Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world

The following quote is written by N. T. Wright from an article entitled The Road to New Creation:

"God is not going to abolish the universe of space, time and matter; he is going to renew it, to restore it, to fill it with new joy and purpose and delight, to take from it all that has corrupted it. ‘The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom, and rejoice with joy and singing; the desert shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.’ The last book of the Bible ends, not with the company of the saved being taken up into heaven, but with the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, resulting in God’s new creation, new heavens and new earth, in which everything that has been true, lovely, and of good report will be vindicated, enhanced, set free from all pain and sorrow. God himself, it says, will wipe away all tears from all eyes. One of the great difficulties in preaching the gospel in our days is that everyone assumes that the name of the game is, ultimately, to ‘go to heaven when you die’, as though that were the last act in the drama... Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world; God will make new heavens and new earth, and give us new bodies to live and work and take delight in his new creation. And the ‘good news’ of the Christian gospel is that this new world, this new creation, has already begun: it began when Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead on Easter morning, having faced and beaten the double enemy, sin and death, that has corrupted and defaced God’s lovely creation"

Nice News - George Grant

"People want nice news not Good News."

~ George Grant

Looking Back - B. B. Warfield

"There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ's sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His 'blood and righteousness' alone that we can rest."

~ B.B. Warfield, Works Vol. 7

Arthur W. Pink on False Prophets

“False prophets are to be found in the circles of the most orthodox, and they pretend to have a fervent love for souls, yet they fatally delude multitudes concerning the way of salvation. The pulpit, platform, and pamphlet hucksters have wantonly lowered the standard of divine holiness and so adulterated the Gospel in order to make it palatable to the carnal mind.”

“Any preacher who rejects God’s law, who denies repentance to be a condition of salvation, who assures the giddy and godless that they are loved by God, who declares that saving faith is nothing more than an act of the will which every person has the power to perform is a false prophet and should be shunned as a deadly plague”

Bring thy lust to the gospel - John Owen

"Bring thy lust to the gospel,—not for relief, but for farther conviction of its guilt; look on Him whom thou hast pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul, "What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, that the blessed Spirit hath chosen to dwell in? And can I keep myself out of the dust? What can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any boldness before him? Do I account communion with him of so little value, that for this vile lust's sake I have scarce left him any room in my heart? How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation? In the meantime, what shall I say to the Lord? Love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation,—I have despised them all, and esteemed them as a thing of nought, that I might harbour a lust in my heart. Have I obtained a view of God's fatherly countenance, that I might behold his face and provoke him to his face? Was my soul washed, that room might be made for new defilements? Shall I endeavour to disappoint the end of the death of Christ? Shall I daily grieve that Spirit whereby I am sealed to the day of redemption?" Entertain thy conscience daily with this treaty. See if it can stand before this aggravation of its guilt. If this make it not sink in some measure and melt, I fear thy case is dangerous."

~ John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

James White - Closing Statement: Debate on Calvinism

T4G 08 Report

Well, the Together for the Gospel conference was great. Many inspiring and informative messages were given. God, along with the gospel, was highly exalted. You can download all the messages and the panel discussions for free HERE. We came home with fifteen new books that they gave us for free. Every time we sat at our chair their would be 3 or 4 more books for us.

Someone put together this little video with short audio clips and pictures from all the messages:

The Great Christian Mask Deception

Although this seems obvious, I think I will state it anyway: the worst kind of deception is the one that is very deceptive. The worst kind of fake Rolex watch, when it comes to being tricked into buying one, is the one that looks the most like a Rolex watch. The most dangerous kind of counterfeit hundred dollar bill is the kind that looks the most real. The most dangerous kind of self-focus is the kind that hides behind the mask of religious terminology and artificial piety. Sometimes we wear the mask so long that we begin to believe it's actually real. We, following our heart, convince ourselves that our Christianeese and Jesus Jargon actually makes us legit. I guess Jeremiah was right when he said the "heart is deceitful above all things" (Jer 17:9)

Vinoth Ramachandra wrote this: "The Good News is packaged and marketed (using, uncritically, all the techniques of modern advertising) as a religious product offering 'peace of mind', 'how to get to heaven', 'health and prosperity', 'inner healing', 'the answer to all your problems' etc. What is promoted as 'faith in God' often turns out, on closer inspection, to be a means of obtaining emotional security or material blessing in this life and an insurance policy for the next. This kind of preaching leaves the status quo untouched... This kind of "gospel" is essentially escapist, the direct descendant of the pseudo-gospels of the false prophets of the Old Testament. It is simply a religious image of the secular consumerist culture in which modern men and women live."

If you "accepted" Jesus primarily based on the lie that He would fix your relationships, remove your problems, guarantee your promotion, and promise you "your best life now" than all you have accepted was self-promotion and self-glory. There are many in the church who have been given an extremely comfortable sheep costume and taught how to ba-aa-aa very well. Even the apostle Paul, in his day, said this: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel." (Gal 1:1-7). Paul is so agitated because the kingdom of self is the most dangerous, deceptive and destructive when it cloaks itself with the kingdom of God.

As Paul David Tripp puts it: "It is quite possible for you to be convinced that you are living for the transcendent glories of the kingdom of God when you are, in fact, living for yourself... Selfishness is its most dangerous when it masquerades as service. Self-focus is most powerful when it dons the costume of love. Earthly treasures are most seductive when they take on the appearance of spiritual need. Idols do their nastiest work when they wear the latex mask of God." Is the gospel an end for you or a means to an end? Are you excited about the gospel or just the "stuff" that you think it will give you?

Looking Back - Matthew Henry

I reckon him a Christian indeed who is not ashamed of the Gospel or a shame to it."

~ Matthew Henry

Why did God decide to save us through faith? (John Piper)

Looking Back - Augustine

"If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself."

~ Augustine