At last we come to the end of the biblical journey: all creation made new! And the completion of the project of salvation is symbolized by the return of the “tree of life,” indeed a near forest of them now lining the center of the city. (Remember it was access to the tree of life...
Tag: what do christians believe about heaven
Understanding the Bible 54: New Heaven, New Earth!
What is heaven like? For centuries that question conjured within the Christian imagination images of a glorious “elsewhere” – a place very unlike earth where the souls of the saints dwell in a sort of dreamlike bliss. Such a vision was part and parcel of the larger belief that the very goal of “this life”...
Understanding the Bible 29: The Crucifixion – God Loves His Enemies
Why was Jesus crucified? Was the cross an act of God (to satisfy the divine wrath)? Was it simply the inevitable result of Jesus’s challenge to the Sadducees and Pharisees? Was he betrayed by followers who felt he had failed his promises to deliver a political kingdom? Or was this an act of sin itself...