Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 10

In His Deliverance of a Desperate Man, Jesus Gives Hope to Us All

Mark 5:1–20 speaks powerfully of an angry, alienated, and lonely man, driven to despair at the hands of evil spirits. This ancient story captures the emptiness and desperation of countless people today.

“This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him.... He tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.”

The man inflicted punishment on himself, as many in our culture do emo­tionally, and some physically, including cutting themselves.

When Jesus saw him, He said, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Christ addressed one demon who had a legion of demons under him. This lead demon, realizing Christ’s authority, begged Jesus to cast them into a herd of pigs. “He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.”

A crowd gathered around Jesus and saw the formerly possessed man “sitting there, dressed and in his right mind.” Jesus told him, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” Mark writes, “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”

This story reveals much about demons, people, and Jesus. Demons oppress, attack, and possess people, sometimes empowering them to do evil, always doing them great harm. They prompt people to hurt themselves and inflict evil and suffering on God’s image-bearers. Perhaps this is the closest demons can come to avenging God for casting them out of Heaven because of their sin. Demons recognize Christ’s absolute authority over them. Jesus commands them at will, and in loving mercy delivers a man from his miserable life.

This extreme case is relevant to all of us. In cultures where everyone realizes there’s a supernatural world, demons make themselves known as false gods to intimidate people, demanding worship and exacting retribution. In modern Western cultures where people routinely deny the supernatural, demons often accomplish their purposes more effectively by flying under the radar and working covertly. If we had eyes to see, we’d realize that all around us, fallen humans become the unwitting tools of evil spirits, harming themselves and others, and living wretched lives, sometimes quietly under the facade of social respectability.

Jesus loves afflicted people and went to the cross to deliver us, freeing us from the evil and suffering inflicted upon us by demons and ourselves. In delivering that desperate man, He gives hope to us all, showing us a picture of the total and final deliverance of His people from the powers of evil.

When Jesus rescued him from evil spirits, the man was at last “in his right mind,” thinking clearly. Jesus transformed him. The delivered man overflowed with gratitude, as should all who know Christ’s grace. To embrace Jesus as our redeemer is to be delivered from considerable evil and suffering now, and eventually from all evil and suffering. Jesus liberates us and calls us to testify to others of His mercy and power to defeat evil and relieve suffering.

A Self-Described Non-Reader Devoured the Heaven Book, and It Changed His Perspective

I was very touched by this thoughtful and humble letter that a reader named Mark sent us, which we’re sharing with his permission:

Dear Mr. Alcorn,

I’m writing to thank you for writing the book Heaven. 

I was born and raised in a pretty strict Southern Baptist home. My earliest memories were being in church or attending a church function as my parents and grandparents are born again Christians. I learned early in life that being saved by the blood of Jesus and repenting your sins, asking Him to be my savior was the only way to Heaven and the alternative was Hell. I didn’t want to go to Hell. At 15 years of age, I accepted Christ to be my personal savior. All the years attending church, listening to sermons and Sunday school classes, attending large groups or small groups—I learned about the different events that took place that we read in the Bible, but I honestly can say that I’ve never learned anything about Heaven other than it will be magnificent and Hell will be horrible. I must embarrassingly admit that I was one of those people who wondered what we would be doing in Heaven for eternity. I would think, are we going to be floating on a cloud, playing harps, and singing Kumbaya all day?

I’m embarrassed to say, I just don’t read that well. And when I try to read, I get distracted easily and read a paragraph and not know what I just read. Because of this, I haven’t read a book in several decades. I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a book from cover to cover. I struggle with reading the Bible and understanding what God is trying to teach, or understand parables. My desire to learn of late led me to purchase an NIrV Edition Bible. Even though it’s a third-grade level Bible, it has helped me tremendously in understanding what I’ve just read. My wife is a great reader and loves the Lord, and has followed Jack Hibbs for several years now. During one of his Sunday morning sermons, he promoted your book. My wife, Dana, ordered the book and talked about it. 

