"Heaven is a hoax...?"

Steve Wiseman raises some interesting questions (here).

One of my students a couple weeks ago in a similar discussion said if "she was right about heaven .... great! If she was wrong about heaven ... great! Either way her life has been worth it!" (sounds like Pascal's Wager).

Anyway it got me to think should it all be a hoax - would it stop me doing anything that I am doing now? Would we pull the plug on all we do as a church in our community? Would my life take on another direction?

I don't think it would!
"...Jesus' desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth..." (Rob Bell)

Rob Bell makes interesting observations in his book Velvet Elvis:
"Eternal life is... a kind of life I am living more and more now and will go on forever. I am living more and more in connection with God, and I will live connected with God forever." pp143

"...When we choose God's vision of who we are, we are living as God made us to live. We are living in the flow of how we are going to live forever. This is the life of heaven, here and now. And as we live this life, in harmony with God's intentions for us, the life of heaven becomes more and more present in our lives. Heaven comes to earth.." pp147


Bell, R (2005) Velvet Elvis. Zondervan

Comments

Gordon said…
Steve - I've enjoyed it, I was disappointed that it finished when it did. I wouldn't say it is teh best written book I have read but it was like having a good chat with a mate about issues - which I suppose was what teh style attempted to achieve. You'll probably see quotes popping up i nthe near future!
8:44 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play
Read more