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How do we get into heaven?
Following the recent discussions about Rob Bell’s orthodoxy and his view of hell and salvation, it is worth repeating an illustration that Rob once used in one of his sermons on Philippians a couple of years ago. A lot of the discussion is surrounding who is right and who is wrong – what is sound theology and what is heresy. Good theology is important, but here is a warning about getting our priorities right when it comes to faith and doctrine.
The entrance to heaven is not like that. We do not simply recite the right answers to be granted safe passage into the afterlife. Peter is not standing at the pearly gates giving us a pop quiz. It is about how we live and who we live for. Simple head knowledge is not enough.
Some relevant passages which illustrate the believing and doing aspect of faith:
- Matt 7:21-23 – True Disciples
- Matt 25:31-end – The Sheep and the Goats
- Luke 23:39-43 – The penitent thief
- James 2:14-2nd – Faith and Deeds
And while we’re about it, here’s a sermon I preached a year or so ago on that James passage.
Today’s underlying spirituality
I came across a quote from Caitlin Morgan in the Times from a while back (1st May 2006). She was discussing the default underlying belief system of those who say they have no faith…
“Talk to people under 50 and they all, by and large, have a religion: a consistent, recognisable set of beliefs. It’s just that it doesn’t have a name yet. It usually consists of a selection of the following: doing yoga; believing in reincarnation and karma, bit also heaven, so Nan as an and your dogs are there too; watching carols from Kin’s at Christmas; using recycled lee roll; intending to read the Koran at some point; knowing quite a lot of the score of Jesus Christ Superstar; a vague affinity with dolphins; trying not to use the word “spaz” any more; reading The Road Less Travelled; buying joss-sticks; considering colonic irrigation and/or fasting; looking for symbols of the rose on churches since reading The Da Vinci Code, buying make up not tested on animals (apart from Touche Eclat, because Boots Naturals just don’t do an equivalent); getting a bicycle; buying Fair-trade; occasionally wishing you were Jewish; never going to McDonald’s; sponsoring a child in the Third World; listening to the Bet of Cat Stevens; liking Shaker-style quilts; and not believing in a man up there with a white beard, but definitely believing that there’s some kind of global conscience, yeah”
All in all, it is a very ‘feel good’ system which doesn’t’ stand up to scrutiny but people like to believe in anyway. Just think of the finale of the TV series Lost for a demonstration of such a feel good view of heaven where you are surrounded simply by the people you love.
Like this:
Thoughts on Lost finale
Before I begin…
WARNING SPOILERS!
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Oh, and this won’t make any sense unless you’ve actually seen Lost….
Having watched the final episode of Lost this week, I’m not sure if I was happy or not with the way the ending was written.Here are my assorted ramblings….
Yes, evil was defeated (the John Locke smoke monster), there was a sacrificial saviour figure (Jack) and some heroic actions from some of the others (Hurley, Desmond). Desmond, Kate, Claire, Sawyer, Lapidis and Miles all managed to escape the island on the plane. Whilst Jack died in the process of saving the Island, Sun, Jin and Sayid had died a couple of episodes earlier in the submarine. It wasn’t surprising that Jack was the saviour figure.
They tried to make sense of the alternate (sideways) reality – it became as a place of waiting until the characters remembered their ‘real’ selves from the island, and the relationships they had there. Each of them experienced a ‘flash’ moment of recognition where their other lives suddenly became real memories. They were then all led to a chapel where Jack’s father appeared, explained stuff to Jack and then led them all out the doors into a glorious white light. Jack’s father was called Christian Shepherd – clear religious analogy there – and he took them from a purgatory type existence in the sideways reality to the wonder of heaven, as one by one, they all left their sideways existence behind.
What is interesting is who was in the chapel ready to go to heaven. There were noticeable absentees from the main cast of characters who had been in it from the start – Michael, Ben (who elected to stay outside in ‘purgatory’) Anna-Luica and Mr Ekko from the tail section of the plane, yet they brought back Libby from the tail section, Juliette who was originally one of the ‘others’, and Shannon and Boone, the latter who died in series 1. What most of the characters who came back had in common was that they each seemed to be a love interest for another character at some point.
They also neglected to bring in Daniel, Miles and Charlotte who all had significant roles in series 4 and 5, and who all appeared in the sideways reality too. It seems that the writer’s idea of heaven is a place where all your close friends are, where relationship-love is important, and belief doesn’t really enter into it. Even the stained glass window in the chapel indicated this – it had symbols from all the worlds major religions as if they were all equal and lead to the same place.
