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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Joe,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>I actually think there are
some very fascinating philosophical questions regarding your thoughts on
eternal life. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>You Wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Michael speaks of the
resurrection of the body but knowledge of such an event seems remote at best.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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 12<sup>th</sup>
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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Thanks!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Michael Metzler<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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