Free choice in next life

[dizerner]

[user account removed]

[Paidion]

I guess I would start with the passage of the beggar and Lazarus (Luke 16) and the fact that even though Lazarus seemed to express repentance he could not bridge the gulf between the redeemed and unredeemed. From there we could work through passages speaking of spiritual life and death that carry with them a great finality, that in the afterlife there is no longer the dynamic of changing our spiritual destiny. I can't really see a Biblical case for any purgatory-like place.

Uh... Lazarus WAS the beggar in the parable. In any case, it seems this parable suggests an afterlife in Hades, as was commonly believed among Jewish people of the day. The Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote a treatise on the matter that greatly parallels the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, except that it is in greater detail. I think Jesus point in this parable, was that even if a person could return from the dead and warn people, they would not repent.

In my own search of Scripture I have found no passage which affirms that physical death is the cut-off point, the point at which one's doom is sealed. I think Steve Gregg, who hosts this forum, has said something similar.

[dizerner]

[user account removed]

[Paidion]

How do you view the Greek for destruction (I assume not an annihilationist).

The Greek word for "destroy" is "απολλυμι" (apollumi) and is used in the following verse:

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." (Matt 2:13)

However, the word also means "loses":

"...whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:35)

Surely the word couldn't be "destroyed" here. Could you save your life by destroying it?

The father, concerning his "prodigal son" said:

...for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. (Lu 15:24)

His son was not destroyed; he was lost.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:4-7)

In this passage, the man's sheep was not destroyed. It was lost. It could be found again. The same with a repentant sinner.

I invite you to consider how “destroy” is sometimes used in the scriptures as shown in the following passage from I Peter 1:3-7

Praise be the God and Father of the Anointed Lord Jesus, who, in keeping with His great mercy has regenerated us for the purpose of a living hope, through the resurrection of the Anointed Jesus from the dead, into an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance reserved in heaven for you, who, by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. In this you exult, yet for a little while, if necessary, grieving in various trials in order that the testing of you of the faith, very valuable, gold being destroyed through fire, yet being tested, may be found for praise and glory and honour at the revealing of Jesus the Anointed.

Peter compared either his readers or the testing of their faith to gold being destroyed by fire. Now we all know that pure gold cannot be destroyed by fire. It can be melted, but cannot be destroyed (in the usual sense of the word). What then, did Peter mean? Did he not mean that gold in its original form (gold ore) can be destroyed by fire so that the pure gold can come forth? Was he not referring to the refining process? When we undergo various trials, our character can be refined. So the destruction of the wicked could mean the destruction of their impurities, while the person himself is saved through that destruction. If a person's work is (figuratively) wood, hay, and stubble, his works will be burned when tested by fire, but he himself shall be saved (I Cor 3:15)

But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner‘s fire and like fullers’ soap. Malachi 3:2 RSV

Both fire and soap can purify. That is what the Lord can do for a person, and sometimes He does it through trials.

Origen (185-254) provided a similar understanding of "destroy". Origen believed Satan to be "the last enemy" which would be destroyed.

When it is said that ‘the last enemy shall be destroyed’, it is not to be understood as meaning that his substance, which is God's creation, perishes, but that his purpose and hostile will perishes; for this does not come from God but from himself. Therefore his destruction means not his ceasing to exist but ceasing to be an enemy and ceasing to be death. Nothing is impossible to omnipotence; there is nothing that cannot be healed by its Maker. De Principiis, 1.vi.1-4