I wonder, is this the prevailing view of heaven for those who have no faith? is it a vague hope that we will be with the ones we love regardless of how we live or what we believe?
Surprised by Hope
It’s about a week since I finished reading Tom Wright’s quite sizeable book about the resurrection, Surprised by Hope, so it is also about time I wrote a blog post about it.
When we think about Christian hope, often we focus on the hope of being with Jesus in heaven after we die. At that point, our thinking goes, all the trials and tribulations of life will have been left behind for an eternity with God, away from this earth. Wright argues that this viewpoint doesn’t not come from Biblical thinking, but from misconceptions which mingle Greek and Medieval thought.
The book combats these misconceptions about what happens after we die, about the importance of this earth, and about heaven and hell by looking in detail at Jesus’ resurrection and what that achieved. The centre of Christian faith, Wright argues, is not the hope that we will go to heaven when we die, but the hope that God has come to us and has begun to restore all things. In the resurrection of Jesus, heaven and earth have been brought together and God’s kingdom has begun on earth. At the end, after one ultimate breaking in of God’s power in the return of Jesus, the whole earth will be transformed into God’s perfect physical paradise, as described at the end of Revelation. The final resting place of Christians is not therefore a purely spiritual heaven, but a physical reality in the time after Jesus’ return. (Having said this, Wright does not discount the existence of a purely spiritual in-between place where we may go after we die but before Jesus’ return).
This truth, Wright argues, has a profound affect on how we see Christian hope now. Hope is not just something to be anticipated in the future, but, since in the resurrection God’s Kingdom has begun, this hope is something that we can practise in the present. By upholding justice, creating beauty and engaging in evangelism we are putting our faith in the hope of Jesus. The gospel that we have to demonstrate and proclaim is the good news that despite the evil and corruption around, God, the world’s creator, is king, that Jesus is the rightful Lord and ruler and that God’s new creation has begun, proven by the resurrection of Jesus.
Wright continues:
“But how can the church announce… that God’s new world has begun?… If it’s actively involved in seeking justice in the world, both globally and locally, and if it’s cheerfully celebrating God’s good creation, and its rescue from corruption, in art and music, and if, in addition, its own internal life gives every sign that the new creation is indeed happening, generating a new type of community – then suddenly the announcement makes a lot of sense” (p239)
Those who accept this Jesus as Lord and who are committed to him are therefore engaged in their part of God’s Kingdom work of setting the world back on God’s track in the areas of justice, holiness, beauty and evangelism. That is the the Christian Hope that is often surprising and in which God is actively engaged in in the present.
Tom Wright’s book is a wonderful uplifting read which gives plenty of food for thought and application to our Christian lives.
Tom Wright on Hell
In his book ‘Surprised by Hope‘ (which I am still reading!) N.T. Wright offers a concise account of the interpretations of the doctrine of Hell and offers his own account (pages 187-198). He categorically rejects universalism as a product of the liberal theology from the first half of the 20th century. However, he also has issues with the traditional interpretation of hell as an ‘eternal torture chamber’, saying that this comes from a medieval ideas of heaven and judgement.
You’d have thought, then, that he would therefore accept the other fairly mainstream interpretation of hell of annihilationism, where, at the judgement, those who have not aligned themselves with Christ simply cease to exist. Wright, however, rejects this view as neglecting parts of the new testament which clearly allude to an ongoing state of existence for those who reject Christ.
Instead, he opts for an interpretation which takes the best arts of both views (whilst acknowledging that, like all interpretations of the doctrine of hell, there is a certain amount of theological conjecture that necessarily goes on!). He argues that human beings, made in the amge of God but flawed through sin, can choose to worship whomever and whatever they want. As they do so, they become more like the person/thing that they worship. So, those who worship, say, money start to define themselves and others in terms of money – as partner, debtor, creditor etc. Consequently, the image of God in them is further diminished. Those who worship God wholeheartedly will become more like Him, as the object of their worship. Wright then applies this to the state of existence after death. Bearing in mind that the whole of creation will be restored under Christ’s rule, those who follow him will be restored into the perfect image of God. Those who do not will get what they wanted too, the image of God in them will be diminished and removed. They will, Wright suggests, continue in an eternal state of existence but in that state the image of God in them will be less that what it should be. They will be permanently less than human. Again, Tom Wright is clear to say that this is his conjecture!
