The Good and Bad News of a Bodily Resurrection

There has been much talk and attention given of late to the fact that Christianity has been unduly influenced by Greek, Platonic thought – especially in matters of the resurrection. Plato’s god was a vague intellectual/spiritual entity who was off in a world of perfection, thinking about thinking. To think purer and more sublime thoughts was seen as reaching towards divinity. Heaven was seen as one’s intellect finally breaking free from the shell of mortality to float upwards towards perfect spiritual bliss.

As I say that, many of you realize that this sort of thinking has influenced the church. Especially when you read older books, you will often hear people saying things like, “In the resurrection of the spirits…” or “when we finally shed this mortal coil, and shall be with our Lord forever…” What they are envisioning is something quite a lot like Plato’s spiritual resurrection and eternal, bodyless heaven.

However, this is not how the Jews thought and – thank God! – this is not the resurrection which the Bible teaches. Rather, just as Jesus was resurrected bodily (cf. 1 John 4:1-3, 2 John 1:7, Luke 24:39) will also, by the same power, resurrect each one of us (1 Cor. 6:14). This is tremendously good news!

If you are like me, you often wondered what in the world we will do all day long in Heaven. Won’t we get bored? Of course, the main attraction in Heaven will be Jesus Himself. And in one sense, we will all be engaged in single-minded, whole-hearted worship all the time (Rev. 4:8, 7:15, etc.). However, Heaven is the perfect creation by the same God who created this wonderful place. You must read Revelations carefully. Do our souls float upwards to some vague, glowing, distant star where they will only sing and worship all day long before the spiritual throne? No. Rather, heaven comes down to earth (Rev. 21:2). This will not be the same old earth – neither will it be the same old heaven (!), for those will be cast away, and there will be no place found for them (Rev. 20:11). God says, “Behold, I am making all things new!” (Rev. 21:5). The Bible ends with a new Heaven, descending and new earth (Rev. 21:1). What will this new, final reality of God’s children be like? We cannot begin to imagine what good God has in store for us who have repented and accepted His free gift (Eph. 3:20, Rom. 8:18). Knowing that our bodies will be resurrected, however, we can begin to think of the sorts of pleasures which we will enjoy from the God who says, “In my right hand are pleasures forever,” (Psalm 16:11), and, “Well done good and faithful servant – enter into the joy of your master” (Mat. 25:21).

To some, what I am about to say may seem exceedingly crass – but I think it is just what the Bible plainly teaches. Why will Heaven be amazing? First because Jesus will be there. Secondly, because He will delight to give us physical pleasure. How so? The food will be amazing (Mat. 22). The animals will be tame and cuddly (Isa. 65:25). The laughter of children will fill our ears and lighten our souls (Isa. 11:6). The sun (which is Jesus, Rev. 22:5) will enlighten the whole world and make all things beautiful – the grass will be greener, the trees will have healing fruit (Rev. 22:2). We will meet with departed loved ones (1 Sam. 12:23), and we will rule and reign with God forever (2 Tim. 2:12) judging angels (1 Cor. 6:3) and administering a great, eternal earthly/heavenly kingdom of which Christ is the Head (Rev. 22:5).

…but is all of this only good news? I would love to end it here, to give us Christians all a good dose of the “warm-fuzzies” to go about our day with an extra spring in our step. But how can we rejoice in in-focused rejoicing, when so many walk the broad path to destruction? (Mat. 7:14). For just as clearly as the Bible speaks of Heaven, it speaks also of Hell. And what does it say? Is Hell a vague spiritual place? Is it oblivion, forgetfullness, a place where bad souls go to wander into a dark, vague state of mental emptiness? I am afraid that the Bible – and Jesus in particular – is far more precise on this point than we would like Him to be.

