Summarising ch. 8 of Created to Praise, by Derek Prime
Psa 84: 4 – ‘How blessed are those who live in your temple and praise you continually!’
Full development
Some acts of worship – e.g. the Lord’s Supper – belong to this life alone. But praise will be our eternal employment; it will reach its full development in heaven (Rev 19). It will massive, enthusiastic, ceaseless (Rev 4:8).
Reserve
The Bible shows reserve in its description of heaven.…
John 17:24 – “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
A long time ago, a young man finished an evening meal with his friends, spoke to them about various things, then looked up to the sky, and prayed. He prayed for himself, for his little band of friends, and for all those future generations who would come after them.…
Mt 25:44 Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?’ 25:45 Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ 25:46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”…
John 14:2 – “There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house.”
AV: ‘Many mansions’; NRSV: ‘Many dwelling places’; RSV, NIV, ESV, GNB: ‘Many rooms’.
Bruner paraphrases: ‘On my Father’s estate there are many homes.’
1. Not ‘many stopping places along the way’…
The meaning of this underlying word (monē) is disputed. It was translated as ‘mansiones‘ in the Vulgate, (and then into ‘mansions’ in the AV).
The traditional translation of ‘mansions’ is misleading. …
What will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?
As Thiselton (Shorter Commentary) says, Paul’s main point is clear enough:
…“baptism for the dead” (whatever this means in detail) would be pointless and senseless if there were no resurrection. But since, evidently, they have themselves baptized for the sake of the dead, either some people tacitly assume the truth of the resurrection or else their action is self-contradictory.
“We look for the resurrection of the dead”, says the Nicene Creed.
“I believe in the resurrection of the body”, we declare every time we recite the “Apostles’ Creed”.
These ancient affirmations are well-grounded in Scripture, most obviously in 1 Corinthians 15, but also in Romans 8 and other passages. They are also consistent with the teaching of 2 Peter 3 and Revelation 21 and 22 that confirms that the future hope of God’s people is not for their bodies to remain buried for ever in the ground of this earth and for their “souls” to fly off to “heaven”, but for bodily resurrection and for future life in God’s new heaven and new earth.…
Murray Harris:
The final state of the saved may be characterized by six adjectives.
Some notes based on (and quoting from) a sermon by Glenn Pease:-
There once was a woman who always was tired
She lived in a house where no help was hired.
On her death bed she said, dear friends I am goin
Where washing aint done nor cookin nor sewin,
And everything there will be just to my wishes,
For where they don’t eat there’s no washin of dishes.
Don’t mourn for me now, don’t mourn for me ever,
For I’m goin to do nothin, forever and ever.…
How can heaven and hell possibly co-exist everlastingly (asks Philip Edgecumbe Hughes)? Would this not be incompatible with the redemption achieved by Christ? For,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NIV).
These words constitute the go-to text for Christians who wish to assert that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. It is also the go-to text for those who feel that Christianity condemns itself as abhorrent and intolerant by reason of the very exclusiveness of this saying.
But does does the text actually mean what most of its friends (and, indeed, most of its enemies) think it means?…
