When Paul spoke in
Athens many people listened to him.
Until he started to
preach about the Resurrection to them.
And many of the
listeners left him, despising his teachings.
Even members of the
church, Christians, would deny the Resurrection.
And in the first
letter to the Corinthians, in the chapter 15, Paul describes the Resurrection
with detail.
So that people would
believe.
The way of thinking
of people in the Greco-Roman was ruled by philosophical logic.
These philosophies
had many similarities with Hinduism.
They considered the
body a prison for the soul that had descended from the heaven.
The death enabled the
soul to leave the body and be free again, so it could rise back to heaven.
In this kind of way
of thinking there was no space for resurrection of the body.
Because it would mean
that the soul would be prisoned forever.
The church has
struggled with this truth from its beginnings.
For one side we have
the histories of the Apostles that undeniably tell us that Jesus was raised
from the death.
On the other side is
the longing of our souls to the freedom of Heaven.
According to the
Greco-Roman thinking the world around us is lower, less than our souls and the
world of the minds.
But this is not the
Christian way of thinking.
According to the
Bible us, the people, and the world, are the peak of the creation.
We are God’s
masterpiece, the one that He was most proud of.
Jesus, the Eternal
Son of God, was given an immortal body in His Resurrection.
He did not only
vanquish the death and win evil but also showed to us that the material world,
when filled with God, has a place in God’s plans.
The Resurrection
shows that we, people made of flesh and bone have an eternal home.
It is our duty to
treat well our bodies, other people and the world where we live in.
This gives the
biblical foundations to human rights, physical healing, healthy living and
protection of the nature.
The Resurrection of
Jesus is the first step in the Resurrection of the world when we will all
become perfect in Him.
Indeed a hopeful article.
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