Archive for the ‘Heaven’ Tag
Eternity
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Gospel, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Christianity, Heaven, Hell, Jesus, Perichoresis, Trinity
Comments (3) Here’s an encouraging thought: because of Jesus you will live forever. St. Paul says:
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ~ 1 Cor. 15:22
So, it’s not that we won’t die – we will, because of Adam. What’s encouraging is that – like Jesus – we won’t stay dead. When the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, became human he changed what it means to be human. Adam is not the definition of what human beings are, Jesus is the definition. And Jesus lives forever.
I suppose eternal life might seem encouraging if you’re happy and frightening if you’re not happy.
The question is, why aren’t you happy? If you’re not happy because you’re sick, or homeless, or being tortured for being a Christian, then the good news is that eternal life in the resurrection of Jesus won’t include these pains. So, it should be very encouraging to us in the midst of such suffering to know that our problems won’t last forever but we will.
If you’re not happy because you hate people, or are greedily trying to get more bling, or think the world is out to get you, then the prospect of eternal life doesn’t seem too appealing. That’s the downside, you might say. Jesus isn’t interested in controlling your mind. So you could use the freedom he’s given you to be miserable in the eternal life that Jesus is sharing with you.
And yet, as with everything in the life of the Trinity, there’s a silver lining to that cloud too.
You might be miserable but as long as you’re alive there’s always hope: there’s always hope that you’ll stop hating people and be content with the bling you’ve been given. And since Jesus has made sure that you’ll always be alive then there’s always hope.
So I stand by my original statement: even if we’re unhappy right now it is still encouraging to know that, because of Jesus, we will live forever.
~ Jonathan Stepp
He Descended into Hell
Filed under: By John Stonecypher, Gospel, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Crucifixion, Good Friday, Gospel, Heaven, Hell, Jesus, Salvation, Trinity
Comments (3) If you want some truly awful theology mixed in with some great theology that’s included by accident, a good place to start would be the 1998 film WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, starring Robin Williams.
Williams’ character (Chris) dies and goes to heaven, where everything he imagines becomes reality (which happens to be C.S. Lewis’ vision of hell in THE GREAT DIVORCE. Go figure). The strange thing is that God is conspicuously absent. Inquiring about this, Chris is informed: “I guess God is still up there somewhere, wondering why we can’t hear him telling us how much he loves us.”
Meanwhile, Chris’s wife (Marie), distraught over her husband’s death, kills herself and goes to hell. Apparently this is fine with with God and the rest of heaven’s blissed-out population. But Chris does what love does: He mounts a rescue mission. He escapes heaven and illegally immigrates into hell, braving its terrors to find his beloved and bring her home.
The theistic ‘god’ of the film is pathetic and useless.
He’s a perfect illustration of why I rejected theism and became a hardcore Trinitarian instead.
The only place in this film where we see the passion of the Trinity is in Chris. Being without her is not an option. Nothing will stop him from finding her. Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no hell deep enough. This is love, and it is beautiful. This is a Good Friday movie.
Today our Beloved shows us how far he has gone to find us.
We were dead in our transgressions, so he entered into death to find us, to be there with us in our agony and darkness, and to set us free. It’s the simplest and best love story there is.
~ by John Stonecypher
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No matter where you go
I will find you
If it takes a thousand years
(LAST OF THE MOHICANS soundtrack)