Those outside of Christ, just like those in Christ, will be bodily resurrected (Rev. 20:13). Unlike Christians, who are judged according to the mercy of God in Christ Jesus (Jude 1:21), these ones will be judged according to their works and sins here in this life (Rev. 20:13). Not a single one who relies on their own righteousness will pass the test: all whose names are not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). Like Heaven, this is a place of physical reality. Rather than eternal pleasure, however, there will be (can we comprehend the horror of this?!) eternal torment (Rev. 14:11). There will be no rest from the continual burning (Rev. 14:11). There will be no satisfaction from the insatiable thirst, or abating of the agony (Luke 16:24). Like parasites in tropical regions, there will be worms which will feast continually on living tissue, causing revulsion and pain (Isa. 66:24, Mk. 9:48).

As a result of this, Jesus teaches, we are not to fear any man on this earth – even one who holds a gun to our heads. For what can humanity do to us? Only kill the body. But God can cast both body and soul into Hell (Mat. 10:28). What is the result then? Let us fear. Let us fear lest our love of sin keep us from the life-saving love of God (Mat. 5:30, Mk. 9:43). Let us fear if, while there is still a chance of salvation, while it is still called “today,” someone seems to be falling short of the rest of God in Christ Jesus (Heb. 4:1). And let us fear lest we are too busy, or too insensitive, or too hard-hearted to hear the call of God when He gives us a precious opportunity to warn a fellow sinner of the wrath to come, and the grace which is available. For if we do not warn the one whom God has called us to warn, they will certainly die in their sins, but their blood will be on our heads (Ezek. 18). Could you bear to carry the responsibility for someone’s eternal damnation? What a terrible weight! Better to be able to say, with Paul, “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” (Acts 20:26-27)

Therefore, I conclude – not with a warm fuzzy, but with a sober challenge. Are you ready today? Do you know how you would give an answer to someone who asked you why you are different? (1 Pet. 3:15). Do you know what you would say? How could you begin to declare the purposes of God to your friends, family, neighbors in a way that would be comprehensible, and could save them from the terrible things to come?

Make it your ambition to be, like Paul, someday “Innocent of the blood of all men” – especially those you most love, and are closest to!

 

Win an iPad, and Free Books By Mark Driscoll

Okay, so this is a little bit gimmicky. But if you click here, you can get linked into this contest where Mark Driscoll is giving away six or eight iPads to promote his new book. They come pre-loaded with lots of his books and sermons – cool beans if you’re into him. If not – well, at least there’s the iPad.

Click on the link if you want. It doesn’t hurt anything, and you clicking on my link gives me one more ballot in the pot, for when they draw names!

 

 

What Have We Done Against the Son?

What have we done,
Against the Son,
I scarce can bear to say:

Our sins did bring
To death our King
Which all Hell could not slay.

 

How God Called Me to Missions

My wife and I have decided that it is time to “go public” with the news that we are preparing to go overseas with SIM to teach on the mission field (see here). We will be going to French Africa, so we will do a year of language studies first. I will likely be teaching in an established college or seminary, and we are hoping to get to the mission field as soon as 2014. We do not know how long God wants us to stay in Africa, but our first term will be 3 years.

WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?

For some, this news may come as a bit of a shock. But actually as we look back over out lives, we see that God has been leading us up to this moment all along.

I remember distinctly the moment as a young child (perhaps nine or ten) when God called me to give my life to Him as a missionary. I genuinely struggled with His call. What about the snakes and spiders? What if I got sick? Finally I decided that if God was strong enough to make the snakes and spiders, He would be able to take care of me.

Over the years since then, my desire to serve God full-time has not diminished – however, I began to doubt that early call. Perhaps I was too young and eager. Was I too influenced by the missionary stories I was reading? Perhaps pastoring in Canada would be more up my alley.

About the time I got married at 21, my vision began to focus. I began seeing my gifting as a teacher, and I decided that I would pursue academics, then teach at a Bible School or seminary somewhere. That seemed to clinch it – I would not be a missionary, but a Bible-school teacher.

