The Catholic or Christian Soul?

[johnswahoo]

I understand that the early fathers had a model that the soul will travel to heaven and this model exsist because of the teaching of Plato and the teaching of Greeks. What I am looking for is how did the founding fathers make the determination of their view on the Catholic or Christian Soul?
I understand the concept of Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection. But how does that allow for the early writings of normal individuals and how we now believe that when we die, our soul will eventually end up in heaven?
Basically–how did they formulate this into doctrine?

 

[Regina_Love]

They had the knowledge of Isreal’s 2000 year old relationship with God. His first Covenant with mankind. They had Jesus’ teachings, many of which were never written down in Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and Oral Teachings of Christ. They had the action of the Holy Spirit teaching them, as well as the wisdom of the brotherhood, our first Bishops.

His Last night with the Apostles, just before His death, Jesus taught them, "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name–**He will teach you *everything and remind you of all that * told you.

The Catholic Church posses the wisdom of mankind,s 4000 years of relationship with God.

 

[Southern]

Several places are mentioned in the Bible. The Garden of Eden was actually Heaven. Once the sin we all know about was commited Adam and Eve got thrown out of the Garden and Heaven’s gates were closed till Christ Died on the Cross. Many of times it was mentioned about Heaven by Jesus himself. One of the biggest example that comes to mind is when He told the thief crucified next to him “Amen I say to you this day you shall be with me in Paridise.” For the souls in Purgatory there is written in the oldest version of the Bible The Doulay Rhimes Version “Pray that the sins may be loosed from them.” And Hell is mentioned by Christ several times. Everyone has a soul but as mentioned Heaven was not yet opened until Christ died for our sins. God Bless!

 

[steve_b]

I understand that the early fathers had a model that the soul will travel to heaven and this model exsist because of the teaching of Plato and the teaching of Greeks. What I am looking for is how did the founding fathers make the determination of their view on the Catholic or Christian Soul?
I understand the concept of Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection. But how does that allow for the early writings of normal individuals and how we now believe that when we die, our soul will eventually end up in heaven?
Basically–how did they formulate this into doctrine?

Think of the story Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus. [Luke 16:19-31 (Douay-Rheims Bible, Luke Chapter 16) This is before Jesus does His work on the cross, resurrects and ascends back to heaven. For the OT chatacters in the story, heaven is closed since Adam & Eve sinned. Abrahams bosom therefore, is not heaven. OTOH as we see, hell exists for the damned. Even in an OT context. Remember, Jesus is telling this story.

From the cross Jesus tells the one thief, [Luke 23:43 (Douay-Rheims Bible, Luke Chapter 23) you will be wih me in paradise. We know Jesus went to preach to the souls in prison as soon as He died. [1 Peter 3:19-20 (Douay-Rheims Bible, 1 Peter Chapter 3) And He didn’t ascend back to heaven for 40 days.

What then does “today” mean? Some say it depends on where one puts the comma

• I tell you today, you will be with me in heaven.
• I tell you, today you will be with me in heaven

The point is, the thief will be in paradise with Jesus. Maybe he had some purgatory time ahead of him before that happened, and maybe the cross was his purgatory. Either way, the thief was going to heaven.

 

[johnswahoo]

I came across this question while researching martyrdom in the early church. There was an issue of those who actually died for their cause such as Sts. Perpetua and Felicity who died after being persecuted for their beliefs. We go to a point where those who were entering heaven began to have more power than the bishops because they were going to be closer to God. So there began a problem of suicide vs martyring for a cause.
It made me think about the idea of how did the early church fathers understand that when a common person dies they go to heaven. Why did common individuals get this or did they need commit a noble act? So this is why I am asking how did the first fathers arrive at the conclusive evidence that there was an accession into heave when the physical body died?