Is There Any Future Resurrection for the Cremated?
- Thread starter Geshtinanna
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up the one in need and bringing grace to those who listen. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. 
-
2
-
1
- Show all
Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up the one in need and bringing grace to those who listen. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Do you find the mention of fictional creatures like vampires, mummies, and zombies to be uncouth? Well maybe I find your pegasuses (pegasus'.... pegasi??? someone help me here!) you are always showing pictures of to be improper! (I don't
). What specifically did you find offensive?
That was me being helpful for the one in need- I thought the imagery would be convincing. That God would not resurrect a cremated person is no less absurd than what I suggested; that God would resurrect someone as a mummy or walking pile of ashes is nonsense- and I fully explained why.
Do you find the mention of fictional creatures like vampires, mummies, and zombies to be uncouth? Well maybe I find your pegasuses (pegasus'.... pegasi??? someone help me here!) you are always showing pictures of to be improper! (I don't). What specifically did you find offensive?
Do you find the mention of fictional creatures like vampires, mummies, and zombies to be uncouth? Well maybe I find your pegasuses (pegasus'.... pegasi??? someone help me here!) you are always showing pictures of to be improper! (I don't
). What specifically did you find offensive?
That is a gross exaggeration.
Some of them are unicorns
However, if you see such as them, you can be assured they are from a few years ago...
And be assured also that they are rarely posted any more. Certainly not all the time!
Only if you are a closet modern worshipper of the Greek Pantheon and your pictures are a covert subliminal mode of converting people from Christ to Zeus and Hermes.
You'd have your work cut out for you though- I don't think the Pantheon offered resurrection benefits. Also, whenever you see sculptures of them, they don't seem to be able to afford to buy clothes. Those poor olympian gods are waiting for some nice Christian to come along and help them.
You'd have your work cut out for you though- I don't think the Pantheon offered resurrection benefits. Also, whenever you see sculptures of them, they don't seem to be able to afford to buy clothes. Those poor olympian gods are waiting for some nice Christian to come along and help them.
Would it include a dry sense of humor and a strong desire to buy stock in Band-Aid gauze wrap? Freshness guarantee.
True. Adam was created from the dirt, some say dust, of the ground. Ashes aren't a threat to our resurrection. Beats being in a casket wearing makeup you never wore in life, with all your orifices glued shut. Well, all except the ears. Those may be too for all I know.
"WHAT?"
Everybody needs a bit of levity. Especially when talking about the body's afterlife.
Make sure you get an executor for your will or trust that you can trust. "I want to be cremated." They hold a grudge against you and you end up stuffed and mounted on a pole in your garden. Scarecrow karma.
That would suck.
-
1
- Show all
Colossians 1:15-20
J.B. Phillips New Testament
15-20 Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He existed before creation began, for it was through him that every thing was made, whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen. Through him, and for him, also, were created power and dominion, ownership and authority. In fact, every single thing was created through, and for him. He is both the first principle and the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation.
Colossians 1:15-17
GOD’S WORD Translation
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
16 He created all things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible.
Whether they are kings or lords,
rulers or powers—
everything has been created through him and for him.
17 He existed before everything
and holds everything together.
Ephesians 1:7 we find παραπτωματων (slips, fallings aside, from παραπιπτω).
Verse 15
The image (εικων). In predicate and no article. On εικων, see 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29; Colossians 3:10. Jesus is the very stamp of God the Father as he was before the Incarnation (John 17:5) and is now (Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:3).
Of the invisible God (του θεου του αορατου). But the one who sees Jesus has seen God (John 14:9). See this verbal adjective (α privative and οραω) in Romans 1:20.
