I’ve chosen to preach a series around 3 questions that I find I cannot answer with any degree of certainty.
What happens when I Die?
When will the world end?
And what happens to bad people?
These are what we call eschatological questions - questions about the end of all things.
In one respect the end of all things is a bit airy fairy and far removed from the hustle and bustle of daily life, yet ‘end’ also means purpose and as we ask questions about the end of all things in terms of the end of history we are also asking basic questions about the end or purpose of human life. It may be a luxury to contemplate such things but you have the opportunity to do so and therefore direct your own affairs with a sense of purpose and hope.
Today’s question is one that has bothered me for as long as I’ve been a Christian. What happens to bad people? It bothers me because none of the answers that are said to be orthodox satisfy me.
The typical answers relating to the doctrine of hell seem to me to be out of kilter with everything else I’ve come to learn and love about God. Yet on the other hand any answer that suggest that bad people will ultimately get away with their gross and evil deeds is manifestly unjust and immoral.
So what does happen to bad people?
This morning I’m going to provoke your thinking I’m going to introduce a range of answers that have been offered and I’m going to throw some things into the mix that you might not have considered before.
Firstly, the answer to our question What happens to bad people? Has been variously answered and we might put up a continuum of answers with a scale of how tough the punishment gets for bad people beyond the grave.
1. Eternal Torment
2. Eternal Separation
3. Punishment followed by Annihilation
4. Purgatory/Punishment followed by heaven
5. Heaven (universalism)
Before we decide whether any of these is more right than any of the others we need to explore the question a bit more. If we assume that bad people get punished or face some consequence for their sins beyond the grave we need to define what we mean by bad people and here things begin to get a bit complicated. Who deserve to go to hell?
1. Extreme Evil doers; Hitler, Pol Pott, George W Bush?
2. Sinners
3. ‘Unsaved’ sinners
4. Ignorant sinners
5. Faithful Moslems, Jews, Buddhists, Humanists
6. People who have failed to do enough good
Which is the correct bible answer?
Some research out of the US is interesting on this.
· When polled about belief in hell of those who believed about 5% of them thought that that was their destiny.
· Some conservative groups believed that between 95-99% of the world’s population were destined to go there.
· A vast majority of people thought that only real bad people went there.
But what did Jesus teach about bad people? Are some people so bad that they are beyond redemption, beyond mercy, beyond hope?
Jesus certainly does warn some people about Hell mostly the religious leaders and I want to come back to that but I want to look at the parables because I think they are most instructive on this issue.
Take the parable of the sheep and he goat.
Jesus brings the nations before him at the end of time to be judge and just as a shepherd divides the sheep and the goats so he divided the nations according to what they have and have not done.
Three point to consider.
1. Sheep and goats were almost indistinguishable and only the trained eye of the shepherd was capable of judging between the two
2. This judgement is about what people have done in terms of looking after the most vulnerable people in society; that is the sole criteria of this judgement.
3. The judgement is practically impossible - Here’s what I mean!
Read through the criteria to be welcomed into your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world
Have you done any or all of these?
· Fed the hungry,
· Given water to the thirsty
· Given Hospitality to a stranger
· Provided clothes for the needy
· Cared for the sick,
· Have you visited anyone in prison?
If you answered yes to all of these you are probably a sheep and if you answered yes to one or more you may be a sheep.
But ask yourself this also have there been times when you have had the opportunity to do any of these things and failed to do so.
Have you ever missed the opportunity to do any of the above?
Maybe Mother Theresa comes close but even she I suspect was not perfect in this regard there would have been times that she failed to do some of these things.
According to the parable that makes Mother Theresa bad, that makes her a goat.
But she is not all bad, she is not all goat and neither are you or I we are part sheep and part goat.
The division of good and bad doesn’t run between one group of good people over here and another group of bad people over there, the division is though the middle of each of us.
The separation which begins at the judgement is one which removes all vestiges of evil and selfishness, of ill motive, of twisted thinking, of unforgiveness, bitterness and deep hurt. I’m of the opinion that this may take some time. I think we may continue to grow and develop as a result of the final judgement. I have a feeling that the ‘punishment’ that we face beyond judgement is the coming terms with ourselves and the working through of issues that are raised – it will be to some extent self-inflicted punishment a little like an athlete punishes their body to bring out the best.
In a moment I will comment on the passages that seem to most directly refer to Hell as a place of eternal punishment and damnation, but first I want to touch on what I think is our psychological need for hell.
When I look at the angry reactions of families who are victims of violent crime or sexual crime or other gross injustice as they confront the perpetrators outside the courthouse or as I see the way activists and legislators agree to get tough on crime building more prisons removing bail and parole calling for the death penalty and so forth I see a society that ‘needs’ to punish bad people. Unfortunately the punishment is all about revenge and vindication it’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It’s about making people pay for their crimes. This idea that crime must be matched by punishment is deeply entrenched in our collective psyche even though in most case it does nothing to prevent reoffending. Punishing criminal makes them tougher, they grow to hate the system with intensity and lose all respect for authority, for property and for life.
Underlying our penal system is a deeply held belief that most if not all bad people are beyond redemption and are deserving of hell. Punishment is seldom viewed as corrective, merely punitive in a way to make the victim feel vindicated, to make society think that some equilibrium has been reached and justice served.
We live in a blame society where if we have someone besides ourselves to blame for our problems then we can feel better about ourselves. We seem to need to have others who are bad people others who are at least worse than ourselves and onto whom we can deflect our own faults. It makes life simpler to divide the world into us and them, the good and the bad, the saved and the damned. I think it is this underlying psychology that influences our interpretation of scripture.
There are a number of scripture passages that are universalist, we have one read to us this morning yet the dominant theme over centuries of Christianity has been to give precedence to those passages which are exclusive and portray bad people or unsaved people as eternally damned. Leading figures in the church including Mega church evangelicals and Pope Benedict still hold to a view of a literal hell. I don’t and I think the church needs to think long and hard about this doctrine.
The doctrine of Hell has served the church well, for fund raising purposes, evangelistic drives, crusades, for enforcing good behaviour and discipline.
It leads to a distorted image of God-portraying God as vengeful, unforgiving, merciless vindictive.
It leads to a distorted view of justice- We’ve inherited this economic view of justice, that is to do with balance sheets and repaying debt an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth model.
Justice is about putting things right, it’s about seeing what is wrong and making it right it’s about correction not punishment. When you make a mistake God is not out to punish you for it, but God does want to correct you, correct your thinking, your attitudes and your behaviour.
