What we celebrate every Easter is not just the idea that Jesus died and went to Heaven—that’s not what resurrection is. Resurrection is the putting on of a new body that’s fit for the Kingdom of Heaven which God will one day establish on Earth when Jesus returns. And the Bible has a lot more…
Tag: Hell
Funeral Prayer
I’ve struggled for sometime to find the right balance in leading a funeral, because not everyone I’m going to help bury is going to be a Christian. When they are, it’s really pretty easy—their life has given me license to talk about the thing they cared about most: Jesus. But when they’re not, it can…
Hell Wasn’t Made for Humanity
We often struggle with the idea of Hell because we misunderstand its purpose. We act as though God has made a special place for humans to suffer, when in fact, Hell was made for rebellious spiritual beings. When Jesus separates the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25:41, He sentences the goats (a metaphor for…
Resurrection Was a Hot Topic in Jesus’ Day
For the modern day Christian, resurrection is a basic principle of belief, but in Jesus’ time it was a hot topic, intensely debated between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Believe it or not, there is almost no reference to the idea of resurrection in the Old Testament. The early Hebrews seemed to teach that everyone…
