Some excellent clarity of thought here. I post it as much for my own future reference as for your enjoyment.
“There is no agreement in the church today about what happens to people when they die. Yet the New Testament is crystal clear on the matter: In a classic passage, Paul speaks of “the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23). There is no room for doubt as to what he means: God’s people are promised a new type of bodily existence, the fulfillment and redemption of our present bodily life. The rest of the early Christian writings, where they address the subject, are completely in tune with this.
The traditional picture of people going to either heaven or hell as a one-stage, postmortem journey represents a serious distortion and diminution of the Christian hope. Bodily resurrection is not just one odd bit of that hope. It is the element that gives shape and meaning to the rest of the story of God’s ultimate purposes. If we squeeze it to the margins, as many have done by implication, or indeed, if we leave it out altogether, as some have done quite explicitly, we don’t just lose an extra feature, like buying a car that happens not to have electrically operated mirrors. We lose the central engine, which drives it and gives every other component its reason for working.
When we talk with biblical precision about the resurrection, we discover an excellent foundation for lively and creative Christian work in the present world—not, as some suppose, for an escapist or quietist piety.
Bodily Resurrection
While both Greco-Roman paganism and Second Temple Judaism held a wide variety of beliefs about life beyond death, the early Christians, beginning with Paul, were remarkably unanimous on the topic.
When Paul speaks in Philippians 3 of being “citizens of heaven,” he doesn’t mean that we shall retire there when we have finished our work here. He says in the next line that Jesus will come from heaven in order to transform the present humble body into a glorious body like his own. Jesus will do this by the power through which he makes all things subject to himself. This little statement contains in a nutshell more or less all Paul’s thought on the subject. The risen Jesus is both the model for the Christian’s future body and the means by which it comes.
Similarly, in Colossians 3:1–4, Paul says that when the Messiah (the one “who is your life”) appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Paul does not say “one day you will go to be with him.” No, you already possess life in him. This new life, which the Christian possesses secretly, invisible to the world, will burst forth into full bodily reality and visibility.
The clearest and strongest passage is Romans 8:9–11. If the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus the Messiah, dwells in you, says Paul, then the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies as well, through his Spirit who dwells in you. God will give life, not to a disembodied spirit, not to what many people have thought of as a spiritual body in the sense of a nonphysical one, but “to your mortal bodies also.”
Other New Testament writers support this view. The first letter of John declares that when Jesus appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The resurrection body of Jesus, which at the moment is almost unimaginable to us in its glory and power, will be the model for our own. And of course within John’s gospel, despite the puzzlement of those who want to read the book in a very different way, we have some of the clearest statements of future bodily resurrection. Jesus reaffirms the widespread Jewish expectation of resurrection in the last day, and announces that the hour for this has already arrived. It is quite explicit: “The hour is coming,” he says, “indeed, it is already here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and those who hear will live; when all in the graves will come out, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”
Here we must discuss what Jesus means when he declares that there are “many dwelling places” in his Father’s house. This has regularly been taken, not least when used in the context of bereavement, to mean that the dead (or at least dead Christians) will simply go to heaven permanently rather than being raised again subsequently to new bodily life. But the word for “dwelling places” here, monai, is regularly used in ancient Greek not for a final resting place, but for a temporary halt on a journey that will take you somewhere else in the long run.
This fits closely with Jesus’ words to the dying brigand in Luke: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Despite a long tradition of misreading, paradise here means not a final destination but the blissful garden, the parkland of rest and tranquility, where the dead are refreshed as they await the dawn of the new day. The main point of the sentence lies in the apparent contrast between the brigand’s request and Jesus’ reply: “Remember me,” he says, “when you come in your kingdom,” implying that this will be at some far distant future. Jesus’ answer brings this future hope into the present, implying of course that with his death the kingdom is indeed coming, even though it doesn’t look like what anyone had imagined: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” There will, of course, still be a future completion involving ultimate resurrection; Luke’s overall theological understanding leaves no doubt on that score. Jesus, after all, didn’t rise again “today,” that is, on Good Friday. Luke must have understood him to be referring to a state of being-in-paradise. With Jesus, the future hope has come forward into the present. For those who die in faith, before that final reawakening, the central promise is of being “with Jesus” at once. “My desire is to depart,” wrote Paul, “and be with Christ, which is far better.”
