Kingdom Ready

by Bethany Reise

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that there is but one hope to which believers have been called (Eph 4:4). Most Christians have been taught that the hope they are awaiting is eternal life in heaven, to which their immortal soul will depart after death. They would be surprised to find out that this is not the hope to which Paul was referring. Paul was speaking of the resurrection of the righteous which is to occur at the second coming of Christ. It is only at this time that the dead who have been sleeping in their graves will be awakened and clothed with immortality. They will live and reign with Christ in the kingdom of God which is to be established on the earth at the end of the age.

Chris Date is the host of the fascinating Theopologetics podcast as well as one of the major contributors to the Rethinking Hell podcast. He is a sharp thinker with a fair-minded and humble attitude. Below I have included links to two of his moderated debates on hell. In both of them Chris shows how verses typically used to teach that hell involves the eternal torment of the damned really teach otherwise. Sadly, neither of Chris’ opponents offered really strong biblical cases for eternal torment, so they were both a tad one-sided. Even so, I found that listening to Chris’ case was extremely informative and helpful for my own thinking on this subject.

Hell and Mr. Fudge is a movie about Edward Fudge and his discovery that the biblical teaching about hell contradicts the traditional view of eternal torment. I just received an update about two showings in the near future. If you live near Chicago or Nashville, you gotta go!

SCREENING SCHEDULE UPDATE

Chicago Area
Saturday, Sept. 29 at 3:00 PM
Naperville Church of Christ
Naperville, IL
Email jww@me.com for more information.

Nashville Area
Monday, Oct. 1 at 6:45 PM
Harpeth Community Church
Franklin, TN
Email doug.arogos@gmail.com for more information.

All welcome. No tickets or passes required. Seating may be limited, so plan to arrive early.

Chris Date, one of the contributors to RethinkingHell.com, has just launched a fantastic podcast. He kicked it off by interviewing Edward Fudge on his new book Hell: A Final Word. After this two part interview, he spoke to John Stackhouse of Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. Stackhouse, like Fudge, is a bible-believing evangelical who, because of Scripture, felt compelled to abandon his old view of hell as eternal torment and embrace instead an annihilationist perspective (i.e. those thrown into hell on judgment day will perish and see to exist). I see Chris has just put up the fourth episode to the podcast with Glenn Peoples in an effort to put forth a positive case for annihilationism. Also, my friend, John Roller, made it on the tail end of the second podcast, giving his own testimony. So, if you have an mp3 player or iPod, and the subject of hell is interesting to you, be sure to sign up to get the free podcast. Here the links below:

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 6th installment in this series:

Biblical Common Sense – Death – An ENEMY!

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:26 says: “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” Now everyone knows what an enemy is. It is someone or something that harms or opposes us.  However the typical sentiment one hears at a mainstream Christian funeral is that death has taken the deceased to a “better place”.  Other variants often expressed can be “God has called so and so home”, or “The Lord needed another member of heaven”.  But does anyone stop and think about what this actually means?  Such ideas mean that death isn’t so bad.  For the saved, death would be taking us to the best possible place we could ever hope to be!

Recently, I was asked by an inquirer how I understand the text where Jesus seems to say he will raise himself from the dead.

John 2.19-22
Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it.” Then the Jews said, “This temple was built for forty-six years, and will you raise it in three days?” But that one spoke concerning the temple of his body. Therefore when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus spoke.

Here are a few observations about this text:

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.

Here’s the 4th installment in this series:

Biblical Common Sense – Death – You shall surely NOT die!

In all of God’s Holy Scripture, there’s not a single verse that tell us that human beings have an immortal soul. In fact the very word “immortal” is used only once in 1 Timothy 1:17 and there it refers once again only to God Himself.

However there is a verse in the Bible that does promote the idea that we don’t really die.  That verse would be none other than Genesis 3:4.

Genesis 3:4 “The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!”“