Hodge on the Adamic Covenant
His view is that had Adam persevered in righteousness and remained obedient to God (in every way, including not eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil), then he and Eve and, presumably, their descendants would have earned instant glory, which amounts to “infallible, moral excellence, and inalienable blessedness,” after the “probationary period” in the Garden. (Outlines of Theology, 311) I wonder, is this the opinion of the Catholic Church, as well?
To quote again from the NDE described in my The Body and Theodicy,
Death, in this world, was a time when the individual had experienced everything that he or she needed to experience. To die meant to lie down and let go; then the spirit would rise up, and the community would gather around. There would be a great rejoicing, because they all had insight into the heavenly realm, and the spirit would join with the angels that came down to meet it. They could see the spirit leave and knew that it was time for the spirit to move on; it had outgrown the need for growth in this world. Individuals who died had achieved all they were capable of in this world in terms of love, appreciation, understanding, and working in harmony with others.
Is this the world we could’ve had, or is the whole thing a preposterous fantasy?
Posted: February 20th, 2008 under Anthropology, Philosophy, Religion.