The New Testament Doesn’t Say What Most People Think It Does About Heaven

N.T. Wright in Time-

One of the central stories of the Bible, many people believe, is that there is a heaven and an earth and that human souls have been exiled from heaven and are serving out time here on earth until they can return. Indeed, for most modern Christians, the idea of “going to heaven when you die” is not simply one belief among others, but the one that seems to give a point to it all.

But the people who believed in that kind of “heaven” when the New Testament was written were not the early Christians. They were the “Middle Platonists” — people like Plutarch (a younger contemporary of St Paul who was a philosopher, biographer, essayist and pagan priest in Delphi). To understand what the first followers of Jesus believed about what happens after death, we need to read the New Testament in its own world — the world of Jewish hope, of Roman imperialism and of Greek thought.

More here-

https://time.com/5743505/new-testament-heaven/?fbclid=IwAR2aU1HEwA6oqY5zowKgGf9pSuUxrlKZNIGMxQ2LfxqMofN0_iVX5BCIMu0

Even Jesus Thinks Your Heaven Travelogues Are a Little Out There

From Pacific Standard-

Earlier this year, it was announced that a young boy named Alex Malarkey had not gone to heaven. Such an announcement may not seem like news, and yet, it was news to the million or so people who had read his memoir The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life Beyond This World. The book was published in 2010, six years after the accident that put the six-year-old Malarkey into a coma during which he claimed to have gone to heaven and back.

Angels and miracles are popular enough, but so is heaven. Last fall, LifeWay Research, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, conducted an online survey of 3,000 adults and found that 67 percent believed heaven to be a real place. Almost half of them said there are many ways to get there. A more significant, though older survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in 2007 found that, of the 35,000 adults surveyed, a full 74 percent believed in heaven, while only 59 percent believed in hell.

More here-

http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/even-jesus-thinks-your-heaven-story-is-idiotic

A theological debate is unleashed: Are dogs heaven bound?

From The Post-Gazette-

Will the Hound of Heaven, as a poet famously depicted God, let hounds in heaven?

The question of whether animals are in heaven, which has vexed theologians and laypeople for generations, has been the subject of animated debate in recent days, prompting fresh examination of the question and illuminating the passion of pet owners.

The worldwide debate was set off by reports, disavowed Saturday by the Vatican, that Pope Francis suggested heaven is open to all of God’s creatures. The pope, at his Nov. 26 audience at St. Peter’s Square, did remark that “the Holy Scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us.” He went on to quote Paul’s epistle to the Romans: “Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2014/12/14/A-theological-debate-is-unleashed-Are-dogs-heaven-bound/stories/201412140163

Pastoral Care in Death’s Path

From The Living Church-

The first time the Rev. John W. Price encountered someone who described having a near-death experience was in 1970, just five years after his ordination as a priest. The account, given by a respected woman in his congregation, left him confused and upset, and he felt unable to provide pastoral care.

“Nothing prepared me for the person telling me about a near-death experience,” he said. More than 200 interviews later, Price has written Revealing Heaven: The Christian Case for Near-Death Experiences (2013).

“There are really only two religions: fear and love,” Price said. “God is loving and forgiving. Jesus is love incarnate. What counts for getting into heaven is being a loving person.”

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/pastoral-care-death-path

Garrett Turns to the Afterlife

From The Living Church-

If popular culture shapes how 21st-century people understand the afterlife, then some literature and movies are more helpful — and truer to the Bible — than others. Perhaps a guide can help sift the wheat from the chaff.

Greg Garrett, 51, a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church and a professor of English at Baylor University, hopes to provide such guidance in Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Literature and Culture.

The book, scheduled for 2014 by Oxford University Press, explores how popular ideas of heaven, hell, and purgatory are shaped by what we watch, what we read, and what we’ve derived from religious traditions.

“Most Christians hold many of their beliefs about the afterlife as much from art and literature as from Scripture and theology,” Garrett said via email.

Sometimes those ideas stray far afield from any biblical basis, Garrett argues, citing the common refrain offered to someone who’s lost a loved one: “God must have needed another angel.”