The doctrine of hell, leads to a distorted view of people who are different and we want to apply our own categories of good and bad.If they are not like us they are bad
If they do bad things they need to be punished and so countries are invaded, bombs are dropped and hell comes to earth.
Let’s now then look at some of the passage that speak explicitly of “Hell”
Matthew 5:22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, ' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Matthew 5:29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matthew 5:30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 10:28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 18:9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Following last week’s sermon where I began to explore literary device used by Jesus you should be able to recognise these sentences as hyperbole. They are expression used to strengthen or amplify a point. The point of each verse is not hell per se but some behaviour that should be avoided. Now we can’t dismiss the possibility of a literal hell just by noting that these phrases have a literary meaning rather than a literal one; however we need to recognise that Jesus is not teaching anything about hell here he is using the idea of hell regardless of its actual existence to make a point.
Matthew 23:15"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
Matthew 23:33"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
These last two instances from Matthew’s gospels are interesting. Jesus is addressing the teachers of the law and Pharisees. It is only the religious leaders that get such harsh treatment from Jesus. Why does Jesus threaten these religious leaders with hell – most likely it is because they were threatening others with the same and using the threat of hell as a way to manipulate their followers – that sounds rather familiar. John doesn’t use the word Gehhena/Hell in his gospels and all of the other passage in Mark and Luke that use the word are parallels of the Matthean texts
Mark 9:43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.
Mark 9:45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
Mark 9:47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
Luke 12:5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
...the one exception being the story of Lazarus and the beggar at the gate.
Luke 16:23In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
Again we have to ask of this story, what is the main point. Jesus is not teaching about hell, he is teaching about our responsibilities in the here and now. We have only one chance to get it right after your gone it’s too late to do that good that you had always thought about doing.
There are just 2 other uses of the word hell in the NT
James 3:6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.2 Peter 2:4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
The expression in James set on fire by hell is a metaphor that speaks of the evil potential of the human tongue. It’s not teaching about hell but a warning about controlling our speech.
2 Peter seems to have access to some extra-biblical sources that teach about angels, but note that his use of ‘hell’ here is more akin to the Old Testament notion of Hades a holding place until the judgement.
I have now shown you all the NT uses of the word “hell” now that by no means is meant to end the discussion, there are numerous other texts that talk about eternal punishment, eternal darkness, gnashing of teeth a great lake of fire and so on. I’m happy myself to believe that in spite of all these references that Hell exists only as an impossible possibility.
I believe that if a human being freely chose to be eternally cut off from God that God would not stop that and that such separation whether it meant annihilation or eternal isolated conscious being would in fact be hell.
But because I believe that God is love and God is fair, I believe that God would give every human being a reasonable and fair choice.
For such a choice to be reasonable and fair, the person making the choice must be of sound mind, and fully aware of all the facts and consequences of their decision.
In those circumstances I think it is impossible that anyone would choose separation from God.
Of course I am basing my argument on the eternal goodness of God and nothing yet has persuaded me that God is less than perfectly good or that Hell is compatible with such goodness.
So finally what do I believe happens to bad people?
The same as happens to me for I too am bad. I might be saved but I’m a saved sinner and there’s work to be done on me yet.
Death
Paradise
Resurrection
Judgement
Correction restoration rehabilitation Glory.
I’m more than comfortable if any of you take issue with what I have said this morning. For me this is the good news – but I appreciate other see things differently let us be adult about it and discuss it as friends on a journey together.
A footnote:
Is there then any point in being saved?
Yes
1. You have a relationship with God in Christ now
2. You have a certain hope
3. You know the eternal forgiveness of God
4. You can start work on your faults here and now knowing that will make an eternal difference
5. You have the spirit to help you
6. The truth shall set you free to live and love as an authentic God-loved human being
7. You can be sure that all the good work you do now is for a good end.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Community Lunch
We’d love to see you at our
Community Lunch
North East Valley Baptist Church Hall 12:30 Fridays
Come as you are
Bring some food to share
The first NEV Community lunch was held in the NEV Baptist church hall on Friday the 5th of September with about 20 people in attendance. Vicky and Jan introduced the NEV Community development project and gave out post cards inviting feedback on ways that NEV might be improved. Our local MP Pete Hodgson called in on our second meeting and Public Health Nurse Cathy Sampson visited us on week 3.
This gathering is for anyone who would like the opportunity to meet others in the Valley. The formula is simple: a couple of volunteers set up the tables and put on the kettle. Participants bring some food to share and we sit down together to eat and chat. We meet on Fridays at 12:30 and YOU are welcome to join us.
Strong communities are safe communitiesSharing communities are caring communities
Community Lunch
North East Valley Baptist Church Hall 12:30 Fridays
Come as you are
Bring some food to share
The first NEV Community lunch was held in the NEV Baptist church hall on Friday the 5th of September with about 20 people in attendance. Vicky and Jan introduced the NEV Community development project and gave out post cards inviting feedback on ways that NEV might be improved. Our local MP Pete Hodgson called in on our second meeting and Public Health Nurse Cathy Sampson visited us on week 3.
This gathering is for anyone who would like the opportunity to meet others in the Valley. The formula is simple: a couple of volunteers set up the tables and put on the kettle. Participants bring some food to share and we sit down together to eat and chat. We meet on Fridays at 12:30 and YOU are welcome to join us.
Strong communities are safe communitiesSharing communities are caring communities
Will the World End?
Will the World End?
Some 25 year’s ago I read a small book called “When the money runs out”
It was one of those books that claimed to interpret biblical prophecy in particular clarifying the mysteries of end time predictions of the book of Revelation. As a young Christian it made a big impression on me with its talk of barcodes with the number 666 written on them, of grand conspiracy to enforce one world government, one world currency and one super computer based in Brussels (Called the Beast) that was going to control it all. I was convinced that within a short few years if not months I was going to have to have the mark of the beast, probably a barcode tattooed on the back of my hand in order to buy goods. I began to figure out how I could survive once these end times events began to unfold. The writer had done a very convincing job of lining up verse from the bible with contemporary world events. On the eve of 1984 I was convinced the world was going to end very soon.
I don’t regret reading the book nor do I regret the renewed vigour and energy of faith that it inspired. I’ve not had to have that barcode tattoo yet and in the intervening years I’ve seen dozens of similar books that make similar types of predictions again lining up current world events with bible verses. I’ve learned to be a little critical of such approaches.
