Tag: Heaven

A Case for God’s True Justice and a Call to Mission

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Something a little different today since I didn’t preach yesterday morning (our choir presented their excellent Christmas cantata instead). I recently heard about a small kerfuffle happening in the world of evangelical culture and theology. I was first alerted to it by a Facebook post from a church member. I don’t often pay very much attention to news stories I hear about on Facebook, though, so at first, I didn’t pay it any attention. But then, listening to a couple of different news podcasts from Christian sources I trust, I heard about it again and in more detail. Apparently, in a recent podcast episode with his son, Kirk Cameron espoused a heterodox theological view that has a fairly long historical pedigree called annihilationism. The basic thrust of the position is that one day God will annihilate—that is, blink out of existence—all of those who are in Hell. This view is framed as a better picture of the justice and mercy of God. Rather than making people suffer in Hell for eternity, God will mercifully end their suffering one day. They will simply cease to exist. When a seminary professor or anonymous pastor spouts off something like that, the world mostly ignores it. When a leading figure in the world of evangelical culture espouses it on a popular podcast, a great many more people pay attention. I don’t normally respond to things like this, but I actually wrote a paper on the subject explaining the whole debate as well as defending the historically orthodox position. This doesn’t have very much to do with the Advent season except that this is the fate Jesus came to save us from, but because the debate is hot, I thought I’d chip in my two cents. The paper is almost 20 years old, but my position hasn’t changed any in that time. This may not be for everybody, but some may find it either helpful or interesting or both. Because it is longer than usual, I’ve gone the extra mile and recorded the audio, so you can just listen to the paper if you would prefer. In any event, here you go, complete with a bibliography in case you really want to track down any of my sources.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 11:14-16

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“Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But they now desire a better place — a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)‬‬

I’ve spent the last week away from home. Today we’re traveling back. I’m looking forward to that. It’ll be good getting back to my own bed and my own stuff and the people with whom I spend the most time other than my immediate family. Yet in being away from home, I’ve gotten to spend a week in the place and with the people who were my home for what was still most of my life (although I’m close to crossing the line where that won’t be the case any longer). It’s all got me thinking about what home means and where exactly home is. Let’s talk about it for a bit.

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Is Hell Real?

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That’s a very good question, and one we are going to wrestle with together today as we wrap up our teaching series, Confident in the Face of Hard Questions. A significant percentage of the country believes in Heaven. A significant percentage of the country, on the other hand, don’t believe in Hell. They can’t imagine that they’ve done anything sufficiently wrong to warrant their being set on fire and burned for all eternity. Yet while the imagery of Hell we find in the Scriptures is certainly uncomfortable, uncomfortable language doesn’t make the doctrine itself false. Let’s struggle through this question and see how the existence of Hell, far from making God a tyrant, actually elevates His love and justice even further.

Is Hell Real?

Almost 20 years ago, former Vice President Al Gore released a documentary movie about climate change whose title introduced a phrase into the public lexicon that has never left since. The film was called, An Inconvenient Truth. The idea was that Gore was presenting the public with a whole bunch of information about the state of the climate that was true even if we didn’t want it to be. Whether you happen to agree with anything he said or not, the movie undeniably made a huge impact on western culture. (It also made Gore exceedingly wealthy.) Also, whether you happen to agree with his position on that particular issue or not, it is nonetheless the case that there are some things that are true whether or not we want them to be true. 

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Isn’t Heaven for Everybody?

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As we continue in our series, Confident in the Face of Hard Questions, today we are tackling a doozy. Most people believe in Heaven. Most people also believe that most people are going to wind up there in one way or another. But is that really the case? To suggest otherwise isn’t very popular, but what did Jesus have to say on the matter, and is that really a good thing? Let’s explore these questions and more together.

Isn’t Heaven for Everybody?

Have you ever felt snubbed? There could have been a number of different things that left you feeling that way. Maybe you joined a club of some sort because it sounded really fun, but then you discovered that the really fun stuff you heard about was only available for the premium members, and you were just a regular member. Perhaps you flew on an airplane with a dedicated first class section and sat close enough that you could see what a great—not to mention comfortable—time they were all having up there. You know…when the curtain accidentally got left open. They don’t want all their secrets from up there getting out. Or it could be that you didn’t get invited to some big party that everyone was talking about afterwards. Right in front of you. Now, your defense mechanism might be to pretend that you didn’t really want to go in the first place and that you had plenty of fun sitting at home by yourself watching reruns and eating cold pizza in your underwear. But you know that’s not true. So does everyone else. Really, you’re hurt that you weren’t invited, and now you don’t want to hang out with those people anymore. You’re going to go find some friends to hang out with who aren’t so exclusive as those jerks are. Of course, once you feel like you’re part of the “in group,” you’re just fine with exclusivity—in fact, you prefer it so the riff raff doesn’t come in and mess up your group dynamic—but we’ll ignore that inconvenient little truth for the moment. 

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Morning Musing: Amos 9:13

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“Look, the days are coming – this is the Lord’s declaration – when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the one who treads grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Modern imaginings of Heaven – especially in cartoons – are generally terrible. The common caricature is that we will be sitting in the clouds with wings and harps and halos doing…nothing. That doesn’t sound like an exciting place I long to spend eternity. It sounds like a boring waste of time. I’ll take the fun of sin and whatever bit of torment Hell offers over that, thank you very much. At least, that’s how the all-too-often and totally understandable reaction to that image goes. The devil got a win when he inspired that vision. Yet this vision is nowhere found in the pages of Scripture. Let’s talk about what we do see and why it is so much better.

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