I had so many questions about Heaven and was too embarrassed to admit that when the book arrived, I really wanted to start reading it. Once I started, I didn’t want to put it down. It took me a few weeks to read the entire book and at times I must admit, I’d check your Bible references to make sure you knew what you were talking about. There were times I would laugh at some of the things you wrote that were funny and several times I found myself in tears as I was seriously convicted (and I’m not an emotional person). I read your book from cover to cover and enjoyed and understood every page. It has made me excited about Heaven and what awaits us, what’s been promised to us. I have told several people about your book, including my sisters, sisters-in-law, my mother, my mother-in-law, my brother, and friends. It has changed my perspective, and I want to share even more.

Thank you again, sir, for this book. I doubt I will ever meet you on this earth, but someday I look forward to meeting you on the New Earth and shaking your hand and thanking you in person.

I replied to Mark: No need to apologize at all for anything. Good for you that you persevered to read a book that you knew would be challenging, but you read it anyway and profited from it. You’re very welcome for the Heaven book—it was a lot of work, but it was my pleasure to serve the body of Christ and people like you. God bless you. I couldn’t be happier for you, brother, and I thank you for your kind letter. I look forward to meeting you in a far better world. Let’s have a good talk then! 

The Physical Resurrection of Jesus Accomplished Our Redemption

“A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have,” Jesus told His fearful disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:39). Yet countless Christians imagine themselves as ghosts, disembodied spirits, in the eternal Heaven. The magnificent, cosmos-shaking victory of Christ’s resurrection—by definition a physical triumph over physical death in a physical world—somehow escapes them.

If Jesus had become a ghost and did not physically rise from the dead, He would not have accomplished our redemption. When Jesus lived in His resurrection body, He demonstrated, in mostly normal ways—walking and eating and drinking and talking—how we would live as resurrected human beings. He also demonstrated where we would live—on Earth, where He lived for forty days after He rose.

“The Lord Jesus Christ... will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20–2 1). As Jesus rose again and lived in a physical body on Earth, so we too, in bodies like His, will rise again to live on a renewed Earth (see 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 John 3:2; Revelation 21:1–3).

On the cross Christ paid the qualitatively eternal punishment for our sins. Because He, due to His redemptive work, is forever scarred in His resurrection body (John 20:25–29), we will forever be without scars in ours.

Our bodily resurrection will return us to an earthly life, this time freed from sin and the Curse. Our resurrected bodies will have some essential connection to the bodies God created for us here, but will be flawless (see 1 Corinthians 15:49). We know the resurrected Christ looked like a man because Mary, in the morning dimness, through her tears mistook Him for the gardener at the tomb and called Him sir (see John 20:15). Jesus, in His raised body, didn’t hover or float. He started a fire, cooked fish for His disciples, and said, “Come and have breakfast” (John 21:12).

One day Christ appeared in a locked room where the disciples had gathered (see John 20:19). They could touch Him and cling to His body, and He could consume food; yet that same body could vanish and “materialize” as well. Might the molecules of our own resurrection bodies pass through what we think of as solid materials? We don’t know yet, but won’t it be fun to find out?

The wonders of our resurrected bodies and our future lives on the New Earth await us. But as we enjoy them, day after day, surely we’ll look back to this life with profound gratitude for how God used everything, even evil and suffering, to prepare us for our eternal home.

The Cross: God’s Answer to the Question, “Why Don’t You Do Something About Evil?”

Self-described agnostic atheist Bart Ehrman writes, “I came to think that there is not a God who is actively involved with this world of pain and misery—if he is, why doesn’t he do something about it?”

But what if God did do something about it? What if what He did was so great and unprecedented that it shook the angelic realm’s foundation, and ripped in half, from the top down, not only the temple curtain but the fabric of the universe itself?

A powerful moment in the movie The Passion of the Christ occurs when Jesus, overwhelmed with pain and exhaustion, lies on the ground as guards kick, mock, and spit on him. A horrified woman, her hand outstretched, pleads, “Someone, stop this!”

