Product Description
"Heavenly Perspective" seeks to define the nature of the Colossian error and Paul's response to it. It argues that the recipients of the Colossian letter lived in a town where a group of Jewish Christians were preoccupied with angelic practices to such an extent that they denied the sufficiency of the work of Christ. This preoccupation was focused in two directions: fallen angels and heavenly angels. Fallen angels were seen as determinative in the affairs of humans and therefore feared. This fear showed a lack of faith in the work of Christ who had triumphed over the powers of evil. The Colossian errorists sought to escape from the domain of evil by engaging in asceticism and legalism in order to ascend to the court of heaven where they could witness, and possibly participate with, angels worshipping God. The claims of ascents to heaven led to self-perceptions of superior spirituality which caused divisions within the Colossian church. Angel explores how there is strong biblical and extra-biblical evidence for the Jewish mysticism evidenced in the Colossian error, especially seen in Merkabah mysticism, in which a devotee sought to ascend to heaven to witness angelic worship.;Angel discusses how the Colossian error may have arisen from within this movement and how Paul counters the errorists' claims by an eloquent Christology which disarms the philosophy and enables the recipients of the letter to have a true heavenly perspective, which results in appropriate earthly behaviour.
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