{"id":10172,"date":"2018-04-05T12:14:54","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T12:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=10172"},"modified":"2018-04-05T12:14:54","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T12:14:54","slug":"israel-and-the-afterlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/10172\/israel-and-the-afterlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel and the Afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have it in my head that old testament Israel had no knowledge of an afterlife with God.\u00a0 Also, that their understanding of the value of being God’s chosen people was based solely on receiving the blessings and protection that He promised them in this dangerous world, alone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, David knew his soul could not be hidden from God, even in Sheol\/Hell. Which means they had to have some idea about an afterlife?<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there some element of that idea of mine – that the Israelites were serving God only for help with earthly things, that is true?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like I remember the very place I was sitting when you taught me that they obeyed God for His Earthly protection alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerry\u00a0\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n

========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Jerry.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

David said, “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” \u00a0So, I don’t see how it could be that the Israelites did not know about living forever.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

No, I have never taught that the Israelites were\u00a0ignorant\u00a0of an afterlife, but you may have heard me mention that some people teach that.\u00a0 I was made aware of that doctrine while attending seminary in 1976 or so, and I knew it was wrong even then.\u00a0 I was told of some scholars who taught that the Israelites had no concept of a difference between the\u00a0soul and the body, but that is easily disproved (e.g., 1Kgs.\u00a017:21).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for the question.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,\u00a0 I have it in my head that old testament Israel had no knowledge of an afterlife with God.\u00a0 Also, that their understanding of the value of being God’s chosen people was based solely on receiving the blessings and protection that He promised them in this dangerous world, alone.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet, David knew his soul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}