Friday, June 22, 2007

eschatology and restoration

only two days away from my WaSaBI seminar on the above-mentioned topic, subtitled, is it right to say "the Christian hope is to go to heaven when we die"?

my plan is as follows:
  • why do we think what we think?
    and take a look at world histories, and how we get to where we seem to have got to

  • what actually happens when we die?
    we can think thru matrices(!) and a few passages that talk about the now and the not yet

  • what will be the characteristics of the new heavens and new earth?
    looking at a few passages, working out what will be continuous, where the discontinuity is

  • what is God's goal for creation?
    restoration

  • if we live now for the future because of the past, how does our thinking about the future affect how we live now?


  • it will be nice to get all this stuff out that has been swinging around in the monkey-bars of my head for so long.
    and i hope it should be fun too!
    Sunday 24th June, 2:30-4:00pm, Wild St Church Hall, Maroubra

    2 comments:

    travelsizedmay said...

    the Christian hope is to be where God is and to be kept there through his grace.

    i was thinking about new heavens and new earth last night, and then this morning, i realised that there are much more important things for me to be worried about and to figure out. like my sin on earth now, and repenting and trusting God.

    but definitely, your last point is most important out of the rest. how does what we know about the future change what we do now.

    but i think also, how does what we know about the past. that jesus christ was perfect, and knew no sin and yet became sin for us, a curse for us, and died so that God's wrath might be satisfied.

    and the fact that we can see this, and if we are now moved by the holy spirit, to actually see the meaning of this. i think that has much bigger implications.

    but yeah, i would be curious to see what happens (have my own church to go to though :P) cause my nonchristian friend asked me that question last session.

    psychodougie said...

    thanks may.
    one of the points that i really wanted to get to with the last point, was your point - as God's purpose in "destroying" this earth, in renewing it, is that sin might be expunged.
    we should thus have a right contempt for sin, as we understand how utterly opposed to it God it, that he will remove all trace of it from his new creation.