Resurrection itself then appears as what the word always meant in the ancient world. It wasn’t a way of talking about life after death. It was a way of talking about a new bodily life after whatever state of existence one might enter immediately upon death. It was, in other words, life after life after death.
What then about such passages as 1 Peter 1, which speaks of a salvation that is “kept in heaven for you” so that in your present believing you are receiving “the salvation of your souls”? Here, I suggest, the automatic assumption of Western Christianity leads us badly astray. Most Christians today, reading a passage like this, assume that it means that heaven is where you go to receive this salvation—or even that salvation consists in “going to heaven when you die.” The way we now understand that language in the Western world is totally different from what Jesus and his hearers meant and understood.
For a start, heaven is actually a reverent way of speaking about God, so that “riches in heaven” simply means “riches in God’s presence.” But then, by derivation from this primary meaning, heaven is the place where God’s purposes for the future are stored up. It isn’t where they are meant to stay so that one would need to go to heaven to enjoy them. It is where they are kept safe against the day when they will become a reality on earth. God’s future inheritance, the incorruptible new world and the new bodies that are to inhabit that world, are already kept safe, waiting for us, so that they can be brought to birth in the new heavens and new earth.
The mission of the church is nothing more or less than the outworking, in the power of the Spirit, of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. It is the anticipation of the time when God will fill the earth with his glory, transform the old heavens and earth into the new, and raise his children from the dead to populate and rule over the redeemed world he has made.
If that is so, mission must urgently recover from its long-term schizophrenia. The split between saving souls and doing good in the world is not a product of the Bible or the gospel, but of the cultural captivity of both. The world of space, time, and matter is where real people live, where real communities happen, where difficult decisions are made, where schools and hospitals bear witness to the “now, already” of the gospel while police and prisons bear witness to the “not yet.” The world of space, time, and matter is where parliaments, city councils, neighborhood watch groups, and everything in between are set up and run for the benefit of the wider community, the community where anarchy means that bullies (economic and social as well as physical) will always win, where the weak and vulnerable will always need protecting, and where the social and political structures of society are part of the Creator’s design.
And the church that is renewed by the message of Jesus’ resurrection must be the church that goes to work precisely in that space, time, and matter. The church claims this world in advance as the place of God’s kingdom, of Jesus’ lordship, and of the Spirit’s power. Councils and parliaments can and often do act wisely, though they will always need scrutiny and accountability, because they in turn may become agents of bullying and corruption.
Thus the church that takes sacred space seriously (not as a retreat from the world but as a bridgehead into it) will go straight from worshiping in the sanctuary to debating in the council chamber; to discussing matters of town planning, of harmonizing and humanizing beauty in architecture, green spaces, and road traffic schemes; and to environmental work, creative and healthy farming methods, and proper use of resources. If it is true, as I have argued, that the whole world is now God’s holy land, we must not rest as long as that land is spoiled and defaced. This is not an extra to the church’s mission. It is central.
The church that takes seriously the fact that Jesus is Lord of all will not just celebrate quietly every time we write the date on a letter or document, will not just set aside Sunday as far as humanly and socially possible as a celebration of God’s new creation, will not just seek to order its own life in an appropriate rhythm of worship and work. Such a church will also seek to bring wisdom to the rhythms of work in offices and shops, in local government, in civic holidays, and in the shaping of public life. These things cannot be taken for granted. The enormous shifts during my lifetime, from the whole town observing Good Friday and Easter, to those great days being simply more occasions for football matches and yet more televised reruns of old movies, are indices of what happens when a society loses its roots and drifts with prevailing social currents. The reclaiming of time as God’s good gift (as opposed to time as simply a commodity to be spent for one’s own benefit, which often means fresh forms of slavery for others) is not an extra to the church’s mission. It is central.
One of the things I most enjoy about being a bishop is watching ordinary Christians (not that there are any “ordinary” Christians, but you know what I mean) going straight from worshiping Jesus in church to making a radical difference in the material lives of people down the street by running playgroups for children of single working moms; by organizing credit unions to help people at the bottom of the financial ladder find their way to responsible solvency; by campaigning for better housing, against dangerous roads, for drug rehab centers, for wise laws relating to alcohol, for decent library and sporting facilities, for a thousand other things in which God’s sovereign rule extends to hard, concrete reality. Once again, all this is not an extra to the mission of the church. It is central.