The great irony is that “Someone,” God’s Son, was doing something unspeakably great that required it not be stopped.

Had someone delivered Jesus from His suffering that day, He could not have delivered us from ours.

Sometimes our familiarity with the gospel story prevents us from understanding its breathtaking nature. That’s one benefit of reading other redemptive stories that give us glimpses of the greatest one. To me, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe offers particular help in understanding Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

Aslan, the all-powerful lion, created Narnia and all worlds. After Lucy hears that her brother has to die for his treachery, she asks Aslan, “Can anything be done to save Edmund?”

“All shall be done,” Aslan responds. “But it may be harder than you think.” Knowing the terrible suffering and death that await him, Aslan becomes very sad. But he can save Edmund only through his self-sacrifice.

Those serving Aslan’s foe, the White Witch, roll Aslan onto his back and tie his paws together. “Had the Lion chosen, one of those paws could have been the death of them all,” Lewis writes. Finally, the witch orders that Aslan, their rightful king, be shaved. They cut off his beautiful mane and ridicule him. Aslan surrenders to his enemies, trading his life for Edmund’s.

Likewise, Jesus felt overwhelming sadness in the Garden of Gethsemane. He told His disciples, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me” (Matthew 26:38, NLT). The soldiers who guarded Jesus mocked Him and hit Him (see Luke 22:63). And in actual history, Jesus went to the cross to die for us. That’s how much He loves us.

The drama of evil and suffering in Christ’s sacrifice addresses the very heart of the problem of evil and suffering. One day it will prove to have been the final answer.

Faith and Works: Does James Contradict Paul?

Note from Randy: I really like this segment from Kevin DeYoung's new book Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology. I’ve been reading it, and it is outstanding. The following article is adapted from the book, and is unusually steeped in doctrine—one of the most important doctrines, in fact. Kevin makes great clarifying points. 

Does James Contradict Paul?

By Kevin DeYoung

Sola Fide

No Christian denies that justification is by faith. That is an obvious biblical teaching. The controversy is about whether justification is by faith alone (sola fide).

In Roman Catholic theology, justification is a process begun at baptism, after which we are obliged to cooperate with grace in hopes of receiving a favorable verdict from God at the end of our lives. “The Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone contradicts Scripture,” writes Peter Kreeft, a winsome and articulate spokesman for Catholic theology. Nevertheless, argues Kreeft, Protestant theology reminds us “that none of us can deserve heaven” and that if God were to ask us why he should let us into heaven, “our answer should not begin with the word ‘I’ but with the word ‘Christ.’ ”1 Don’t overlook the word begin in that sentence, because works do eventually enter into the equation. Later Kreeft writes, “To the world’s most practical question, ‘What must I do to be saved?’, God has given us clear answer: Repent, believe, and live in charity.”2 That’s what Kreeft means when he says that justification is not by faith alone.

By contrast, the Bible stresses that we are justified by faith apart from works of the law (Rom. 3:28). “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Rom. 3:20). “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16). “It is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’ ” (Gal. 3:11). In short, the righteousness by which we are acquitted comes through faith in Christ, not through the law on account of our own righteousness (Phil. 3:9).

It is important to note that faith is not itself virtuous. Faith is not the basis or the ground by which we are justified, as if the righteous act of believing outweighs all our unrighteous deeds. Faith has value because of the object to which it connects us. Think of skating on a frozen pond. Faith is the means by which we get out on the ice, but it is not the reason we do not sink. We are kept out of the dangerous water below by the object of our faith. It is the thickness of the ice that saves us.

To put it in Aristotelian terms, faith is the instrumental cause of our justification. “We compare faith to a kind of vessel,” Calvin writes, “for unless we come empty and with the mouth of our souls open to seek Christ’s grace, we are not capable of receiving Christ.”3 Faith is the outstretched empty hand ready to receive Christ and all his benefits. The act of believing, in itself, does not save. Faith “is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ our righteousness” (BC Art. 22).