The first born (πρωτοτοκος). Predicate adjective again and anarthrous. This passage is parallel to the Λογος passage in John 1:1-18 and to Hebrews 1:1-4 as well as Philippians 2:5-11 in which these three writers (John, author of Hebrews, Paul) give the high conception of the Person of Christ (both Son of God and Son of Man) found also in the Synoptic Gospels and even in Q (the Father, the Son). This word (LXX and N.T.) can no longer be considered purely "Biblical" (Thayer), since it is found In inscriptions (Deissmann, Light, etc., p. 91) and in the papyri (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, etc.). See it already in Luke 2:7 and Aleph for Matthew 1:25; Romans 8:29. The use of this word does not show what Arius argued that Paul regarded Christ as a creature like "all creation" (πασης κτισεως, by metonomy the act regarded as result). It is rather the comparative (superlative) force of πρωτος that is used (first-born of all creation) as in Colossians 1:18; Romans 8:29; Hebrews 1:6; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 1:5. Paul is here refuting the Gnostics who pictured Christ as one of the aeons by placing him before "all creation" (angels and men). Like εικων we find πρωτοτοκος in the Alexandrian vocabulary of the Λογος teaching (Philo) as well as in the LXX. Paul takes both words to help express the deity of Jesus Christ in his relation to the Father as εικων (Image) and to the universe as πρωτοτοκος (First-born).
Verse 16
All things (τα παντα). The universe as in Romans 11:35, a well-known philosophical phrase. It is repeated at the end of the verse.
In him were created (εν αυτω εκτισθη). Paul now gives the reason (οτ, for) for the primacy of Christ in the work of creation (Colossians 1:16). It is the constative aorist passive indicative εκτισθη (from κτιζω, old verb, to found, to create (Romans 1:25). This central activity of Christ in the work of creation is presented also in John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2 and is a complete denial of the Gnostic philosophy. The whole of creative activity is summed up in Christ including the angels in heaven and everything on earth. God wrought through "the Son of his love." All earthly dignities are included.
Have been created (εκτιστα). Perfect passive indicative of κτιζω, "stand created," "remain created." The permanence of the universe rests, then, on Christ far more than on gravity. It is a Christo-centric universe.
Through him (δι' αυτου). As the intermediate and sustaining agent. He had already used εν αυτω (in him) as the sphere of activity.
And unto him (κα εις αυτον). This is the only remaining step to take and Paul takes it (1 Corinthians 15:28) See Ephesians 1:10 for similar use of εν αυτω of Christ and in Colossians 1:19; Colossians 1:20 again we have εν αυτωι, δι' αυτου, εις αυτον used of Christ. See Hebrews 2:10 for δι' ον (because of whom) and δι' ου (by means of whom) applied to God concerning the universe (τα παντα). In Romans 11:35 we find εξ αυτου κα δι' αυτου κα εις αυτον τα παντα referring to God. But Paul does not use εξ in this connection of Christ, but only εν, δια, and εις. See the same distinction preserved in 1 Corinthians 8:6 (εξ of God, δια, of Christ).
Verse 17
Before all things (προ παντων). Προ with the ablative case. This phrase makes Paul's meaning plain. The precedence of Christ in time and the preeminence as Creator are both stated sharply. See the claim of Jesus to eternal timeless existence in John 8:58; John 17:5. See also Revelation 23:13 where Christ calls himself the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning (αρχη) and the End (τελος). Paul states it also in 2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:6.
Consist (συνεστηκεν). Perfect active indicative (intransitive) of συνιστημ, old verb, to place together and here to cohere, to hold together. The word repeats the statements in verse Colossians 1:16, especially that in the form εκτιστα. Christ is the controlling and unifying force in nature. The Gnostic philosophy that matter is evil and was created by a remote aeon is thus swept away. The Son of God's love is the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe which is not evil.
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/rwp/colossians-1.html
J.B. Phillips New Testament
15-20 Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He existed before creation began, for it was through him that every thing was made, whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen. Through him, and for him, also, were created power and dominion, ownership and authority. In fact, every single thing was created through, and for him. He is both the first principle and the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation.
Colossians 1:15-17
GOD’S WORD Translation
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
16 He created all things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible.
Whether they are kings or lords,
rulers or powers—
everything has been created through him and for him.
17 He existed before everything
and holds everything together.
Ephesians 1:7 we find παραπτωματων (slips, fallings aside, from παραπιπτω).
Verse 15
The image (εικων). In predicate and no article. On εικων, see 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29; Colossians 3:10. Jesus is the very stamp of God the Father as he was before the Incarnation (John 17:5) and is now (Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:3).