This past spring, however, as I was in the process of finishing my second-last seminary class, I got a life-changing phone call. My father-in-law wanted me to talk to a missionary friend of his. This friend was actively recruiting seminary grads – preferably with Masters-level or even Doctorates – to serve with his mission. The need? To staff the hundreds of new Bible-schools and seminaries popping up across Africa. At the end of that phone-call I thanked him for his time and said that he had changed my life. In that conversation my early, almost-forgotten call clicked in an instant with my current gifts and desires, and I knew then what direction my life was to take.

Although we did not end of deciding to serve with that particular mission, we have been in discussions with another mission – Serving in Mission, or SIM.

My wife and I have decided to launch a family missions blog called Meyers on Mission. We will keep you updated on the progress of our application, fund-raising, language-learning, and eventually our moving and teaching in this new, exciting work!

 

All My Dirty Little Secrets for Writing Quality Seminary Papers FAST

I still remember my first Seminary Class. I was so exhillirated to be there. The questions were so deep – I could barely follow the conversation. But powerful! And exciting! …then there was the paper. Oh, how I slaved over the paper! Months later, I handed something in…sub-par, but all I could come up with, in the time I had.

Flash forward to the present. My last class I took by correspondence. Finished the reading, lectures, papers and assignments in a week flat. I felt the need to hand in the assignments staggered over a month, just so my teacher thought I was slaving away for all that time.  Incidentally, I got about the same grade on that last class, as for my first.

Now, I’ll have to confess that last class was on a slightly different level from the first one. However, it underscores the point that I have learned a few things along the way which make writing papers a whole heck of a lot easier. In the true spirit of Christmas, I thought I would share a few study tips, that may help other students write their papers faster, and spend more time with their families this Holliday Season!

1) Start With Wikipedia

Seriously. They have good stuff. And it often comes with good links that will get you started. A few things must be said: a) take it with a grain of salt, b) NEVER quote or footnote it. The teachers don’t want to know, and it won’t exactly add weight to your paper to say you cited wikipedia.

Wikipedia may not always be very reliable, but if someone took the time to write the article, they probably know more than you on the topic. Think of it like this: you are sitting down with someone who claims they know something about your topic. Maybe they are full of knowledge, maybe they’re full of something else. Either way, it’s probably worth your time as a first-stop, before beginning the serious study.

2) Browse the Web

Depending on your topic, there are some stops you should make.

Theopedia is the Christian version of wikipedia. Check if it has an article on your topic – their pages also sometimes come with audio resources.

A Puritan’s Mind also has tons of free resources, especially…well…if you’re into Puritan/Reformed stuff.

Also, you can just do a google search for your topic. A few tips: first, select “google scholar” in the drop-down menu. This will eliminate a lot of the fluff, and make sure you mostly see real scholarly articles. Secondly, try typing your topic in, followed by .pdf  For example, “The Atonement .pdf” Chances are, somebody out there has written an article on the atonement, which they are making available in PDF. Most of these can be cited as reputable sources – and even if it is not written by a real scholar, you can still cite it as a source depending on the topic.

You can also print out and use web-pages and blog posts, especially if the person is a scholar or teacher or pastor. If they aren’t a specialist, but they have some really good points, you may also want to cite them – but as an interesting voice, not an expert.

(For example, You would quote an expert thus: “This topic is confusing, but DA Carson explains….” You wouldn’t quote Joe-blow blogger in this way, because his explanation may or may not be credible. However, once the argument has been solved, you may say, “I think Joe-blow’s illustration of _________ is helpful at this point…” Sometimes non-professionals come up with the most unique illustrations and helpful ways of explaining things!)

If you find something good, print it and highlight the quotes. That way, you can go back and find your quotes easily, and you won’t waste hours trying to remember who wrote what where when.

