R.C. Sproul

And so for Plato and for the Greeks, for whole generations, the idea of anything physical was seen as being less valuable

less perfect, indeed intrinsically marred and imperfect, and that made a profound influence in the early Christian church.

Blends or amalgamations between Oriental philosophy, Platonism, Gnosticism married up with Christianity and intruded into the church the idea that the body is bad and the soul is good.

Other extremes are

that we begin to call bad what God has called good.

Now the whole reaction that our generation has to sexuality, for example, is influenced and informed by this history of anti-physical thinking.

We forget that when God made man and made woman,

He made sex.

He made food.

He made creature comforts.

He made all of these things and pronounced His benediction on them, saying, that's good.

But with that benediction came His rule, His regulation, saying, this is good as man and wife become one flesh and cleave to each other.

But outside of this context where I have ordained the physical relationship, it is not good.

So it's not the thing in itself that is bad, it's how it is used and so on.

Now we come to the place where we have people thinking that anything that is physical is therefore evil, and that of course is a distortion of the Christian view.

In summary, let me say that for the Greek anti-physical viewpoint, redemption ultimately

is redemption from the body.

Plato called the body the prison house of the soul.

And so the highest hope for man would be the disintegration and destruction of the body so that the soul could be released to live in pure contemplation unencumbered by any influences of that which is physical.

Christianity teaches redemption of the body.