Of the invisible God (του θεου του αορατου). But the one who sees Jesus has seen God (John 14:9). See this verbal adjective (α privative and οραω) in Romans 1:20.
The first born (πρωτοτοκος). Predicate adjective again and anarthrous. This passage is parallel to the Λογος passage in John 1:1-18 and to Hebrews 1:1-4 as well as Philippians 2:5-11 in which these three writers (John, author of Hebrews, Paul) give the high conception of the Person of Christ (both Son of God and Son of Man) found also in the Synoptic Gospels and even in Q (the Father, the Son). This word (LXX and N.T.) can no longer be considered purely "Biblical" (Thayer), since it is found In inscriptions (Deissmann, Light, etc., p. 91) and in the papyri (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, etc.). See it already in Luke 2:7 and Aleph for Matthew 1:25; Romans 8:29. The use of this word does not show what Arius argued that Paul regarded Christ as a creature like "all creation" (πασης κτισεως, by metonomy the act regarded as result). It is rather the comparative (superlative) force of πρωτος that is used (first-born of all creation) as in Colossians 1:18; Romans 8:29; Hebrews 1:6; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 1:5. Paul is here refuting the Gnostics who pictured Christ as one of the aeons by placing him before "all creation" (angels and men). Like εικων we find πρωτοτοκος in the Alexandrian vocabulary of the Λογος teaching (Philo) as well as in the LXX. Paul takes both words to help express the deity of Jesus Christ in his relation to the Father as εικων (Image) and to the universe as πρωτοτοκος (First-born).
Verse 16
All things (τα παντα). The universe as in Romans 11:35, a well-known philosophical phrase. It is repeated at the end of the verse.
In him were created (εν αυτω εκτισθη). Paul now gives the reason (οτ, for) for the primacy of Christ in the work of creation (Colossians 1:16). It is the constative aorist passive indicative εκτισθη (from κτιζω, old verb, to found, to create (Romans 1:25). This central activity of Christ in the work of creation is presented also in John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2 and is a complete denial of the Gnostic philosophy. The whole of creative activity is summed up in Christ including the angels in heaven and everything on earth. God wrought through "the Son of his love." All earthly dignities are included.
Have been created (εκτιστα). Perfect passive indicative of κτιζω, "stand created," "remain created." The permanence of the universe rests, then, on Christ far more than on gravity. It is a Christo-centric universe.
Through him (δι' αυτου). As the intermediate and sustaining agent. He had already used εν αυτω (in him) as the sphere of activity.
And unto him (κα εις αυτον). This is the only remaining step to take and Paul takes it (1 Corinthians 15:28) See Ephesians 1:10 for similar use of εν αυτω of Christ and in Colossians 1:19; Colossians 1:20 again we have εν αυτωι, δι' αυτου, εις αυτον used of Christ. See Hebrews 2:10 for δι' ον (because of whom) and δι' ου (by means of whom) applied to God concerning the universe (τα παντα). In Romans 11:35 we find εξ αυτου κα δι' αυτου κα εις αυτον τα παντα referring to God. But Paul does not use εξ in this connection of Christ, but only εν, δια, and εις. See the same distinction preserved in 1 Corinthians 8:6 (εξ of God, δια, of Christ).
Verse 17
Before all things (προ παντων). Προ with the ablative case. This phrase makes Paul's meaning plain. The precedence of Christ in time and the preeminence as Creator are both stated sharply. See the claim of Jesus to eternal timeless existence in John 8:58; John 17:5. See also Revelation 23:13 where Christ calls himself the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning (αρχη) and the End (τελος). Paul states it also in 2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:6.
Consist (συνεστηκεν). Perfect active indicative (intransitive) of συνιστημ, old verb, to place together and here to cohere, to hold together. The word repeats the statements in verse Colossians 1:16, especially that in the form εκτιστα. Christ is the controlling and unifying force in nature. The Gnostic philosophy that matter is evil and was created by a remote aeon is thus swept away. The Son of God's love is the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe which is not evil.
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/rwp/colossians-1.html
- Psalms 33:6 (RSV) By the word of the LORD [i.e., not by existing matter] the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed.
"
The Biblical testimony
The Bible opens with the words:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters,” (Genesis 1:1-2).
