Posted on 09/23/2010 10:56:33 PM PDT by Quix
BOOK: HEAVEN by Randy Alcorn
Here's some selected quotes from the first 130 pages:
p15 p.18 p21 p26 p27
If we understand Hell even the slightest bit, none of us would ever say, 'Go to Hell.' It's far too easy to go to Hell. It requires no change of course, no navigational adjustments. We were born with our autopilot set toward Hell. It is nothing to take lightly--Hell is the single greatest tragedy in the universe. God loves us enough to tell us the truth--there are two eternal destinations, not one, and we must choose the right path if we are to go to Heaven. All roads do not lead to Heaven. Only one does: Jesus Christ. He said, 'No one comes to the Father except through me' John 14:6). . . . p28 Consider the wonder of it: God determined that he would rather go to Hell on our behalf than live in Heaven without us. He so much wants us not to go to Hell that he paid a horrible price on the cross so we wouldn't have to. . . . Jesus asks a haunting question in Mark 8:36-37: 'What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?' p31 . . . Guards were posted at the city gates to keep out criminals and enemies by checking their names against the list. This is the context for Revelation 21:27: 'Nothing impure will ever enter [the city], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.' p42 The answer to the question, Will we live in Heaven forever? depends on what we mean by Heaven. Will we be with the Lord forever? Absolutely. Willw e always be with him in exactly the same place that Heaven is now? No. In the present Heaven, we'll be in Christ's presence, and we'll be joyful, but we'll be looking forward to our bodily resurrection and permanent relocation to the New Earth. It bears repeateing because it is so commonly misunderstood: When we die, believers in Christ will not go to the Heaven where we'll live forever. Instead, we'll go to an intermediate Heaven. In that Heaven--where those who died covered by Christ's blood are now--we'll await the time of Christ's return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and New Earth. If we fail to grasp this truth, we will fail to understand the biblical doctrine of Heaven. p45 . . . That God would come down to the New Earth to live with us fits perfectly with his original plan. God could have taken Adam and Even up to Heaven to visit with him in his world. Insead, he came down to walk with them in their world (Genesis 3:8). Jesus says of anyone who would be his disciple, 'My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him' (John 14:23).That is the picture of God's ultimate plan--not to take us up to live in a realm made for him, but to come down and live with us in the realm he made for us. p46 p.47 P48 Wayne Grudem points out that Stephen ‘did not see mere symbols of a state of existence. It was rather that his eyes were opened to see a spiritual dimension of reality which God has hidden from us in this present age, a dimension which none the less really does exist in our space/time universe, and within which Jesus now lives in his physical resurrected body, waiting even now for a time when he will return to earth.’ 49 I agree with Grudem that the present Heaven is a space/time universe. He may be right that it’s part of our own universe, or it may be in a different universe. It could be a universe next door that’s normally hidden but sometimes opened. In either case, it seems likely that God didn’t merely create a vision for Stephen in order to make Heaven appear physical. Rather, he allowed Stephen to see an intermediate Heaven that was (and is) physical. P49 P53 Many commentators dismiss the possibility that any of these passages in Revelation should be taken literally . . . But the book of Hebrews isn’t apocalyptic, it’s epistolatry. It says that earthly priests ‘serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven’ (Hebrews 8:5). Moses was told, in building the earthly tabernacle, ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’ (Hebrews 8:5). If that which was built after the pattern was physical, might it suggest the original was also physical? P59 . . . If Christ’s body in the present Heaven has physical properties, it stands to reason that others in Heaven might have physical forms as well, even if only temporary ones. It also makes sense that other aspects of the present Heaven would have physical properties—so that, for example, when Christ is seen standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56), he is actually standing on something. Otherwise we would have to conclude that the resurrected (and thus, embodied) Christ has been floating for two thousand years in a realm without material substance. (He could, of course, but does he?) If we know there is physical substance in Heaven (namely, Christ’s body), can we not also assume that other references to physical objects in Heaven, including physical forms and clothing, are literal rather than figurative? P79 The problem is not that the Bible doesn’t tell us much about Heaven. It’s that we don’t pay attention to what it tells us. P80 If heaven isn’t a place, would Jesus have said it was? If we reduce Heaven to something less than or other than a place, we strip Christ’s words of their meaning. p81 P105 Note that it says Christ came not to destroy the world he created, but to destroy the works of the devil, which were to twist and pervert and ruin what God had made. Redemption will forever destroy the devil’s work by removing its hold on creation, and reversing its consequences. It is Satan’s desire to destroy the world. God’s intent is not to destroy the world but to deliver it from destruction. His plan is to redeem this fallen world, which he designed for greatness. Redeemed mankind will reign with Christ over the earth. . . . P112 . . . R.A. Torrey writes, ‘We will not be disembodied spirits in the world to come, but redeemed spirits in redeemed bodies, in a redeemed universe.’ 