Finally, we should be clear that although we are justified by faith alone, the faith that justifies is never alone. Good works do not contribute to the root of our justification, but they must be found as fruit of our justification. As Turretin observes, “it is one thing for works to be connected with faith in the person of the justified; another, however, in the matter of justification.”4 In other words, sinners are not justified by works, but works will always be evident in the lives of justified sinners.

The book of James seems to repudiate the Protestant doctrine of sola fide. How does Romans 3:28 (“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law”) square with James 2:24 (“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone”)? This seems like a plain contradiction. Paul thinks we are justified by faith alone; James thinks we are justified by faith and works. No wonder Luther once called James a “right strawy epistle.”

Rightly understood, however, there is no contradiction between Paul and James. Here are five reasons why.

James and Paul are addressing different concerns. The foolish person in James 2:20 is not the apostle Paul. James was likely written before Paul’s letters to the Romans or Galatians. They are dealing with different issues. Paul is asking the question, “How are we right with God?” James is asking, “What does genuine faith look like?” For Paul the issue is: “How do Gentiles get into the church?” For James the issue is: “Why are people not caring for their brothers and sisters in the church?”
James’s argument presupposes the importance of faith. The necessity of faith is presumed in verse 17 and in verse 20, and again in the example of Abraham in verses 22 and 24. James does not want faith to be supplanted by works or even supplemented by works. He wants faith to be demonstrated by works. The equation in James is not “faith plus works equals justification.” The equation is “faith minus works does not equal justification.” Think of salvation as F(aith)=J(ustification)+W(orks). Paul says, “Don’t you dare put ‘W’ on the left side of the equation.” James says, “Don’t you dare leave out ‘W’ on the right side of the equation.”
Paul and James use “works” in two different ways. Paul is talking about works of the law, especially Jewish rites like circumcision, holy days, and food observance. Those were the typical ways, for a Jewish audience, that one would be tempted to place their confidence in something other than Christ. James is talking about the works of faith, acts of charity operative in the body of Christ without preferential treatment.
Paul and James use the word justify in two different ways. Paul is dealing with people who trust in the works of the law for their standing with God. James is dealing with people who think that mere intellectual assent is real Christianity (James 2:19). Paul is talking about a forensic declaration of righteousness. James is talking about practical evidence that faith is real (2:16, 18).
Paul teaches the same point James teaches. Paul speaks of the obedience of faith (Rom. 1:5) and of faith working through love (Gal. 5:6). Paul understands that dead faith is no faith at all (1 Cor. 6:9–11; Gal. 5:16–26). James is talking about the kind of “belief ” that even demons have (James 2:19). Neither Paul nor James believes that such empty, untrusting belief constitutes justifying faith.

In the end, there is no conflict between Paul and James. It is right to say we are justified by faith alone apart from works of the law, provided we understand, as James reminds us, that the faith that justifies will always work itself out in love.

Notes:

Peter Kreeft, Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Christian Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press, 2001), 26.
Kreeft, Catholic Christianity, 130.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Edited by John T. McNeil (Westminster Press, 1960), 2.14.1.
Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 3 vols. Translated by George Musgrave Giger. Edited by James T. Dennison Jr. (P&R, 1997), 2.327.

 

Taken from Does James Contradict Paul? by Kevin DeYoung, Copyright © 2024, https://www.crossway.org/articles/does-james-contradict-paul. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

When We Enter the Present Heaven, Will We Have Physical Forms as We Await Resurrection?

Given the consistent physical descriptions of the present Heaven and those who dwell there, it seems possible—though this is certainly debatable—that between the time of our entrance to Heaven and our resurrection, we may be given temporary pre-resurrection bodies (Luke 16:19-26; Revelation 6:11). This fits the doctrine that, unlike God and the angels—who are in essence spirits, though capable of inhabiting bodies (John 4:24; Hebrews 1:14)—human beings are in essence both spiritual and physical (Genesis 2:7). A temporary body would allow us to retain the qualities of full humanity between death and resurrection.