In the beginning, there is God. God then creates the heavens and the earth. Some have tried to argue that verse 2 implies preexisting matter before the initial act of creation, a formless and void deep which God transforms into an organized universe, but this isn’t what the text says. It says that God created the earth. It then tells us that the earth was formless and void. The earth is something that we were literally just told that God created. The formless and void deep on which God will subsequently act is something that God first brought into existence. The fact that God continues to shape, form, fill, and bring additional order to the heavens and the earth does not contradict the fact that God first created them. Indeed, the fact that the earth was formless and void after God initially created it proves that there could not have been preexisting matter. If there was the preexisting formless and void matter, and then God creates the earth with it, but it is still formless and void matter, what did God do? Nothing changed! The formless and void matter remained formless and void matter. No, the passage is clearly saying that God brought the substance of the heavens and the earth into existence where they did not exist before. God, by the power of His command, created the world from nothing. As the Psalmist declares:
“The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all it contains, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them” (Psalm 89:11-12).
And that this was done merely by God’s almighty Word:
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host,” (Psalm 33:6).
And this includes every kind of created thing:
“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away,” (Psalm 148:1-6).
This is affirmed by other biblical authors as well, for example:
“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16).
“You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You,” (Nehemiah 9:6).
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,’ declares the Lord. ‘But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word'” (Isaiah 66:1-2).
“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created,” (Revelation 4:11).
Things came into being where before they had no being. They were created, brought into existence, by the power, will, and Word of Almighty God. This is biblical teaching:
The Biblical testimony
The Bible opens with the words:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters,” (Genesis 1:1-2).
In the beginning, there is God. God then creates the heavens and the earth. Some have tried to argue that verse 2 implies preexisting matter before the initial act of creation, a formless and void deep which God transforms into an organized universe, but this isn’t what the text says. It says that God created the earth. It then tells us that the earth was formless and void. The earth is something that we were literally just told that God created. The formless and void deep on which God will subsequently act is something that God first brought into existence. The fact that God continues to shape, form, fill, and bring additional order to the heavens and the earth does not contradict the fact that God first created them. Indeed, the fact that the earth was formless and void after God initially created it proves that there could not have been preexisting matter. If there was the preexisting formless and void matter, and then God creates the earth with it, but it is still formless and void matter, what did God do? Nothing changed! The formless and void matter remained formless and void matter. No, the passage is clearly saying that God brought the substance of the heavens and the earth into existence where they did not exist before. God, by the power of His command, created the world from nothing. As the Psalmist declares:
“The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all it contains, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them” (Psalm 89:11-12).
And that this was done merely by God’s almighty Word:
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host,” (Psalm 33:6).
And this includes every kind of created thing:
“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away,” (Psalm 148:1-6).
This is affirmed by other biblical authors as well, for example:
“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16).
“You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You,” (Nehemiah 9:6).
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,’ declares the Lord. ‘But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word'” (Isaiah 66:1-2).
“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created,” (Revelation 4:11).
Things came into being where before they had no being. They were created, brought into existence, by the power, will, and Word of Almighty God. This is biblical teaching:
The historical testimony
It is worth noting how those who believed these Scriptures in the ancient world understood their meaning. This is only a sampling, and there are many more examples beyond these. One Jewish source from over a century before the time of the New Testament declares:
“I beg you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed,” (2 Maccabees 7:28-29).
An early Jewish Midrash also preserves a conversation between a gentile philosopher and the first-century Jewish sage, Gamaliel, in which Gamaliel refutes the idea that God was merely an artist working with existing material. Gamaliel walks through a variety of biblical texts to argue that each of the supposed pre-existing materials was itself a creation of God, thus showing that God brought into existence even the substance from which creation is made.1 Even if this conversation were a fable that never actually occurred, it would be a very ancient fable that testifies to a Jewish understanding that the Old Testament Scriptures affirm creation out of nothing.
A Christian writer named Aristides, very early in the second century, wrote:
“Let us proceed then, O King, to the elements themselves that we may show in regard to them that they are not gods, but perishable and mutable, produced out of that which did not exist at the command of the true God, who is indestructible and immutable and invisible,” (Apology of Aristides Chapter 4).