This way of coming at the tasks of the church in terms of space, time, and matter leads directly to evangelism. When the church is seen to move straight from worship of God to affecting much-needed change in the world; when it becomes clear that the people who feast at Jesus’ table are the ones at the forefront of work to eliminate hunger and famine; when people realize that those who pray for the Spirit to work in and through them are the people who seem to have extra resources of love and patience in caring for those whose lives are damaged, bruised, and shamed—then it is natural for people to recognize that something is going on that they want to be part of.
No single individual can attempt more than a fraction of this mission. That’s why mission is the work of the whole church, the whole time. Paul’s advice to the Philippians—even though he and they knew they were suffering for their faith and might be tempted to retreat from the world into a dualistic, sectarian mentality—was upbeat. “These are the things you should think through,” he wrote: “whatever is true, whatever is holy, whatever is upright, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever has a good reputation; anything virtuous, anything praiseworthy.” And in thinking through these things, we will discover more and more about the same Creator God whom we know in and through Jesus Christ and will be better equipped to work effectively not over against the world, but with the grain of all goodwill, of all that seeks to bring and enhance life.”
N. T. Wright excerpt from Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
Hamo,
so excited your getting into this but this will get you into trouble!! It continues to get us (Peace Tree mob) into trouble. It is this more than anything which drives our understanding of the gospel.
Preaching that the gospel isn’t “pie in the sky when we die” threatens every unbiblical thread in [not just] ‘left-behind’ fundamentalism [but] seeker friendly evangelicalism which provides a spirituality until you ‘get there’.
I wonder if you’re post could be better titled. 🙂 Cause I think heaven is where we “finish up” but it’s not that we “go there” it’s that heaven is “coming here”!!! (Rev. 21)
Night mate!
P.S.
just posted this from Tom Wright earlier today for those interested:
http://paceebene.org/blog/jarrod-mckenna/easters-challenge-empire-n-t-wright
If it is possible to have heaven here and now, why do so many of us continue to wear grave clothes? If we are truly Easter people, we should strip off the old grave clothes and streak through this life as if Christ’s light truly lived within us. I think that is what the naked man was doing when he was spotted running off without his clothes in one of the the New Testament stories. Thanks Hamo, I liked Wright’s words. It resinated with some of my beliefs that others find “twisted.”
The Hope Of Heaven!
“For the Hope which is laid up for you in Heaven,
which you first heard in the Word of Truth that is
the Good News”! (Colossians 1:5)
The Hope Of Heaven!
There is a “biblical” translation that has been called
“The Good News”, yet what of The Good News(The
Gospel)? What was the promise of The Good News
that The Messiah preached?
The promise of The Good News for the Jews and “the
lost sheep of Israel”, which The Messiah preached,
was recorded in Matthew 3:12,4:17,10:7, Mark 1:15,
and Luke 10:9, 21:31.
“The Kingdom Of GOD(Heaven) Is At Hand”
And what was the promise of “The Good News” which
Paul preached unto the heathen(gentiles) after The
Messiah “was raised from among the dead”?
“Through the Good News those who are not Jews(heathens)
will share with the Jews in GOD’s blessing. They belong to
the same body, and they share together in the promise that
GOD made in The Messiah. By GOD’s special gift of grace
given to me through his power, I became a servant to tell
that Good News.” (Ephesians 3:6-7)
And The Good News of The Promise!
“The Kingdom Of Heaven(GOD) Is At Hand”!
A Lively, Living Hope Of Heaven!
When Paul began his ministry, after GOD had “raised up
The Messiah from among the dead”, he testified that
“believers were translated into The KINGDOM OF GOD’s
BELOVED SON”. (Colossians 1:13)
“THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN” HAD COME!
And “The Good News” after the destruction of the earthly
“kingdom” of Jerusalem was:
“THE KINGDOM OF GOD” HAS COME!
All Thanks And Praise Be To Our Father!
Believers have a Living Hope of Heaven!