85 If we don’t get it right on the resurrection of the body, we’ll get nothing else right. It’s therefore critical that we not merely affirm the resurrection of the dead as a point of doctrine but that we understand the meaning of the resurrection we affirm. P113 Any views of the afterlife that settle for less than a bodily resurrection—including Christoplatonism, reincarnation, and transmigration of the soul—are explicitly unchristian. The early church waged major doctrinal wars against Gnosticism and Manichaeism, dualistic worldviews that associated God with the spiritual realm of light and Satan with the physical world of darkness. These heresies contradicted the biblical account that says God was pleased with the entire physical realm, all of which he created and called ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31) The truth of Christ’s resurrection repudiated the philosophies of Gnosticism and Manichaeism. Nevertheless, two thousand years later, these persistent heresies have managed to take hostage our modern theology of Heaven. P114 That’s God’s idea, not ours. Our desires simply correspond to God’s intentions, because he implanted his intentions into us in the form of our desires. P115
Jesus said of the devil, 'When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies' (John 8:44). Some of Satan's favorite lies are about Heaven. Revelation 13:6 tells us the satanic beast 'opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.' Our enemy slanders three things: God's person, God's people, and God's place--namely, Heaven.4
The writers of Scripture present Heaven in many ways, including as a garden, a city, and a kingdom. Because gardens, cities and kingdoms are familiar to us, they afford us a bridge to understanding Heaven. However, many people make the mistake of assuming that these are merely analogies with no actual correspondence to the reality of Heaven (which would make them poor analogies).
[Quixicated added paragraphing & color emphases--no wording changed] Analogies can be pressed too far, but because Scripture makes it clear that Jesus is preparing a place for us, and God's Kingdom will come to EArth, and a physical resurrection awates us, there's no reason to spiritualize or allegorize all earthly descriptions of Heaven.
Indeed, some of them may be simple, factual statements. Too often we've been taught that Heven is a non-physical realm, which cannot have real gardens, cities, kingdoms, buildings, banquets, or bodies. So we fail to take seriously what Scripture tells us about Heaven as a familiar, physical, tangible, place.
Think of friends or family members who loved Jesus and are with him now. Picture them with you, walking together in this place. All of you have powerful bodies, stronger than those of an Olympic decathlete. You are laughing, playing, talking, and reminiscing. You reach up to a tree to pick an apple or orange. You take a bite. It's so sweet that it's startling. You've never tasted anything so good. Now you see someone coming toward you. It's Jesus, with a big smile on his face. You fall to your knees in worship. He pulls you up and embraces you.
At last, you're with the person you were made for, in the place you were made to be. Everywhere you go there will be new people and places to enjoy, new things to discover. What's that you smell? A feast. A party's ahead. And you're invited. There's exploration and work to be done--and you can't wait to get started.
I have a biblical basis for all of these statements, and many more. . . .
. . . C.S. Lewis observed, 'If you read history, you will find that the Christians who most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. . . . It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the otehr world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither."31
C.S. Lewis said, "I have met no people who fully disbelieved in Hell and also had a living and life-giving belief in Heaven."38 The biblical teaching on both destinations stands or falls together.
Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth-century Carmelite nun, had an agonizing vision of hell. She later wrote of the torment she endured:
. . . 'You were bought at a price' (1 Corinthians 6:20). The price paid was exhorbitant--the shed blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ.
Some of you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Don't believe it for a moment. I will be more alive than ever before. --D.L.Moody
WILL WE LIVE IN HEAVEN FOREVER?
. . . I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God....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 poeple, and God himself will be with them and be their God' (Revelation 21:1-3). Heaven, God's dwelling place, will one day be on the New Earth.
. . .The Incarnation is about God inhabiting space and time as a human being--the new heavens and New Earth are about God making space and time his eternal home. As Jesus is God incarnate, so the New Earth will be Heaven incarnate.