“We may remember from what little there is in the biblical record on angels that God created them separately from and prior to humanity,” Garrett said, “but nonetheless find ourselves drawn to that human to angel narrative, or a story like It’s a Wonderful Life, where an apprentice angel finally gets his wings.”
More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/garrett-turns-afterlife

Past the pearly gates, our suffering is over

From Chicago Tribune-

Q: I grew up in the Lutheran church, but left because they were so exclusive. I'm currently a member of an Episcopal church with a beautiful but aging building and a dwindling congregation. Our current priest lacks leadership skills.

We have an endowment that's keeping us going, but the money will run out in about seven years. Church meetings about this issue are not good and I'm fed up with the whole situation. At 78, I don't need this aggravation in my life.

In general, I feel that religious institutions, including many churches in our town, are problematic. Therefore, I'm thinking of leaving the church and becoming, as they say, simply "spiritual," by which I mean following the commandments, helping others and trying to live a good life. However, my wife is worried. She asks me, "What will God think?" Can you help us? -- Anonymous, via godsquadquestion@aol.com

A: Listen to your wife! Obviously, I can't speak for God, but I can speak for my brothers and sisters in the clergy who've given their lives to build and sustain communities of faith. The key to understanding your agony is to pray about and think about the role of community in your faith life.

You absolutely do not need a community of faith to live a good life, a compassionate life, a virtuous life. There are wonderful atheists and horrible religious people, and vice versa. However, there is a singular benefit to being a member of a religious community: What God wants us to do here on earth is way too difficult to do alone. This is the reason we come together in faith. We give and receive courage and hope when we pray together and do good works together and study God's word together.

More here-

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/sns-201203061430--tms--godsqudctngs-a20120308mar08,0,4376788.story

Fewer Religion Houses at BEA, But Most Say They Will Be Back

From Publishers Weekly

Religion publishers arguably have more trade show options than any other category, with specialized book exhibits for evangelical Christian, Catholic/Episcopal, Jewish, New Age, and academic houses. That’s one reason there were far fewer religion publishers exhibiting at BookExpo this year—21 vs. the more than 50 of a decade ago (“BEA Now a Low (or No) Priority for Many Religion Houses,” PW, May 9).


But those who were at BEA last week were upbeat, and while bemoaning the rapidly increasing costs of exhibiting at the show, they expressed a continued commitment to being there. “It’s still the best place for us to see everyone at one time instead of flying all over the country for meetings,” said David Lewis, executive v-p of sales and marketing for Baker Publishing Group.

The dominant topic in the category these days is clearly the afterlife (see Books Briefly in this issue of RBL). Baker’s Revell imprint has seen its 90 Minutes in Heaven camped on the bestseller lists for nearly four years, and it was joined six months ago by Thomas Nelson’s Heaven Is for Real. But the book drawing the most media attention is HarperOne’s Love Wins. Author Rob Bell has been criticized by fellow Christians for his inclusiveness when it comes to who will go to heaven. He drew more than 100 people to his BEA signing, and while in New York taped a prime-time special for Nightline that will air later this month. Next comes hell—just before the show David C. Cook announced a new book from Francis Chan (Crazy Love) that will deal with the darker side. Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity and the Things We Make Up is set to release in July.

More here-

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/religion/article/47472-fewer-religion-houses-at-bea-but-most-say-they-will-be-back.html

Anglican on Hawking's Remarks: Heaven Not Some 'Sky Stuff'

From Christian Post-

Responding to Stephen Hawking’s claim that heaven was made up by people who were afraid of dying, Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu clarified what heaven really is.

“Heaven is not just some kind of place for retired Christians where they’re going to be enjoying their retirement,” he told BBC’s Toby Foster. “Heaven is where God’s will is being done. In fact, the Lord’s Prayer talks about ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ So God is very much on earth as He is in heaven.”

During his two-day visit this past week to South Yorkshire, Sentamu spoke with BBC about his trip and other matters of faith as well.

During the interview, the Anglican leader was asked what he felt about famed physicist Hawking’s recent statement to U.K.’s the Guardian that “there is no heaven or afterlife” and that it is all “a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Sentamu first made clear, “I’m not afraid of dying. Bring it on any day.”

The Church of England cleric continued, “[Hawking] shouldn’t paint a picture of some kind of sky stuff up there because the faith of God is not that kind of faith. The coming of Jesus in human flesh on earth was actually trying to say, ‘when I look at you ... you should be telling me more about what God is and about what it is to be human.’”

More here-

http://www.christianpost.com/news/anglican-on-hawkings-remarks-heaven-not-some-sky-stuff-50360/