A book worth reading

Of the many books that I read through each year, perhaps none have been more influential than Heaven, by Randy Alcorn. It is an amazing work that answers numerous questions on the topic of the afterlife. This book is thorough, easy to read, and is set up in a leisurely fashion. You can read the chapters you are interested in and skip the rest. The book can be somewhat repetitive at times and there are some places in which I feel the author is a bit too literal with a poetic text, but it is still quite wonderful and will enrich the life of Christians that read it. Below are some selections from the book.

Chapter 5: What is The Nature of The Present Heaven?
The current Heaven is temporary. While it is immeasurably better than life on Earth, its current state is not the final. There is another transition to make with the creation of the New Heavens and New Earth. Heaven therefore is not eternal like God, but a created place where He dwells. Heaven can and will change when Christ returns to Earth again. There are theories as to the location of the present Heaven. It could be in another dimension or universe, though that is not clearly explained.

Chapter 6: Is The Present Heaven a Physical Place?
We know that Heaven is a spiritual place but it is quite possible that it has substantial qualities as well. If nothing else, we should not be hostile to the idea that Heaven is somewhat physical. Jesus alludes to a physical place when telling the thief on the cross, “you’ll be with me today in paradise.” Paradise references a physical place. Also, angels are heavenly beings, but definitely seem to have physical bodies. Also, the sight of Moses a Elijah at the Transfiguration seem to indicate that they have physical bodies, therefore it makes sense that their habitation would also have physical characteristics. In all honesty, this world will likely seem like smoke in comparison. Heaven will be more real that what we know now.



Chapter 8: This World is Not Our Home…or is it?
As previously mentioned, Heaven is an intermediate state prior to the creation of the New Heavens and New Earth. So the answer to this question is yes and no. While we will live on Earth, it will be a new Earth, completely transformed with the effects of the Fall completely eradicated. We will recognize things from our previous life, hills, trees, and building. However, they will be greater and more perfect that we can actually imagine with our current ability.

Chapter 9: Why is Earth’s Redemption Essential to God’s Plan?
God does not have modest goals for redeeming creation but a masterful one. He desires to restore not just one creation but all. God could have destroyed everything and created everything perfect, but He didn’t. Instead choosing to reconcile His creation to himself through himself. There are numerous questions concerning the necessity of Earth in the plan of God. My answer, it is because God is ostentatious and His glory knows no end. That he seeks to reconcile every Adam as well as every atom affected by the Fall.

Chapter 11: Why is Resurrection So Important?
The resurrection is important because the Christian Faith hinges on the empty tomb. With no eternal hope, Christianity cannot stand. If Christ did not defeat death, but was instead slain by the enemy, he does not have victory over it and neither do we. Also, we are promised a resurrection like that of Jesus and if we are to not receive that, it makes God a liar, which we know He is not. The resurrection is inseparable from true Christianity.

Chapter 16: Will the New Earth Be Familiar…Like Home?
Yes. The New Earth is not a foreign creation but the restoration of the current one. God will make Earth and Christians whole, completing the original work He had planned and erasing the effects of the Fall on both parts of His creation. While it will be new in the sense of experiencing a perfect sinless creation, it will feel like Home because this is where our home truly is, with God. If we could take every place and experience that would make us feel at home, multiply it by the immeasurable and apply it to every aspect of our lives, that will be a glimpse of what Heaven will be like.

Chapter 17: What Will it Mean to See God?
To be with God is what all pleasure will generate from in Heaven. God’s greatest gift will be his presence and intimacy. The primary way that we will see God will be in the person of Jesus. To look upon the face of our Savior without sin-stained eyes and experience Him in His fullness will be our primary and all encompassing joy.

Chapter 18: What Will it Mean for God to Dwell Among Us?
When God will live among us, it means that there will be an intimacy that we have not known before. That God visits with man, and man with him is amazing and should ensnare our focus. That God will rule in our presence, allowing us to see Him in His fullness, will grant us a joy that we cannot fathom in this life. We will be free of our delusions that Heaven will be boring or God’s dwelling disappointing. We will be able to savor God’s goodness and glory, finally seeing, touching, and tasting that which our souls desperately long for.

Chapter 19: How Will We Worship God?
In everything we do we will worship God. From every gesture to every word we will praise our Maker and King. God will dwell among us, giving Himself to us and ourselves to Him, a union in which every way that we respond to Him will be worship unrestrained. God created us as beings with the need to worship. God desires our worship but does not force us. In Heaven and the New Earth, our intended purpose and longing for God will be met in full.

Chapter 35: Will There Be Marriage, Families, and Friendships?
The ending of the rule of Satan’s tyranny does not end history but complete it. However, it will broaden the understanding of relationships. We will relate to others through the concept of family, but we will embrace each other as one great family with a great Father. Friendships old and new will be reconstructed and perfected. We, the Church, will be married to Christ Jesus and find it to be completely satisfying. Our relationships from here will find new depths of meaning in Heaven.