I’m sure given the current financial crisis that doomsday prophets are making a killing once more.
The end of the world has been a popular concept in western cultural thought for at least 2,300 years. It’s deeply ingrained in our pop culture today; many movies have been made around the theme.
Water World imagines the melting of the ice caps and the total flooding of all land.
Armageddon and Deep Impact both Imagine the Earth being destroyed by a meteor collision.
Films like The Day After and On the Beach imagine a Nuclear Holocaust
The Matrix series envisions a world where humans are enslaved by machines.
Battle Star Galactica, Star Trek and Wal E imagine planets becoming so polluted or ravaged by war and disease that human being must take flight to find a new habitable planet.
Will the world End in some catastrophic way. Dooms day prophets discuss the possibility of nuclear war triggered by a rogue state or terrorist group, Astronomers calculate the chance of a catastrophic collision with a huge meteor and Environmentalists warn that any number of things from global warming, to resource depletion could see the end of human life.
At another level astrophysicists tells us that eventually our sun will burn out in say 4 billion years and the universe which is still expanding after the big bang, will eventually collapse back into a singularity.
It seems then that all things must eventually come to an end. Yet the thought that the sun will burn out or that the universe will be crushed to the size of a pin head hardly keeps me awake at night.
Without divine intervention the world will end eventually – but a more pertinent question is will the world end soon, in my life time or that of my grandchildren perhaps?
What would be really helpful to know is, what does God have planned.
The author of “When the money runs out” and numerous authors of that genre have decided to try and answer that question with a timetable of events leading up to an end of the world.
Throughout the centuries there have been hundreds of movements that prepared themselves for an imminent end of the world. A number of cults surfaced at the turn of the millennia just as others had done likewise a thousand years earlier. Through the 20th century groups in NZ such as the Brethren and Pentecostals churches have been strongly influenced by a rise in Christian fundamentalism that started toward the end of the nineteenth century. Dispensationalist teaching became popular and bibles were printed with footnotes that helped you trace the unfolding of biblical prophecy in the count down to the second coming of Christ.
Fear and anxiety around WW1, the Suez Crisis and the first gulf war and 9/11 made end time teaching popular and drew the punters in again.
What does the bible say about the end of the world? Well it appears that it can say whatever you want it to say so we must tread very carefully. We need to deal with some common pitfalls of interpretation and look at some general themes.
When you read stuff like the book of Revelation or even Jesus own teaching in the gospels about the end of the world it can be quite confusing.
We can be helped from utter confusion if we bear two things in mind. One is the use of literary devices such as metaphor and hyperbole in the scriptures and the other is the use of apocalyptic writing.
Let’s take hyperbole; crudely put it is exaggerating something to make a point. The doctor kindly reassures her patient; “You’ll be fine I‘ve done this millions of times” Of course that is not literally true, but it would be unkind to say the doctor was lying. The doctor is using a well rehearsed figure of speech hyperbole and we all know what the doctor means.
Jesus was a master at the use of hyperbole.
it is easier for an camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
If your right eyes causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know when hyperbole is being used when should we take Jesus literally and when should we look to see what point he is trying to make through hyperbole. Take this example of Jesus talking about a great time of testing to come just before the end.
"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24:21)
This make interesting reading in the light of similar passage from Ezekiel where he is talking about God punishment being brought to bear on the exiles in Babylon
"because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again." (Ezekiel 5:9).
Here we find God pronouncing a great judgment the likes of which He will never do again. Yet Jesus informs us that there would be a Great Tribulation upon Israel that would supersede theme all. They can’t both be right.
Was Ezekiel lying about what God said? Or is Jesus lying? Or do we have here a figure of speech we have not been taught to recognize?
There are over 200 types of figures of speech used in the bible and so we must guard against interpreting the bible literally if we want to get at what the writers actually intended.
Because of the way we have been taught to read the Bible, figure of speech such as hyperbole have often been misread the consequence can be significant . If we, through misinterpreting certain texts, for example, expect that God is going to end the world in our very own generation, we will behave and make different decisions than if we expect the world to go on the way as it is far beyond our lifetime. If a Christian President of the United States, for example, expects because of his understanding of the Bible, that a battle of Armageddon may occur on his watch in which certain countries or ethnic groups are to be the good guys and others are to be the bad guys, then he is likely to make political and military decisions based upon his beliefs. If you believe the world is going to end in your lifetime and you teach this to your children, this will dramatically affect how those children will prepare for the future.
Some portions of the bible are so full of figures of speech that they are almost impossible to comprehend and make no sense if taken literally. There is a whole genre of literature in the bible called apocalyptic literature that is like this. The book of Revelation, part of the synoptic gospels and much of the book of Daniel are recognisably apocalyptic. Apocalyptic literature is characterized by exaggerated predictions of or allusions to a disastrous outcome. Visions and dreams, transportation into heaven, angels, demons, Imaginary beasts and monsters, superhuman beings, symbols and special numbers are part of the stock and trade of the apocalyptic writer. This form of literature first found a place in Israel when Antiochus the fourth king of Syria invaded Israel inflicted barbaric cruelty and desecrated the temple of Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig on the Altar. The people of Israel were so distressed by the evil that they were enduring that they sought for a way to describe how such evil could happen to God own people. Was God still in charge when the righteous faced such tribulation? The Jews drew on some of the stories that they had heard while in captivity, stories of a great conflict in the heavenly world between the two sons of God the one completely good the other entirely evil. The Jews modified the stories and told them in their own way. The best modern comparison is fantasy literature, such as CS Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, Or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. All stories of Good and Evil in a great battle. Stories with fictional characters. Stories which are certainly fantasy but also profoundly true in the message that they portray.
Apocalyptic literature is not the same as prophesy. It’s much, much more. It tells of great general truths – this sort of stuff happens under these sorts of circumstances. It is warning rather than prediction. Compare it with Jonah’s message to the great city of Nineveh. “God’s gonna wipe you guys out in 40 days” Actually God didn’t, much to Jonah’s disappointment. Threatened with destruction, threatened with an apocalyptic end to their world the people of Nineveh changed their ways and did as God required.
So the threat of the immanent end of the world remains, but its threat rather than a promise, a warning rather than a prediction, a possibility rather than a certainty.
We could destroy the world humanity has that potential
God could destroy the world God is capable.
Neither need happen however, at least not immanently if we change our ways heed the warnings and live God’s way, taking care of one another and the planet.