So why is it so many still believe that “The Kingdom of
Heaven(GOD)” is yet to come?
“What is Truth”?
“Pilate” asked The Messiah that question after The Messiah
testified, “You say that I am a king. To this end was I born,
and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear
witness to The Truth. Everyone that is of The Truth hears
My voice”! (John 18:38)
Do you hear The Messiah’s voice?
The Messiah previously had testified, “The Words that I
speak are not My Words”. “For I have not spoken of Myself;
but The Father which sent Me, HE gave me a commandment,
what I should say, and what I should speak.” (John 3:34,
12:49) Later The Messiah testified to His disciples, “As
GOD sent Me, so send I you”! (John 14:10)
“What is Truth”?
The Messiah bore witness unto The Truth, as He revealed
The Way to The Truth of The Life, both in His Teachings
and His Life example.
And The Truth of “The Good News” promise?
“The Kingdom Of GOD(Heaven) Is At Hand”!
The Hope Of Heaven
Now when The Messiah was raised from among the dead
and ascended into Heaven He was given His rightful place
at the right hand of Our Father and GOD, and “all power
was given Him(by His Father and GOD) in Heaven and in
earth?” “The Kingdom” HAD “Come”! And The Faithful
“were translated into The Kingdom of GOD’s Beloved Son”!
“Giving thanks unto The Father, WHO has made us able
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in Light:
WHO has delivered us from the power of darkness, and
HAS translated us into The Kingdom of HIS Beloved Son:”
(Col 1:12-13)
All Thanks And Praise Be To Our Father!
And Paul testified of the time when The Messiah would
deliver up The Kingdom unto Our Father and GOD and
The Messiah would be submitted unto Our Father and
GOD once again. (1 Cor 15:22-28)
“Then the END comes, when The Messiah shall have
delivered up The Kingdom to GOD, even The Father;
when The Messiah shall have put down all rule and all
authority and power. For The Messiah must reign(after
He was resurrected), till He has put all enemies under
His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death. For GOD has put all things under The Messiah’s
feet. But when GOD said, all things are put under The
Messiah, it is manifest that HE(GOD) is excepted,
WHO did put all things under The Messiah.
And when all things shall be subdued unto The Messiah,
then shall The Son also, Himself be subject unto GOD,
HE WHO put all things under Him, so that GOD may
be all in all.” (1 Cor 15:22-28)
“Then the END comes, when The Messiah shall have
delivered up The Kingdom to GOD, even The Father.”!
(1 Cor 15:22)
Question is, “The END of what?”
Paul testified, “In that GOD said, A New Covenant,
HE has made the first covenant old. Now that which
is decaying and waxing old is ready to vanish away”.
(Heb 8:13)
That which was decaying and waxing old was the old,
earthly “covenant of laws”, and “The END” was the
destruction of the earthly, natural “kingdom” of Jerusalem!
The earthly “kingdom” would be no more!
All Praise And Thanks Be Unto Our Father!
So believers were, and are, exhorted to,
“Set their affections on things above(Heaven), not things
of the earth”! (Col 3:2)
Believers are exhorted to, “Be not of those whose god is
their belly, and whose glory is in their shame because
they mind earthly things.” (Phlp 3:19)
Now why such exhortations?
“Spiritually Reborn!” A believers “citizenship (Life) was,
and is, in Heaven”! (Phlp 3:20)
And believers “had been translated into The Kingdom of
GOD’s Beloved Son”. (Col 1:13)
They Had A Living, Lively Hope of Heaven!
So “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen, for things seen are
temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
We know that our body, the tent we live in here on earth,
will be destroyed. But when that happens, GOD will have
a house for us. It will not be a house made by human
hands; instead, it will be a home in Heaven that will last
forever. But for now we groan in this tent. We want GOD
to give us our Heavenly home, because it will clothe us
so we will not be naked. While we live in this body, we
have burdens, and we groan. We do not want to be
naked, but we want to be clothed with our Heavenly home.
Then this body that dies will be fully covered with Life.
