Are our Pets in Heaven?
June 4, 2007
Yesterday we made the decision to put our dear dog Mashie "to sleep". A wonderful euphemism for her death. Mashie has been a special part of our family for the last 12 years. She had been declining in health the last couple of months and yesterday she took a dramatic turn for the worst. We still went to church (although we skipped Sunday School), when we came home she was still ailing, and still dying. We took her to the Vet for an emergency visit. It turned out she had a tumor in her abdomen and it was hemorrhaging - she would not make it through the night.
My son (15 years old) spoke to Mashie by cellphone and told her he loved her. We kissed and hugged her and said our goodbyes. Then we wondered whether we would see her and her brother (Niblick - gone 2 years now) in heaven.
Today I saw this quote from N.T. Wright (HT: JOLLYBLOGGER)
This brings me to 'heaven'. Yes, in the New Testament of course there is the hope for being 'with Christ, which is far better' (Philippians 1.26). But have you not noticed that the New Testament hardly ever talks about 'going to heaven', and certainly never as the ultimate destiny of God's people. The ultimate destiny, as Revelation 21 makes abundantly clear, is the 'new heavens and new earth', for which we will need resurrection bodies. Please, please, study what the Bible actually says. When Jesus talks in John 14 of going to prepare a place for us, the word he uses is the Greek word mone, which isn't a final dwelling place but a temporary place where you stay and are refreshed before continuing on your journey. The point about Jesus being our hope is that he will come again from heaven to change this world, and our bodies, so that the prayer he taught us to pray will come true at last: thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as in heaven. That is God's will; that is why Jesus came; that is our final hope. Of course, Christians who die before that time go to be with him in heaven until the time when the whole creation is redeemed (Romans 8.18-27 — have you studied that recently?). That isn't a 'symbolic meaning', and I confess I don't know why you should think it does.
The problem is, I think, that there are some Christians who have not been taught what the Bible actually teaches about the redemption of the whole creation. The Bible doesn't say that the creation — including earth — is wicked and that we have to be rescued from it. What is wicked, and what we need rescuing from, is sin, which brings death, which is the denial of the good creation. When we say the creation is wicked we are colluding with death. Sadly, some Christians seem to think they have to say that.
I gain hope from thinking on the new heaven and the new earth. A physical place with our incarnate Lord. In this physical place, where the whole of creation is redeemed, surely there must be redeemed animals - and than surely redeemed pets?
Won't that be the greatest joy - to see all our loved ones, including our pets? Of course, we will not be married, nor will be masters of our pets - but maybe, just maybe we will see them romping in fields of green - as the whole creation worships God.
Narrative wins (most of the time)
June 1, 2007
Most of my friends don't have a clue what the Emerging/Emergent Church movement is - but they do share some of the same concerns that the Emerging church has with Reformed/Presuppostional Theology. My friends (and I) like narrative. As Paul Helm points out:
What happens is that in this effort to combine a narrative and a logical approach to theology the narrative approach invariably wins out. Stories are so much more fun than logical deductions and discriminations.
Donald Miller, known for his lived or hated "Blue Like Jazz", and his influence in the Emerging Church movement says in this month's issue of Christianity Today:
"Truth is rooted in story, not in rational systems. The Christian mission is not well served when we speak in terms of spiritual laws or rational formulas. Propositional truths, when extracted from a narrative context, lack meaning. "The chief role of a Christian," he says, "is to tell a better story."
The tension between the two is magnified on both sides - presuppositional apologetics vs. emerging metanarratives. I like Helm's piece because it highlights the strength of Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology.
Yes, I would agree that great minds like Helm and even Miller (in very different ways) probably can't hold the tension between the two. Me, I like my Biblical Theology with a strong dose of Systematics thrown in - my small mind has no problem holding the two as compatible.
Image Pressure
June 1, 2007
Pressure on having the “look” faces both men and women. It's also prominent in the Christian Music industry - read this heart-wrenching exchange between Christian music artists called Coming Clean. Here is an excerpt:
Awhile back, I asked CCM if I could write this story. I felt…still feel…uneasy about that photo shoot princess moment. Not because there’s anything wrong with feeling momentarily flawless…but because that photo and many like it, in no way represent my real life. I feel rather nauseous when I consider the young girl who sees that photo and has no idea that it took 5 hours and an entire team of makeup artists and stylists to make me look like a princess. She also has no idea that even after all that, somebody sat at a computer (with my enthusiastic blessing) and point and clicked away my acne scars, my 35 year old wrinkles and the roll of flesh around my middle that makes me look like I am perpetually stuck in my 2nd trimester.
This doesn't affect women alone, note what Chris Tomlin says at the end of the article.
Want to read more about doctored magazine covers - Check this out - it will make you feel better.
The June/July issue of Men's Fitness enhanced Andy Roddick's bicep muscles -- so much so that Roddick said he stopped in his tracks when he saw the cover while walking through the airport. The tennis star dubbed the hulking masses “22-inch guns” and wrote on his blog, “If you can manage to stop laughing at the cover long enough, check out the article inside.”
