Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Careers, Workplace and Religion
Easter Resurrection: Life after Life after Death

Easter Resurrection: Life after Life after Death

Last updated on: March 26, 2013 at 1:08 pm by Bob Robinson

Easter Resurrection: Life after Life after Death 2013-03-26T13:08:23-04:00 Bob Robinson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world!”

I laughed out loud when I heard N.T. Wright say this in one of his audio lectures.

It’s a perfect play on words. Not only is this a great figure of speech, but it is also the biblical teaching. Sure, heaven is great. But it is not the telos, the culmination of our existence as Christians.

Modern evangelicalism has adopted the paradigm that runs rampant in our culture, inherited from the Greek philosopher Plato. This pagan belief system teaches a dualistic separation between the “sacred” (that which is spiritual/ nonmaterial/ soul) and the “secular” (that which is physical/ material/ flesh). This false worldview led to the Gnostic heresy of the early Church. A gospel message influenced more by Plato than by the Scriptures looks like this:

This world is an evil place. Your body is an evil thing.
What you need is to escape this depraved place and this sinful flesh that houses your soul.
Accept Jesus and when you die, your soul will have eternal life with God in heaven.
…. ummm …
End of gospel presentation.

But our ultimate destiny is not heaven, some disembodied spiritual existence for all eternity.

Getting “Heaven” right. Two excellent books on the topic.

A biblical eschatology proclaims, as Paul Marshall’s book states, “Heaven is Not My Home.” Or as as Michael Wittmer’s book proclaims (with a nod to Belinda Carlyle), “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.”

Two of my all-time favorite books.

Heaven, according to Scripture, is that place where we go when we die, the place where God dwells. This is the place that Jesus speaks of when he tells the thief on the other cross, “today you will be with me in Paradise” in Luke 23:43. This is what theologians call “the intermediate state.” “Intermediate” because it is not our ultimate destiny.

My theology professor back in my days at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School explains:

Death is a temporary cessation of bodily life and a separation of the soul from the body. Once a believer has died, though his or her physical body remains on the earth and is buried, at the moment of death the soul (or spirit) of that believer goes immediately into the presence of God with rejoicing. However…God will not leave our dead bodies in the earth forever, for when Christ returns the souls of believers will be reunited with their bodies, their bodies will be raised from the dead, and they will live with Christ eternally. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 816-17)

When Christ redeemed us he did not just redeem our spirits (or souls)—he redeemed us as whole persons, and this includes the redemption of our bodies. Therefore the application of Christ’s work of redemption to us will not be complete until our bodies are entirely set free from the effects of the fall and brought to that state of perfection for which God created them. In fact, the redemption of our bodies will only occur when Christ returns and raises our bodies from the dead. But at this present time, Paul says that we wait for “the redemption of our bodies,” and then adds, “for in this hope we were saved” (Rom. 8:23–24). The stage in the application of redemption when we receive resurrection bodies is called glorification. (Grudem, p. 828)

N.T. Wright, one of the world’s most renowned biblical scholars, has written a book that I highly recommend. He has an incredible gift of blending deep scholarship with readable prose that will keep every reader turning the pages.

Wright-SurprisedByHope--med His book, Surprised by Hope, helps us to do exactly what the subtitle says: “Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.” He reminds us that the Bible actually does not just teach “life after death,” but rather “life after life after death!”

The April 2008 issue of Christianity Today offered an excerpt from the book that I implore you to read. Here’s a snippet:

“The traditional picture of people going to either heaven or hell as a one-stage, postmortem journey represents a serious distortion and diminution of the Christian hope. Bodily resurrection is not just one odd bit of that hope. It is the element that gives shape and meaning to the rest of the story of God’s ultimate purposes. If we squeeze it to the margins, as many have done by implication, or indeed, if we leave it out altogether, as some have done quite explicitly, we don’t just lose an extra feature, like buying a car that happens not to have electrically operated mirrors. We lose the central engine, which drives it and gives every other component its reason for working.”

“[I]n the ancient world, [resurrection] wasn’t a way of talking about life after death. It was a way of talking about a new bodily life after whatever state of existence one might enter immediately upon death. It was, in other words, life after life after death.”

What does it matter? Why is it so important to get our theology of resurrection correct?

“The mission of the church is nothing more or less than the outworking, in the power of the Spirit, of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. It is the anticipation of the time when God will fill the earth with his glory, transform the old heavens and earth into the new, and raise his children from the dead to populate and rule over the redeemed world he has made.

If that is so, mission must urgently recover from its long-term schizophrenia. The split between saving souls and doing good in the world is not a product of the Bible or the gospel, but of the cultural captivity of both.”

Amen.

Do yourself an Easter favor, and read Wright’s article at the Christianity Today website here:

“Heaven Is Not Our Home: The bodily resurrection is the good news of the gospel—and thus our social and political mandate” by N.T. Wright

Previous Post

March 26, 2013

Dallas Willard - Finding God in Business

Next Post

March 28, 2013 God, Work, People & The Church

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category arts and entertainment audio/video bible / theology business church college community culture education faith family government/politics leadership media medicine podcast science & tech social sector tech Uncategorized work and calling

Select a Month November 2025 May 2025 October 2024 September 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 July 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 July 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 November 2016 September 2016 August 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group reads the Book of Mormon?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Latter-day Saints Pentecostals Baptists Jehovah’s Witnesses