Kingdom Ready

Originally presented at Atlanta Bible College’s 2013 Theological Conference

According to the Hebrew prophets, one day the God of heaven will set up a kingdom on this world, restoring it back to its original glory. Instead of shucking off the body like a husk so the soul can ascend, the biblical teaching about humanity’s destiny is rather fleshy. God designed humans to live on earth in the beginning, and he will resurrect his people on the last day, healing them of all their ailments and imparting to them immortality. The picture is a beautiful one, with people living in peace, confidently planting and harvesting without fear of intruders. Rather than rampant economic injustice, one will wear out the work of his own hands. This grand age is to begin with a banquet at which the resurrected saints will enjoy fine wine and rich meat, celebrating the victory of God. Although this terrestrial hope coursed through the veins of Jews for centuries, it had reached a fever pitch by the time of Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, he based his entire ministry on the proclamation and enactment of the coming of God’s kingdom.

Alright, time to get back in the habit of posting new content here on KR!  Sorry everyone for being absent from around here. I’ve got a ton of stuff from last month’s Theological Conference in Atlanta and this month’s One God Conference in Austin to share and publish here.

I’ll start today with a paper I just received the other day from Dr. John Roller on the importance of Conditional Immortality.  I really enjoyed it and I hope you will too!

How Important Is “Conditional Immortality”?

by Dr. John H. Roller

Introduction

Here’s the 5th installment in this series:

Biblical Common Sense – Death – Usage of the Sleep Metaphor

I’ve been to several funerals the last few years where I have heard the preachers often say that the deceased is now “more alive than ever” up in heaven.  Yet this runs counter to the most consistent description used in The Bible in reference to the dead. A description that isn’t something that means energized and alert, but the exact opposite with the word “sleep”.  Of course this is a metaphor (something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else) to describe the death.  This metaphor is repeatedly used throughout many of the Old Testament books.

Finally, after way too long of a delay since posting the first third (about Jesus) of my lengthy paper entitled “A Common Sense Approach to the Biblical Presentation of Jesus, Death, & THE Devil”, here is the 2nd main topic – DEATH.

Like the first section on Jesus (started on KR here: Biblical Common Sense – Intro – What & Why), this has several sub-sections that are best published in smaller, easier to read sections here on KR.  So for my next several posts, I’ll add the sections that follow one another.  I’ll also try to provide all the links at the end of each post to the entire series just for reference.

Note: this post is essentially a “follow-up” to my last post – which dealt with the question of “Is any knowledge required for salvation?”. That post can be found here.

Introduction

From my experience, most mainstream Christians have a rather limited understanding about the topic of death. Essentially, most Christians believe that death is a one-time, permanent event. In other words, most Christians hold that when a person dies, his physical body disintegrates – and that his body will never be re-created, ever again.

It appears to me that Scripture gives us much different information about death – and the possibility of life after death – than the belief listed above. So, let’s take a look in Scripture, to see what is listed there about that subject.

I think the title says it all. The world as we know it is battling with hopelessness. Everything in our society these days has become uncertain. Nothing is guaranteed. Hence many are living in fear and misery. All they see is a pitiful life with no end in sight. Sometimes they wish death would take them and be rid of this little existence. How about when this begins to creep into the church? Today, I want to speak on the subject of hope and its importance in our life. Hope is an integral part of Christianity and each of us must learn about it and live it out.

Introduction

Scripture contains quite a bit of information about the subject of resurrection. In essence, the Bible tells us that when Jesus returns, he will bring believers back to life – so that believers will live with Jesus, forever, on the restored paradise earth.

However, from my experience, most Christians have almost no knowledge about the subject of resurrection. The main reason for this is that almost all mainstream churches teach that human beings have “immortal souls” – and that when a person’s body dies, his immortal soul leaves his body and goes to heaven. In other words, the mainstream belief is that people never really die – because their immortal souls keep on living, forever.

© 2011 Matthew Elton
matt@faithfirstmedia.com

Two Views: Eternal Torture vs. Soul Sleep

According to a popularized Christian belief, when a person dies his or her soul departs from the body and either floats up to a place of eternal paradise (heaven) or down to a place of eternal torture (hell). This belief has become so widely accepted among Christians that it is often assumed that it must have originated in the Bible.

This is what Easter is suppose to be about. When you strip away all the commercialism and pagan customs, it is about remembering why we can escape the death penalty we all deserve as sinful humans.  It was this one human man, the 2nd Adam, the Messiah of Almighty Yahweh that died an undeserved death in our place and became the FIRSTFRUITS of those who are asleep!

Acts 17:30-31

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.

Music has always been a big part of my life.  My parents often listened to classical records, big-band stuff, and had their own personal favorites (mother – The Sound of Music soundtrack, father – Johnny Cash records).  As a kid of the late 60′s & all through the 70′s and then coming to age in high-school & college during the 80′s, music for me meant rock & roll (now termed “classic rock”) and its emerging sub-genres of the day – “new wave” and “modern rock”. Of course a little cable channel start-up in 1981 that played “music videos” 24/7 also had a big impact back in the day in culturing my fondness for these new “alternative” rock bands.