A fundamental article of the Christian faith is that the resurrected Christ now dwells in Heaven. We are told that His resurrected body on Earth was physical and that this same, physical Jesus ascended to Heaven, from where He will one day return to Earth. It seems indisputable, then, to say that there is at least one physical body in the present Heaven. If Christ’s body in the present Heaven has physical properties, it stands to reason that others in Heaven could have physical forms as well, even if only temporary ones.

The Apostle Paul writes,

I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)

Paul expresses uncertainty about whether he’d had a body in his visit there. The fact that he thought he might have had a body in Heaven is significant. He certainly didn’t dismiss the idea as impossible, as Plato would have. His uncertainty might suggest that he sensed he had a physical form in Heaven—similar to but somehow different from his earthly body. That would make sense because he had not yet died nor been raised, and the only body he could have had was his current one at the time which was still subject to curse, sin, and death. If he absolutely knew he was only a disembodied spirit floating in Heaven, he surely wouldn’t have said he wasn’t certain whether or not he’d had a body there.

If we will indeed have an intermediate physical form immediately after we die, it’s critical we realize this would in no way make our eventual resurrection unnecessary or redundant. The Bible could not be more emphatic about the centrality and significance of the resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15).

We do not receive our resurrection bodies immediately after death. Resurrection is not one-at-a-time. If we have intermediate forms in the intermediate Heaven, they won’t be our true bodies, which will have died. Continuity is only between our original and resurrection bodies. So again, if we are given intermediate forms, they are at best temporary vessels (perhaps comparable to the human-appearing but temporary bodies angels sometimes take on), distinct from our true bodies, which remain dead until our resurrection.

The resurrection is what Scripture explicitly teaches and what we are to place our hope in, because it is a certain future event!

See also:

Do People Presently in Heaven Have Bodies, or Some Temporary Physical Form Prior to the Resurrection? (article)

Will We Have Physical Bodies Between Our Death and Resurrection? (short video answer)

Randy Alcorn and Dan Franklin Discuss 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 (52-minute audio conversation with one of my sons-in-law, in which we discuss the possibility of how physical the present Heaven is)

How Should We Respond When We Disappoint Other People?

Note from Randy: When I receive critical comments online or in response to my books, and when someone talks to me personally about their disagreements, I ask God to point out to me any truth they may contain. People are certainly correct that I’m very flawed. No one is more aware of this than I am. Over the years, I have agreed with many critics and have made numerous changes in my books and articles (and my life) as a result.

But while I truly listen to and value feedback and criticism, I learned long ago there are many critics you can’t please, and shouldn’t try to. (I’ve jokingly said, “If you don’t like me, take a number. Sometimes I don’t like myself!”) Jesus said, “How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44).

As Trevin Wax points out in this wise article, disappointing people is simply part of life. There’s humility in accepting criticism, but there’s also humility in accepting that you will never be able to please everyone.

My Posture Toward Readers I've Disappointed

By Trevin Wax

Disappointment is a hallmark of ministry, leadership, and influence. Most of the time, we focus on dealing with the disappointment we feel when others let us down. But it’s also important to learn how to handle the reality that we'll disappoint people we respect. It's inevitable.

I once heard of a pastor who told a younger man training for ministry, “Brother, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t know of someone who’s disappointed in me.” He was acknowledging the reality. Serve God’s people long enough, and you’ll be both the one disappointed and the one who disappoints.

Burden of Letting Others Down

For nearly 20 years, I’ve been speaking and writing in public. Over time, I’ve disappointed my fair share of readers. Some have been dismayed by my stances and opinions—perhaps because I critiqued a book or author they admire, or because my condemnation of a writer or movement wasn’t as forceful as they thought the moment required. Other times, it wasn’t something I said or wrote but simply that I have friends or associations they think are compromised.

