Category Archives: Afterlife, The

Surprised by Hope: “Resurrection”

Resurrection in the ancient world In the ancient world, “resurrection” always referred to a bodily resurrection. The word wasn’t used when the topic was the survival of our spiritual essence after death. The pagans uniformly denied resurrection as a possibility, … Continue reading

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Surprised by Hope: Traditional Beliefs About Heaven

[I’m beginning a summer series of classes on N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope. The material in this and the following posts is a blend of his writings and my own thoughts. Hence, Wright’s book quotes many Anglican hymns and … Continue reading

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An Easter Conversation

The “Out of Ur” blog at Christianity Today often has some fascinating material. Yesterday, the editors posted this conversation with N. T. Wright about the meaning of Easter. Not only is this timely for the season, but it fits well … Continue reading

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The New Perspective: Where Are the Dead Before the Second Coming? Part 2 (Modern Physics and the Second Coming)

To this point, we’ve seen that the dead in Christ are most commonly described as being asleep until the Second Coming–the End–when the old earth and old heaven will be destroyed, the living and dead will the judged, and God … Continue reading

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The New Perspective: Where Are the Dead Before the Second Coming? Part 1

In the previous two posts, we considered the idea that at the end of time, after the Judgment, God and the New Jerusalem will come down to a renewed and purified earth, where we will dwell in new, imperishable, incorruptible … Continue reading

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The New Perspective: The End of the World as We Know It–The Second Coming

(Hab. 2:14) For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. With this passage, in The Simple Church, N. T. Wright lays out his theory for how the … Continue reading

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The New Perspective: The End of the World as We Know It–Introduction

I’ve never been particularly interested in eschatology (It’s a ridiculous word and I promise never to use it again. It’s the study of the end times.). I just kind of figure that however things end up, they’ll be much better … Continue reading

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