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One of my favorite preachers once illustrated our misunderstanding of heaven by comparing how we usually think of heaven (something akin to a Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial) to how the Bible talks about heaven (something more like the exuberant joy of a Jewish wedding). I’ve always appreciated that illustration, and it helps make sense of […]
Several years ago, one of my students wrote a paper comparing C. S. Lewis’s account of heaven with that of a noted theologian. He remarked that while their formal beliefs were essentially the same, the writings of the theologian left him cold, while reading Lewis made him actually want to go to heaven. The power […]
One of the treasures of worship in the Christian church is the Psalter: one hundred and fifty inspired songs, many of them written by David. But is it appropriate to sing all of the psalms? The ones I have in mind are the “imprecatory” psalms—the ones calling down God’s judgment on our enemies. Here are […]
Nature is an idol who has never gone out of fashion. In every generation, she is rediscovered and re-deified. She teaches us to decry fakeness in all things: crackers, detergents, personalities. She pressures us to buy organic, to be true to ourselves and our schools. Nature, in her idolatrous capacity, would rather have her devotees […]
Near-death experience stories are neither to be discounted as total fabrication nor recalibrated as a final apologetic for the Christian case for heaven. The little-known secret—to those who have studied the matter and the numerous who have not—is that near-death experience stories have been around as long as humans have been telling stories. Once while […]
What do a city, a garden, romanticism, and a family reunion have in common? (This could be a cateogry on Jeopardy!). If you answered “heaven,” you’re right (if you didn’t, don’t worry; neither did we—hence this interview). While Scripture isn’t lacking in analogies and descriptions of heaven, it doesn’t portray it the way our literal, […]
Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a vineyard, a mustard seed, virgins, a king who held a wedding feast, and a master who left his home. Revelation 21 talks about walls of jasper and cities of pure gold, with the foundations of the walls adorned with every kind of jewel and each of the […]
“Pastor, I just want to be with the Lord in heaven and for all of this to finally be over,” Ella exclaimed with an earnestness that let everyone know she meant it. This was her third round of chemotherapy, and the will to fight the good fight had diminished with each drop of poison introduced […]
Richard Hooker (1553–1600) is known today primarily as the author of the work unpromisingly titled Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, and is often thought of as the father of Anglicanism, forging a middle way between the Reformers and Rome. Convinced that the church today has much to learn from the judicious Hooker, Brad Littlejohn […]
Seemingly from nowhere, SupernaturalandThe Unseen Realm have found themselves atop Amazon’s best-selling Kindle books list. They are what your neighbors are reading (evangelical neighbors especially). The author, Michael S. Heiser, is a credentialed and peer-reviewed scholar in Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages, as well as scholar-in-residence at Faithlife Corporation, the makers of Logos Bible Software; […]
For a series of philosophical, theological, and practical reasons, the medieval church came gradually to think that our justification (that is, our acceptance by a righteous God) is progressive. What the confessional Reformed and Lutheran churches call sanctification (that is, our gradual conformity to Christ), the medieval church came to think of as justification. This […]
The great hope of Christians is not that they will go to heaven when they die, but that Jesus will raise them from the dead in an incorruptible body to live with him and the rest of God’s people in the new creation. The physicality of the new creation city that John reveals in Revelation […]
