Immortality or Resurrection?

Periodically I look at what is on clearance at the AdventistBookCenter.Com. Often you can find a good book for a good price. Interestingly enough Dr. Bacchiocchi's book Immortality or Resurrection? is there for a price of about 8 bucks. Many treatments of the "State of the Dead" go to Ecclesiastes and a couple texts in the Psalms and then leave it there.

However Dr. Bacchiocchi takes us much further by looking at the history of views as well as theologically looks at the subject. We also see the problems of dualism in much greater coverage than usual.

The objectives according to Bacchiocchi are:

The first is to establish the Biblical view of human nature. We shall learn that the Bible sees human nature as an indivisible unity. This truth has been accepted in recent years by many scholars of all persuasions. In the Bible there is no dividing of a person into body and soul, or body, soul, and spirit. All of these are components or characteristics of the same person. The dichotomy of body and soul derives from Platonism and not from Biblical revelation. The Biblical view of human nature is wholistic or monistic, not dualistic. The Platonic view of the body as the prison of the soul is foreign to the Bible and has done great harm to Christian spirituality, soteriology, and eschatology.

The second objective of this book is to examine how the Biblical view of human nature relates to our present life and ultimate destiny. There is a tendency in scholarly studies to examine in isolation either the Biblical view of human nature (Biblical anthropology) or that of human destiny (Biblical eschatology). Seldom are attempts made to study the correlation between the two. Yet, the two cannot be studied in isolation because the Biblical view of human nature determines the view of human destiny.

Purchase this book. It is worth the price.