2) Christian theology and the death of Jesus: According to the Eden myth, Adam voluntarily chose to disalign his life from God's will, and for this was punished with death. (Actually it was not so much a punishment as a precaution: If he lived forever, he would continue to degrade his soul and do evil forever. Not a good thing.) This choice was set in stone, genetically so to speak, such that no human being was able to fully align with God's will. (The infamous "original sin".)
Jesus, being divine of spirit but human of flesh, was tested in every aspect of human temptation, but remained aligned to God's will at any cost. As such, he earned the right to not die. By not exercising this right for himself, he became the second Adam and opened a new path: Resurrection. Christians have already taken part in the sin of the first Adam. By taking part in the death of the second, they can proceed to the resurrection.
It is true that in folk belief, the dead proceed to an extradimensional heaven upon their death, but as you will see from the Christian burial ritual, the official doctrine is that resurrection is the Christian hope. The Bible is also quite clear on this.
Although the self-sacrifice of Jesus opened the door to resurrection for every human, before or after the event, the general consensus among Christian churches is that only those who personally accept and enter into a covenant with Jesus will actually receive eternal life. Jesus himself is obscure on this topic, saying both that those who have done good will be resurrected, and that those who believe in him will be.
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Jesus, being divine of spirit but human of flesh, was tested in every aspect of human temptation, but remained aligned to God's will at any cost. As such, he earned the right to not die. By not exercising this right for himself, he became the second Adam and opened a new path: Resurrection. Christians have already taken part in the sin of the first Adam. By taking part in the death of the second, they can proceed to the resurrection.
It is true that in folk belief, the dead proceed to an extradimensional heaven upon their death, but as you will see from the Christian burial ritual, the official doctrine is that resurrection is the Christian hope. The Bible is also quite clear on this.
Although the self-sacrifice of Jesus opened the door to resurrection for every human, before or after the event, the general consensus among Christian churches is that only those who personally accept and enter into a covenant with Jesus will actually receive eternal life. Jesus himself is obscure on this topic, saying both that those who have done good will be resurrected, and that those who believe in him will be.