Every reference in Revelation to human beings talking and worshiping in Heaven prior to the resurrection of the dead demonstrates that our spiritual beings are conscious, not sleeping, after death.
The Bible teaches that sometimes humans are allowed to see into Heaven. When Stephen was being stoned because of his faith in Christ, he gazed into Heaven: “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’ (Acts 7:55-56). Scripture tells us not that Stephen dreamed this, but that he actually saw it.
The prophet Elisha asked God to give his servant, Gehazi, a glimpse of the invisible realm. He prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha’ (2 Kings 6:17). . . .
In Milton’s story, the angel Raphael asks Adam,
Be but the shadow of Heav’n, and things therein
Each to other like, more than on Earth is thought?50
. . . our future bodily resurrection, which Paul emphatically establishes in 1 Corinthians 15:12-32. In fact, it would only be on the basis of the certainty of a future resurrection that temporary bodies might be given. . .
Scripture speaks of a New Jerusalem made of precious stones. Some of the jewels listed in Revelation 21:19-21 are among the hardest substances known. They indicate the material solidity of the New Earth.
Jesus told the disciples, ‘I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am’ (John 14:3), He uses ordinary, earthly, spatial terms to describe Heaven. The word where refers to a place, a location. Likewise, the phrase come back and take you indicates movement and a physical destination.
Will the Eden we long for return? Will it be occupied by familiar, tangible, physical features and fully embodied people? The Bible clearly answers yes.
Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. (Isaiah 65:17)
.
‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure.’ (Isaiah 66:22)
Through Christ’s redemptive work, he ‘disarmed the powers and authorities’ and ‘made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them’ (Colossians 2:15). . . .
Of Americans who believe in a resurrection of the dead, two-thirds believe they will not have bodies after the resurrection.84 But this is self-contradictory. A non-physical resurrection is like a sunless sunrise. There is no such thing. Resurrection means that we will have bodies. If we didn’t have bodies, we wouldn’t be resurrected!
Death is an abnormal condition because it tears apart what God created and joined together. God intended for our bodies to last as long as our souls. Those who believe in Platonism or in preexistent spirits see a disembodied soul as natural and even desierable. The Bible sees it as unnatural and undesirable. We are unified beings. That’s why the bodily resurrection of the dead is so vital. And that’s why Job rejoiced that in his flesh he would see God (job 19:26).
Wishful thinking is not the reason why, deep in our hearts, we desire a resurrected life on a resurrected Earth instead of a disembodied existence in a spiritual realm. Rather, it is precisely because God intends for us to be raised to a new life on the New Earth that we desire it. It is God who created us to desire what we are made for. It is God who ‘set eternity in the hearts of men’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11). It is God who designed us to live on Earth and to desire the earthly life. And it is our bodily resurrection that will allow us to return to an earthly life—this time freed from sin and the Curse.
Continuity is evident in passages that discuss resurrection, including 1 Corinthians 15:53: ‘For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.’ It is (the perishable and mortal) which puts on that (the imperishable and immortal). Likewise, it is we, the very same people who wlak this earth, who will walk the New Earth. ‘And so we will be with the Lord forever’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17, emphasis added).
I’ll place my commentary in the comments section below.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2595216/posts?page=57#57
Is quite dismaying, to me.
However, I believe that all systems of man apart from Holy Spirit eventually get right back around to the heretical notions from hell that have been around for many centuries longer even than the Vatican.
I believe that article outlining the dismaying perspective proffered by the Pope on essentially trashing the Biblical truth of a bodily resurrection is just another sign that the Vatican and even this--in many ways--admirable Pope--have already signed on to the theology of hell and the New World Order scripted and designed in hell.
However, I'd prefer to spring-board from that important disucssion on that thread to a Proddy, evangelical discussion of THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH as well as THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF BELIEVERS as outlined by Alcorn's book excerpted above.
I found Alcorn's presentation so far--130 pages into a total of 533 pages--to be extremely Biblical and well researched as well as extremely well thought-out.
And, I believe it is a very timely book.
The looming traumas are going to be extremely tangible and nitty gritty regardless of whether Believers experience merely the birth pangs of such or a bigger chunk of such. We NEED the perspective of a very tangible Heaven and New Earth to capture our imaginations, our spirits, our minds and thereby infect us with more of Holy Spirit's hope--our HOPE IN GOD and the RESURRECTION LIFE WITH HIM THAT CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AND BLOOD PROVIDE FOR US.
