Heaven and Why I Want to Go There

A few weeks ago, I did a mini review of a book by Rob Bell entitled “Love Wins.” As you may remember, Bell has determined that heaven will be nothing more than a glorified earth where God will banish anything that is “bad.” I discussed at the time, that Bell’s concept of heaven has little to do with the scriptural idea and very much to do with the concept that man has of what heaven “ought” to look like. As humans, we have a tendency to fill in the gaps with our thoughts and ideas about what heaven, or anything we have not experienced or seen, is like.

The Bible Tells Me So

There’s an interesting controversy in the church today that has been brewing for some time, but that seems to be gathering steam of late. And that is the role that the Bible plays in the life of the church and Christianity as a whole. You may have heard of a rather well known preacher who has popularized the idea that Christianity is not dependent on the Bible simply because Christianity began before the Bible. I suspect that what the preacher is intending to say is that the New Testament was not composed until after Christianity had been established. This fact is then used to promote the idea that we should not be so dependent on the Bible for our faith and that we need to detach ourselves from some of its pronouncements if we’re going to be successful evangelists in a postmodern culture.

Jonah’s Decision

One of the most interesting characters in all of the Bible has to be Jonah the prophet. Just about everyone knows at least some of the story of Jonah, especially the part where he is swallowed up by the big fish (most of the stories, especially children’s stories, say it was a whale) and, after three days, is spat up by the fish unto dry land. But often we read Jonah’s adventure without really understanding what the book is all about. In the story of Jonah, we are faced with some very important issues that we all come face to face with at one time or another. They are the sovereignty of God, man’s decisions and Jesus’ resurrection. And it is God’s sovereignty that I’d like to discuss briefly here.