This is what GOD made us for, and he has given us The
Spirit to be a guarantee for this New Life. So we always
have courage. We know that while we live in this body,
we are away from GOD. We live by what we believe, not
by what we can see. So I say that we have courage. We
really want to be away from this body and be at home
with Our Father for our only goal is to please HIM whether
we live here or there.” (2 Cor 4:18, 5:1-9)
The Kingdom of GOD’s Beloved Son HAD Come and
believers were translated into The Kingdom! (Col 1:13)
The END” of the old, earthly covenant was At Hand, for
it was “decaying, waxing old”, and would soon “vanish
away”!
And it did! Thanks Be To Our Father!
When Old Jerusalem was destroyed The END came. It
was then that The Messiah delivered up The Kingdom
unto Our Father and GOD! The Heavenly, Spiritual
Kingdom of GOD WAS, and always WILL BE!
“THY Kingdom” HAD “Come”!
“And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned
with goodly stones and gifts, The Messiah said, As for
these things which you behold, the days will come, in
which there shall not be left one stone upon another,
that shall not be thrown down. And they asked Him,
saying, Master, but when shall these things be? And
what sign will there be when these things shall come
to pass?
And He said, Take heed that you are not deceived: for
many shall come in My name, saying, I am messiah;
and the time draws near: do not go after them. But
when you shall hear of wars and commotions, be not
terrified: for these things must first come to pass, but
The End is not by and by. Then said He unto them,
Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers
places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights
and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before
all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute
you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons,
being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.
And they shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it there-
fore in your hearts, not to meditate before what you will
answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all
your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
And you shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren,
and kinsfolk’s, and friends; and some of you shall they
cause to be put to death. And you shall be hated of all
men for my name’s sake. But there SHALL NOT A HAIR
OF YOUR HEAD PERISH. In your patience possess your
souls.
And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies,
then know that the desolation thereof is at hand. Then let
them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them
which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that
are in the countries enter there. For these be the days of
vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give
suck, in those days! For there shall be great distress in the
land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the
edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all
nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the heathen,
until the times of the heathens are fulfilled. And there shall be
signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon
the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the
waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking
after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers
of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of
man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when
these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up
YOUR heads, for YOUR redemption draws near.
And He spoke a parable to them; Behold the fig tree, and all
the trees; when they now shoot forth, you see and know of
your own selves that summer is now close at hand. So like-
wise YOU, when YOU see these things come to pass, YOU
know that The Kingdom of GOD(Heaven) is close at hand.
Truly I say unto YOU, THIS GENERATION SHALL NOT PASS
AWAY, TILL ALL BE FULFILLED.”(Luke 21:5-33)
And The Messiah testified, “Truly I say unto YOU, that this
generation shall not pass, till ALL these things be done.”
(Mark 13:30) “Truly I say unto YOU, This generation shall
not pass, till ALL these things be fulfilled.”(Matt 24:34)
(The word “YOU” in the above testimonies referred to those
whom The Messiah was speaking to at that time, not two
thousand, or more, years after!)
Simply, with the destruction of the earthly, natural Jerusalem,
that “which waxed old” DID “vanish away”! (Heb 8:13)
The Kingdom no longer had a physical presence, in a precise
location on the earth, The Kingdom of GOD was now fully of
The Spirit, Heavenly. The END of the Old, earthly kingdom
WAS! “THY Kingdom” HAD “Come” indeed and Truth, and
believers were, and are, translated into The Kingdom of Our
GOD and Father! A Living Hope of Heaven!
And so it is believers were and are exhorted to “love not the
world, neither things that are in the world, for all that is in
the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the
pride of life is not of Our Father, but is of the world”!
Believers knew that their “citizenship” was now in Heaven,
and that “whosoever would be a friend of this world was the
enemy of The Only True GOD”! (Phlp 3:20, James 4:4) And
The Messiah testified that “the works of the world were evil”
(John 7:7) And John testified, “the WHOLE world is under
the control of the evil one”! (1John 5:19) And Paul?
Paul testified, “WE WHICH ARE ALIVE and remain SHALL
BE CAUGHT UP together with them in the clouds to meet
The Messiah in the air: and so shall WE ever be with The
Messiah.”(1Thes 4:17:18) and Paul testified, “I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And GOD WILL
DELIVER ME FROM EVERY EVIL WORK, AND WILL
PRESERVE ME UNTO HIS Heavenly Kingdom: to WHOM
be Glory for ever and ever. Amen(Let it be so)”(2Tim4:17-18)
I believe that Paul was alive and taken up “in the clouds to
meet The Messiah in the air” when the physical, earthly
Jerusalem was destroyed. At that time “The Messiah came
in the clouds”. And at that time of “the END” of that old age,
The Messiah delivered up The Kingdom unto Our Father and
subjected Himself unto HIM once again.