Evaluation
This book has been a great encouragement to me. The author goes into great depth, answering a plethora of questions in an understandable way. Though there is a great deal of repetition throughout the book, none of it is really superfluous. Alcorn, can be woodenly literal at some points when dealing with the book of Revelation, but that should not discount his points either. Rather, I accept that there is still much we do not and cannot know about Heaven in this life. I believe that this book is a great resource for those of us that sometimes doubt the wonder and majesty of truly seeing the face of God and living with him.

I look forward to worshipping now more than ever. I have a greater desire for evangelism, telling others of Christ not out of fear for their torment but out of a desire that they experience the glory of Heaven and God for themselves. I long for intimacy of my soul to be with God and to walk with my Savior. I anticipate the perfection of all relationships I’ve had and the creation of new ones. Mostly, though, I truly, desperately long to praise a Father who has given me so much.

Shifting Sexual Morality in America

Like all nations, America has been in a continuous state of change since its foundation. The momentum of this change has increased greatly over the last century. The ideals, morals, and values that once stood as a positive foundations are not coming to be seen as archaic, fallible, and inconsequential. Where once a cause of prosperity in this nation was due to mutual respect, dedication to beliefs, and moral awareness it has transformed into a breeding ground of derision of religion, contempt for any form of knowable truth, and hostility against all things contrary to the status quo.

These changes have left our society morally bankrupt. Sex, which was once seen as a blessing of the marriage bed between one man and one woman has now become nothing more than a commodity. Sex is everywhere in America. It can be found in everything from commercials and children’s programming to nearly all the adds on networking websites such as Facebook. Sex is flagrantly flaunted in our society. It is no longer seen in a biblical context. Rather, most view it as non-personal and unimportant to relationships. Those people are deceived.

Sex is once of the strongest drives of the human body. It is innate. We are created as sexual beings and as such we are geared toward that end. That is why sex is a tremendously effective marketing tool. Advertisements use sexuality because, simply put, it sells. The diminished acceptance of the proper role of sex has far reaching consequences. It has allowed for the degradation of morality on a massive scale.

Some believe that by casting away the useless corpse of values, Americans can live free to make decisions as murder, abuse, and exploitation without worrying about grieving their consciences. Is this not so? Abortion terminates innocent life. That is murder. Rape, incest, and sexual predation are reported often to local law enforcement. And prostitution, pornography, and sex chat-lines exploit people morally for the sake of money.

All of these things are for the progressive pursuit of pleasure and gain. The predominant religion has changed in this country. Greed is the American god. Lust is its main tenet. And murder has become the national pastime. But what has encouraged this unstable and self-destructive evolution? It is not a new philosophy or idea but an ancient one, paganism.

Paganism has always sought to find a relationship between the spiritual and material worlds. It seeks to define the spiritual by the material rather than using spiritual means to define the material world. This thought process naturally lends itself to men and women vainly attempting to control spiritual matters with the manipulation of material situations. It takes the power away from a sovereign God and places it in the hand of the creation.

It is for that reason that paganism is popular. Humans have always wanted to be like God rather than submit to Him. Paganism promises spiritual life through the worship of the material. With the material being a means to bring into submission cosmic power, truth is in the eye of the beholder and therefore relative. A popular pagan belief is that one must indulge in natural desires in order to become closer to nature while another is a denial of those desires and to live in a more ascetic fashion. However, the search for salvation and meaning in the mundane and material is a search for a false god.

In America the medium through which modern pagans are searching is sex. Many pagans are searching for what their souls need, salvation, through sexual acts and expressions. Organizations that line up with this premise such as the GLBTA (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Trans-Sexual Alliance) that encourages people to embrace “alternative versions” of traditional sexuality and SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United State) which on their website claims abstinence as “an agenda that favors ideology over science and common sense” are leading the nation in sexual rebellion. Their plan is working. This wanton sexual excursion claims that salvation can be found through sex effectively rendering null and void, the cross of Christ!.

The justification and promoting of promiscuity along with the removal of all sexual boundaries forms a toxic connection with all connected areas of a person’s life. It is a poison that seeps in, degrading moral foundations and allowing the death and decay of falsehood to take root. This allows for a hatred of God to manifest in which the pagans rebel against that which they should know to be true, but has suppressed with their own desires. Blinded by their hatred, pagans embrace malevolent actions, which in turn drive them further away from God.

This leads not only to denial, but also the reversal of biblical truths and mandates. That which was pronounced good by God is decried evil by pagan belief. This however is nonsensical if one follows it its logical conclusion. For instance, Mary Daly claims that Christian thinking is “inside-out and upside down” and that everything in Christianity must be reversed.

She tries to redefine white as black and black, white. With a relativistic and purely subjective approach to truth, morality, and sexuality Daly’s criticisms may sound plausible. However, logically and practically pagan living is infantile. There is no maturity to an approach about seeking only self and denying others.

Thus, Daly views sexual sin as something to be embraced not looked down upon. But if that methodology is applied to everything, should Christians not care for the widows or orphans? Should Christians not seek to be peacemakers? Are Christians not be good neighbors, honest, and dependable? It is hard to envision a world so cold and cruel that would leave the defense of the most helpless by the wayside.

