Heaven Is For Real

Has Colton Burpo been to heaven and back? His father, Todd, has a new book out, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL.

Please look at this review, which I think is insightful:

http://responsivereiding.com/2011/03/18/

MSNBC Host Makes Rob Bell Squirm: "You're Amending The Gospel So That It...

Let’s step back just for a moment and look at what is happening here.
If I were the devil, and some may accuse me of that, seeing that I object to Bell’s views so strongly, and if I wanted to undermine the gospel of Jesus Christ, here is just what I’d do:
1. I’d get a young, attractive, hip, persuasive communicator to articulate for me. Not an ugly agitator, but a wolf in sheep’s clothing so to speak.
2. Next I would undermine the gospel at crucial points of Christian doctrine. I wouldn’t do it directly, but subtly. So let’s look at Bell’s views in Love Wins taken to their logical conclusions and see if God wins, for indeed, He is love. (I Jn. 4:16)

The Fall: If we all are ultimately rescued from Hell regardless of our acceptance or rejection of the death of Jesus Christ to pay for our sins, then sin may not be so bad after all. It doesn’t require eternal punishment. Its payment did not require the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross since even those who reject Christ and that payment are rescued from it anyway.

The Great Commission: If people are ultimately saved regardless of their acceptance or rejection of Christ while on earth, then some starch is taken out of the constant harping of Jesus and Paul to take the gospel to the ends of the earth in the face of death and persecution. After all, “the lost” won’t have to suffer in hell. It will be a little easier for us now not to have to “die daily” (I Cor. 15:31) or “take up our cross daily” (Luke 9:23). We can stay close to home and live the sort of lives we deem to be morally right and worthwhile.

Discipleship: Having the load of preaching the gospel slightly lessened we will be more free to pursue our own personal goals and ideas of Christian morality, not like Jesus, who came to give his life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28) and to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Or like Paul, who could wish himself accursed in hell for the sake of his lost brothers—oops, he might have been mistaken about that! (Romans 9:3)

Scripture as the Word of God (II Tim 3:16): This point is more cause than effect. Bell does not take the scripture literally and this has led to the digression of his beliefs on the gospel. But what do you do with all those verses about Jesus warning people about hell? What do you do with all the commands to preach the gospel when convenient and when not convenient? (II Tim. 4:2). The whole problem for Bell starts when he is endeared with liberal ideas on scriptural truth. It’s not intellectually fashionable to believe in a God who creates the earth ex nihilo, or one who casts out a demon. Once the Bible becomes less than accurate on any count, the slope can slip you all the way to the bottom with nothing left to stand upon.

The Gospel itself: Paul states the essence of the gospel in I Cor. 15:3 that Jesus, David’s descendant, died for our sins and rose from the dead that we might have life. In Bell’s view, the gospel itself is minimized. Just now, after twenty centuries of broad agreement in the church about what hell is and the meaning of the gospel that saves us from it, we suddenly have a different story. In the view of Bell and other Emergents, we who believe in a literal hell are holding onto old dogma buttressed by an indefensible, outdated view of scripture.

Good and evil: Jesus says that God alone is truly good (Mark 10:18). He also says that apart from Him we can do no good (John 15:5). Yet if God will in the end accept everyone into heaven, who can truly be labeled as evil? Who can be called good? All have the same, wonderful destiny and reward. Behavior on this earth ultimately doesn’t matter.

God’s character: Immediately following from the point above, what does this say about God? Bell is very concerned about the character of a God who would punish Gandhi in eternal flames. What about a god who let Hitler into heaven without any payment for the murder of 6 million Jews? What about a god who put us through the pain and suffering of life on earth without any apparent reason? For traditional Christianity, it is clear why we suffer and why we have been put here on earth. For Bell’s disciples, the answer is unclear. If we all go to heaven, why are we apart from his presence now? Why all the suffering and death all these centuries? What was it for? What is the ultimate point? What is our true purpose? What did God do all this for? From Paul to Augustine to Aquinas to Calvin to present day we thought we knew. Now it’s different?

