Life|Love

Looking up at Heaven, and missing the Kingdom [Book Excerpt]

 

FFFF ZachHoag

Zach Hoag is one of the most thought provoking wordsmiths on the internet. His blog, The Nuance, is a must read on theology, things of the Church, social justice, and Jesus. Today, he was kind enough to offer some space over there as part of his Free-Form Follow Friday, #FFFF – to share an excerpt from the upcoming eBook The Path of Freedom: Few find it. Fewer walk it. Be one of the few. If you haven’t joined my newsletter yet, you can do that here, or at the end of this post – and you’ll get the eBook FREE when it drops later this month.

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The idolatry of Salvation has a trickle down effect towards misappropriating a crucial spiritual tenet – that is, of the nature of Heaven and The Kingdom.

When we view life through a Salvation lens – we see things and read Scripture with a focus on getting ourselves, and then others, to Heaven. We read the Bible and see words about proclaiming Jesus as Lord, following Jesus, taking up your cross, eternal reward, inheriting the Kingdom, life in the Spirit, faithful living, and on and on and often equate this with “eternal life” as a place, Heaven, a future destination that importantly is NOT Hell, where those who believe in Jesus will one day go.

In Acts, the Angels ask the disciples a profound question following the Ascension of Christ,

“Why do you stand here looking up into heaven?”

The disciples were being directed by the Angels to look around, forward, to watch and see and join in the work of Jesus that was ongoing, here and now – the Kingdom of God.

[Read the rest of the post at The Nuance]

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  • Kenneth Dawson

    Good post and so true..I like how you call it an idol..but most of all I love the title of your blog–Zoe perissos

  • Thank you Kenneth! Glad to have you come by, and hope you’ll return! Thanks for the encouragement on the name too! I like it… 😉

  • Sam

    Get saved, then try to behave until we die and go to heaven. Going to church and lots of Bible studies should help us behave. Oh yes, we should give lots and lots of money to the church so it can build lots of buildings and hire lots of staff. That should get more people to go to church so they can get saved, then try to behave until they go to heaven. I wonder who would have invented such a system.

    The Kingdom of God is here and now. Jesus walks the streets and invites us to walk with him. What do we suppose lies out there, outside the walls of the church? Perhaps we should find out. I hope you are going to help us figure out how to do that.

    • Oooh Sam! I’m supposed to be winding down to go to sleep, friend, and now you’ve got me all fired up thinking Kingdom thoughts about “what lies out there, outside the walls…”

      (Dream Kingdom Dreams…) lol.