I want to make one further point about the end of the world and it is this. The end of the world has begun. The end of the world began with the death and resurrection of Jesus. The great expectation of many people in Jesus time and since has been that the world will end at some catastrophic moment in history. And that after the end the kingdom of God will come and a new heaven and a new earth will be formed.
However Jesus said the kingdom is among you. We pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. We have the first-fruits of the kingdom now. Eternal life has begun now. We have been moved from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
How then do we deal with those passage that talk of the Heavens and the earth being destroyed before the new heavens and the earth being formed. In the same way that yoiu talk about your new life in Christ!
The Bible says “you have been crucified with Christ”, “the old man has gone”, “the old nature has been put to death”, behold the old has gone and all things are made new”
These statements are figures of speech that evoke a profound reality but cannot be taken literally. As Christian people we have begun a new life in Christ a life in which the old ways are being transformed, our future is so assured that we can be certain that one day we will be as Christ in our perfection and completeness. The bible writers were so certain about our future state that they talked about in the present tense even the past tense. It’s a figure of speech. It’s like a medical student saying I’m a doctor. Or an apprentice saying I am a plumber.
The same phraseology that the New Testament writer use to describe our transformation and future goal they also use to describe the transformation and future goal of the heavens an the earth. I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, the former things shall be no more.
Will the world end?
Will it end in my life time?
I think the biblical answer is Maybe but don’t count on it!
Live as though each day could be your last but work as though your efforts are vital to the preservation and improvement of the world for generations to come.
Some 25 year’s ago I read a small book called “When the money runs out”
It was one of those books that claimed to interpret biblical prophecy in particular clarifying the mysteries of end time predictions of the book of Revelation. As a young Christian it made a big impression on me with its talk of barcodes with the number 666 written on them, of grand conspiracy to enforce one world government, one world currency and one super computer based in Brussels (Called the Beast) that was going to control it all. I was convinced that within a short few years if not months I was going to have to have the mark of the beast, probably a barcode tattooed on the back of my hand in order to buy goods. I began to figure out how I could survive once these end times events began to unfold. The writer had done a very convincing job of lining up verse from the bible with contemporary world events. On the eve of 1984 I was convinced the world was going to end very soon.
I don’t regret reading the book nor do I regret the renewed vigour and energy of faith that it inspired. I’ve not had to have that barcode tattoo yet and in the intervening years I’ve seen dozens of similar books that make similar types of predictions again lining up current world events with bible verses. I’ve learned to be a little critical of such approaches.
I’m sure given the current financial crisis that doomsday prophets are making a killing once more.
The end of the world has been a popular concept in western cultural thought for at least 2,300 years. It’s deeply ingrained in our pop culture today; many movies have been made around the theme.
Water World imagines the melting of the ice caps and the total flooding of all land.
Armageddon and Deep Impact both Imagine the Earth being destroyed by a meteor collision.
Films like The Day After and On the Beach imagine a Nuclear Holocaust
The Matrix series envisions a world where humans are enslaved by machines.
Battle Star Galactica, Star Trek and Wal E imagine planets becoming so polluted or ravaged by war and disease that human being must take flight to find a new habitable planet.
Will the world End in some catastrophic way. Dooms day prophets discuss the possibility of nuclear war triggered by a rogue state or terrorist group, Astronomers calculate the chance of a catastrophic collision with a huge meteor and Environmentalists warn that any number of things from global warming, to resource depletion could see the end of human life.
At another level astrophysicists tells us that eventually our sun will burn out in say 4 billion years and the universe which is still expanding after the big bang, will eventually collapse back into a singularity.
It seems then that all things must eventually come to an end. Yet the thought that the sun will burn out or that the universe will be crushed to the size of a pin head hardly keeps me awake at night.
Without divine intervention the world will end eventually – but a more pertinent question is will the world end soon, in my life time or that of my grandchildren perhaps?
What would be really helpful to know is, what does God have planned.
The author of “When the money runs out” and numerous authors of that genre have decided to try and answer that question with a timetable of events leading up to an end of the world.
Throughout the centuries there have been hundreds of movements that prepared themselves for an imminent end of the world. A number of cults surfaced at the turn of the millennia just as others had done likewise a thousand years earlier. Through the 20th century groups in NZ such as the Brethren and Pentecostals churches have been strongly influenced by a rise in Christian fundamentalism that started toward the end of the nineteenth century. Dispensationalist teaching became popular and bibles were printed with footnotes that helped you trace the unfolding of biblical prophecy in the count down to the second coming of Christ.
Fear and anxiety around WW1, the Suez Crisis and the first gulf war and 9/11 made end time teaching popular and drew the punters in again.
What does the bible say about the end of the world? Well it appears that it can say whatever you want it to say so we must tread very carefully. We need to deal with some common pitfalls of interpretation and look at some general themes.
When you read stuff like the book of Revelation or even Jesus own teaching in the gospels about the end of the world it can be quite confusing.
We can be helped from utter confusion if we bear two things in mind. One is the use of literary devices such as metaphor and hyperbole in the scriptures and the other is the use of apocalyptic writing.
Let’s take hyperbole; crudely put it is exaggerating something to make a point. The doctor kindly reassures her patient; “You’ll be fine I‘ve done this millions of times” Of course that is not literally true, but it would be unkind to say the doctor was lying. The doctor is using a well rehearsed figure of speech hyperbole and we all know what the doctor means.
Jesus was a master at the use of hyperbole.
it is easier for an camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
If your right eyes causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know when hyperbole is being used when should we take Jesus literally and when should we look to see what point he is trying to make through hyperbole. Take this example of Jesus talking about a great time of testing to come just before the end.
"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24:21)
This make interesting reading in the light of similar passage from Ezekiel where he is talking about God punishment being brought to bear on the exiles in Babylon
"because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again." (Ezekiel 5:9).
Here we find God pronouncing a great judgment the likes of which He will never do again. Yet Jesus informs us that there would be a Great Tribulation upon Israel that would supersede theme all. They can’t both be right.
Was Ezekiel lying about what God said? Or is Jesus lying? Or do we have here a figure of speech we have not been taught to recognize?
There are over 200 types of figures of speech used in the bible and so we must guard against interpreting the bible literally if we want to get at what the writers actually intended.
