Showing posts with label A New Heaven and a New Earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A New Heaven and a New Earth. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2021

It's about the whole person!

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It therefore becomes clear that we cannot with impunity “spiritualize” Jesus’s message to make it only internal, about people’s inner attitu...
Friday, January 08, 2021

Escapist theology

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This resolute focus on the church’s imminent exit to heaven has the effect of inclining believers in the rapture to treat the future (and th...
Thursday, January 07, 2021

It's not us vs. them

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I do not seek to pontiļ¬cate about what particular issues Christians should support or oppose today in the so-called culture wars. In fact, I...
Wednesday, January 06, 2021

It's easy—when you dichotomize things

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What we have in many sectors of the church is the insidious temptation to combine an otherworldly two-realm worldview with the “us versus th...
Tuesday, January 05, 2021

Not a chance!

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The difference between advocating on behalf of others (even if it means self-sacrifice) and the self-righteous protection of privilege is pa...
Monday, January 04, 2021

Nope. That's not the gospel

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The impulse behind the Tea Party movement is the very opposite of the motivations of the abolitionists, like William Wilberforce in eighteen...
Thursday, December 31, 2020

That's not enough!

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The point is that the transition from otherworldly salvation to a holistic understanding of the kingdom of God is impossible without persona...
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Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Not yet, but getting there…

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The fact that John died in prison should warn us of the difference between a biblical understanding of the kingdom and the triumphalistic as...
Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Great News!

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But this vision of holistic salvation is only initially disorienting. It is ultimately good news—even great news! For if we are honest about...
Monday, December 28, 2020

There's more to the gospel than that!

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What John [the Baptist] did not understand was that the kingdom does not come all at once. John was in danger of stumbling over Jesus on thi...
Thursday, December 24, 2020

Ad fontes!

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Whereas in the beginning Israel was simply one (admittedly unique) nation among the other nations, the term “nations” (= gentiles) came to b...
Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Don't limit the good news!

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But the message of Jesus was good news not just for his original hearers; it is good news for us today as well. Jesus’s proclamation of the ...
Tuesday, December 22, 2020

But you are starting with the wrong assumptions!

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The trouble is that many contemporary Christians understand eternal life primarily as a reference to life after death (often connected to th...
Monday, December 21, 2020

Nope, that's not heaven!

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Note that “the air” (where believers are to meet Christ) is not “heaven” in contemporary Christian theology. Classical Greek authors often u...
Friday, December 18, 2020

You don't want to hear this

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The apocalyptic pattern emphasizes that until Christ returns, salvation is only partial; Christian hope thus involves waiting patiently for ...
Thursday, December 17, 2020

It's being prepared

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N. T. Wright nicely illustrates this point [about the city of God being prepared in heaven] with his analogy of a parent telling a child in ...
Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Colonizing the earth

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It is worth noting that Philippi was a Roman colony and that many in the Philippian church would have been Roman citizens. In drawing on the...
Tuesday, December 15, 2020

On the throne!

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And Paul, living after the death/resurrection and victory of Jesus, understands this risen and ascended Messiah to be presently reigning as ...
Monday, December 14, 2020

Universal? Yes, the call is, but…

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The call [to salvation] is absolutely universal. But you need to be thirsty; you need to want that water. And both the Bible and human exper...
Friday, December 11, 2020

There will be no more sea!

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For example, the disappearance of the sea in Revelation 21:1 (“and the sea was no more”) is not making the point that no one goes swimming i...