Church ministry brings similar challenges. Your take on a matter of political prudence may differ from some church members. Your response to a cultural controversy comes across as either too strident or too soft. You come down in different places on a question of denominational politics. You draw a sharp line on matters of orthodoxy, or you don’t draw the line sharply enough for a doctrine some think is a matter of orthodoxy. You quote or associate with someone from the “wrong” tribe. The list goes on.

When Encouragement Turns to Contempt

Sometimes, the pain runs deep—not just when others disappoint you but when you disappoint them. People who once encouraged me—who praised my books and sermons, sent emails of affirmation, shared meals in my home, or enjoyed a warm drink with me at a conference—have later trolled me on social media, blocked me, or written me off entirely.

One pattern I’ve noticed: Those who are over-the-top in praising you are often the most likely to be over-the-top in cutting you off when you disappoint them. It reminds me of Charles Spurgeon’s counsel: “Too much consideration of what is said by our people, whether it be in praise or in depreciation, is not good for us.”

Posture of Gratitude

In coming to terms with the inevitability of disappointing people, I’ve sought to respond with a spirit of gratitude. I can be grateful for whatever measure of help I was able to provide someone else, even if only for a season. It’s no small thing to gain someone’s ear—for my online scribblings to be a subject of reflection, or for my podcast to accompany someone on a drive or a run, or for one of my books to be given attention out of the millions available. If you’re a pastor, the fact that anyone sits through your sermons and yields to your leadership, even for a time, is an inestimable gift.

Along with taking a posture of gratitude, I’ve had to renounce the fear of disappointing others. I can’t let self-preservation stifle my instincts or keep me from serving as faithfully as I know how. I’ve had to resist the temptation to dwell on my missteps or to soften necessary words for fear of ruffling feathers. I’ve had to root out bitterness and resentment against those who’ve turned against me. I've tried instead to focus on the larger body of work I hope to contribute over a lifetime—a ministry I pray that, even with its many flaws, will glorify God and build up the church.

Word to My Readers

So, my readers, I must prepare you. If you follow my work long enough, you will eventually disagree with me. You will, at some point, be disappointed. Some of you may even stop reading or listening altogether. And that’s OK.

Even if that happens—even if disappointment leads to distance or to derision—I can still be grateful for the season where the Lord allowed me to serve you with my words. I choose this posture because it guards me from becoming defensive, from falling into people-pleasing, or from holding back when I feel compelled to speak the truth as I see it.

When You Disappoint Others

You, too, will disappoint people. If you serve in ministry, lead in any capacity, or engage publicly with ideas, it’s inevitable. The question isn’t whether you’ll let people down but how you’ll respond when it happens. “Bless your critics for their honesty,” Calvin Miller wrote. “They do not criticize you to be a blessing to you, but the end product may be the same.”

Don’t let your disappointment turn into self-doubt or defensiveness. Receive criticism with humility, discern what you can glean even from those whose manner is abrasive, and then move forward with confidence in God’s calling on your life.

We don’t measure faithfulness by universal approval. We measure faithfulness by adhering to the call of our Lord. Even when that means disappointing people along the way.

This article originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition , and is used with the author’s permission.

 

How Can the Happiness of Heaven Touch Our Lives Today?

This life is neither our only opportunity nor our best one for happiness, adventure, and fun.

I’ve read books on happiness stressing that we must be happy right here and now, living in the moment, because this is our one and only chance. How sad!

Thankfully, God says otherwise. His people will have an eternity of present and future happiness. Anticipation of an upcoming vacation or adventure brings us delight even in the midst of busyness and fatigue. On a larger scale, God’s assurance of our never-ending happiness in His presence, on the New Earth, should front-load Heaven’s joy into our lives today.

Ponder this reality until it floods your heart with gladness: Jesus will be the center of everything. Happiness will be the lifeblood of our resurrected lives.

And just when we think, It doesn’t get any better than this, it will!