Because of the way we have been taught to read the Bible, figure of speech such as hyperbole have often been misread the consequence can be significant . If we, through misinterpreting certain texts, for example, expect that God is going to end the world in our very own generation, we will behave and make different decisions than if we expect the world to go on the way as it is far beyond our lifetime. If a Christian President of the United States, for example, expects because of his understanding of the Bible, that a battle of Armageddon may occur on his watch in which certain countries or ethnic groups are to be the good guys and others are to be the bad guys, then he is likely to make political and military decisions based upon his beliefs. If you believe the world is going to end in your lifetime and you teach this to your children, this will dramatically affect how those children will prepare for the future.
Some portions of the bible are so full of figures of speech that they are almost impossible to comprehend and make no sense if taken literally. There is a whole genre of literature in the bible called apocalyptic literature that is like this. The book of Revelation, part of the synoptic gospels and much of the book of Daniel are recognisably apocalyptic. Apocalyptic literature is characterized by exaggerated predictions of or allusions to a disastrous outcome. Visions and dreams, transportation into heaven, angels, demons, Imaginary beasts and monsters, superhuman beings, symbols and special numbers are part of the stock and trade of the apocalyptic writer. This form of literature first found a place in Israel when Antiochus the fourth king of Syria invaded Israel inflicted barbaric cruelty and desecrated the temple of Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig on the Altar. The people of Israel were so distressed by the evil that they were enduring that they sought for a way to describe how such evil could happen to God own people. Was God still in charge when the righteous faced such tribulation? The Jews drew on some of the stories that they had heard while in captivity, stories of a great conflict in the heavenly world between the two sons of God the one completely good the other entirely evil. The Jews modified the stories and told them in their own way. The best modern comparison is fantasy literature, such as CS Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, Or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. All stories of Good and Evil in a great battle. Stories with fictional characters. Stories which are certainly fantasy but also profoundly true in the message that they portray.
Apocalyptic literature is not the same as prophesy. It’s much, much more. It tells of great general truths – this sort of stuff happens under these sorts of circumstances. It is warning rather than prediction. Compare it with Jonah’s message to the great city of Nineveh. “God’s gonna wipe you guys out in 40 days” Actually God didn’t, much to Jonah’s disappointment. Threatened with destruction, threatened with an apocalyptic end to their world the people of Nineveh changed their ways and did as God required.
So the threat of the immanent end of the world remains, but its threat rather than a promise, a warning rather than a prediction, a possibility rather than a certainty.
We could destroy the world humanity has that potential
God could destroy the world God is capable.
Neither need happen however, at least not immanently if we change our ways heed the warnings and live God’s way, taking care of one another and the planet.
I want to make one further point about the end of the world and it is this. The end of the world has begun. The end of the world began with the death and resurrection of Jesus. The great expectation of many people in Jesus time and since has been that the world will end at some catastrophic moment in history. And that after the end the kingdom of God will come and a new heaven and a new earth will be formed.
However Jesus said the kingdom is among you. We pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. We have the first-fruits of the kingdom now. Eternal life has begun now. We have been moved from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
How then do we deal with those passage that talk of the Heavens and the earth being destroyed before the new heavens and the earth being formed. In the same way that yoiu talk about your new life in Christ!
The Bible says “you have been crucified with Christ”, “the old man has gone”, “the old nature has been put to death”, behold the old has gone and all things are made new”
These statements are figures of speech that evoke a profound reality but cannot be taken literally. As Christian people we have begun a new life in Christ a life in which the old ways are being transformed, our future is so assured that we can be certain that one day we will be as Christ in our perfection and completeness. The bible writers were so certain about our future state that they talked about in the present tense even the past tense. It’s a figure of speech. It’s like a medical student saying I’m a doctor. Or an apprentice saying I am a plumber.
The same phraseology that the New Testament writer use to describe our transformation and future goal they also use to describe the transformation and future goal of the heavens an the earth. I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, the former things shall be no more.
Will the world end?
Will it end in my life time?
I think the biblical answer is Maybe but don’t count on it!
Live as though each day could be your last but work as though your efforts are vital to the preservation and improvement of the world for generations to come.
What happens when I die?
“Heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world”
Romans 8:9-11, 18-25, Luke 23:29-43
Tom Wright is the Anglican Bishop of Durham, Northern England. He is one of the world’s leading New Testament Scholars and firmly of the evangelical tradition. He recently wrote a new study entitled “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” Tom has got me thinking about heaven, about the end of the world about what happens when we die. One of his main motivations in writing this book is to show as the title suggests that our theology of hope about things to come, strongly influences the way we express hope in the here and now.
I soon realised that my thinking around these areas had been a little woolly; maybe because in this modern scientific age we are reluctant to enter into discussion on areas that are beyond our ability to prove. I also began to realise that a lot of the populist versions of the afterlife were not really Christian or biblical at all.
In this series I want to encourage you to think biblically and christianly about heaven and hell, about what happens when we die, about the end of the world.
So over the next three weeks we’ll look at three questions
1. What happens when I die?
2. Will the world end?
3. What happens to bad people?
Following a quote from his book I’ve entitled this series
“Heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world”
Our gospel lesson for today is one that is often read during the season of Easter.
You will know the story two felons are crucified either side if Jesus.
One curses Jesus the other defends Jesus and then asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom.
Jesus replies, “Today you will be with me in paradise”
A common mistake made interpreting this passage is to see paradise as the thief’s final destination. Some place that you go to be with Jesus in eternal bliss.
However paradise is not to be understood that way at all rather paradise is a resting place that one enters before the final resurrection. It is similar to the Hebrew concept of Sheol or Hades or the grave or the pit, an in-between place where the dead await the final judgement. The difference with paradise at least conceptually is that Jesus is there – it is not the cold storage depot that Hades is portrayed as.
The words in Jesus reply are crucial. He says TODAY you will be with me in paradise.
This is Friday that is being referred to - the day of death. Jesus isn’t talking about Sunday; he is not talking about the resurrection to come. He doesn’t say soon you will be with me in paradise. Today you will be with me in paradise.
As Jesus enters this state called death this in between state he conquers death. Just as an invading king conquers a new territory so Jesus conquers death and claims it for his own. Death is no longer the domain of the evil one, death belongs to Jesus, he inhabits the land of death just as he inhabits all things. Hades becomes paradise, because Jesus has been there and conquered it. We should no longer fear death because we will be with Jesus in death. There is life after death in paradise a life with Jesus but this is not yet the end.
The thief on the cross, experiences the salvific presence of Christ, the kingdom of God even as he dies his tortuous death. Jesus is with him, God is with him and because Jesus dies and conquers death the thief enters into death with Jesus.
