Eschatology and Life After Death
These are some notes I made during John Gruel’s Sunday School lesson at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, on May 29,2011.
http://www.fpcedmond.org/
Our eschatological view is critical because this life is not all there is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_eschatology
Read Galatians 5 & 6 for insights about how we should live in contrast to the way the world lives
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%20&%206&version=NIV
Book “Heaven is for Real”
– very sweet near death experience story
– lots of material there that you can’t really explain, but the ways he described heaven is very Protestant and Wesleyan 2 Corinth 12:2-6 Paul talks about an experience of a person seeing heaven
– when it comes to situations like this, our language fails http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%2012:2-6&version=NIV I think we live in more than four dimensions – we have been so arrogant since the 600s, saying if we can’t measure it it doesn’t exist
– that’s not true
– physicists today tell us we have over 10 dimensions
– it seems very likely we have encounters that are multi-dimensional C.S. Lewis book “The Great Divorce” is more about images and perceptions of what is to come
– presents a modified version of Purgatory, they can work it off, kind of like summer school http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Divorce-ebook/dp/B002BD2US4/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie… Book “Surprised by Hope” about death, resurrection and heaven http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-by-Hope-ebook/dp/B0010SIPOY/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie… Read the Bible according to it’s genre
– read an apocalyptic book in its own style, it is a vision, we need to separate what is vivid image and what is descriptive, what is best understood metaphorically and what is best understood literally
– poetry and history are read differently The idea of an immortal soul is Greek, not Hebrew
– where were we before birth? In the mind of God
– God gives us life Pre-millennialist dispensationalists have the rapture, the rest of us just have to show up for the judgement When we put our faith in Jesus, when we come to the judgement we need not fear Sent from my iPad
– very sweet near death experience story
– lots of material there that you can’t really explain, but the ways he described heaven is very Protestant and Wesleyan 2 Corinth 12:2-6 Paul talks about an experience of a person seeing heaven
– when it comes to situations like this, our language fails http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%2012:2-6&version=NIV I think we live in more than four dimensions – we have been so arrogant since the 600s, saying if we can’t measure it it doesn’t exist
– that’s not true
– physicists today tell us we have over 10 dimensions
– it seems very likely we have encounters that are multi-dimensional C.S. Lewis book “The Great Divorce” is more about images and perceptions of what is to come
– presents a modified version of Purgatory, they can work it off, kind of like summer school http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Divorce-ebook/dp/B002BD2US4/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie… Book “Surprised by Hope” about death, resurrection and heaven http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-by-Hope-ebook/dp/B0010SIPOY/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie… Read the Bible according to it’s genre
– read an apocalyptic book in its own style, it is a vision, we need to separate what is vivid image and what is descriptive, what is best understood metaphorically and what is best understood literally
– poetry and history are read differently The idea of an immortal soul is Greek, not Hebrew
– where were we before birth? In the mind of God
– God gives us life Pre-millennialist dispensationalists have the rapture, the rest of us just have to show up for the judgement When we put our faith in Jesus, when we come to the judgement we need not fear Sent from my iPad