Love Truth Blog

Heaven is for Real , a movie about four-year old Colton Burpo’s near death experience (NDE), has hit the theaters, but I just cannot bring myself seeing it. I would even advise against others seeing it. The reason is that I am convinced that Colton’s story offers nothing of value for Christian faith and practice. I say this because a few years back I had reviewed the book the movie was based, which bears the same title, and was written by Colton’s father Todd along with Lynn Vincent [1]. I found there were some peculiar elements to Colton’s NDE, like Jesus’ rainbow colored horse. There were also some unbiblical elements. For example, Colton says everyone in heaven’s got wings save Jesus, but the Bible says the believer’s resurrection is patterned after Christ (Rom. 5:12-21; Cor. 15:20-28). Colton says the resurrection is only for believers but Jesus says all will experience either the resurrection to life or the resurrection to judgment (John 5:28-29). Colton sees the heavenly th...

There are many instances where the church loses sense of her ethos and follows after the vanities of a sinful and fallen world. Even the very sacred message of salvation is not immune to corruption of self-righteousness. Some get caught up into the game of “we” vs. “they” or the “in” vs. the “out” group. They imagine a list of “dos” and “don’ts,” and they keep to that imaginary list. Like “don’t smoke,” “don’t chew,” and “do go with girls that do.” They even convince themselves that is what the “Christian” life is all about. Yet, God has something else in mind. Many in first century Israel yearned for God to send a Messiah who would lead them into an end time battle that would destroy all their enemies, namely the Romans, and establish the eschatological kingdom they envisaged. God had something better in mind, and the everlasting kingdom that He intended would begin with His Son upon the cross. The eternal life Jesus Christ offered would be on nobody else’s terms save God’s alone....

Is Mahatma Gandhi in hell? A while back I watched this YouTube video with Mars Hill Michigan pastor Rob Bell asking this very question. It was a little teaser for his book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived . It was certainly a provocative piece, and this preacher with rock star status on the liberal lane of the emergent church highway 1 really got the social media pages buzzing with accusations about him slipping into universalism. After reading the book, my take is that Bell really finds the Christian doctrine of saints being resurrected to eternal life and sinners to eternal condemnation to be “misguided and toxic” (vii). He indeed desires readers to examine their concept of heaven and hell with the intent to open doorways into other ways of understanding the doctrine of hell asides eternal conscious punishment, to understand that heaven and hell can be experienced in the present as well as in the future, and to be open to the ideas th...

Matthew 5:3-10: Blessed are the poor in spirit,        for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,        for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle,       for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,      for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful,      for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,      for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,     for they shall be called sons of God. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount begins with a group of beatitudes, which describe the qualities of heavenly people. To those who have dwelt in the kingdom of darkness, and adapted to its ways, the message of Christ is a radical otherworldly idea. Yet, the Lord wants to communicate that in the heavenly kingdom citizen...