3) Find some Audio Resources

If you have time to listen but not write/read (for example, you work out or have a commute) then you may be interested in audio resources. Download iTunes and go to the iTunes store. Type in your topic, then filter it to only show iTunes U. These will all be genuine college/university/seminary classes – all scott free for your use! I recommend especially Westminster Seminary, Covenant Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary’s materials. You will be able to find an amazing amount of information, and you can cite the teacher/class as a resource in your bibliography. (Just try to have a pen and paper on hand somehow, so you can jot down what they say. Try to get the wording right when you are quoting people!)

You can also do this by simply typing in your topic to Google, followed by .mp3 You’ll be surprised how many resources, sermons, lectures and audio-books will be available on your topic!

Also, stop by John Piper’s website desiringgod.org He has a lot of topical sermons, lectures and blog-posts, and your topic may be covered. The same applies to Bruxy Cavey and Mark Driscoll.

If you are searching for older, primary-source material stuff, Librivox has a huge data-base of open-source audio books, completely free. I listened to Augustine’s City of God and Confessions on there, as well as Josephus and Calvin many others.

Finally, check out the MacLauren institute. If they have your topic, you’re in luck! They have some great audio-lectures on various topics! Again – this material can be cited on your bibliography.

The great thing about listening to people like this talk is that they are usually experts and they will often make candid remarks like, “You know, the best book I’ve read on this topic is…” or “This whole discussion started when so-and-so wrote such-and-such…” STOP THE AUDIO AND WRITE DOWN WHAT THEY SAY!! Now, go and find the books they say are important. This will give you a great head-start on your topic!

4) Move on to the Encyclopedias

The BEST way to get info on a topic is an encyclopedia article. Most libraries have several encyclopedias on various topics, such as The Concise Evangelical Dictionary of Theology or Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. If you have access to such works, GREAT! Find the appropriate dictionary, and look for appropriate articles.

If not, you may be able to call a library (or, if you are already in a seminary, e-mail the librarian) and hire someone to photo-copy and mail you some articles. The prices are usually under $10.00, and it’ll be worth it to get the paper done!

Again – if you find something good, photo-copy it and highlight the relevant quotes.

4) Look for articles

I don’t know why I saved this ’till fourth – it’s the primary thing I do, and it is just AMAZING!!! If you have access (and I just don’t even know how writing a paper is even possible without this anymore!!) through your school library, log onto jstor, atlas or Routledge. Those are internet databases for storing articles from zillions of scholarly articles.

What is so great about an article is that it is short!! Also, they are usually written specifically on your topic, and they are always written by experts. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to magazines that aren’t peer-reviewed. I’m not talking about the glossy, picture-ladened type of journal. But writing articles in serious, peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Evangelical Theology or the Princeton Theological Review is how the experts test out new ideas. It’s how they talk to one another, debate and work out their theology. It is a mine-field of information, on most of your theological topics!

Best yet, you will often be able to find your way back to the source of the debate. Keep your ears peeled for the words, “Seminal.” When someone says, “In his seminal work, so-and-so says this….and my response to what he says is ….” PAY ATTENTION!! Go and find that work, whatever it is. You will raise your grade by %20 just by finding that book or article – not even reading it! If there is a seminal author on a topic, find some way to slip that into your paper, to prove you know a bit about the current discussions. (e.g. Harnack was the first in modern scholarship to propose that the early Christians were pacifists. I needed to mention his book militia christi in my paper, even though I never read it. Also, E.B. White was the first to propose that Christianity is bad for environmentalism in a famous article which slips my mind at this moment…these sorts of things are very important when writing a major paper!)

The best part of articles is that you will have people on both sides of the debate, so you can say, “So and so says this. But then so and so says this…but I side with this guy on this point, this guy on this point, and I make my own theory in this way.” If you do your work right, your paper will almost write itself, just in quotations!

