"What is good and right about this world? What is good and right about me?"
"What is wrong with the world? What is wrong with me?"
It is important to recognize that Christianity has much to say about all these questions. It is also crucial that we hold all these things-- the positive and the negative-- together. If we don't embrace both "created good" and "under the curse" as regards creation as a whole, and both "created in the image of God" and "fallen in sin" as regards humans, then we will either see no need for the redemption, or no point in the resurrection and restoration of all things.
Here are some comments to this effect from Dr. Michael E. Wittmer, who is the author of Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough and Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God. In the clip he discusses what he believes is the next challenge for theologians. This certainly is true to some degree because it is an ongoing challenge for all believers to hold these two truths together.
3 comments:
So, do you have a copy of this book that is lend-able? This intrigues me, but I keep sensing warning flags. Why do you suppose that is?
Actually, I don't, but I have appreciated what I've read from interviews with him and excerpts from the book. While I can't endorse the books in that sense, I believe I agree with his main ideas of each.
I would, however, quibble a bit with his "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" title. I get the pop culture reference and all that, and I think he's trying to emphasize that we're more than just saved souls waiting for heaven, but it has the potential of overswinging the pendulum. True, we should use our time here to live and serve, doing good works for God's glory; however, we always have to maintain the belief that what we are experiencing here and now is just a precursor to what is yet to come. The problem that he is trying to correct is that now doesn't matter as long as you know where your eternal destiny is.
Does that address your misgivings?
Yes, I think it does. I believe my main concern was, too, with the title, but I think that is a knee-jerk reaction to some Rob Bell nonsense that I have recently been exposed to.
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