A place to snark and vent about CoC doctrine and/or our experiences in the CoC. This is a place for SUPPORT and AGREEMENT only, not a place to tell someone their experience and feelings are wrong, or why we disagree with them.
klp wrote:I heard it was like a half dozen virgins.
Can anyone please explain what the big deal is about virgins? It seems everybody wants one (or a half dozen), but nobody wants to be one?
Quite frankly it's about male privilege of ownership, with "unused" women as a commodity. Like winning a new car. It's really quite insulting if you consider the implications, which most people usually don't.
zeek wrote:Can anyone please explain what the big deal is about virgins? It seems everybody wants one (or a half dozen), but nobody wants to be one?
Most don't get out of this life as a virgin. The best sex is not with a virgin but with someone who understands about sex from both sides. It is meant as a blessing from God. Most of us are the result of a male orgasm. That is no big deal. For the female it takes time. I like the song about wanting a slow hand from a slow man. Who doesn't cum and go in a heated rush. I like it with a female sultry led.
One of the problems for Christianity is the fertile imagination of Dante. The concept of Hell is another example of how Christian History has colored Christianity. Another example is denominations. Which come from the middle ages. The trinity is an idea from the 4th century. It is not clearly stated in the Bible and was a problem for early Christians. Even Christianity today has a historical evolution that is unrecognized by most.
I was told by a Muslim man that the passage about houris should not be taken literally. Rather, the idea is that in heaven we will have everything that makes us happy.
My point is that I find it absurd to belittle and deride Heaven as a place to be. If one does not believe in it then fine, but to think it is a place of suffering or discontent is absurd by the very definition of the word. If one has issues with various descriptions of heaven in the cofc, then what about other "motivating" descriptions? To me it is nonsense to pre-complain about a place that is by definition beyond comprehension. Again, this is in the case of where one believes in it, not the disbelievers.
Isn't the world wonderful...I am all for rational optimism and I am staying positive.
Lev wrote: This isn't just a COC misunderstanding; it's a misunderstanding that the COC interpreted from the denominations from which it descended. The Bible really does not include the concept of "die and go to heaven." It does have a lot to say about New Creation. As Wright discusses in the book, that has profound implications for what we do here on earth that affects other people and the earth itself. It also has implications for our understanding of "hell" but unfortunately Wright doesn't flesh that part out very fully in his book. Revelation 21 is a great image of the idea of God "dwelling with man." When I started to think in these terms it really made sense of a lot of the New Testament, especially Jesus' "on earth as it is in heaven" prayer and the whole idea of new creation, which actually is a recurring theme throughout the Bible.
The COC misses alot. The is because the 1000 year reign of Jesus is predicted in the Old Testament literature. The Coc talks about the resurrection a lot but does not have the whole picture. Jesus did talk about the kingdom.
Is 9.6 KJV For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
This is a physical government, folks. The COC cops out. You will get it in spades talking to Jehovah Witness or premillennialists. It's a part of Christian Theology where you heard only half the story. I believe they confuse heaven with the 1000 year reign. There are differing points of view on this. Many baptists spend their whole life arguing about. The COC does not have a corner of this market. Be aware but be careful with future things. Many have been proven wrong. I just assume what happens happens. When it happens it will have been predictable. You can simply relax because things are really screwed up. It's predicted afterall.
From a cOC standpoint, Heaven sounds like an inescapable prison. At least in this life, we have freedom. Can the same be said of Heaven? It sure doesn't sound like there is any freedom there. If anything, it sounds like slavery. Yet, the cOCers "can't wait to die so they can get there"? Anytime one of them talked about how "jealous" they were of those that had passed on, I doubted their sincerity in such statements. I mean, the people who would say things like that were the ones who loved life here on earth the most! One guy who used to say that quite often was also an avid water skier, hiker, sky diver, you name it. I could not imagine someone like that actually looking forward to the cOC's version of Heaven.
agricola wrote:I first heard that (heaven as one long - eternally long - coc service) when I was pretty small (maybe eight?). Even at that age the whole idea was appalling to me, and at that age, I didn't particularly MIND 'church' (but that didn't mean I wanted it to last any longer!). Even the typical 'heaven' images in the NT never sounded like a place I wanted to spend time in (metal walls, metal buildings, never a tree or a blade of grass) and then our dog died and my mother told me that of course no animals were in heaven....
Why on earth would any sane child want to go to that place?
I have always wondered what else there would be to do in Heaven besides just attend what amounted to church.
There won't be any sex in Heaven. Mansions, Streets of Gold, Singing but no sex....like forever! Tell me again why everyone is so excited about going to Heaven.
Muslim Heaven has sex,...lots of sex with hot babes. Maybe that's why B.H. made the switch.