In John’s gospel we find a text that is a favourite at funeral services. “In my father’s house are many dwelling places, I go and prepare a place for you”
The place referred to is clearly paradise.
the word for "dwelling places" here, monai, is regularly used in ancient Greek not for a final resting place, but for a temporary halt on a journey that will take you somewhere else in the long run.
The dwelling places of John’s gospel and the paradise of Luke’s gospel. Speak of an interim state a place where Jesus is, a blissful, peaceful place a resting stop along the way but not our final destination. We are talking about the Good Friday Place, the place where death has been conquered – but Easter Sunday signifies something entirely different.
Good Friday is life after death, Easter Sunday is life after life after death. Easter is resurrection day and on that day a whole new reality is entered into.
Jesus as the first to rise from the dead prepares the way for the general resurrection of all people. Resurrection is a way of talking about a new bodily life that we enter into sometime after death, sometime after being in the waiting place of paradise, or of those dwelling places in “my Father’s house.”
Tom Wright refers to a 2 stage post-mortem experience. The first stage being paradise the second stage being bodily resurrection. There is confusion when these two ideas are morphed. Both ideas are clearly written about in the New Testament and should not be confused.
The second stage of our after death experience is bodily resurrection.
In the gospels Jesus is clearly shown to have a physical body before his death and after his resurrection. The resurrected Jesus walks and talks, he breathes, he tends a fire, he eats fish and bread with his friends, he invites Thomas to touch him. Jesus resurrection body is like his former body in that he is clearly identified as a human being not a ghost. He looks like a normal human being, he walks beside the disciples as they head for Emmaus and they don’t freak out he appears quite normal. However Jesus resurrection body is somewhat different. The same disciples on the road o Emmaus are kept form recognising Jesus –so perhaps he looked different. Jesus was able to suddenly appear inside a looked upstairs room that is something I haven’t managed with my body.
Paul explains the difference between the natural pre-resurrection body with the spiritual post-resurrection body. He draws an analogy between a seed planted and the plant it produces. A good gardener will recognise a plant from its seed and vice versa. So with us our natural body will be continuous with yet different to our spiritual body. In his conclusion he points to the differences.
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
You may ask, Why is this important? Surely what happens after we die is neither here nor there. We just need to have faith that God is loving and that God will take care of it all.
Naturally that is the basis of all we believe. God is love and God will take care of all things.
Yet theology while not able to get to the heart of the mystery is able to keep us from moving in the wrong direction. Theology might not be able to tell you exactly what life after life after death is like but it can help us avoid error.
A popular misconception of Christian eschatology is the view that when we die we cease to be physical embodied beings and are for evermore disembodied spirits. This may be the case in paradise, in the waiting place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday but it is not our eternal destiny. We are destined for resurrection to have spiritual bodies, that is, bodies that are spiritual, spirits that are embodied. Human being is now and evermore shall be a body and spirit welded together one unitary being.
Over the centuries Greek thought has contaminated Christian thought. One such idea is that humans are essentially spirits that are trapped inside bodies and that our ultimate goal is to be released from our bodies.
Related to this is the idea that bodies are evil, that the material world is evil and in the end counts for nothing. True salvation in this model is escape from our bodies, escape from this world, escape from earth to heaven. As much as that sounds to some ears the Christian message it has more in common with Buddhism than the message that Jesus and the apostles taught.
Our hope is not to escape earth and find heaven. Our hope is a new or renewed heavens and earth.
Our hope is not escape from our bodies, but renewal and resurrection of our bodies, recreation of our bodies, transformation of our bodies.
The world God created is very good. It has its faults and imperfections. It bears the burden of sin. But the good creation is waiting in hope. The hope of creation is the same hope we share Romans 8
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul is very clear that our future hope and in fact the hope of the whole of creation is not in some netherworld – but in the liberation from the bondage of decay – our hope is in a renewed creation and in the resurrection of our bodies. We will be embodied people living in a renewed physical universe.
(And as I contemplate that hope it fuels my imagination much more than sitting on clouds and playing harps)
Because of the continuity between our present experience and our experience beyond death the things of this world take on much more importance. A recent letter in the Baptist typified a view that was once argued in the senate of the US, “This world is going to be destroyed so why bother looking after it”.
This world has an ongoing place in God’s economy and we are charged to look after it.
Let me take you on a bit of a speculative digression but worth thinking about nonetheless. Imagine that on resurrection day you arose with the same body as just prior to your death. You also arose with the same feelings, thoughts, attitudes, resentments, distortions and so on. Just like Jesus you arise with scars. The key difference between your pre-resurrection state and you new post-resurrection being is that you are now in a perfect environment, the “bondage to decay” has been removed. Your new improved body has the ability to regenerate itself, you now have the motivation to lose that excess weight, you now experience the love of God completely and fully and you have renewed spiritual strength to let go of old hurts, and completely bury old habits and attitudes.
I see nothing in scripture that would negate this possibility and I encourage you to contemplate it. It might not be how things work out but this scenario if we held it to be true I think would help us get our attitudes right in this life. If we see our existence beyond the grave as continuous with this one - as Scripture clearly teaches, then everything we do in this life impinges on the next.
If you have any doubt about the two stages in the grave and beyond the grave, paradise and resurrection or if you have any doubt about bodily resurrection then hear the words of Jesus.
It is quite explicit: "The hour is coming," he says, "indeed, it is already here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and those who hear will live; when all in the graves will come out, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."
Romans 8:9-11, 18-25, Luke 23:29-43
Tom Wright is the Anglican Bishop of Durham, Northern England. He is one of the world’s leading New Testament Scholars and firmly of the evangelical tradition. He recently wrote a new study entitled “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” Tom has got me thinking about heaven, about the end of the world about what happens when we die. One of his main motivations in writing this book is to show as the title suggests that our theology of hope about things to come, strongly influences the way we express hope in the here and now.
I soon realised that my thinking around these areas had been a little woolly; maybe because in this modern scientific age we are reluctant to enter into discussion on areas that are beyond our ability to prove. I also began to realise that a lot of the populist versions of the afterlife were not really Christian or biblical at all.
In this series I want to encourage you to think biblically and christianly about heaven and hell, about what happens when we die, about the end of the world.
So over the next three weeks we’ll look at three questions
1. What happens when I die?
2. Will the world end?
3. What happens to bad people?
Following a quote from his book I’ve entitled this series
“Heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world”
Our gospel lesson for today is one that is often read during the season of Easter.