Who or what really wins in this scenario? Is it love and God? What if we really are accountable for our sins to a just and holy God? What if Rob Bell has been deceived, not just in terms of human logic, but in his interpretation of Scripture?

I think GOD Wins and His eternal WORD wins. Bell loses this round.

Have they been to heaven?

A new phenomenon is hitting America. People are going to heaven and returning. Two extremely popular and big selling books are out there claiming visits to heaven for their authors.

Don Piper's 90 Minutes in Heaven
Todd Burpo's Heaven is for Real

I am sending a review of the first book. I want you all to think critically about all spiritual experiences. As the Apostle John tells us, we should discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

Here is the link:

http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/book-review-90-minutes-in-heaven

I have not yet read the Burpo book, but I share the reviewer's skepticism about the Piper book. I'd be open to discussing any thoughts you may have on this.

Paul

Meant by Christ for unity, the Lord's Supper has been turned into a cause for division

There is an irony in the way church men have handled the Lord's Supper since Jesus instituted it with his disciples by saying, "Do this in remembrance of me." The details are certainly important. By the 1500's parishioners were running from church to church to admire the bread being lifted by the priest and see his "magic" pronouncement Hoc est corpus meum, "This is my body," which they thought turned bread into the actual body of Christ. The elements of communion had become idols and Christ was being sacrificed again. The Eucharist was a good work Christians did to earn God's favor.

The Reformers in turn argued about how much or how spiritual vs. physical Christ's presence was in the ceremony. At Marburg, Zwingli and Luther could agree on 14 of 15 articles of faith, but could not unite on the Lord's Supper. For this, Luther proclaimed that Zwingli did not have the same spirit as Luther and his contingent. He did not mourn Zwingli's death and saw it as God's justice for Zwingli's heretical views. It may be hard for 21st century onlookers to identify with just how crucial and "all or nothing" doctrine was to a believer in the 16th century. Today there is a "It doesn't really matter what you believe," attitude that is pervasive. We, in our age have lost the fire and courage of our convictions.

On the other hand, there is an original and New Testament purpose to the Lord's Supper that transcends the detail. Christ meant it as a time to come together and remember Him and His death until He returns for us. It is this bringing Christ's death and its implications which brings Christ closer to our own hearts and to our church community. Just as the disciples shared an intimate meal with Jesus in that upper room, so we are to use this ritual to bring us closer to Christ. Jesus talked to the multitudes and to his disciples in John 6 about being the true bread from heaven. It was easy for many to misunderstand. The multitudes wanted a free lunch, but Jesus wanted to show them true bread that would satisfy them forever, just as he told the woman at the well to obtain the water which, once imbibed, would leave her never thirsting again.

Jesus never meant us to think that the bread and the wine were His actual flesh and blood. This is a simplistic understanding of truly meaty and spiritual event. Some Muslims, similarly base in their thinking have accused Christians of being cannibals for this reason. Jesus meant both his pronouncement and the act of communion to be profoundly spiritual and symbolic. We are to remember and worship Him during communion and not get distracted by the elements themselves. Jesus is the object of our worship and our thoughts during this ritual. It is not some good work we get credit for, nor is it some credit voucher to add up points toward salvation. It is a time where God gives to us and strengthens us as we remember His ultimate act of love and unity for us on the cross.

