I have been enjoying the latest work of N.T. Wright called , Surprised By Hope, Rethinking, Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church. I recommend it to you.
He does a lot to clarify our thinking about what is really going to happen at the end of time. He does a good job at undermining the BAD thinking that has crept into Christianity from other philosophies and religions that does not fit with the revelation in scripture of what we’re looking forward to.
For instance, here is a quote: “The resurrection, both of Jesus and then in the future of his people, is the foundation of the Christian stance of allegiance to a different king, a different Lord. Death is the last weapon of the tyrant, and the point of the resurrection, despite much misunderstanding, is that death has been defeated. Resurrection is not the redescription of death; it is its overthrow and, with that, the overthrow of those whose power depends on it. Despite the sneers and slurs of some contemporary scholars, it was those who believed in the bodily resurrection who were burned at the stake and thrown to the lions. Resurrection was never a way of settling down and becoming respectable; the Pharisees could have told you that. It was the Gnostics, who translated the language of resurrection into a private spirituality and a dualistic cosmology, thereby more or less altering its meaning into its opposite, who escaped persecution. Which emperor would have sleepless nights worrying that his subjects were reading the Gospel of Thomas? Resurrection was always bound to get you into trouble, and it regularly did.”
There may be some thoughts in that quote that are new to you. But I pass it on to encourage you to think things through about your future hope. A couple of years ago, The DaVinci Code again popularized the ideas of the Gnostic “gospels” that got some followers thinking, a long time ago, that they were a spirit trapped in a body and that their spirit would be freed at death to go to heaven where they would be like angels. When we sing, “This world is not my home,” we can take it too far! We are the beloved creatures of our Creator. God will restore our home and will bring those who love him back to live with him, just like he raised Jesus. I’m not sure how it will all work, but we could be sitting on the porch with Andrea in a restored Fishtown one fine day. I’m looking forward to that.
I too really loved this book. “Resurrection was always bound to get you into trouble, and it regularly did” - that’s a good reminder about how we should be living.
A restored Philadelphia!!!! wow. imagine that! maybe i wont even have to work on my house anymore! it will already be done… take me there Jesus!
Or, as I often say to myself, Jeremy, maybe I just won’t care so much about doing what I am given to do. I will realize, so much more completely, that I have all the time in the world, or better, all the time “in earth as it is in heaven.”
Our resurrection bothers emporers. I think I get that now. We really are passing on the news that the nations are temporal and belong to Jesus and those who live in his eternal life. Yeah, the nation states are under God, but they ain’t indivisible.
“I’m not sure how it will all work, but we could be sitting on the porch with Andrea in a restored Fishtown one fine day. I’m looking forward to that.”
this line really got me
Rod, this is delicious stuff. I loved reading it. At a point where the limits and frustrations of this world are weighing down on me, it’s nice to know that it’s all temporary. It’s hard to be present to what’s going on now, and also farsighted. But I think you’re doing a great job of showing us how we can do that. A restored Philadelphia, a restored self.