Well that was the title of an email I got this week. My favourite Bishop in the Anglican church NOT going to heaven. I assumed it was some nutter who thought that God would only let the doctrinally pure into the pearly gates, and that somehow NT Wright’s theology had been found wanting in some way…
But no, apparently NT Wright himself is admitting that he won’t be going to heaven. Is he admitting that he is woolly liberal after all? Perhaps admitting that he doesn’t take the atonement seriously? Or perhaps that Bishops themselves are somehow barred?
No, even more shockingly than that, the Bish says that no Christians will go to heaven and perhaps surprisingly to some of our evangelical brethren that the Bible doesn’t ever promise that we will!!! In fact he says the Bible says that Jesus is coming here to earth, to “join together the heavens and the earth, in an act of new creation”.
Perhaps we have the beginning here of a worldly spirituality?
See the article on N.T. Wright’s new book, Hope, where he expresses these views.
Tags: NT Wright, Surprised by Hope, Heaven, Christians
Welcome back to the bloggerworld Rupert.
I knew I liked NT!
lol, he does like to stir doesn’t he
Rupert, I started this book a few weeks back, it’s very interesting. Not quite sure where it’s going but it’s good to hear someone trying to articulate this further. Maybe he picked up the idea from your posts on this last summer lol………..
Hi Rupert – love the blog headline! One of the things I love about Wright is how is so faithful to the scriptures and not doctrine and dogma. Ever since I became a Christian I realised that biblical texts concerning heaven were actually very scarce, compared to texts about the resurrection. I’m very excited about Wright’s book. Some random thoughts:
One thing I would point out that he doesn’t say that we will be asleep as in “passed out”, only that compared to the resurrection life it will be like sleep.
However at this point I do wonder if his speculation is leading him away from the biblical text (!), unless he is pointing to the use of “sleep” as a metaphor for death for Christians.
A natural reading of the book of Revelation, as Wright himself points out, shows passed-on (bodily dead) saints in heaven participating in worship. In the vision of Revelation these saints are clothed in white robes. Jesus has a resurrection body and is already in the heavenly paradise, yet we have to wait for ours. So do we have bodies (white robes) or not? It seems a case can be made for pre-resurrection bodies in heaven. But if we do have some sort of “body” in heaven, whats the point of the resurrection?
One thing Wright’s message does challenge is the visions of many Christians who claim to visit heaven, where these visions seem to depict heaven as the final resting place.
Its quite ironic that a statement made straight from the bible (the ultimate destiny of Christians is not heaven) can be so controversial.
So I’m not sure about the “sleep” bit, but to me its crystal clear that passed-on saints being gathered into Jesus’ presence in Paradise is a temporary and intermediate measure, with the main emphasis being the resurrection / New Creation.
I guess the main thing is: how does this change the way we act in this world right now?
I just bought the book…looking fwd to reading it!
NT Wright always was one hell of a nice guy!
Hey Rupert…. not going to heaven? ….. perhaps he’s going to Lakeland instead!!!!!