This is the first time I’ve heart such an argument, and I’d have to look into more to comment more fully. Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that, as Wright mentions later on, the questions “Who is going to heaven or hell?” and “What is it like?” are not really the right questions t be asking. As God’s salvation plans includes individuals but extends to all creation, the right question is “How is God’s plan of salvation panning out in individual’s lives and in the world as a whole?” or “What is God doing now?”. I’m sure God sees the issue of eternal like and separation from him as much more continuous than our more usual categories of before death/after death.
Christmas Carols
After reading Peter’s excellent blog post on Christmas Carols, it reminded me of this article I wrote recently talking about some favourites and not-so-favourites of my own….
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It is Christmas time again, therefore we have an opportunity to get out and dust off all of our favourite traditional carols that we reserve for this time of year. Many of them are magnificent descriptions of God’s in-breaking into humanity through the incarnation of Christ and they have similarly stirring tunes which remind us of this glory all the more.
Take, for example, one of my favourites, O Come All Ye Faithful. The words, written by John Wade in 1742 are timeless and inspiring, and almost straight out the first chapter of John’s gospel. Come! Faithful people in joy, it begins. Come and see Him! Who are we coming to see? The God of God (John 1:1), and Light of Light; ‘the true light who gives light to every man was coming into the world (John 1:9). The Word of God, his very presence and action became human on Christmas morning.
Magnificent stuff. But there is something that has been bothering me in recent years. It all began with the supposed children’s favourite, Away in a Manger. Verses one and two are anonymous although they are often erroneously attributed to Martin Luther. Verse three is a later addition by John T. McFarland. I have two issues with this carol. The first is in the second verse: ‘The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes, But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes’. This is a mistake and consequently, I don’t believe Luther could have written this. Exceptional though Jesus was, he took on the fulness of humanity in order to redeem and restore it. He identified fully with the strains and weaknesses of the human body. I’m fairly sure therefore, that Jesus cried as a baby. After all, it is a natural part of being human (as I’m about to find out next month).
Also concerning is what is in verse three: “Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, and fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there”. To say that Jesus died and rose again and is is currently at the Father’s side in heaven in correct. But that is not where we will ultimately be going. The climax of the Biblical salvation story pictures heaven coming to earth. Jesus will return at the end when our universe will be transformed with all the bad bits made good, and our physical selves will be changed too. Our eternal dwelling place will be here, in a renewed creation. And, more importantly, God will dwell with us:
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev 21:2-4)
In another Christmas carol, Edmund Sears gets it right in verse five of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, written in 1871:
For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
The age of gold, the new age that Christ will bring when he returns will be experienced here. His peace will cover every part of creation in one final in-breaking of God into human history. Then, the whole world will be able to praise and worship like the angels do, in God’s full and manifest presence. What God will accomplish in the future is yet another reason to celebrate the incarnation.
Surprised by Hope – Citizenship
Tom Wright has spoken about many things in his book, Surprised by Hope, which I’m currently halfway through. A lot of it has to do with bodily resurrection and life after death (which I’ll get onto later).
He makes a good connection with the idea of citizenship with Paul writes about in Philippians. “My citizenship in is heaven”. Philippi was a roman colony by virtue of the fact that Octavian and Mark Anthony defeated Brutus (who assassinated Julius Caesar) just outside the city. As a reward for the Philippian faithfulness Octavian (who became Ceasar Augustus) made them citizens of Rome. There were many citizens of Rome floating about the Roman Empire including inhabitants of other cities like Philippi and former soldiers who had been rewarded for their effort. Being a citizen of Rome did not mean that you all grabbed your stuff and moved to Rome. Rome wasn’t big enough for that. It meant that all the freedoms and privileges that Roman citizens get in Rome were now available to you wherever you are. In a sense, Rome comes to you, not you go to Rome.
Being a citizen of heaven is the same – we’re not all going to up sticks and go and live somewhere else in heaven. The privileges and wonder of heaven will come to us on this earth. They are already partly available to us by virtue of the Holy Spirit given after the resurrection, but all privileges will be fully available when God restores his creation into the perfect physical creation when Jesus’ comes again. This is the image at the end of Revelation when the heavenly city comes down to earth
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Rev 21:1-2
I’ll see you in heaven, I think…
From Postsecret:
Allow me to rephrase: “I’m not sure whether there is a God or heaven, but if there is, I’m definately going there, but I’m not sure whether you will be”
