The Resurrection

Hey everyone. Sorry for not posting in such a long time. I've got a lot on my mind these days, but haven't had anything particularly earth-shattering to share with the world.

However, I am finishing up a book by N.T. Wright called, "Surprised by Hope". I intend to return in another blog and share some additional thoughts about this book. There's A LOT packed into this book. The subtitle reads: "Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church." Yeah. Only N.T. Wright could rethink this stuff in 300 pages. Anyway, for all you Christians out there who (like me just a few years ago) think that heaven is the last stop--you're wrong! Go get this book and work (it will be work) your way through it.

Here's a sample, and, like I said, I'll come back later and give you a little more:

"...the use of the word heaven to denote the ultimate goal of the redeemed, though of course hugely popularized by medieval and subsequent piety, is severely misleading and does not begin to do justice to the Christian hope. I am repeatedly frustrated by how hard it is to get this point through the thick wall of traditional thought and language that most Christians put up. The ultimate destination is (once more) not "going to heaven when you die" but being bodily raised into the transformed, glorious likeness of Jesus Christ. (The point of all this is not, of course, merely our own happy future, important though that is, but the glory of God as we come fully to reflect his image.) Thus, if we want to speak of "going to heaven when we die," we should be clear that this represents the first, and far less important, stage of a two-stage process. Resurrection isn't life after death; it is life after life after death." (Wright, N.T. "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church". New York, NY: Harper Collings Publishers, 2008.)