Tag: resurrection

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What is “Eternal Life”?

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”

—John 5:24, NIV

Eternal life is not eternal if it doesn’t exist right now, because that which is eternal has no beginning or end. We either have eternal life now, or we don’t have it. Because you are reading this now, you can be sure you have it, even if you don’t know it for yourself. Continue reading “What is “Eternal Life”?”

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Resurrecting the Resurrection in Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris

I listened to a conversation between Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris in Vancouver on June 23, 2018, where Harris asked this seemingly simple question (which had been previously asked of Peterson):

“Was Jesus literally resurrected?”

Peterson said it would take him 40 hours to answer that question. Harris offered his own succinct answer:

“Almost certainly not.”

Continue reading “Resurrecting the Resurrection in Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris”

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Four Types or Stages of Resurrection

It seems to me that there are at least four types of resurrection, or at least four stages of the process of being resurrected, or events that could be considered resurrection. But first, this is according to the understanding of resurrection that I have outlined in previous posts, so if you aren’t familiar with those please take a look. In short, the resurrection is not something that happens to us after biological death, rejoining our dead physical body back to our ego “spirit,” as most of Christianity has come to believe, but rather it is a falling away of the ego psychological “self” and an awakening to the true Self or true Life within us and all things. Continue reading “Four Types or Stages of Resurrection”

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Margaret Barker on the Radical Original Understanding of Resurrection

The Methodist biblical scholar, Margaret Barker, wrote a book published in 1996 titled The Risen Lord in which she proposed that

“the original understanding of resurrection may in fact be Jesus’ mystical experience at his baptism, when he was raised up and transformed into the divine Son.”

Margaret Barker
Margaret Barker

Later she summarized these thoughts in a few pages in her 2008 book Temple Themes in Christian Worship, from which I’ll share a few of her intriguing, and I think accurate, insights into the nature of resurrection and how it was originally regarded in the early Christian church. Continue reading “Margaret Barker on the Radical Original Understanding of Resurrection”

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Excerpts from Symeon’s Discourse on the “Mystical Resurrection of Christ”

The following are excerpts from a discourse given by the Byzantine Christian monk and poet, Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022 AD), to the monks of the Monastery of St. Mamas when he was the Abbot there. It is a combination of the translations from the Greek by Archbishop Basil Krivoshein, and Rev. C. J. De Catanzaro. I have added emphasis. Continue reading “Excerpts from Symeon’s Discourse on the “Mystical Resurrection of Christ””