Body Building: Edifying Thoughts About Our Bodies

Airing on
Probe Radio

May
17-21

Michael Gleghorn — Our culture is obsessed with the human body. Have you turned on the television or stood in the supermarket checkout line recently? Images and information about the human body bombard our senses from almost every direction. And what we believe about the body can make a huge difference for our daily life, and for the life beyond! That's why we need to think carefully about a Christian view of the body. For when our ideas about the body go wrong, a lot of related Christian beliefs can also be affected.

For example, in the early centuries of the Christian church there were some religious groups called Gnostics. Their name derived from the Greek term gnosis which means "knowledge," because they thought that salvation came through secret knowledge. In their view, reality consisted of two primary components: matter (which was evil) and spirit (which was good). Since matter was evil, the human body was likewise viewed as "intrinsically degenerate."

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MEET THE AUTHOR
Michael GleghornMICHAEL GLEGHORN

"I wanted to write this article in order to set forth a biblical view of the body, as well as to compare and contrast this view with some other prominent views. Many people in our world today (including many Christians) have a rather skewed and inaccurate notion of what biblical Christianity has to say about our bodies. And this is unfortunate. For what the Bible has to say on this subject is not only true—it is interesting, healthy and liberating to boot!"

Michael is a research associate with Probe Ministries. After earning a B.A. in psychology from Baylor University and a Th.M. in systematic theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he is back at DTS pursuing more suffering a Ph.D. in theology. The joy of Michael's life is his wife Hannah, their daughter and their brand new baby boy.

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