by grace or the deity of Christ (John 8:24) and be saved.
      8.. All Christian denominations -- whether Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant -- agree on the essential core. The relatively minor disagreements between genuinely Christian denominations, then, cannot be used to argue that there is no objectively recognized core of fundamental doctrine which constitutes the Christian faith.
  Source: Alam Gomes, Cult: A Theological Definition, excerpt from "Unmasking The Cults"

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