P. Douglas

Having Faith is: ASKING God for things, AND BELIEVING you will receive them - Mark 11:22-24.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Biblical Support That God's Kingdom is Eternal, And The Material World Is Not

One thing detractors of Gnostic texts contend or object to, is the notion that God's kingdom is separate from the material universe / world. The following scriptures indicate that God's kingdom is eternal:

Luke 16

9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Amplified Bible

Mark 8

35 For whoever wants to save his [ higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the lower, natural, temporal life which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel's will save it [his higher, spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God].
36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life [ in the eternal kingdom of God]?

The following scriptures indicate that the material world is not eternal:

Amplified Bible

2 Peter 3

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the [material] elements [of the universe] will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

11 Since all these things are thus in the process of being dissolved, what kind of person ought [each of] you to be [in the meanwhile] in consecrated and holy behavior and devout and godly qualities,

12 While you wait and earnestly long for (expect and hasten) the coming of the day of God by reason of which the flaming heavens will be dissolved, and the [material] elements [of the universe] will flare and melt with fire?

Now, if God's kingdom is eternal, this means that it will not be destroyed. However, since God destroys only wicked and deficient things, this means that God's kingdom is pure and perfect. Also, since God will destroy the material universe, this means that the material universe is wicked and impure. Therefore Gnostic texts' contention that there is a pleroma (pure region of God) and a material universe beyond it, that is polluted with wickedness,  is actually supported by the Bible. Further, the Bible indicates that the material universe contains heavens that are different from the ones inhabited by God. This fact is stated in many Gnostic texts.

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