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“The text is not the problem; it simply resists propositional systems of eschatology in favor of narrative development”
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
“An unexamined, status-quo Christianity is not worth perpetuating. I cannot and will not stay Christian if it means perpetuating Christianity’s past history and current trajectory. The only way I can stay Christian is to do so as part of a creative movement forging a new kind of Christianity,”
― Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned
― Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned
“Finally, in their mature love for Jesus, the Moravians’ highest stated motive for evangelism was so that the “Lamb would receive the full reward of his suffering.” They were deeply convinced that we were the joy Christ anticipated when he endured the Cross! What does that say about the value he has placed on us? And on how much he deserves to receive that joy? Is there any greater gift that we could give him than to present him with the pearls of great price for which gave his life?”
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
“Sometimes we miss the immediacy of Jesus’ warnings because we project his parousia74 into the eschatological distance. When we read his parables that refer to a returning bridegroom, landlord, or king,75 we usually assume that Jesus was foretelling his second coming and the judgments of hellfire. In fact, the surprise visit/return in most of these parables probably refers initially to Jesus’ incarnation, his resurrection, or once he is rejected, to the resulting chain of events that bring down Jerusalem in AD 70. In other words, if the parousia refers to Jesus’ own generation, rather than to the end of time, then Jesus’ use of the historic destruction in Gehenna circa 587 BC is not a metaphor for John’s eschatological lake of fire. Exactly the opposite. John’s apocalyptic lake of fire is a visionary picture of Gehenna’s historic pyres, prophesied by Jesus (reiterating Jeremiah) and fulfilled in AD 70. More simply, Jerusalem’s destruction does not direct us to apocalyptic visions of fire; the heavenly visions indicate the earthly reality.”
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
“as a futurist in my college days, the pretense of consistent literalism was challenged by Revelation’s wild imagery. In any given verse, we might pivot from literal to figurative interpretations and back again. Using the Church in Revelation again as our example, it was easy to discern that the collective billions who constitute the Bride of Christ are not one literal female colossus in a humongous wedding dress waiting to consummate union with Jesus in actual lovemaking. We knew this was symbolic. Yet in the very same verse, we stumbled over our literalism into the New Jerusalem. Some of the popular futurist commentaries of the day quibbled over the Holy City’s dimensions—whether it will be a pyramid or a cube and what the rooms, streets, and transportation will be like.4 I tried to picture a city that was fifteen hundred miles tall and wondered what that would do to the earth’s rotation. I also wondered what kind of oysters could produce pearls large enough to become the city’s twelve gates (Rev 21:21).”
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
― Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem
Michael C Champlin’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Michael C Champlin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
15 books
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5 friends
537 books
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130 friends
42 books
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30 friends
334 books
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111 friends
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