Foundations 81 (Autumn 2021)

Issue 81 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available (here in its entirety as a pdf), which includes the below essays which were first presented as papers at Affinity’s 2021 theological study conference on biblical eschatology. The summaries are take from Donald John MacLean’s editorial.

Donald John MacLean

Editorial

Rupert Bentley-Taylor

The Hopes and Fears of all the Years: The Future of the Church in this Present Age

The first paper, from Rupert Bentley-Taylor, seeks to equip believers to live in the “last days” from the perspective of “optimistic amillennialism”. We are reminded that as we await Christ’s return that victory is assured, that the preaching of the gospel to all nations is the great activity of the last days, that Satan is active seeking to deceive and persecute, that the antichrist will emerge, that we are to be watchful and that there is glory ahead of us.

Paul Yeulett

“With Me in Paradise” – Questions About the So-Called “Intermediate State”

In the second paper Paul Yeulett seeks to cover the topic, “Questions About the So-Called ‘Intermediate State’: Is it Biblical and it is Pastorally Helpful?” Paul argues that for believers the “intermediate state is such that the souls of believers, immediately after death, go to be ‘forever with the Lord’, with the risen and exalted Christ himself, which Paul declared to be ‘far better’ (Phil 1:23)”. After an interesting historical overview, Paul argues persuasively from scripture for his position.

Michael Horton

The End is Not the Beginning... In Fact, Not Even the End

Michael Horton of Westminster Seminary California provides the third paper which gives us an “investigation into what the Early Church Fathers, especially Irenaeus and Origen, understood about the human body, soul and spirit, especially in the light of Christ’s ascension and the eternal state.” Aside from the historical theology, and answers to questions like “So, will there be hairdressers in heaven?” we are treated to a rich biblical theological study of Psalm 68 in the light of its citation in Ephesians 4.

Gareth Burke

All Israel will be Saved: The Future of “Israel” with particular reference to Romans 11:26a

The fourth paper covers the much-debated question of the Pauline references to the future of Israel in Romans 11… After providing an outline of Paul’s teaching in Romans through to the end of chapter 11 we are given an exegesis of Rom 11:25-27, and in particular v26a, “And in this way all Israel will be saved.” The paper supports the exegetical position of John Murray that this verse (indeed Romans 11 more generally) teaches a future conversion of national Israel.

Paul Mallard 

The Business of Heaven

The fifth, and final, paper from Paul Mallard provides us with biblical and pastoral reflections on the nature and character of the world to come. In this paper we are treated to discussion of the location of the heavenly life, the nature and the activities of the heavenly life, what the Bible sees as the primary business of heaven (the enjoyment of God) and the practical and pastoral implications of these topics.

Book Reviews

9Marks Journal (December 2020) on Heaven

The latest issue of the 9Marks Journal, available from here in various formats, looks at ‘Heaven: Rejoicing in Future Glory’.

In the Editorial Note, Jonathan Leeman writes:

‘There’s been a lot of talk about politics and pandemics lately. These are important things to talk about. Disciples of Jesus should care about justice in this world and about physical well-being […]

‘Still, unless the saints continually focus the eyes of their hearts on the eternal, we will wrongly prioritize the temporal over the eternal, what we can see over what we cannot see – our present cities over the city whose architect and builder is God (Heb. 11:10).

‘Therefore, as we come to the close of 2020, with all its important talk about politics and pandemics, 9Marks wants to help all of us once again cast our eyes toward the eternal – toward heaven. After a tough year like this one, we need to recalibrate. We need reminding of what’s of first importance, lest we lose our way […]

‘The world yanks our eyes to focus only on right now. But we must always fight to look toward eternity. Only then will politics and pandemics, work and play, the world or life or death or the present or the future, assume their right places (see 1 Cor. 3:22).’

The Bible Project on Genesis 1-11 and Heaven and Earth

This fairly new project looks like it could be excellent.

A small team is aiming to put together a series of short videos introducing the structure and themes of biblical books and tracing some major themes through the entire Bible.

They’re seeking to make these videos and supporting study guides available for free – although they’re asking for donations in order to do so.

Currently available is a video on Genesis 1-11 and another on the theme of heaven and earth in Scripture, lasting about 6 minutes each, and well worth checking out.