5) Find Free E-books

If you’re not aware, you can go to google books, and read a significant portion of many books for free. You can even search within a book to find a key-word. It’s difficult to read much of a book like this, but you may be able to get that one key quote you need, so that you can cite it and add it to your bibliography. You can do the same thing with many books on Amazon.com

You can also search for a free copy of a book by typing the name of the book followed by .pdf    Who knows – maybe the author is so excited about their book, they want to give it to the world for free! (This is exactly what Wayne Grudem and Vern Poythress did with their book on the gender-debate.)

6) Buy Logos

This is another one which should be higher on the list. To do it over again, one of the main things I would have done differently is to buy the Logos Library earlier in my seminary. What Logos library is is a database of books you can download onto your computer or mobile device. You can purchase I purchased additional books at a price. I bought the Scholar’s Library over the phone for about $450.00 (students get a discount…then if you ask please they can give you I think another 10% off). That package comes with all the basics, like several very extensive encyclopedias of Christianity.

What is so cool about this is that it is SOOO easy to build a list of quotes. Just copy and paste the relevant quotes into a word document. Then, when you are ready to write, all your quotes are right there.

Also, when you copy, Logos automatically creates a footnote for you! That part is way-cool, and saves a lot of time!

7) Get real books

Yeah. Some people do that still. You can too. If you go to Briercrest, they will mail you out 15 books at a time to study with, all free of charge. You can also go to your library and ask for an inter-library loan for most books…but this is a pain, and they tend to have a hard time locating the types of books needed for theological papers.

Of course, if you are on campus, a trip to the library is an enviable priveledge.

CONCLUSION

Generally, my research is divided into written and audio. I have a notebook I carry with me everywhere. I jot down things said in audio lectures, and all books/articles (and also important names) that I need to look into later. I also print out all the articles, good internet pages, and photo-copied encyclopedia articles I can.

I then sit down, read and re-read, highlight and scribble for a while ’till things start making sense.

If it’s a really big paper, I then go through and cut-and-paste all the best quotes out of my articles onto a seperate document. (You see, I saved all the articles in text as well as printing them off). I then scratch my head over my rough notes until I figure out an outline. WIth an outline in place, I can organize my quotes in approximately the order they appear on my outline. With that done, I can type away and my quotes are all right there.

Well, that ended up being a bigger post than I thought it would, and it is now later than I intended. But I hope this post is helpful to someone out there, who is serving the Lord by pursuing excellence in academics. God bless you and have a happy new-year!

 

Shall I Trust You, Lord?

What should I say? “God, I trust you to keep my family safe”?

But this is not submission, but an ultimatum. What am I really saying? “God, I know better than you. God, I know the definition of trust-worthiness. It is freedom from pain, harm and hardship. Now that we know where we stand, God, the choice is up to you. Will you be trust-worthy? If my family is safe, I will be delighted because you have obeyed me. If any harm befalls us, I will hate you because you have failed me, and disobeyed me.”

This is not trust.

Trust is in the mouth of Paul: “I therefore boast of my weakness (and suffering) because I know that God’s power is made perfect in weakness.” Trust is in the mouth of Job, the fatherless: “Shall we receive good from the Lord and not evil?” and “Though he slay me, yet I will praise Him.”

What is trust? Trust is a dog with porcupine quills – wimpering but still as his master pulls them out. Trust is a patient on the operating table – terrified, but quiet as the doctor puts her to sleep, then cuts her body to heal it. Trust is a child on a boat, in a storm, at night, with his daddy. He buries his face into his Father’s shirt and is at rest, though he trembles.

Trust is believing that God is good. That God is good for you. And that God’s goodness is worth trusting.

Trust is believing that God is a real person, a personal God. And trusting the person of Jesus Christ to always do what is best for us – even if it stings in the short-term.

Give us sickness, give us health
Give us poverty or wealth
Make us fail or make us win
Make us drown or live to swim

Give us cursing, give us praise
Make us die, prolong our days.
Yet we trust, we trust in You
You make all things ever new

Through the rising, blinding flood
Through the chaos, sticks and mud
You with patient kindness stood,
Binding all in peace for good.