What Are They Saying about Paul and the End Time by Joseph Plevnik - Book Report/Review Example

Paul OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK ‘WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT PAUL AND THE END TIME?’ The book ‘What are They Saying About Paul and the End Time?’ has been written by Joseph Plevnik. The book was first published in the year 1986. The book provides information in relation to religion as well as theology on Christianity. The book presents adequate information about the experience of Paul in relation to the death of Jesus and His lordship as a significant aspect to Christianity. In this regard, the author discusses different experiences of Paul and significance relating to resurrection of Christ. Additionally, the book also provides important information about justification in different areas that include hope, faith and the Cross. In this respect, the book brings forward eschatological thoughts of Paul about Christ. The discussion will present the different aspects preached by Paul through his gospel to the people of Corinth that human life is segregated into two parts which entail present existing body and the next resurrected body (Plevnik vii-viii). DISCUSSION The book ‘What are They Saying About Paul and the End Time?’ present adequate information about the thoughts of Paul in relation to different aspects of Christ that include His death, His coming, His lordship, His resurrection and His transformation. The thoughts of Paul have been identified as Pauline eschatology signifying different aspects about the conception of Christ. Paul signified his understanding about the end-time events relating to Christ and His believers in relation to the completion of His salvation. The event reflecting the death of Christ is associated as well as connected with the incident of Christ’s resurrection. Christ’s resurrection is discussed in order to describe the importance of future resurrection. Pauline’s hope and Christ’s lordship have been important for revealing the significance of Christ’s coming. Additionally, the resurrection as well as the transformation is associated with the aspect of the coming of Christ. Paul thoughts signified that believers of Christ have joyful realization for being with Him. In this regard, the gospel of Paul signified the important aspects about the death, burial as well as resurrection relating to Christ. Respectively, theology of Paul is presented through his thoughts by different areas that include baptism, Christian ethics and Israel’s future (Plevnik 1-25). Initially, the book represents important notes about gospel preached by Paul. Paul preached about the scriptures, which signified that Jesus died owing to the sins of the people and followers in Corinth. Additionally, the scriptures also signified that Christ was buried and on the third day, He raised from the dead. Cephas was the first one to see the Christ after His rebirth and then He appeared before the twelve disciples for their stubbornness as well as unfaithfulness in believing that He had risen from death. Subsequently, Paul preached the Corinthians about the fragment contains of the gospel relating proclaims as well as believes possessed by the apostle. Through the preachment, the thoughts of Paul indicated about the importance of faith for the salvation of the Corinthians. Paul wanted to ensure that the people of Corinthians have same understandings about the message of salvation that he had on his mind. In this context, the book signifies the thoughts of Paul about the gospel that are related to the death as well as resurrection of Jesus (Plevnik 3-4). Paul preached gospel to the Corinthians in order to ensure that they are able to have a better understanding about the importance of their present life for continuity in the next life through resurrected body. The people of Corinth had believed in the resurrection of Jesus but, they had no faith along with belief towards the resurrection of their life. In this respect, Paul through his gospel had presented his viewpoints from the coming, death as well as resurrection of Jesus to the people of Corinth that there is a continuity of life from the present existing body to the future resurrected body. Paul’s gospel signified the fact that present body is based on soul and the future resurrected body is based on spirit. The resurrected body is a representative of the spirit of God. In this manner, the work of present body soul determines the continuity towards resurrected body (Plevnik 20-35; Witherington 140-150). Paul faced problems while teaching the Corinthians to have faith about bodily resurrection through the death as well as resurrection of Jesus, as the people of Corinthians believe in bodiless immortality of their soul after death. Besides, Paul tried to preach the eschatology in relation to plans made by God. Paul also put forward his thoughts in preaching the Corinthians in having the right information about the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus presented the victory of God over death. In this regard, the thoughts of Paul implied that resurrection depicted God’s victory over evil forces as well as death. Subsequently, victory over death had been presented into two victory marks that include Jesus’s resurrection and resurrection of people. Contextually, resurrection of Jesus symbolized the commencement of end. In a similar manner, resurrection of people signified the ultimate end of everything. Paul noted that people live amid the concepts of the two victory marks, because the ruling period of Jesus is marked to be the last day of the world and this period will continue till the opposers of Jesus ruling are dealt with. Thus, it can be comprehended that Paul’s thoughts are mainly linked with the believers of Christ signifying that people should have faith as well as believe in resurrection (Nah 164-168; Plevnik 7-29). Paul also signified that resurrected body possesses both the aspect of continuity as well discontinuity within existing body. In this respect, resurrection body symbolized the transformation of existing body into a different physicality mode. From the thoughts of Paul, it can be identified that the difference between present and resurrected body is that, the present body is a body with “soul” and on the other hand, the resurrected body is a body with “spirit.” The resurrected body is recognized to be non-physical while, the present body is determined to be perishable, rebellious as well as corruptible (Nah 164-177; Plevnik 29-60). In this context, Paul presented his thought about the significance of the resurrected body as compared to the present existing body. Paul implied that people within present existing body are required to perform the work of the Lord in a steady as well as excellent manner. The performance of the present body will signify the existence of the present body with continuity with the future resurrected body. The continuity as well as discontinuity of the present body in the resurrected body is dependent on the meaning and purpose with which, people lead the present life (Plevnik 29-60). At last, the gospel of Paul implied that God had created a new world after the resurrection of Jesus through the development of churches. Additionally, communities are developed where both men as well as women from different cultural backgrounds are able to live their lives as family members. Meanwhile, the people are required to lead a graceful life in accordance with the work requirement of God. Respectively, Paul in his thoughts had developed a foundation that people leading a life based on mercy, truth, beauty and holiness will assist them in having a better meaningful life in future. Paul through the preachment of the gospel, had been able to change the viewpoint and the life of Corinthians to develop believe and faith towards future life i.e. resurrection body through the death along with resurrection of Christ. Besides, Paul had raised a belief amid the Corinthians regarding the aspect that the creedal formula confined. Corinthians however denied the aspect of general resurrection. Subsequently, Paul on one end acclaimed the Corinthians for believing in the aspects that were stated by the formula, but on the other hand confronted them with their inappropriate understanding with regard to Christ’s resurrection (Plevnik 71-100). Works Cited Nah, David S. Christian Theology and Religious Pluralism: A Critical Evaluation of John Hick. United States of America: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2012. Print. Plevnik, Joseph. What are They Saying about Paul and the End Time? United States of America: Paulist Press, 2009. Print. Witherington, Ben. Pauls Narrative Thought World: The Tapestry of Tragedy and Triumph. United States of America: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994. Print. Read More