Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Believers and unbelievers have strong views about what happens when you die
For centuries Christians have believed that their destiny after death is heaven,
a spiritual place where they, along with a myriad of angels sing praises to God for eternity,
but is it possible that Christians may have got this part of their faith badly wrong?
Bishop Tom Wright based in the North of England is one of the worlds foremost theologians,
teaching at a range of universities from Oxford to Harvard
And that question of what happens when we die
is one that, he says, Christians have been confused about for centuries
Bishop Wright points to films like the romantic comedy "Four Weddings and a Funeral"
where people invent ideas about the afterlife that are not in scripture
There are a lot of funeral services, sadly, which go that route these days,
saying that "death is nothing at all, I have just slipped away into the next room", and so on
Anyone who has grieved and anyone who has worked with anyone who has grieved knows that it is a lie,
death is a monster, death is horrible.
So now, in a radical departure from traditional belief
Bishop Wright says that Christians are not ultimately destined for heaven
Instead, he says, that at the end of time
God will literally remake our physical bodies and return us to a newly restored planet
Heaven is important, but it is not our final destination
If you want say that when someone dies they go to heaven, fine,
but that is only a temporary holding pattern that is life after death
and what I am much more interested, what the New Testament is much more interested in,
is what I have called life after life-after-death.
So, we have this period of heaven and then at some point, we do not know when,
there is going to be a resurrection
and all things will become new on the earth that is what you are saying?
Heaven and earth joined together in a new reality
And that somehow our identity will continue across that process, we do not know how,
we do not know if we will recognise ourselves, do you think we will?
I think we will recognise ourselves and one another
Do you think you will recognise your relatives?
Oh sure,
Your loved ones?
Yes
But this interpretation is the exact opposite of what many American Christians believe
The 'Left Behind' myth, is just that, it is a myth.
It is an attempt to make sense of some bits of the New Testament
So, you do not believe in the rapture either?
No!
He says that instead of destroying the earth God will somehow
rebuild and restore the universe to its original intended form of physical perfection.
Although 'Surprised by Hope' is about the afterlife, Bishop Wright want Christians to focus on how
their final destination should affect their lives in the here and now.