Although there has not been a rush of denominations ending their charities and social justice ministries for the sake of pagan beliefs, there has been an effect. Pagan thought has crept into our denominations, sometimes it is overt but more often that not it is subtle. A slow eating away of the moral foundation upon which Christianity has been built. Primarily, these attacks come upon God, His Word, and His promises to His people.

For instance, it would have been unheard of 50 years ago to have controversy between not only accepting homosexual members in a church but now they are being ordained as ministers in some denominations. How can that come to pass? It is by the systematic erosion of morality by basing it on other things than the Bible.

It is odd to think that something can be not just ignored but done, in spite of its clear prohibition as sin in the Bible. Yet, it is a danger all Christians face. If the Bible is not the lifeline to which we cling and the rod with which we measure there can be no certainty. We believe what we believe as Christians because God has given it to us in the Scriptures. If we become discontent with our Christian lives, which comes whenever we lose focus on Christ and the ministry that Jesus has us do.

While there are things not explicitly stated in Scripture that we can allow disagreement on, there are other stands that we as evangelicals MUST take. Sexual paganism is one of these stands. Abortion, sexual abuse, and divorce are main topics that evangelicals tend to speak out on in politics. Yet, the undercurrent to them is sexual rebellion.

If the biblical model of sexuality were followed, the world would be different. There would not be any children out of wedlock and the children that would be conceived would have value. The sanctity of human life would be secure and the divorce rate would plummet. This is not a cry to go back to segregation or chauvinistic living, but rather a plea that Christians see the beauty and grace that God has given us by guarding our sexuality through His word.

Yet, biblical sexuality is not frequently taught about in most churches. There are some pastors and elders that see the danger of pagan sexuality and seek to bring that danger to the forefront. However, many of those pastors such as Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA often find themselves under attack by their own peers because of such topics. But why? Sex is not taboo. It is not anything bad when in the context of a Christian marriage. In fact, it is a beautiful gift from God.

Many reactions to the topic are overreactions to the promiscuity that has emerged. But it is not the topic that is harmful to Christianity. No, it is the disregard for the topic and even the overreaction to it that is dishonorable to God. The only cure for this epidemic in Christianity and humanity as a whole is to reconcile themselves with God and submit to His word.

If many Christians were honest with themselves and God, it is likely that they would find they view sex incorrectly. Sex is not to be worshipped though it can be a way in which two, committed, married Christians do worship. Worship is praising God for His goodness and giving back to Him that which He has given us. Sex can and should be part of that. But we do not make sex an idol. Sex is not our identity, Christ is. Sex does not meet our true needs, Christ does. Sex does not offer eternal salvation, Christ has.

If Christianity is to make the stand that it clearly needs to make, it will take effort on the part of the individuals. People must be clearly and decisively equipped to defend biblical sexuality by their churches. People must stay accountable by being involved in their churches and small groups. Christians must have faith in God and His goodness to withstand the temptations that Satan uses on others in the forms of media as well as societal sexual promiscuity.

There are certain things that we can know as verifiable fact. America’s view on sexuality is changing. Sex is being viewed more commonly as a non-relational interaction. Sexuality is being redefined not by the Bible but by personal desire. Sex is being seen as the mode of salvation for many, a material means to reach a spiritual place. There are organizations that support, fund, and lobby this agenda in every form of local, state, and national government. As Christians we know those agendas to be false and contrary to God’s desire for biblical marriage.

As Christians, we know that it is not personal desire that defines sexuality but God Himself. We know that sex is a gift from God and that it is a blessing for the context of marriage. The Bible clearly and succinctly illumines proper sexual behavior. Scripture speaks against homosexuality, incest, bestiality, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and it strongly discourages divorce. God alone determines what and why things are good.

Paganism is another tool of Satan. The enemy uses natural desires given to man by God and with his silver-tongued words attempts to lull people into a middle ground. Coercing them to question God. Therefore paganism is evil just as the one who uses it to corrupt is evil. Those that rally behind the standard of paganism view it as freedom, a release from bondage, and necessary to be truly “whole”. I most strongly disagree.

I posit that paganism is a dangerous and debilitating disease. The three primary definitions of disease are as follows: 1) A medical condition that results in pathological symptoms that are not the result of physical injury. 2) A disorder with recognizable signs and often having a known cause. 3) A serious problem in society or with a group of people.

Pagans do not turn to a breakdown in sexual morality due to injury but due to their own wickedness. The signs are open and apparent, a rebellion against the standards that God has placed down in the Bible to protect His creation. And lastly, I cannot think of a more prevalent, pervasive, and prominent problem in society than denying God and seeking to overturn His rule. That is the root of pagan theology. That is the goal of pagan sexuality. That is the disease of paganism.

But unlike all diseases, this one does have a cure. The cure is Jesus. Christ unchanged, unapologetic, and unyielding to sin. Christ is the only hope for pagans in need for true salvation. He is also the reason we can withstand the lies and shifting sexual viewpoints of our society. Christ is the salvation this world desperately needs. In the words of Priscilla Owens:

We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to every land, climb the mountains, cross the waves;
Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command; Jesus saves! Jesus saves!