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Surprised by Hope: #5

surprisedbyhopeIn Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, N. T. Wright challenges us to rethink our notions of heaven and the implications of the doctrine of heaven for the entire Christian faith.

In Chapter Five Wright asks what God’s purpose for creation is and how the resurrection fits into that purpose.  First, he lays out two popular options for answer the question about purpose.

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Acts of God (Acts 2 The Fullness of the Church): #4

Using Jaroslav Pelikan’s commentary on Actsin the Brazos Theological Commentary set, this series of short posts will explore some of the 84 significant theological issues raised by Luke in Acts and identified by Pelikan.

A 3rd issue comes to light in Acts 2:1: 1And in the day of the Pentecost being fulfilled, they were all with one accord at the same place, (Young’s Literal Translation).  Pelikan draws attention to the literal translation of Luke’s word, especially the word “fulfilled” or “fullness” which “is an attempt to convey an emphasis on the ‘fulness’ of the Holy Spirit…”  We find a similar use of language in two other places: 1) at the Passion (Lk. 9:51 – the days for his being lifted up had to be fulfilled…) and 2) the incarnation (Gal. 4:4 – when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his son).

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Surprised by Hope: #4

surprisedbyhopeIn Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, N. T. Wright challenges us to rethink our notions of heaven and the implications of the doctrine of heaven for the entire Christian faith.

In Chapter Four Wright explores “the strange story of Easter.”  He begins by drawing attention to four “strange” features of the Gospels’ resurrection stories which compel us to take them as very early accounts rather than later inventions. 

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