21st Century Laodicea: Come on in! The Water is Shallow and Tepid

I have recently read Romans and John Owen’s great work from 1565, On The Mortification of Sin. Owen, the learned Puritan, wrote it in the midst of helping Oxford recover from the ravages of the English Civil War in his role as Vice Chancellor.
I felt that Owen’s sharp and precise exegesis combined with a study and meditation probed narrow and deep as down a cavernous well. He thirsted for a treasure buried deep like a cold, underground stream. In contrast, we postmoderns wade toes at our leisure in inches of a lukewarm kiddie pool, easily accessible, but not satisfying for bathing or drinking on a hot summer day.
Owen’s seminal verse was Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Owen states the stark reality, unadorned: the wages of sin is death and if our habit of life is in accord with the sinful nature we can expect to perish in God’s judgement. Paul urges us to “examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith,” and says, “unless you have believed in vain.” In Romans 2 Paul warns the church and the Jews that it is not the hearers of the law or those who know the law that are justified, but those who do the law.
Today we are very quick to assure anyone who has made a profession of faith. The Puritans waited for fruit and confirmation of faith over a period of time before even accepting a “professor” as a church member. The crucial phrase in Romans 8:13 is “by the Spirit.” It is only the Holy Spirit that can truly cure us and rid us of stubborn sin habits. Only He can transform us substantially and permanently. Although we cannot obtain perfection in this life, we should still aim for no less. “You shall be holy for I am holy.” And I Thess 5:23-24: God will sanctify us entirely and present us blameless at the coming of Jesus Christ.

Be killing sin by the Spirit

We are a distracted, shallow, uniformed, uninspired generation, and our kids are noticing and going anywhere else but the church to find their purpose in life. Where is the zeal, the evangelism, the radical love of the New Testament in our lives? It is time to return and revive this type of New Testament Church in Action Today. We should face the indictment of Laodicea in Revelation 3, “Because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Does that sound like a secure place to be? John Owen warns us early in his book, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

All Religions not the same? Really?

New book by Boston University's Stephen Prothero makes the point that all religions do NOT lead to God. There are substantive and real differences that put religions in conflict with one another.

Are scholars finally getting this? Yale, Princeton and Harvard seem to agree according to the book jacket.

This book follows Prothero's excellent study of American religious history called, Religious Literacy

Naturally, the book does not go so far as to say one religion is right and the others are wrong. This is the only possible logical conclusion in my mind. Likely Prothero is of the opinion that none of them are absolutely true. The latter conclusion would make me wonder how I got here without a God, or why He hasn't chosen to communicate with us clearly.

Avatar

I saw Avatar.

Yes, I saw Avatar with my Mom last weekend. I won't attempt to rehash any kind of thorough review, which has been done well elsewhere.

http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/avatar.aspx

I will just register some brief comments from my own unique perspective:

1. I've been reading about "Story" by Robert McKee, the Hollywood screenplay guru. One point he makes is that no one ever writes any kind of story without trying to convince you of something important. You may think Dickens was just telling cute, little stories with quirky characters. Actually he had a passion for exposing the miserable living and working conditions of the urban poor--especially children.

What is James Cameron's passion? To oppose and demonize U.S. foreign policy and to promote environmentalism.

2. In doing the above, Cameron succeeds in making the plea a religious one, going beyond a "Dances With Wolves" diatribe against removing indigenous peoples by ugly, impossibly evil white men (see point three)to drawing on worship of the Earth goddess and ancestor worship--in short, a revival of paganism. So Cameron not only undermines the goals of Western Civilization, he also provides the alternative, in effect a return to earth and ancestor worship that Christianity replaced. I think it's ironic that Cameron thinks this is some kind of solution. As you may remember, both the Romans and the Greeks were imperialistic marauders, much more brutal than the "Christian" conquerors who followed. Not to mention the Indians (Oops, I did, and not politically correctly), whose brutal, tribalistic, territorial wars constantly displaced each other. Their scalping, torture and barbarism are not taught to our children in school any longer.

3. To pull this off, to make a band of scientists who betray their government and the human race and have sex and mate with aliens look like the good guys, Cameron must make the villains look cartoonishly greedy, vicious and evil. Such characters are impossible to believe and are the content of today's graphic novels marketed to children. Immorality, a Benedict Arnold like traitorism, and neglect of authority are glorified to a holy aura as behavior to be imitated.

4. In a word, "Propaganda." Your children are seeing it and buying into it. Be very afraid. Unless you believe and follow Jesus Christ, then, proceed from fear to courage and faith and counter with the gospel, the greatest story ever told or ever to be told