Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Can Flesh and Blood inherit The Kingdom of God?

In 1 Corinthians 15:50 Paul says.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;
And this gets used by Preterists and others who want to deny The Resurrection we are looking forward to is of our physical Bodies and make it merely a Spiritual Resurrection.  Especially since this passage is specifically on The Resurrection.

There is a lot of Context missing from how they abuse this quote.  Before I deal with the immediate context of 1 Corinthians 15, I want to go back to Genesis.

In Genesis 2:23 after Eve is created Adam says "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.".  Notice that Blood wasn't mentioned here.  Likewise Paul in Ephesians 6 describes Angels, (who clearly do have bodies Physical enough to Eat and have Sex, and for us to entertain them unawares,) as being not flesh and blood.

So this is perfectly consistent with the Doctrine that the true Resurrection is us being restored to how Adam and Eve were before The Fall, and similar to how Angels are.  It may be that Blood exists because of Sin and that is why it's Blood that is Shed for Sin.  Verses that call Wine the "Pure Blood of The Grape" have been taken as implying that the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was Grape like, and Blood is the product of eating that Fruit.

Now, 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 says.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 
 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Making this consistent with saying only the Spirit is Resurrected requires an incredible torturing of the Text.

The terminology would be of taking off, not putting on, if it was about our Spirits being freed from our Bodies.

I was seeing on Facebook someone who I think would qualify as a Partial Preterist say based on Thessalonians that there could be a long gap between the Resurrection and The Rapture.  Well the Rapture technically isn't in 1 Corinthians 15, but Paul does say that within the "Twinking of an Eye" the Dead are Raised and the Living changed.  And the clear implication is those living when the Dead rise won't "Sleep" here referring to physical death.

That utterly destroys the Preterist view that this is just about the Souls in Hades being liberated to go to Heaven.

Hades BTW was emptied at least of all Believers when Jesus went there between his Death and Resurrection, which Peter clearly refers to.  The Harrowing of Hell.

InspiringPhilsphy also had a good video on this subject, they I disagree with him in other areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rffmrioFnBY

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