All Thanks And Praise Be To “Our Father”!
The Messiah had testified, “Behold, I COME QUICKLY: hold
that fast which YOU have, that no man take YOUR crown.”
(Rev 3:11) “Behold, I COME QUICKLY: blessed is he that
keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”(Rev 22:7)
Behold, I COME QUICKLY, and My reward is with Me, to give
every man according as his work shall be.”(Rev 22:12)
And the apostle John testified, “He Who testifies concerning
these things said to me, “Surely I COME QUICKLY”. Amen
(So be it). Even so, come Yahshua Messiah!”(Rev 22:20)
And The Messiah DID Come Quickly!
The Messiah came at “The END” of the old covenant when
the natural, earthly kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed!
And so it is today that The Faithful desire to be taken Home,
for their “place has been prepared for them”! Home! Home
at last! The Faithful await their final transformation, “caterpillar
to butterfly” indeed and Truth.
The Faithful Have A Living Hope Of Heaven!
Peace, in spite of the dis-eases(lies) that are of this wicked
world and it’s systems of religion, for “the WHOLE world is
under the control of the evil one” indeed and Truth……..
francisco
I was challenged by and enjoyed this book so much that I posted my own long-winded review. As usual, there is a challenging theology that NT Wright walks the reader through. As you have pointed out, there are some wonderful implications for mission in this book. I am curious to hear what you thought of Chapter 15.
By the grace of God, I have grown in my following of Jesus. He leads me with an increasing, repetitive question regarding the renewal of all things, “What if it’s true? Is this good news?”
thanks for posting this, hamo. i’m just starting to read this book and am finding tom wright’s stuff really helpful as we think about a local new-creation theology. make sure you connect with mary fisher in melbourne at the grassroots gig…she has opened up so much of these ideas for us (she is no slouch in the theological mumbo jumbo department)
peace to you and your household.
Awesome book. I’ve just finished reading it myself. This is the book I’ve been waiting for Tom Wright to write – he begins to tie together the theology that underpins his other works into a sensible and biblically coherent synthesis with immediate practical relevance and impact. The more people that read this book the better.
“when it becomes clear that the people who feast at Jesus’ table are the ones at the forefront of work to eliminate hunger and famine; when people realize that those who pray for the Spirit to work in and through them are the people who seem to have extra resources of love and patience in caring for those whose lives are damaged, bruised, and shamed—then it is natural for people to recognize that something is going on that they want to be part.”
AMEN.
Thats really inspiring…
The best way to see that a stick is crooked is to lay a straight stick beside it. I believe leading by example as opposed to judging and shaking our heads at others is a lot more constructive in winning souls for Jesus.
Just started browsing your blog, I think I found the link on the back of my Hillsong CD. I will read intently from now on.
GB
Stephen
I ran across your blog and enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s nice to see someone so actively engaged in talking about Christ. Thanks!
~ Kurt Manwaring ~
I didn’t think the bible was open to interpretation any more. we all know that any verse only has one TRUE meaning. we need to put this childness nonsence to bed. bring out the pitchforks. Majority rules. majority = right.
end rant.
I’m sure it’s a good book, but just by reading this article it seems that Wright rambles too much, saying too much and giving too many examples to get his point across. I don’t think I’d have the patience to read it, but that’s just me: limited attention span.
Hamo,
I’ve read your blog many times but never commented. But I have tagged you with a Thinking Blogger Award for this post. I know it’s an excerpt from a book, but you took the time to include it on your blog and it’s well worth the read. In the end, that’s what keeps people coming to blogs…good info.
I preached a series of messages on this topic a couple of years ago, but did not go into the issues addressed by the last few paragraphs of this post. They have given me additional food for thought in how I perceive not only eternity, but here and now. Thanks for the post and the many others that give me pause to think.
Keep up the good work, mate!