Sambodhi 1989 Vol 16

Author(s): Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 78

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torment. The Bible speaks of a "furnace of firc"66 and a "lake of fire'07 which forms a contrast with the "sea of glass likc unto crystal."GS Seripture speaks of those who are excluded from heaven as being "outside" and as being "cast into hell." In short, Hell is a place where there is il total absence of the favour of God, and positive pain and suffering are being experienced.
According to Dr. Radhakrishan Salvation in Christianity is achieving God consciousness or awareness of God or the union with God;69 not the teaching of the Bible. The Bible does not accept the unity of God and man. According to Christianity, man is man, and he can never be God. Actually man is a creation of God but because of the sin, the relationship between God and man has been broken. “Love for God" writes Dr. Radhakrishnan "is the casiest way to reach salvation.'70 In fact the only way to salvation is the grace of God. If one is thinking in terms of comparative religion, perhaps the most significant aspect of the way to salvation in Christianity is the absolute necessity of God's forgiveness and grace, that is, the free gift of salvation to men, who by their very nature cannot achieve salvation of their own ability.
The Resurrection of the Dead
The resurrection is a work of the triune God. In some cases we are simply told that God raises the dead, no person being specified. 71 Moreover the work of resurrection is ascribed to the son,72 and indirectly, it is also designated as a work of the Holy Spirit.73
There were some in the days of Paul who regarded the resurrection as spiritual,74 and there are many in the present day who believe only in a spiritual resurrection. But the Bible is very explicit in teaching the resurrection of the body. Christ is called the first fruits" of the resurreetion,15 and "the firstborn of the dead."76 This implies that the resurrection was a bodily resurrection, and theirs will be of the same kind.
Dr. Radhakrishnan has a doubt here. He observes that at death Lazarus is taken up directly into Paradise and the rich man goes to hess. Jesus' resurrection after three days is probably suggested by Matthew : "As Jonah was three days three nights in the belly of the whale : so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," (St. Matthew 12.40). Here Dr. Radhakrishnan writes - "This view is in conflict with what Jesus is alleged to have said to the thich on the Cross: To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.' There is immediate cntrance into blessed fellowship with God. The moment of death is the moment of exaltation,"77