Joy when an earthquake hits?
Author: Rick Tryon
Your Life And What Comes After (29): Starting The End Of The World
Adriana, a football fan, wrote a letter to her friend who also really liked following and watching football games. In the letter, Adriana described a high school football game she went to recently like this:
“It was raining cats and dogs as if the sky had sprung a leak, but the game marched on as if the gridiron were Noah’s front yard. The quarterback was trying to thread the needle through a secondary playing tighter than a drum. Some of the fans were hollering that the offense needed to stop shooting themselves in the foot with their false starts and do a better job of establishing the run.
By the second half, the field had turned into a mud pit worthy of a hog-calling contest, and the players were slipping and sliding like greased lightning. The defense was bringing the house with all-out blitzes on three straight downs. Finally, midway through the fourth quarter, our junior kicker split the uprights. The score held, and that missed point-after attempt in the first quarter didn’t come back to haunt our squad.”
If you aren’t familiar with American football, then Adriana’s report on the game would be kind of confusing to you.
Now just try to imagine how strange and confusing that letter would sound to a young girl in a little fishing village in a faraway country who knew nothing about America, football, or the figures of speech in the English language, like “shooting themselves in the foot.” That young girl would have to see everything through the eyes of the friend Adriana wrote the letter to in order to understand its meaning.
The Book of Revelation
Have you ever heard about the Antichrist, or the mark of the beast, 666? How about stars falling from heaven, earthquakes and wars, and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse at the end of the world?
Those are all images from the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, which is full of strange language, numbers, and symbols that some say foretells what will happen at the end of the world.
Here we are in modern times reading Revelation kind of like the young girl in the faraway fishing village reading Adriana’s letter, not really understanding that “raining cats and dogs” doesn’t mean that thousands of cats and dogs are actually falling out of the sky.
So, what do all of those weird visions and scary beasts and such we hear about in stories about the end of the world actually mean? Is Revelation a play-by-play, exact preview of what’s going to happen to us at the end of the world?
Nah.
Next, we’ll take a closer look at it all.
They Said It: Four Quotes On The Books Of Kings
Four quotes from well-known religious figures about the Old Testament Books of I and II Kings:
Augustine of Hippo
“In the Books of Kings we see how the rise and fall of rulers is governed not by chance but by the providence of God, who exalts the humble and brings down the proud.” —Augustine, reflecting on divine sovereignty in Israel’s monarchy
John Calvin
“Kings were set before the people as mirrors, that in their obedience or rebellion the whole nation might behold the blessing of walking with God or the misery of departing from Him.” —Calvin, commenting on the moral purpose of Israel’s kingship
John Wesley
“The history of the Kings shows that no outward form of religion can preserve a nation when the heart turns from God; holiness must begin within.” —Wesley, emphasizing inward faithfulness over ritual
Matthew Henry
“These books teach us that God’s patience with His people is great, yet His justice will not sleep forever; mercy invites, but judgment warns.” —Henry, summarizing the theological rhythm of Kings
Prosperity Gospel, Or Jesus?
The other day I came across the meme I’m using for this post and it reminded me of a previous series I did on the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ and the ‘Health And Wealth’ theology. So I want to revisit and focus on one of the subjects of that series – Joel Osteen.
Who is Osteen?
Joel Osteen, the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, has an estimated net worth that varies across sources. Some reports suggest his net worth is around $100 million (Celebrity Net Worth), while others estimate it to be approximately $40 million to $60 million (Wikipedia).
Additionally, some sources claim his net worth is as high as $180 million (CA Club India).
Osteen resides in a 17,000-square-foot mansion valued at $10.5 million in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston. He has stated that he does not receive a salary from Lakewood Church, which has an annual budget of $70 million, relying instead on income from his best-selling books and related products (Wikipedia).
But What did Jesus teach?
Well, it seems pretty clear to me—or to anyone else with a lick of common sense—that when Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you…” He didn’t have $10 million mansions, private luxury jets, and massive piles of cash in mind.
But what did He have in mind? Read the context:
Matthew 6:25–34 (NKJV)
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
You don’t need an advanced degree in theology or philosophy to understand the plain words spoken by our Lord here. All you need is basic reading comprehension.
