A few days ago, a friend from an Assemblies of God-oriented discussion group raised an interesting topic. Since I haven't posted much here for a while, I thought I'd share my thoughts and joyfully invite your comments.

The Good Pagan

Carissa wrote:

Amen, Carissa!

It's a sad myth among us Christians that people can only act "good" by knowing Jesus when, in fact, Christianity is proof of the fact that good behavior is possible while not helpful at gaining eternal salvation. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, he was not condemned by Jesus for bad behavior. The young man, in fact, kept all the commands since childhood. He said as much and Jesus, knowing

The Carlton Pearson curiosity continues.

Over the last few weeks I've noticed the amount of search engine queries landing on this site have shot heavenward for Carlton Pearson. The searchers have typed:

photo: Scott Griessel

As far as I can tell, Carlton Pearson's "badness" quotient has gotten no worse than when I wrote my semi-definitive exploration of his doctrine of inclusion back in early 2006: "Carlton D. Pearson: The Charismatic Bishop of Heresy." I've read that

While things are confusing down here, we can always trust in the hope of heaven.

About an hour northeast of Indianapolis on April 26, 2006, a tractor-trailer drifted across the Interstate 69 median. In its path: ten students and staff in a Taylor University van. The tractor ripped through one side of the van, scattering wallets, purses, and debris across the dark roadway and sending five souls into eternity.

In the accident's aftermath, one survivor was identified as Laura VanRyn, and officials contacted her family as she was airlifted from the site in a comatose state. Over the next several weeks the VanRyn family kept constant and prayerful vigil at her bedside while she struggled out of her coma.

Then came the shattering revelation: the young woman they lovingly watched over did not answer to the name Laura VanRyn. Instead, a battered and broken stranger lay in her place: fellow Taylor student and

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

Perhaps you’ve heard of Yahawa Wahab recently? Mr. Wahab lives in Malaysia, and he’s looking forward to his day in court: He owes $218 trillion dollars. If Mr. Wahab paid off his debt by one dollar every second of every 24-hour day, he would need 68,770.28 years to pay down his bill--or 1,058 lifetimes with 65 years of earning potential ("How Big is a Trillion?").

The editors of Leadership journal have posted another incisive commentary on the state of the Church today in their Out of Ur weblog. It’s about how we (in the Western church) have turned the gospel into a pimping enterprise. There’s nothing really new here, it’s the same complaint Bonhoeffer had about “cheap grace.” But the language is, well, provocative. From church planter Jonathan Yarboro:

On Heresy

What is heresy? The textbook definition is simply:

And right alongside that definition — at least on this weblog, anyhow — you can find a picture of Bishop Carlton D. Pearson who wants to "rewrite the theology of the charismatic world" by preaching a "Gospel of Inclusion" asserting that Christ's death conclusively reconciled all mankind to God — whether we realize it or not — and that the only separation between man and God's grace is subjective, illusionary, and exists only in unenlightened minds (Carlton Pearson, "Jesus Savior of the World/Gospel of Inclusion — Position Paper," Higher Dimension website, viewed March 5, 2006).

More on that later, but first.…

This question was recently posed to me (and some other friends) on an email discussion-group:

I waited with anticipation for an answer to these questions from the group, but nobody dared venture forth... I suspect it’s because the answers to those questions would require so much explanation that too many are daunted!

I too am daunted, but I've never let that stop me from being a foolish blow-hard (witness this weblog!). So, here goes a long answer.

First, see the a larger context of the verses cited:

Sorry it took so long to get these notes and ideas posted from last week’s class—it’s been a very busy week at work, and I haven’t had the time at home to get as much done as I’d hoped. So, unfortunately, this is a bit raw. But, fortunately, I have the audio done, and I have a couple other articles on this topic I can add in subsequent posts as well.

Without futher ado, here’s the audio file, it’s about an hour and twenty minutes long, and it includes some after-class discussion for a few die-hards who hung around to grill the unfortunate teacher. The audio is kinda poor, but it comes with the use-what-you-got technology category. If you can’t listen via the player below, here’s a link to the file.