Mission Catalyst Issue 1 (2013)

The latest issue of Mission Catalyst from BMS World Mission is available online here. This one contains a collection of pieces by David Kerrigan, Tom Wright, John Polkinghorne, and others devoted to the question ‘What happens when we die?’

Back issues of Mission Catalyst can be downloaded from the archive.

Evangelical Alliance UK on Rob Bell’s Love Wins

Evangelical Alliance has posted a statement along with a review (by Derek Tidball) of Rob Bell’s recent book, Love Wins.

Michael Horton on the The Last Battle and Life Everlasting

I’ve already posted a few times on Michael Horton’s The Christian Faith; I’m working my way through it slowly, enjoying it, and may post periodically on it.

I’m mentioning it again only because, with all the brouhaha about Rob Bell’s latest book – Love Wins – Zondervan has allowed White Horse Inn to make available a pdf of chapter 29 of Horton’s volume, ‘The Last Battle and Life Everlasting’.

But the real treat is that the Introduction to the volume is also bundled in with the pdf. It’s here that Horton traces out the movement from Drama to Doctrine to Doxology to Discipleship.

The Gospel Coalition Booklets

I’ve been looking forward to the publication of the Gospel Coalition Booklets, edited by D.A. Carson and Tim Keller.

Eight have been promised on a variety of topics:

• Gospel-Centered Ministry (D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller)

• Creation (Andrew M. Davis)

• The Holy Spirit (Kevin L. DeYoung)

• The Restoration of All Things (Sam Storms)

• The Church: God’s New People (Timothy Savage)

• What Is the Gospel? (Bryan Chapell)

• Can We Know the Truth? (Richard D. Phillips)

• The Plan (Colin S. Smith)

The one by Sam Storms – on the restoration of all things – has kindly been made available as a pdf here.

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (49/50) – A World Remade

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the forty-ninth of the fifty emails, this one written by Margaret Killingray.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.’
Revelation 21:1-3

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating: for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy and its people as a delight.
Isaiah 65:17-18

A new creation, redeemed, renewed – not just heaven, ‘above the bright blue sky’, but heaven and earth combined, fused, the two dimensions of reality brought together in a final triumphant rebirth, a new creation that began with the resurrection. The very physicality of Jesus’ resurrection points us to the physicality of the new creation – because we believe in his resurrection, we also believe that we too will know ‘the resurrection of the body’ in the new heaven and the new earth. An earth purged of all evil, put right, glorified as Jesus was glorified at the transfiguration, washed clean of dirt and pollution, where God ‘will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more’ (Revelation 21:4). ‘No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime’ (Isaiah 65:20).

All that is beautiful and good will survive the purging fire of judgment – leaving a place we will know and people we will recognise, just as the disciples recognised Jesus, not always straightaway, but always in a burst of delight.

As sleep that follows fever,
As gold instead of grey,
As freedom after bondage,
As sunrise to the day;
As home to the traveller
And all he longs to see,
So is my Lord,
My living Lord,
So is my Lord to me.

Timothy Dudley-Smith wrote these words as a love song to the Lord that we can sing today. But they could equally well describe how it will be, when we are there with him in his new, fresh creation at the end of time. This is the sure and certain hope that is motivating us to bring the love, justice and joy of his kingdom into our world today.

Margaret Killingray

For further reflection and action:

1. After a long hard winter in northern parts of the world, the signs of spring delight the heart – the songs of busy birds, the flowering of early bulbs, and the growing warmth of the sun. Rejoice in it all, and know that the Lord, who filled this damaged and troubled world with such beauty and joy in creation, will recreate a new world both reassuringly familiar and astonishingly different.

2. The Song of Songs is, for many people, a surprising book to find in the Bible – a lyrical song in praise of human love, very physical, very sexual, with its love analogies drawn from the natural world around them, wine and perfume, gold and silver, springtime and blossom, leaping gazelles. Here again the Bible is giving us pointers, in our experience of human love and longing, to the redeemed and perfect creation God has prepared for those who love him. Read it and praise him.

3. This world will be purged in the fires of judgment. The Bible speaks of this from Genesis to Revelation. The vision of a new heaven and a new earth should bring us to our knees before the cross, the terrible cost of full redemption.