What things “shall be added to you”? Mansions? A fleet of luxury fishing boats? A hoard of gold coins? No—the “things” are the necessities of life, like food and clothing.
Does He teach that you can’t or shouldn’t have more than the necessities? No—but our Lord’s message is clear: the desire for God’s righteousness is muddied and distorted when we focus on the riches of this age instead of His kingdom.
It’s impossible to have total reliance on God when one has lots of cash, cars, jets, and Swiss bank accounts to fall back on—right?
Your Life And What Comes After (28): What The Hell
Have you ever heard anyone say, “If you’re bad, you’re going down there!” as they point to the ground?
The idea that you’ll go “up there” if you’re good and “down there” if you’re bad is not an idea found in the Bible, and is not part of God’s grand plan.
Cartoon devils with pitchforks tossing bad people into flames and movie images of an underground fire pit of hell are pictures and ideas that have been made up by some to scare others for various reasons. Can you think of why some people in the old days, and even now, would do that?
What and Where Is Hell
The Bible does teach that there is some kind of punishment for people, and for evil spiritual forces, who do evil things on purpose and who don’t want or accept God’s love and forgiveness. So, hell is a kind of punishment and judgment for them.
But just like heaven isn’t a location somewhere in the universe but instead the realm where God exists, hell also isn’t a physical location somewhere, but instead a description of God’s judgment on evil.
But punishment and judgment for who, where, and when — and what kind of punishment is it?
Those are questions that people who have studied the Bible, now and in the past, have had very different answers for.
Some believe that everyone who is bad or doesn’t accept God’s forgiveness goes to hell when they die to burn forever, and those who are good and accept God’s forgiveness go to heaven to play harps and sing praises forever. I don’t believe that either of those ideas is what the Bible teaches.
Fear Not
The Bible teaches that God’s plan includes a day and time when God will raise all people from the dead, and then comes the judgment. If we have put our faith in Jesus Christ, then we know that when that day comes, He has taken any punishment or judgment we may deserve on Himself. We are forgiven and cleared for takeoff into eternal life with our Savior and with our Heavenly Father.
Over and over in God’s Word, He encourages His people to “fear not” or “don’t be afraid.” About 140 times, in fact. At least six times in the Bible, it was the first thing angels said when they appeared to people.
When it comes to the topic of hell, we should all focus on the “fear not” message rather than the “be afraid of hell, you sinner” message.
What’s Next?
As I said a little bit ago, God’s plan includes a day and time when God will raise all people from the dead. Next, we’ll be talking about what happens during that day and time, and what it means for you and me.
Your Life And What Comes After (27): Where Is Heaven?
Adriana pressed her forehead gently against the cool windowpane, watching the trees sway and dance as if whispering secrets to one another. She could see the branches bend, the leaves shimmer, and the grass ripple in soft waves, yet the wind itself remained invisible—always present, always felt, but never seen. As she watched the world move without a visible mover, she wondered how something so real could hide so completely, as if the wind were a shy friend who preferred to speak through the trees rather than show its face.
In the Bible, ‘heaven‘ often simply means the spiritual realm where God lives, not an actual place up in the clouds with angels, pearly gates, and such.
But where is that place where God lives actually located? I like the way N. T. Wright, a Bible teacher, puts it:
‘Heaven’ and ‘earth’, as I have often said, are not, in biblical theology, separated a great gulf, as they are in much popular imagination. ‘Heaven’, God’s sphere of reality, is right here close beside us, intersecting with our ordinary reality. It is not so much like a door opening high up in the sky, far away. It is more like a door opening right in front of us where before we could only this room, this field, this street. Suddenly, there is an opening leading into a different world…
N.T. Wright – Revelation For Everyone
Going to Heaven?
Did you know that the Bible never uses the phrases “go to heaven” or “going to heaven” to describe what happens to people when they die? That’s because heaven isn’t a place where people are going someday; it’s a place where God is right now.
Heaven isn’t a place that we go as a reward for being good, like Disneyland. It’s not a location on a map, like Chicago or New York, that we can find directions to or roads that take us there.
So, where is that place where God lives? Well, it’s all around us. It’s next to us, above us, and below us. God lives in the unseen places that surround and fill everything.
Like the wind all around us that we can’t see, yet moving the things that we can see.
