Bob wrote: No one expects total continuity, but it seems that our Western assumptions of the coherence of reality and of God’s nature would logically encourage the expectation of some basic continuity, putting the burden on those denying it. Like all fundamentalists, you presume that the only way we can know anything is “divine revelation.” Even if that debateable premise were true, they still can’t seem to agree on what it reveals, and other input seems bound to influence conclusions.
Aaron: Actually, I wasn’t arguing for a complete lack of continuity; that which makes us who we are as a person (e.g., our memory and first-person perspective) will certainly continue. But as this much is revealed by in Scripture, we don’t have to speculate. But the question of whether or not we will still be sinners and in need of further punishment is entirely a matter of speculation unless it is revealed to us by God. To argue that we probably will be able to sin in the next life (since that is a part of our present existence) is no different than someone who is competely ignorant of the Bible asserting that we will probably will be able to die in the next life as well (since death is a part of our present existence) - or that we will probably be able to procreate and raise a family, since that too is a part of our present existence.
Bob: Does revelation reveal that the Sadduccess erred on the side of continuity about the nature of “our future state of existence”? I thought they believed in the ultimate discontinuity: there is no such life after death. I.e. they assumed that continuity made NO sense.
Aaron: Actually, in one sense they believed in strict continuity. Since for them the Torah didn’t reveal life after death, and there was no reason to believe from experience or observation that we continue live beyond death, then they believed that this present existence would simply continue just as it is, with life beginning with birth and ending with death, and no miraculous interruption of this natural cycle. There’s no discontinuity in this view unless it is assumed that there is some “part” of us that would continue on after death, but for whatever reason, doesn’t.
The idea of “life after death” was absurd to them because (as is evidenced by their question to Jesus about the woman who had seven husbands) they were applying the same strict continuity to it as well. Jesus corrects their erroneous view of the resurrection existence by arguing against such continuity.
Bob: Wasn’t Jesus’ response that experiencing God now as the God of Abraham must logically mean that there IS a continuity of Abraham’s “future state of existence,” such that he must continue in a similar existence before God as he experienced in this life? I.e. it seems like his argument against the Pharisees was FOR continuity.
Aaron: Again, only in a limited sense. The only thing Jesus is arguing will continue is the persons themselves - and even that is not due to some natural process, but because God is going to miraculously intervene and bring us back to life by his direct power. That is, our resurrection is going to be an interruption in the continuity of this natural existence. And we have no reason to argue from other aspects of our present mortal existence what our future immortal existence will be like. While one may speculate about it all they want, all we can know for sure is what Scripture has to say about it.
I’ll have more to say later, when I have more time! Time to head on to work.