Nothing Disembodied

This phraseology was commonplace. And it still is in certain corners of Christianity. Certainly, the Bible has much to say about the soul. And God’s redemption of humanity includes the soul.

But I was always confused by that language. I wasn’t quite sure what a soul was, and I was even more perplexed about what would happen to my body.

To be fair, most of these pastors also talked about a physical resurrection, but this teaching seemed to take a secondary position.

For probably the first half of my life, I imagined heaven as a place where our disembodied souls went after we died and at the end of time. I don’t think anyone ever suggested that. I just filled in the blanks based on the prevalence of “soul” talk.

So, it was shocking to me when I discovered that Christians believed in a physical resurrection and that they would continue to have a physical body in eternity.

It should not have been shocking. It’s right there in the Bible. But it was unexpected to me.

As I have studied the Bible, theology, and Church history more, I have come to see just how critical it is that we insist on the redemption of our bodies.

As Peterson explains, Jesus does not offer us a disembodied salvation. His plan for our redemption is holistic, and a “soul” salvation is far too impoverished an idea.

This example from my own life is a great illustration of why studying the Bible is so important.

The mistake I made is very natural, and you have probably made similar mistakes.

I was young and did not have a solid grasp on the Bible's content. So, I filled in the gaps that I perceived with my own theological conclusions.

Again, I don't remember anyone telling me that we went to heaven as disembodied souls. Or at least, I don't remember anyone denying a physical resurrection.

Yet, I did not know the Bible sufficiently to correct the imbalanced way I was learning.

As I got older and studied the Bible in greater depth, I came to realize that I had made some theological errors. I had drawn the wrong conclusions based on what I thought I was hearing in sermons.

Again, to be fair, this was not the pastors' fault. In fact, the primary pastor I listened to was my dad. And he certainly believed in the future bodily resurrection.

So, I hope this will be a lesson to us all.

We always need to grow in our study of Scripture. If we don't, we are prone to filling in our gaps of knowledge with faulty theological conclusions.