Category: Podcast

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Heaven is Not the End – Rediscovering the Christian Hope – Intro

Elijah is taken up to heaven.
Audio Podcast

The Christian Hope

Most Christians, if you asked them what they hope for after death, would probably say something like this:

“I’ll go to heaven.”

And that answer isn’t wrong.

But it’s not the whole story.

In fact, when that answer becomes the entire story, it quietly reshapes how Christians think about their bodies, their work, their suffering—and even the world itself.

This short series exists to recover something larger, richer, and far more biblical:

The Christian hope is not escape from the world, but resurrection and new creation 1Gal 6:15 & Isa 65:17-18.

The Problem We’re Addressing

Over time, many Christians have absorbed a view of the future that sounds spiritual—but actually shrinks the Bible’s vision.

It goes something like this:

  • Earth is temporary
  • Heaven is permanent
  • Bodies don’t matter much
  • History is winding down toward evacuation

But when you read Scripture carefully—from Genesis to Revelation—that is not the story you find.

The Bible does not begin with souls in heaven.

It begins with God creating a good world (that’s what He called it) and dwelling with humanity in that world.

And it does not end with humanity leaving creation behind.

It ends with God dwelling with humanity in a renewed creation.

Why This Series Matters

This matters because what you believe about the future shapes how you live in the present.

If your hope is escape, then:

  • the body (the material world) becomes secondary
  • work becomes temporary
  • suffering becomes meaningless
  • creation (the material creation, that is,) becomes disposable

But if your hope is resurrection and new creation, then:

  • bodies matter
  • faithfulness matters
  • justice matters
  • and acts of love are never wasted

Christian hope, rightly understood, is not passive.

It is deeply formative.

What This Series Will Do

In this three-part series, we’ll walk through Scripture with the help of two careful biblical theologians: N. T. Wright (Oxford) and G. K. Beale (Reformed Theological Seminary).

Not because they are novel or trendy, but because they help us see what the Bible has been saying all along.

Here’s where we’re going:

Episode 1

Why “Going to Heaven” Is Not the End of the Story

We’ll clarify the difference between:

  • being with Christ after death
  • and the final Christian hope of resurrection

We’ll see why the New Testament treats resurrection—not heaven—as the centerpiece of Christian expectation.

Episode 2

From Eden to New Jerusalem

We’ll briefly trace the biblical story from the Garden of Eden through Israel’s temple, Jesus himself, and finally Revelation chapters 21 and 22.  It will be a quick study, but I think you will benefit from it.

Along the way, we’ll see that God’s goal (end – telos) has always been:

to dwell with his people in a renewed world.

Episode 3

Resurrection, Renewal, and Living the Future Now

Finally, we’ll explore how this hope reshapes daily life.

What does resurrection mean for:

  • the body?
  • work?
  • suffering?
  • mission?
  • the way Christians face death?

This episode is about living today in light of tomorrow.

The Larger Story of God

If some of this sounds unfamiliar—or even unsettling—that’s okay.

This series isn’t about winning arguments.

It’s about recovering a hope that is:

  • more biblical
  • more embodied
  • more realistic
  • and ultimately more hopeful

The goal is not to discard heaven.

It is to place heaven within the larger story God is telling.

Invitation

The Bible’s final vision is not of souls escaping earth.

It is of:

  • God coming down to dwell with humanity
  • Creation renewed
  • Resurrection completed

That is the hope Christians are invited to live toward.  

And that is the hope this brief series explores.

Thanks for listening.  I hope you’ll join me as we explore why “going to heaven” is not the end of the story.

Podcast Resources

  • N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope
  • N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God
  • G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission
  • G. K. Beale & Mitchell Kim, God Dwells Among Us

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I welcome any questions or comments. [Don’t worry, your personal info will not be given to anyone.] Thanks!

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The Promise of Disembodiment? A Big Lie! – Podcast

Image of ghost, produced by double exposure. 1899.

[This podcast is for all my Christian brothers and sisters. Especially those who attend churches that have been seduced by gender ideology.]