You will know the story two felons are crucified either side if Jesus.
One curses Jesus the other defends Jesus and then asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom.
Jesus replies, “Today you will be with me in paradise”
A common mistake made interpreting this passage is to see paradise as the thief’s final destination. Some place that you go to be with Jesus in eternal bliss.
However paradise is not to be understood that way at all rather paradise is a resting place that one enters before the final resurrection. It is similar to the Hebrew concept of Sheol or Hades or the grave or the pit, an in-between place where the dead await the final judgement. The difference with paradise at least conceptually is that Jesus is there – it is not the cold storage depot that Hades is portrayed as.
The words in Jesus reply are crucial. He says TODAY you will be with me in paradise.
This is Friday that is being referred to - the day of death. Jesus isn’t talking about Sunday; he is not talking about the resurrection to come. He doesn’t say soon you will be with me in paradise. Today you will be with me in paradise.
As Jesus enters this state called death this in between state he conquers death. Just as an invading king conquers a new territory so Jesus conquers death and claims it for his own. Death is no longer the domain of the evil one, death belongs to Jesus, he inhabits the land of death just as he inhabits all things. Hades becomes paradise, because Jesus has been there and conquered it. We should no longer fear death because we will be with Jesus in death. There is life after death in paradise a life with Jesus but this is not yet the end.
The thief on the cross, experiences the salvific presence of Christ, the kingdom of God even as he dies his tortuous death. Jesus is with him, God is with him and because Jesus dies and conquers death the thief enters into death with Jesus.
In John’s gospel we find a text that is a favourite at funeral services. “In my father’s house are many dwelling places, I go and prepare a place for you”
The place referred to is clearly paradise.
the word for "dwelling places" here, monai, is regularly used in ancient Greek not for a final resting place, but for a temporary halt on a journey that will take you somewhere else in the long run.
The dwelling places of John’s gospel and the paradise of Luke’s gospel. Speak of an interim state a place where Jesus is, a blissful, peaceful place a resting stop along the way but not our final destination. We are talking about the Good Friday Place, the place where death has been conquered – but Easter Sunday signifies something entirely different.
Good Friday is life after death, Easter Sunday is life after life after death. Easter is resurrection day and on that day a whole new reality is entered into.
Jesus as the first to rise from the dead prepares the way for the general resurrection of all people. Resurrection is a way of talking about a new bodily life that we enter into sometime after death, sometime after being in the waiting place of paradise, or of those dwelling places in “my Father’s house.”
Tom Wright refers to a 2 stage post-mortem experience. The first stage being paradise the second stage being bodily resurrection. There is confusion when these two ideas are morphed. Both ideas are clearly written about in the New Testament and should not be confused.
The second stage of our after death experience is bodily resurrection.
In the gospels Jesus is clearly shown to have a physical body before his death and after his resurrection. The resurrected Jesus walks and talks, he breathes, he tends a fire, he eats fish and bread with his friends, he invites Thomas to touch him. Jesus resurrection body is like his former body in that he is clearly identified as a human being not a ghost. He looks like a normal human being, he walks beside the disciples as they head for Emmaus and they don’t freak out he appears quite normal. However Jesus resurrection body is somewhat different. The same disciples on the road o Emmaus are kept form recognising Jesus –so perhaps he looked different. Jesus was able to suddenly appear inside a looked upstairs room that is something I haven’t managed with my body.
Paul explains the difference between the natural pre-resurrection body with the spiritual post-resurrection body. He draws an analogy between a seed planted and the plant it produces. A good gardener will recognise a plant from its seed and vice versa. So with us our natural body will be continuous with yet different to our spiritual body. In his conclusion he points to the differences.
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
You may ask, Why is this important? Surely what happens after we die is neither here nor there. We just need to have faith that God is loving and that God will take care of it all.
Naturally that is the basis of all we believe. God is love and God will take care of all things.
Yet theology while not able to get to the heart of the mystery is able to keep us from moving in the wrong direction. Theology might not be able to tell you exactly what life after life after death is like but it can help us avoid error.
A popular misconception of Christian eschatology is the view that when we die we cease to be physical embodied beings and are for evermore disembodied spirits. This may be the case in paradise, in the waiting place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday but it is not our eternal destiny. We are destined for resurrection to have spiritual bodies, that is, bodies that are spiritual, spirits that are embodied. Human being is now and evermore shall be a body and spirit welded together one unitary being.
Over the centuries Greek thought has contaminated Christian thought. One such idea is that humans are essentially spirits that are trapped inside bodies and that our ultimate goal is to be released from our bodies.
Related to this is the idea that bodies are evil, that the material world is evil and in the end counts for nothing. True salvation in this model is escape from our bodies, escape from this world, escape from earth to heaven. As much as that sounds to some ears the Christian message it has more in common with Buddhism than the message that Jesus and the apostles taught.
Our hope is not to escape earth and find heaven. Our hope is a new or renewed heavens and earth.
Our hope is not escape from our bodies, but renewal and resurrection of our bodies, recreation of our bodies, transformation of our bodies.
The world God created is very good. It has its faults and imperfections. It bears the burden of sin. But the good creation is waiting in hope. The hope of creation is the same hope we share Romans 8
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul is very clear that our future hope and in fact the hope of the whole of creation is not in some netherworld – but in the liberation from the bondage of decay – our hope is in a renewed creation and in the resurrection of our bodies. We will be embodied people living in a renewed physical universe.
(And as I contemplate that hope it fuels my imagination much more than sitting on clouds and playing harps)
Because of the continuity between our present experience and our experience beyond death the things of this world take on much more importance. A recent letter in the Baptist typified a view that was once argued in the senate of the US, “This world is going to be destroyed so why bother looking after it”.
This world has an ongoing place in God’s economy and we are charged to look after it.
Let me take you on a bit of a speculative digression but worth thinking about nonetheless. Imagine that on resurrection day you arose with the same body as just prior to your death. You also arose with the same feelings, thoughts, attitudes, resentments, distortions and so on. Just like Jesus you arise with scars. The key difference between your pre-resurrection state and you new post-resurrection being is that you are now in a perfect environment, the “bondage to decay” has been removed. Your new improved body has the ability to regenerate itself, you now have the motivation to lose that excess weight, you now experience the love of God completely and fully and you have renewed spiritual strength to let go of old hurts, and completely bury old habits and attitudes.