And around the mid-second century, a Christian leader named Hermas wrote:
“God, who dwells in the heavens and made out of nothing the things that exist” (Shepherd of Hermas, Book 1, Chapter 1).
In the latter half of the second century, Irenaeus wrote of God’s creation of the universe:
“While men, indeed, cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of matter already existing, yet God is in this point pre-eminently superior to men, that He Himself called into being the substance of His creation when previously it had no existence,” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, Chapter 10, Section 4).
Other second-century Christian leaders concurred in passages such as:
“The case stands thus: we can see that the whole structure of the world, and the whole creation, has been produced from matter, and the matter itself brought into existence by God” (Tatian, Address to the Greeks, Chapter 12).
“For the heavens are His work, the earth is His creation, the sea is His handiwork; man is His formation and His image; sun, moon, and stars are His elements, made for signs, and seasons, and days, and years, that they may serve and be slaves to man; and all things God has made out of things that were not into things that are, in order that through His works His greatness may be known and understood,” (Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, Book 1, Chapter 4).
Tertullian, a leading figure in Latin Christianity in the later second and early third centuries, professes that the church held it to be a “rule of faith,” or an essential Christian doctrine, that “nothing except God was uncreated.”2 He elsewhere defines this “rule of faith”:
“There is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word,” (Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heresies, Chapter 13).
And further explains:
“The conclusion of the whole is this: I find that there was nothing made, except out of nothing; because that which I find was made, I know did not once exist. Whatever was made out of something, has its origin in something made: for instance, out of the ground was made the grass, and the fruit, and the cattle, and the form of man himself; so from the waters were produced the animals which swim and fly. The original fabrics out of which such creatures were produced I may call their materials, but then even these were created by God,” (Tertullian, Against Hermogenes, Chapter 33).
The earliest Christians clearly understood the Scriptures to teach that God created even the very substance, essence, and material of the world from nothing. He brought it into existence by the power of His Word.
The scientific testimony
It’s worth very briefly noting how scientific observations are consistent with the idea that the universe came into existence out of nothing rather than existing eternally or forming from pre-existing material. Modern astrophysics has confirmed by both mathematics and observation that the universe is continually expanding.3 This does not mean that the matter in the universe is spreading out into open space, but rather that space itself is expanding. This being the case, the universe was smaller in the past than it is today. If we trace it back, there is a maximum age for the universe. It eventually reduces back to a single point, and then to nothing. The universe can, of course, be much younger than this. God need not have created the universe as a single point. He could have created (and, indeed, did create) the universe more fully developed than that and it has expanded from there. The point is, even if we knew nothing of when or how God created, we could still look around and know for sure that the universe was, indeed, brought into existence from nothing. An expanding universe must have a starting point. Even time and space could not exist before this point. Without any sort of universe, not even time or space, there can be no preexisting material substance. There is no matter from which the universe could be formed. Thus, even secular scientists agree that the universe came into existence from nothing.4 While there are a variety of models that, at best, delay the problem further into the past, none can escape the ultimate reality that even the very substance of the universe had a beginning. These facts also negate eternal, cyclical models of the universe found in many eastern religions in which the universe has always existed. The universe is finite. It began to exist, and there was no matter before it."
https://carm.org/about-god/did-god-create-the-universe-from-nothing/
It is worth noting how those who believed these Scriptures in the ancient world understood their meaning. This is only a sampling, and there are many more examples beyond these. One Jewish source from over a century before the time of the New Testament declares:
“I beg you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed,” (2 Maccabees 7:28-29).
An early Jewish Midrash also preserves a conversation between a gentile philosopher and the first-century Jewish sage, Gamaliel, in which Gamaliel refutes the idea that God was merely an artist working with existing material. Gamaliel walks through a variety of biblical texts to argue that each of the supposed pre-existing materials was itself a creation of God, thus showing that God brought into existence even the substance from which creation is made.1 Even if this conversation were a fable that never actually occurred, it would be a very ancient fable that testifies to a Jewish understanding that the Old Testament Scriptures affirm creation out of nothing.
