Afterlife Doctrine
Christians debate what the story says about the afterlife:
Most Christians believe in the immortality of the soul and particular judgment and see the story as consistent with it. Others believe that the main point of the parable was to warn the godless wealthy about their need for repentance in this life and Jesus did not intend to give a preview of life after death. The parable teaches in this particular case that both identity and memory remain after death for the soul of the one in a hell. Eastern Orthodox Christians see the story as consistent with their belief in Hades, where the righteous and unrighteous alike await the resurrection of the dead. Western Christians usually interpret Lazarus as being in Heaven or Limbo and the rich man in Hell.
Some Christians believe in the mortality of the soul ("Christian mortalism" or "soul sleep") and general judgment ("Last Judgement") only. This view is held by some Anglicans such as E. W. Bullinger. Proponents of the mortality of the soul, and general judgement, for example Advent Christians, Conditionalists, Seventh-day Adventists, Christadelphians, and Christian Universalists, argue that this is a parable using the framework of Jewish views of the Bosom of Abraham and is not definitive teaching on the intermediate state for several reasons.
Read more about this topic: Rich Man And Lazarus
Famous quotes containing the words afterlife and/or doctrine:
“What art can paint or gild any object in afterlife with the glow which Nature gives to the first baubles of childhood. St. Peter’s cannot have the magical power over us that the red and gold covers of our first picture-book possessed. How the imagination cleaves to the warm glories of that tinsel even now! What entertainments make every day bright and short for the fine freshman!”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Theory may be deliberate, as in a chapter on chemistry, or it may be second nature, as in the immemorial doctrine of ordinary enduring middle-sized physical objects.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)