I see nothing in scripture that would negate this possibility and I encourage you to contemplate it. It might not be how things work out but this scenario if we held it to be true I think would help us get our attitudes right in this life. If we see our existence beyond the grave as continuous with this one - as Scripture clearly teaches, then everything we do in this life impinges on the next.
If you have any doubt about the two stages in the grave and beyond the grave, paradise and resurrection or if you have any doubt about bodily resurrection then hear the words of Jesus.
It is quite explicit: "The hour is coming," he says, "indeed, it is already here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and those who hear will live; when all in the graves will come out, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."
From the Heart October
A WARM WELCOMING LIGHT
As I write this newsletter I’m looking out of my window at another exceptional spring day. Yesterday the temperature hit a balmy 25 degrees. As I walked round the neighbourhood I saw lots of people opening up their houses to the elements letting the warm air and sunshine do its stuff of warming and drying. I saw mats and carpets and mattresses out on decks benefiting from the penetrating rays of sunshine. It made me think of the way sunlight disinfects and the way that bringing things out into the light is usually the best way to get to the truth, to disinfect and to bring healing.
With the exception perhaps of mushrooms, not much healthy grows in the dark. Black mould grows behind the dresser in the damp unventilated bedroom and its deadly spores contaminate the air bringing on asthma and respiratory complaints. In a similar way even more potent disease festers away in the dark, resentment, lies, abuse, shame and guilt (to name a few). Jesus has been called the light of the world for a good reason. It is a wonderful thing to walk out of one’s own personal darkness into the warm brilliant light of God and discover that the light which exposes is also the light which cleanses, heals and makes whole.
At NEV Baptist we are not perfect but we have experienced a perfect love; a warm welcoming light. On these glorious spring days I’m reminded again of God’s great goodness in shining the light of love upon us.
Decision 08: Meet the Candidates
What issues are really important to you and your family? Which political party has the best policies and people to give a lead to our country, especially in light of the many international crises that are affecting us? We are faced with an historic international financial crisis, a potentially catastrophic environmental crisis, a crisis in terms of energy and the ever present threat of international conflict over natural resources and religious difference. Who leads our country does make a difference and your vote counts. Come along and meet the candidates, be informed and vote for your future. The Forum will be held on Saturday 18th October, 7pm at NEV Baptist Church. There will be the opportunity to ask candidates questions. Refreshments provided - no charge.
SUSTAINABLE LIVING CLASSES IN NORTH EAST VALLEY
This interactive eight-week course will assist you to
1. Learn and share practical tips that make a difference and can save you money
2. Meet others in your community who are interested in living more sustainably
3. Gain support for introducing lifestyle changes you want to make
Facilitated by Dr Maureen Howard,
c/o Water and Waste Services, Dunedin City Council.
NEV - Evening Course (8 Weeks)
Start Date: Tuesday 14 October
Each Tuesday: 7-9pm
NEV - Daytime Course (8 Weeks)
Start Date: Wed 15 October
Each Wednesday: 10am-noon
Venue: Both at NEV Baptist Church Hall, 270 North Road
ENROLMENT AND COSTS
All courses are free but a Koha/Donation is requested ($25-35 recommended)
Courses are restricted to a maximum of 14 people REGISTRATION IS ESSENTIAL
Registration or enquiries to Maureen, Phone 4739967, Email mhoward@slingshot.co.nz
The Sustainable Living Programme is brought to you locally by the Dunedin City Council
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect
- Aldo Leopold U.S. Ecologist
Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder, ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.
Shirley Murray NZ Hymn Writer
As I write this newsletter I’m looking out of my window at another exceptional spring day. Yesterday the temperature hit a balmy 25 degrees. As I walked round the neighbourhood I saw lots of people opening up their houses to the elements letting the warm air and sunshine do its stuff of warming and drying. I saw mats and carpets and mattresses out on decks benefiting from the penetrating rays of sunshine. It made me think of the way sunlight disinfects and the way that bringing things out into the light is usually the best way to get to the truth, to disinfect and to bring healing.
With the exception perhaps of mushrooms, not much healthy grows in the dark. Black mould grows behind the dresser in the damp unventilated bedroom and its deadly spores contaminate the air bringing on asthma and respiratory complaints. In a similar way even more potent disease festers away in the dark, resentment, lies, abuse, shame and guilt (to name a few). Jesus has been called the light of the world for a good reason. It is a wonderful thing to walk out of one’s own personal darkness into the warm brilliant light of God and discover that the light which exposes is also the light which cleanses, heals and makes whole.
At NEV Baptist we are not perfect but we have experienced a perfect love; a warm welcoming light. On these glorious spring days I’m reminded again of God’s great goodness in shining the light of love upon us.
Decision 08: Meet the Candidates
What issues are really important to you and your family? Which political party has the best policies and people to give a lead to our country, especially in light of the many international crises that are affecting us? We are faced with an historic international financial crisis, a potentially catastrophic environmental crisis, a crisis in terms of energy and the ever present threat of international conflict over natural resources and religious difference. Who leads our country does make a difference and your vote counts. Come along and meet the candidates, be informed and vote for your future. The Forum will be held on Saturday 18th October, 7pm at NEV Baptist Church. There will be the opportunity to ask candidates questions. Refreshments provided - no charge.
SUSTAINABLE LIVING CLASSES IN NORTH EAST VALLEY
This interactive eight-week course will assist you to
1. Learn and share practical tips that make a difference and can save you money
2. Meet others in your community who are interested in living more sustainably
3. Gain support for introducing lifestyle changes you want to make
Facilitated by Dr Maureen Howard,
c/o Water and Waste Services, Dunedin City Council.
NEV - Evening Course (8 Weeks)
Start Date: Tuesday 14 October
Each Tuesday: 7-9pm
NEV - Daytime Course (8 Weeks)
Start Date: Wed 15 October
Each Wednesday: 10am-noon
Venue: Both at NEV Baptist Church Hall, 270 North Road
ENROLMENT AND COSTS
All courses are free but a Koha/Donation is requested ($25-35 recommended)
Courses are restricted to a maximum of 14 people REGISTRATION IS ESSENTIAL
Registration or enquiries to Maureen, Phone 4739967, Email mhoward@slingshot.co.nz
The Sustainable Living Programme is brought to you locally by the Dunedin City Council
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect
- Aldo Leopold U.S. Ecologist
Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder, ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.
Shirley Murray NZ Hymn Writer
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