Does my daughter remind you of anyone? Hmmm?
Rereading Rob Bell's book reminded me again what a provocative writer he is, with many beautiful and poetic paragraphs. It also reminded me that it is not a bible study, that work must be done elsewhere. Gary Beauchamans book, Hope Beyond Hell is such a book.
I appreciate his defense of the fact that this view has a long history and belongs in the broad spectrum of theological views, and does not deserve any kind of theological ostracism or modern forms of burning at the stake.
Chan/Sprinkles rebuttal will be read and reviewed by me when I get a chance. They named it God wins, and I really do not see Bell saying that when love wins God loses. Bell leaves plenty of room for consequences and for correction of wrong doing.
I am through, and I go forward with a wider hope.
3 comments:
I wonder what "consequences and for correction" looks like in a timeless existence? My thinking is that God created time and therefore does not exist in it. If times exists when we die then I think it could be more like earth than heaven. Any thoughts about time and the afterlife?
Bob, you hit on the biggest issue of the whole discussion. Eternity is not timeless, it moves from age to age. Only God is eternal, but when He spoke the universe into physical existence He therefore lives within those dynamics. Jesus has a body in the resurrection, he is not a spirit. A perfected body.
E=MC2. When a physical body moves, it takes time. In ages to come we will enjoy the renewed and restored universe. Sounds mormomy or witnessy but it is an incredible truth which N.T. Wright developed in the book Surprise by Hope. There is hope beyond hell because Hell lasts an age, ie. till it does what it was meant to do. And by the way, God only keeps his mind in this very second. He is not at the end waiting for the thing to finish. Thats the beauty of God with Us.
Lots of writing on this, but not in circles where the word eon is misunderstood and mistranslated. Beauchamins book explains this.
Thanks for thinking along with me.
You may be right Don. God may be constrained by E=MC2. But if God exists outside of time the age to age paradigm falls apart.
My thinking is that the dimension of heaven coexists with the E=MC2 dimension that we live in. Actually, our dimension may exist inside of the dimension of heaven. It is why I am beginning to embrace the idea that only spiritually born people survive death.
As always, I enjoy the dialog.
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