[Vision2020] Eternal Life???

[Michael]

Joe,

 

I actually think there are some very fascinating philosophical questions
regarding your thoughts on eternal life.  

 

You Wrote:

Michael speaks of the resurrection of the body but knowledge of such an
event seems remote at best.

 

Me:

The idea of hope has very firm epistemological status in scriptures and the
Christian Tradition, whereas it seems to play a more 'falliblist' role for
you : -).   On one level, this seems like the epistemological questions all
over again.  But there are also some metaphysical questions at this point
too.  Perhaps they ultimately tie together. Let me explain: to say that one
'knows' that they will have eternal life is usually another way of saying
that one 'has assurance' that they will have eternal life.  But there is a
different between knowing that your friend is in the room with you, or that
your friend will make a thudding noise if he jumps out of the 12th floor
window, and knowing that your friend will always be there for you in hard
times.  Similarly, there is a difference between knowing whether or not the
bible is actually the inspired words of God on the one hand, and on the
other, knowing that God will make good His promise to not only give eternal
life to people in general, but to give eternal life to you.  The first kind
of knowledge is of a factual claim and one that perhaps requires a bit of
evidence within the text of scripture, and perhaps even outside the text of
scripture. But the second kind of knowing is a matter of assurance or trust
in the reliability of a person, a reliance on the faithfulness of God's
promise.  

 

If God has not promised to give eternal life, then it would seem you are
absolutely right: why would I, thankful to have any life at all, go and
request Eternal Life?  How obnoxious could one be in the face of God? But if
God out of his own mysterious 'overboard' mercy and grace decides to take
idiots like me and not only forgive them for wrong doing, but to eternally
take on my own flesh, die in my place for me, and raise from the dead as the
archetypical pattern for not only new bodies but for an entirely new world,
then it would seem that there should be no presumption on our part if God
promises us that we will partake in what the bible speaks of as 'the new
creation.' In fact, from one angle, one could make the case that to not
believe this promise and accept it as true for you would be the truly
obnoxious move.  God, for whatever reason, goes and does all this, gives
this promise, says that he is faithful to keep his word to us, and yet we
say "nope, sorry, not gonna go along with something that weird."  This could
end up being worse than somebody without any promise from God requesting
eternal life on his own initiative. 

 

Knowledge of the resurrection of the body would be more than just 'remote'
if God, as they say, "has not spoken."  As Aquinas pointed out with some
justification, we're not going to epistemically arrive at this kind of
knowledge without a little bit of 'help,' such as "hey, look, this is what
I'm going to do, says the Lord."  In fact, the idea of a 'redeemed' world is
by definition inconsistent with some of what we see around us in this world
filled with pain, decay, and suffering. If we were really smart, yet all on
our own, we are still guaranteed to get the metaphysical situation entailed
by a Christian cosmology all wrong. And this leads me to the epistemological
question for you: on what basis do you even have any sort of hope at all if
it is not on the basis of what God said he has determined to do?  Perhaps
this leads someone with skeptical inclinations to ask, "but hey, how do I
know God spoke."  This leads us back to what Plantinga once referred to as
his epistemology "of grace," among many other things.  But it would seem
that there is no necessary objection to the more classical Christian
understanding that IF God had so determined to give us eternal life he would
have the ability to assure us of this determination-regardless of the
internalist intuitions of some philosophers!  And this is what the 'gospel'
is, isn't it?  A proclamation of this assurance?  

 

Anyhow, I'd be interested to know what aspects of this analysis you find
true, and what your objections would be to those aspects of this analysis
you find false.

 

Thanks!

Michael Metzler

 

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