Posted on 02/09/2008 4:52:54 AM PST by Edward Watson
N.T. "Tom" Wright is one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought. As Bishop of Durham, he is the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England and a major player in the strife-riven global Anglican Communion; as a much-read theologian and Biblical scholar he has taught at Cambridge and is a hero to conservative Christians worldwide for his 2003 book The Resurrection of the Son of God, which argued forcefully for a literal interpretation of that event.
It therefore comes as a something of a shock that Wright doesn't believe in heaven — at least, not in the way that millions of Christians understand the term. In his new book, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne), Wright quotes a children's book by California first lady Maria Shriver called What's Heaven, which describes it as "a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk... If you're good throughout your life, then you get to go [there]... When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you heaven to be with him." That, says Wright is a good example of "what not to say." The Biblical truth, he continues, "is very, very different."
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
1. Intermediate stage (e.g., Paradise) immediately after death that isn't "heaven". 2. A corporeal resurrection of our bodies. 3. A plurality of "heavens" after the Resurrection. 4. The physical transformation of the earth and its unity to "heaven". 5. Christ's true followers will rule beneath God's dominion instead of just mindlessly sit on clouds and strum harps for all eternity.
Joe Smith in hell: “I want a re-trial!”
With all the douchebaggery coming out of the #1 in the C of E, why should we be impressed by #4? The salvation of the Church will come from the third world. Worrying too much about the forms and structure of the afterlife is an unhealthy obsession. Let’s just say it’s different, and chances are a mind must be transformed to grasp it.
The Bible doesn’t say much about what Heaven is like, in detail. My thought is that it’s not something we can understand, so there’s no point in explaining it to us. I’m counting on it being wonderful. See ya’ll there!
susie
Nothing revolutionary here, IMO. Christian theology speaks of the final Resurrection and the reuniting of our soul with its own glorified body (such as Christ possessed following His resurrection). The righteous dead will not spend eternity as disembodied shades.
How this is held to be approaching the LDS concept of the afterlife, with its billions of gods and heavenly mothers and spirit children awaiting union with flesh yet to be conceived, is beyond me.
no Mormon Cosmology can’t be right because it neglects the source and goal of our existence, participation in the Inner Life of the Trinity.
I was with him right up to that “bombed civilians in Iraq” part.
The bishop had previously spoken for the literal interpretation of the Resurrection of our Saviour. I am a Bible-literalist. I believe (only reading from your summary) that, OF COURSE, the bishop is much closer to a biblical description than “sitting on soft clouds” and all that mystical stuff that came from paintings on Catholic Church ceilings, etc., etc., . . .
Bishop Wright would probably have quite a reaction to your comments!
Here we go again. Fasten your seat belts ladies and gentlemen.
About as well written description of Heaven as I have read.
II Cor . 5:6-8
6Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Proverbs 14:8 NAS
The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way , But the foolishness of fools is deceit .
Excellent. Paul does, however, talk about receiving a new body by casting off the old man. The critical component here is the idea of a new Heaven and a new Earth. I like the understanding of a return to Eden as the new Earth.
YES!!
ICorinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not *ALL* sleep, but we shall *ALL* be change,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the *LAST* trump (there are 7 trumps); for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
54"..saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory."
55 "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch *THEN* as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through *death* He might destroy him that had the power of *death*, that is, the *DEVIL*;
IPeter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that HE might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but *quickened* by the Spirit:
19 By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison,
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight *SOULS* were saved by water.
What is?
susie
Despite what is written, you could cut to the chase about here as this is the fact that the elite of his colleagues in the Anglican/Episcopal communion accept: Check out what The Most Rev. John Shelby Sprong says!
Heaven and Hell: What Does the Bible Really Teach?
Christianity has been limping along on tradition alone for centuries. It's about time it begins to return to it's biblical roots.
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