Anything less is simply inadequate as well as UnBiblical.
Alcorn lays a meticulous foundation for a tangible Heaven and a tangible bodily Resurrection as well as a multiverse restored to perfection without the plague of disintegration, destruction, death or even running down like an unwound clock.
He, rightly, imho, notes that the sin polluted ALL CREATION--which groans expectantly for the manifestation of the sons of God--evidently to help set things to right as we rule and reign with Christ--not over harps and clouds but over tangible real worlds and real peoples in real bodies--Alcorn rightly and Biblicaly notes that God will be setting all creation to rights and finally again freed from sin and sin's consequences.
I believe he does this masterfully and with almost a mind-numbing thoroughness. Though, thankfully, it really is an easy read. I just find it better in bite-sized chunks which allow prayerful pondering between the chunks.
I rarely find anything to quibble with. And, he is clear about asserting which sentences are his own opinions vs which are clearly demonstrated in exceedingly plausible if not necessary Biblical interpretations.
I believe the book and the accompanying small group DVD are well worth the time and investment in energy. It should make a powerful and hope filled group experience as well as an individual read.
I very strongly recommend it.
PING TO END TIMES AND CONSULANT’S GROUPS.
I believe the above bits from HEAVEN—as well as the whole book and small group DVD included—by Randy Alcorn can be a significant encouragement in these darkening times.
Thanks much for your kind reply.
I AGREE. It is one of the more awesome books I’ve read in more than a decade.
What did you find particularly moving, enriching, edifying in it?
Do you think it odd that the Pope says the Nicene Creed during every Mass and the Apostle’s Creed at the start of every Rosary?
Nicene Creed - “We look for the resurrection of the dead...”
Apostles Creed - “ I believe in the...resurrection of the body”
Or is it just so easy to buy lies?
Lies?
Quotes from the Pope’s own words are lies?
Fascinating.
However, Proddys are used to the Vatican claiming to be on all sides of an issue
so that,
at all costs . . .
in all contexts . . .
for a list of trumped up rationalizations and excuses . . .
THE INSTITUTION OF MAN’S THEOLOGY
AND MAN’S !!!!TRADITIONS!!!!
IS PROTECTED.
His praise of globalism encyclical also was hugely self-contradictory.
Why should we expect anything he says to be less self-contradictory.
It’s not the Proddys believing lies from the Vatican . . .
I greatly appreciate the degree it’s all founded IN THE WORD.
And that he notes quite clearly when he’s expressing personal opinion or personal speculation.
I agree. Very inspiring.
And I need to get to bed! LOL.
Whoosh...
MY G_d, is THE most AWESOME G_d!
“WILL WE LIVE IN HEAVEN FOREVER?
The answer to the question, Will we live in Heaven forever? depends on what we mean by Heaven. Will we be with the Lord forever? Absolutely. Willw e always be with him in exactly the same place that Heaven is now? No. In the present Heaven, we'll be in Christ's presence, and we'll be joyful, but we'll be looking forward to our bodily resurrection and permanent relocation to the New Earth.
It bears repeateing because it is so commonly misunderstood: When we die, believers in Christ will not go to the Heaven where we'll live forever. Instead, we'll go to an intermediate Heaven. In that Heaven—where those who died covered by Christ's blood are now—we'll await the time of Christ's return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and New Earth. If we fail to grasp this truth, we will fail to understand the biblical doctrine of Heaven.”
What he's describing is just the limbo of Catholic imagination but on an elevator.
Great stuff. Sounds like an awesome book. Thanks for the post.
> the book and the accompanying small group DVD
I just looked up the book on Amazon, but there was no mention of an accompanying DVD. Did you buy that separately?
Good morning Quix, thanks for this review. It is always interesting to read your threads. I’ll give this book a look see.
He gets it wrong right at page 15. Although he's right about the physicality of the Resurrection for everybody & that Heaven is a tangible location.
bookmark for later
AMEN! TO THE MAX.
Not so.
That is NOT what he is describing by a long shot.
Have you read the book?
INDEED. A truly wonderful book in the classic tradition of truly wonderful book.
Had it been a few centuries earlier, it would have had beautiful illuminations.
It’s that level of wonderful book.
Yet it is far from stuffy.
No. The DVD is affixed to the inside of the back—forgetting the technical term—back cover/end page.
I bought it from FAMILY CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE.
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