Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Heaven and Earth Together

"Since where God dwells, there heaven is, we conclude that in the life to come heaven and earth will no longer be separated, as they are now, but will be merged. Believers will therefore continue to be in heaven as they continue to live on teh new earth." - Anthany Hoekema, quoted in Heaven, by Randy Alcorn.

The point to notice is what Alcorn is making throughout his book. Heaven, separated from earth, is not our final "resting" place, but more of a rest stop before the final resurrection, a resurrection that will include the resurrection of creation.

While I find Alcorn's eschatology confusing and scattered, he has excellent insights on the doctrine of heaven. A very worthwhile book.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Blood on Our Hands

There is so much blood on the hands of our nation because there is so much blood on the hands of the church; we cannot simply blame “them” for federal funding for abortions. Rampant homosexuality throughout our country is the fruit of rampant homosexual (and heterosexual) sin accepted and approved in the church. Our country is filled with broken families because our churches encourage families to break up, refusing to teach men to be husbands and fathers with a backbone who love their wives like Christ and serve sacrificially, and refusing to teach women to respect, submit to, and honor their husbands while embracing their roles as helpmeet. Our country refuses, from the President to the congress to the Supreme Court, to listen to the voice of God and refuses to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ because the church tells the state that she has no prophetic voice to speak to them.

Our present administration and congress may soon implode in its left-wing demented policies and declining popularity (or not). But the worst thing for the church to do is what she is currently doing – hoping for more of the same except from right-wing, demented policy-makers. But until we bow the knee in this and every regard, Washington will never bow the knee. Judgment begins in the household of God and that means that every individual application the Lord brings to mind is part of the answer.

The antithesis is not between the conservatives and the liberals. It is between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The real antithesis is between those who will live as Jesus commanded and those who will not, both as individuals and as societies, be it family, church, or civil. All of these must repent, but the church must lead the way.