This video, “The Happiness of Heaven,” is the sixth and final in a series that was filmed to accompany the Happiness Bible Study Book and reflect the content of my Happiness book. (See my previous blogs for the previous videos. All six videos are available on our website as a free resource. I encourage you to consider sharing them with your small group or church!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85QKQPEA3r8?si=VtBpBhDi9sBR1IoT

Here are some resources if you’d like to explore more:

Breathe in the Happiness of Heaven

What Will My Happiness Look Like in Heaven?

The Best Is Still Yet to Be

If a Vacation Is Worth Planning and Anticipating, How Much More Should We Anticipate Life in Heaven?

The Doctrine of the New Earth Is Central to Our Future and Present Happiness

Are Happiness and Holiness Exclusive?

Some Christians see happiness as the virtual opposite of holiness. But Scripture says otherwise.

Greek scholar J. B. Phillips (1906–1982) translated Revelation 20:6 this way: “Happy and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!” Similarly, the most literal English version, Young’s Literal Translation, renders it “Happy and holy [is] he who is having part in the first rising again.”

Most translations of this verse read “blessed and holy,” with the result that modern readers (unaware that in old English blessed meant happy) understand the sentence as containing two adjectives of consecration. But when the Greek is rendered “happy and holy,” readers can realize, Wow, so those who know God are not only holy but also happy? Happiness is what I’ve been searching for! Maybe I should stop dividing my life into “church me,” in which I try to be holy, and “world me,” in which I seek to be happy.

To be holy is to see God as He is and to become like Him, covered in Christ’s righteousness. And since God’s nature is to be happy, the more like Him we become in our sanctification, the happier we will be.

Holiness doesn’t mean abstaining from pleasure; holiness means recognizing Jesus as the source of life’s greatest pleasure.

This video, “Happiness and Holiness,” is the fifth in a series that was filmed to accompany the Happiness Bible Study Book and reflect the content of my Happiness book. (See my previous blogs for the previous videos. All six videos are available on our website as a free resource. I encourage you to consider sharing them with your small group or church!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MDkKlk7crU?si=Q39hnFZsrw-0SGW1

Here are some resources if you’d like to explore more:

Why We Don't Need to Choose Between Happiness and Holiness

What Are Common Objections to the Idea That God Wants Christians to Experience Happiness in Him?

Should God’s People Want to Be Both Holy and Happy?

When “Blessed” Means “Happy”

How Does Idolatry Kill Our Happiness?

In the first two chapters of Genesis, God had no competition for the affection of His creatures. Humanity found its meaning, purpose, and happiness in God. God was God; everything else wasn’t. And the only two humans knew it.

The Fall tragically changed that. Ever since, every member of the human race has been an idolater. What began in Eden won’t end until Jesus returns and all idols crumble under His feet.

Despite the fact that we’re surrounded by shows such as American Idol and the adulation of movie stars, musicians, and professional athletes, most twenty-first-century Americans don’t believe we’re a nation of idol worshipers. The word idol conjures up images of primitive people offering sacrifices to crude carved images. Surely we’re above that.

Or are we?

An idol is anything we praise, celebrate, fixate on, and look to for help that’s not the true God. That covers a lot of ground.

Idolatry isn’t just wrong—it fails miserably in bringing the lasting happiness it promises.

This video, “Happiness and Idolatry,” is the fourth in a series that was filmed to accompany the Happiness Bible Study Book and reflect the content of my Happiness book. (See my previous blogs for the first three videos. All six videos are available on our website as a free resource. I encourage you to consider sharing them with your small group or church!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AXB3yHqOI0?si=9dP7vlBXzUdWAjW_

Here are some resources if you’d like to explore more:

Recognizing and Avoiding the Trap of Idolatry

Who or What Is Our Primary Source of Happiness?

Should Christians Be Spiritual Enough to Not Love God’s Created World?

How to Avoid Making an Idol of Your Marriage and Spouse

Are You Looking for Satisfaction in All the Wrong Places?

Seek the Giver, Not the Gift?