[audio:http://tatumweb.com/blog/wp-content/mp3/bli-hh-03-2005-09-28-2.mp3]

The main topic today was whether or not Christ spent any time in Hell. I argue against that proposition, even

Last week we finished the last five minutes of the Search for Heaven video, then we opened the floor for discussion. The recordings I have below are for my brief intro before the video, the class discussion after the video, then some after-class discussion I recorded with a few who hung around, for the die-hards who want to hear it all!

Tomorrow night’s topic will cover what happened after Christ was crucified. Did he go down to Hell, or not? We’ll look at the principle texts used in this doctrine, and we’ll see if we can come to some conclusions about what it means, and whether that’s important or not. If we have time, I’ll talk some more about the major positions against the traditional view of Hell.

[tags]BlogRodent, heaven, hell, afterlife, death, search-for-heaven[/tags]

For all who were in last week’s open house, and for those who missed it, here are the little mini-presentations I gave regarding the future of this class.

For anybody else familiar with this site, this is my “boss blog” for the folks taking the Believer’s Life Institute classes at Calvary Chapel. Feel free to listen in and enjoy. But if this bores you, sorry.

Don’t have much to say on this first post except that we’re planning to talk a lot about Heaven and Hell over the next six or seven weeks. The next class will feature a video: The Search for Heaven. Here’re my open house talks.

[audio:http://tatumweb.com/blog/wp-content/mp3/bli-hh-01a-open-house.mp3]
[audio:http://tatumweb.com/blog/wp-content/mp3/bli-hh-01b-open-house.mp3]
[audio:http://tatumweb.com/blog/wp-content/mp3/bli-hh-01c-open-house.mp3]

You can also download them here, here, and here.

[tags]BlogRodent, podcast, heaven, hell, heaven-and-hell, mp3, doctrine, theology, afterlife, death[/tags]

“Life after Death?”
A Study of Heaven & Hell

Calvary Assembly of God
Naperville, IL • Room 221

This class will last 7 weeks,
from September 14–through-October 26, 2005

I hope this class will be as thought provoking for you as it has been for me to prepare for. There are few more important—and sometimes disturbing—topics to study than what happens after we die.

I have ordered two DVDs, one of which should arrive shortly, and it would be useful for us to watch together as a class:

The Search for Heaven (60 minutes)

In the Paris News story about the Assembly of God church shooting in Sash, Texas, Debbie Wolfe is quoted, remembering the scene when Sash A/G pastor James Armstrong was killed by the gunman:

Can I tell you I am bothered when folks say this?

Does Mrs. Wolfe really mean to imply that God was not protecting Rev. Armstrong? That God was not protecting the other three who were murdered this Sunday?

Not really, I really don’t think that’s what she means.

But the words say it, and people who aren’t native speakers of “church talk” hear a different message than she’s intending to send. (For my part, I think she and others like her simply mean, “The outcome should’ve been different, but God must have had a different purpose

Well, last night was a good night!

Went to church and gave my talk on the existence of Heaven and Hell. Had a good crowd show up. Unfortunately, as usual, I had far more prepared than I could deliver in 45-minutes. :: Sigh ::

So, I've put the entire manuscript online, and it's available on my PulpitRodent page.

Some comments I received: My wife noted that she really liked the section on proofs and whether we require the same high level of evidence for most of the things we believe as we do for religious things. She mentioned that it was the kind of thing that once I said it, she felt a "Well, duh!" sort of reaction. The kind of thing you always know, but don't always articulate. I liked that.

Someone else told me they didn't

I stumbled across an interesting passage from Plato's Phaedrus (translated by Benjamin Jowett) the other day. (Or, check out the published translation.) It seemed relevant to me as I am wrapping up my research on Heaven & Hell in preparation for my presentation at church this coming Wednesday.

I lean on the Internet quite a bit as I do research. And beside me at this moment I have no less than 16 books measuring two feet in height that I have also leaned on — or should I say they have leaned on me? Yet through it all I am painfully aware that my knowldge of either Heaven or Hell (I capitalize the terms for I think of them as real places) is bound up

I'll be teaching a class this next month. I'm deep in the middle of research for it now.

I'm working on the "Heaven or Hell" topic. To my surprise, there's a lot more debate going on about Hell than I ever suspected.