A friend just wrote me:
I missed this controversial article in Christianity Today, but I believe I sent an email to one of your old boxes regarding Unitarian Universalist ministers publishing a book outlining Early Christians professing belief in earth-only destination and no heavenly hope.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/april/13.36.html
This N. T. Wright professes much the same and uses much of the same arguments as John Thomas of Christadelphians and Adventists to debunk heavenly hope. Although most have recanted and outline a limited belief in heavenly hope, like early Bible Students, to a limited number of faithful. Most of the arguments I've seen published, however, much like John Thomas' own free-thinker analysis failed to address scriptures that explicit discuss a future heavenly hope--"in my Father's house there are many dwelling places" and Peter's "new heavens and a new earth" (literal or metaphorical?). The shock for most comments following the article is that a "Billy Graham Ministries" magazine/journal would publish an article that is seemingly Seventh-Day Adventist and endorsing "soul-sleep" [although Martin Luther also proposed and wrote about this when breaking out of Catholicism].
Randy’s response:
Actually the heavenly hope (as disembodied bodies) was completely foreign to the Talmud and the Jews. To this day the bodies of the ones who can afford it dessicate in limestone small tombs surrounding the mount, and then the remains, once dessicated, are transferred to small jars which are then store below the site.
The idea is that WHEN the Messiah returns to create the "New Jerusalem," the bodies on the mount will pop out of the graves and roll down into the holy city, where they will be rejoined by their "Rephaim", or "shades" (ghosts). Thus they become a whole and strong person once more, yet able to resist sickness. etc. Just like the GB teaches. Thus Jerusalem becomes the center of the world!
The problem is. although Jesus' teachings were 90% Pharisaical (including the to-be-taken-literally (at least as a vivid illustration of possible real events to occur later) rich man and Lazarus), JESUS introduced the heavenly hope (really a glorified earthly hope) but it was a rather foreign concept and only desired because many wanted to be with Jesus, at least among Christians.
The Watchtower has it backwards. Read the generally-recognized-as-spurious text of Revelation to get clues. Personally, I think John was on hallucinogens. Only Jude and 1-3 John give such overt clues as well. Evolution of the Bible! Just like revising the upcoming-this-year New Wurld Transition Bible.
Also, the horrendous, worse-than-Hitler concepts of Tartarus, Lake of Fire, everlasting flames and TORTURE being watched gleefully by Jehovah FOREVER and FOREVER (Greek: aionios ton aionios) - a new concept to Jews!! and all the angels (Jesus presumably included) Gehenna and satan as the one true devil (they had many) were all invented by the Hellenistic Greeks and borrowed - like virtually everything else - from the myths of the most popular religions of the day - Persians, Egyptians, etc.). This is seldom open for debate by religiously unbiased Biblical historians. There is simply too much direct AND circumstantial evidence.
Hebrews were in the bumpkin stage compared to the evolved civilizations around them. Jehovah was a third-rate god to any others. They were not afraid of him!
The Greek language and philosophy was especially useful to the Pharisees because it introduces abstract concepts, like "infinity", "forever," etc. as the Jews had no such abstract philosophical ideas in the past. That's why the JWs can interpret Sheol as "the grave," because EVERYONE went there (at least their souls... not their bodies). They had no "zero" or "eternity" or "infinity" as we understand it. It's all reworked Greek and Babylonian concepts when it comes to the judgment day in Revelation.
Sheol later became "hell," but there is little resemblance. Most Bibles translate rephaim, ghosts, spirits of the dead, souls being tortured forever, etc.) Get a Bible like the New American Standard and compare the footnotes! When we die we are GHOSTS apart from our bodies... conscious! (According to the last part of the 66 books.)
Neither were Jews afraid of the devil. There were several devils, each with varying powers.
Jews borrowed almost everything from the more advanced civilizations around them... including monotheism. Egyptians had that long before the Jews, but quickly changed back as it was unpopular. One of the MAIN reasons Christians were persecuted was for ignoring the other deities... an insult. They could keep Jehovah and Jesus... but don't insult their other gods!!
Before you ask for proof or debate, read my comparison of the two prevalent types of Jews and Christians in the first 2 centuries from the Jewish " Everyman's Talmud ," a concentrated version of the Talmud.
See:
Or read the whole tome HERE.
The Sadducees did not believe in hardly anything supernatural. Jesus learned at the feet of the Pharisees - the ORTHODOX religious leaders of the day. His doctrines, as far as we know, were virtually identical to the Pharisees.!! (GET IT, all you sects of Christianity that deny hell, etc!)
A two-week trip all over Israel, including the digs in old Jerusalem, old temples from around the time of Constantine, along with a tour guide who is a Christian pastor and knows Hebrew and Biblical Greek fluently, taught me a lot. A good 10 day trip down the Nile was educational, as well as a stop-off at the Greek ruins from that era.)
From then onward, I loved archeology and historical digs. I am a dinosaur fan from early youth. :-))
Randy Watters