A Christian writer named Aristides, very early in the second century, wrote:
“Let us proceed then, O King, to the elements themselves that we may show in regard to them that they are not gods, but perishable and mutable, produced out of that which did not exist at the command of the true God, who is indestructible and immutable and invisible,” (Apology of Aristides Chapter 4).
And around the mid-second century, a Christian leader named Hermas wrote:
“God, who dwells in the heavens and made out of nothing the things that exist” (Shepherd of Hermas, Book 1, Chapter 1).
In the latter half of the second century, Irenaeus wrote of God’s creation of the universe:
“While men, indeed, cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of matter already existing, yet God is in this point pre-eminently superior to men, that He Himself called into being the substance of His creation when previously it had no existence,” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, Chapter 10, Section 4).
Other second-century Christian leaders concurred in passages such as:
“The case stands thus: we can see that the whole structure of the world, and the whole creation, has been produced from matter, and the matter itself brought into existence by God” (Tatian, Address to the Greeks, Chapter 12).
“For the heavens are His work, the earth is His creation, the sea is His handiwork; man is His formation and His image; sun, moon, and stars are His elements, made for signs, and seasons, and days, and years, that they may serve and be slaves to man; and all things God has made out of things that were not into things that are, in order that through His works His greatness may be known and understood,” (Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, Book 1, Chapter 4).
Tertullian, a leading figure in Latin Christianity in the later second and early third centuries, professes that the church held it to be a “rule of faith,” or an essential Christian doctrine, that “nothing except God was uncreated.”2 He elsewhere defines this “rule of faith”:
“There is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word,” (Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heresies, Chapter 13).
And further explains:
“The conclusion of the whole is this: I find that there was nothing made, except out of nothing; because that which I find was made, I know did not once exist. Whatever was made out of something, has its origin in something made: for instance, out of the ground was made the grass, and the fruit, and the cattle, and the form of man himself; so from the waters were produced the animals which swim and fly. The original fabrics out of which such creatures were produced I may call their materials, but then even these were created by God,” (Tertullian, Against Hermogenes, Chapter 33).
The earliest Christians clearly understood the Scriptures to teach that God created even the very substance, essence, and material of the world from nothing. He brought it into existence by the power of His Word.
The scientific testimony
It’s worth very briefly noting how scientific observations are consistent with the idea that the universe came into existence out of nothing rather than existing eternally or forming from pre-existing material. Modern astrophysics has confirmed by both mathematics and observation that the universe is continually expanding.3 This does not mean that the matter in the universe is spreading out into open space, but rather that space itself is expanding. This being the case, the universe was smaller in the past than it is today. If we trace it back, there is a maximum age for the universe. It eventually reduces back to a single point, and then to nothing. The universe can, of course, be much younger than this. God need not have created the universe as a single point. He could have created (and, indeed, did create) the universe more fully developed than that and it has expanded from there. The point is, even if we knew nothing of when or how God created, we could still look around and know for sure that the universe was, indeed, brought into existence from nothing. An expanding universe must have a starting point. Even time and space could not exist before this point. Without any sort of universe, not even time or space, there can be no preexisting material substance. There is no matter from which the universe could be formed. Thus, even secular scientists agree that the universe came into existence from nothing.4 While there are a variety of models that, at best, delay the problem further into the past, none can escape the ultimate reality that even the very substance of the universe had a beginning. These facts also negate eternal, cyclical models of the universe found in many eastern religions in which the universe has always existed. The universe is finite. It began to exist, and there was no matter before it."
https://carm.org/about-god/did-god-create-the-universe-from-nothing/
Would it include a dry sense of humor and a strong desire to buy stock in Band-Aid gauze wrap? Freshness guarantee.
True. Adam was created from the dirt, some say dust, of the ground. Ashes aren't a threat to our resurrection. Beats being in a casket wearing makeup you never wore in life, with all your orifices glued shut. Well, all except the ears. Those may be too for all I know.
"WHAT?"
Everybody needs a bit of levity. Especially when talking about the body's afterlife.
Make sure you get an executor for your will or trust that you can trust. "I want to be cremated." They hold a grudge against you and you end up stuffed and mounted on a pole in your garden. Scarecrow karma.
That would suck.
-
1
- Show all
