{"id":68314,"date":"2018-02-17T12:07:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T17:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68314"},"modified":"2018-02-17T12:09:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T17:09:31","slug":"ct-j-todd-billings-the-new-view-of-heaven-is-too-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68314","title":{"rendered":"(CT) J Todd Billings–The New View of Heaven Is Too Small"},"content":{"rendered":"
Temple<\/em>: We come to Christ, the Temple, the dwelling place of God, as people whose true identity is to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Personally and corporately, we receive atoning forgiveness and new life from Christ, the High Priest. We also feed upon Christ as the manna in the wilderness\u2014manna that provided a foretaste of the promised land of milk and honey and was placed in the Temple\u2019s Holy of Holies.<\/div>\n
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Marital Fellowship:\u00a0<\/em>We celebrate together at the Table in joyful yet aching anticipation of the wedding feast to come. In the Old and New Testaments, the Lord speaks of his people as his spouse, and Revelation speaks of the coming \u201cwedding feast of the Lamb.\u201d This is not just an abstraction, either now or in the age to come. As we celebrate the Supper now, we celebrate a foretaste of a great feast that includes table fellowship with peoples of all nations and cultures and ethnicities. We\u2019re brought together as a people who praise and delight in our life-giving spouse and lover, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

These concrete \u201cinstruments\u201d of the Spirit do not give us a to-do list of tasks\u2014for now or for the age to come. To the contrary, through the Word and Sacraments, the Spirit does something greater than disclosing a list of tasks: the Spirit reveals our true and future identity in Christ, which even death itself cannot sever.<\/p>\n

Thus, I\u2019m left with a conclusion that is unfashionable at the moment, against the grain of the cottage industry of recent evangelical books: that it\u2019s basically right to see worship as central to the \u201cpurpose\u201d of the eschaton<\/strong>. By this, I don\u2019t mean that hitting a high C in singing or mastering our footwork in the worship-dance will be central. Rather, corporate worship is an appropriate image for our final end because the Triune God and his glory will be the central actors in the age to come. Our lives will be lived only in him, always pointing beyond themselves to the Lord of life; we won\u2019t be defined by what we do.<\/p>\n

The central question is not what we will do in heaven, but what drama will we be incorporated into?…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read it all<\/a> (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Temple: We come to Christ, the Temple, the dwelling place of God, as people whose true identity is to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Personally and corporately, we receive atoning forgiveness and new life from Christ, the High Priest.…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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