We’ve talked about heaven quite a bit; next, we’ll take a little tour of how we should think about hell. Ooooohhhhhh!
Two Questions About God’s Foreknowledge
Is biblical prophecy based on God’s meticulous foreknowledge, or on His power and ability to bend the course of history to His will and grand plan?
If God has predestined everything to happen exactly as it has and will happen, even down to the most minute molecular phenomena, then aren’t we essentially living in a kind of simulation, as some theorists have suggested?
Your Life And What Comes After (26): What Is Heaven?
Where exactly is heaven? Is it up in the clouds? In outer space? On another planet, or in a galaxy far away?
Before we can understand where heaven is, we should first know what heaven is. When heaven is mentioned in the Bible, it can either mean any place above the ground or it can mean the realm in which God lives.
Anywhere Above the Ground
Genesis 1:20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
The birds we often see flying above us are in heaven, so to speak.
The stars, clouds, and planets are also above the ground, and there are many verses in the Bible that talk about those things being in the heavens.
Where God Lives
Matthew 6:9
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
This verse says that our Father, God, is in heaven. Does that mean He’s flying around with the birds that are in heaven? No, of course not.
Here the Bible is talking about a different kind of heaven. This heaven is the realm where God lives—invisible to our eyes, yet very real and near.
Acts 17:27-28
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
The main idea about heaven that we should understand is that it is not a place up in the clouds where we go someday after we die to get wings and play harps if we’re good in this life.
Heaven is a place we can go to now—and every day—in prayer, to be in the presence of our Father, God.
Are You A ‘Non’?
Anyone who knows even a little bit about the Bible and the history of Christianity knows that it was the religious leaders of the time, along with their secular allies, that were responsible for the killing of the prophets, the reformers, and even the Son of God himself, Yeshua our Messiah.
The religious leaders. The wolves in sheep’s clothing. The whited sepulchers. The vipers. The religious leaders.
There is no new thing under the sun. Fallen human nature and the rot of man-made religion hasn’t changed since they murdered the prophets, burned the ‘heretics’, and tortured and crucified our Lord.
That is part of the reason why I do not subscribe to a modern denominational creed of set of doctrines. I don’t think that modern day Evangelicals, or Baptists, or Lutherans, or Catholics are going to burn anyone in the town square – it’s just that I don’t trust organized religion.
I’m non-denominational. I’m a ‘Non’. And there are a lot of others just like me, in fact more and more folks are fleeing traditional ‘churchianity’ every day. Why? More on that in future posts.
Here’s my one and only creed, which I’m happy share with my brothers and sisters in The Fellowship of the Nons:
Creed of the Fellowship of the Nons
Our living God is a loving God and the Bible is His revealed word and will.
Our hope and eternal salvation relies entirely on the work of God’s only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
A huge part of the purpose and reason for the Bible Rebel blog is stated in our mission:
“To examine and question the assumptions of religious tradition and provide a resource for information and inspiration for people of faith who have become dissatisfied with an increasingly lifeless and empty ‘churchianity’.”
What The Hell: Universal Salvation
Bible Rebel is exploring the three major Christian doctrines concerning the theology of hell. Below are some quotes from three prominent theologians/scholars who hold the universal salvation view.
Links to the other views on Bible Rebel
Annihilationism (often called “conditional immortality”)
Infernalism (eternal conscious torment)
David Bentley Hart (Eastern Orthodox theologian)
“If God is the good creator of all, then in the end all shall return to Him—every last rational soul.” —from That All Shall Be Saved (2019)
Hart argues that God’s goodness, freedom, and victory in Christ logically require the ultimate restoration of all people.
J. A. T. Robinson (Anglican bishop and New Testament scholar)
“The Christian faith is universalist in its logic… God’s purpose is the reconciliation of all, and nothing less.” —from In the End, God… (1950)
Robinson was one of the first major 20th‑century Anglican voices to articulate universal reconciliation as the natural conclusion of the gospel.
Thomas Talbott (Christian philosopher)
“If God truly wills the salvation of all and if nothing can finally defeat His redemptive love, then universal reconciliation follows.” —from The Inescapable Love of God (1999)
Talbott’s work is foundational in modern Christian universalism, arguing from Scripture, logic, and the character of God.