Welcome back to the Podcast. I’m glad you’re here with me today. We’re tackling a big cultural question—the growing obsession with what can be called the promise of disembodiment. That’s the idea that our bodies don’t matter, that they’re just clay to be reshaped, husks to be discarded, or even obstacles to the “real” self.

And here’s the spoiler: it’s a lie. A very old lie dressed up in new clothes.

Today, I want to walk with you through this lie, why it’s so appealing, and why the Christian vision of the body offers a much more beautiful, hopeful truth.

Naming the Lie

The cultural signs are everywhere. Abortion framed as a right to bodily “autonomy.” Gender ideology claiming male and female are optional. Assisted suicide presented as dignity. Even futuristic fantasies of uploading our minds into machines. (Yeah, there are some technologists out there that are presenting that as a possibility.)

All of these share the same root assumption: the body doesn’t matter.

Liel Leibovitz, writing recently in First Things, puts it bluntly:

“Those of us who know that we were created in God’s image have no choice but to acknowledge our bodies, those awkward earthly vessels that matter and cannot be manipulated as if they were raw material for our disembodied wills.”

That’s exactly it. Either the body is a gift with meaning—or it’s just raw material, something to use, discard, or redefine.

And when we lose the sense of the sacredness of the body, Leibovitz warns,

“Take away this belief in the sacred character of the body and it becomes not a temple but a speed bump.”

A speed bump. Something in the way. Something to get past. That’s the lie we’re facing.

Why the Lie Is Attractive

Let’s be honest—this lie is appealing because it promises freedom. If my body doesn’t matter, then I can do whatever I want with it. I can erase biological sex. I can evade the consequences of sex. I can even reject life itself if it doesn’t feel worth living.

But this so-called freedom is actually a prison. Leibovitz writes:

“When you do away with the sanctity of the body, you invite tyranny, because you are no longer bound to acknowledge what is real, only what is willed.”

If all that matters is my will, then whoever has the strongest will gets to impose their version of “reality.” And that’s not freedom—that’s bondage.

The Christian Response

Here’s where Christianity gives us something radically different.

The very first chapter of the Bible declares:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27).

Jesus himself reaffirms this in Matthew 19:4: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?”

The Apostle Paul drives it home: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19–20).

The Christian response to the lie of disembodiment is simple but profound: your body matters. It’s not a mistake. It’s not an accident. It’s not raw clay for you to remake. It is God’s creation, God’s gift, and God’s temple.

Why This Matters Today

This isn’t just theory. It affects the way we live right now.

  • Children are told they can “change” their sex.
  • The elderly are told their lives are no longer worth living.
  • The unborn are treated as disposable tissue.
  • And technology dangles the fantasy of living without flesh at all.

But Christians know better. As Leibovitz reminds us:

“The rejection of the body is the rejection of limits, and the rejection of limits is the rejection of responsibility. And where responsibility vanishes, so does love.”

That’s the key. Love requires limits. Love requires responsibility. Love requires embodiment.

Think about it: Christ didn’t love us from afar. He took on flesh. He bore our sins in his body. He rose bodily from the grave. Real love shows up in the flesh.

It is no good to say: “Be warmed, be filled, go in peace” to the poor person (James 2:15-16). You gotta give them a cloak. You gotta give them food. That’s what it means to love your neighbor.

The True Promise

So what’s the alternative to the lie?

It’s not escape. It’s not disembodiment. It’s resurrection.

The gospel promises that these very bodies—frail, weak, mortal—will be redeemed. Paul writes in Romans 8:23 that we await “the redemption of our bodies.” Christ himself is the guarantee, the firstfruits of the resurrection.

So, no, we don’t hope for disembodiment. We don’t hope for escape. We hope for restoration, fulfillment, resurrection glory.

Friends, the promise of disembodiment is a lie. It sounds like freedom, but it ends in alienation and death. The true promise is this: your body matters. God made it, Christ redeemed it, and the Spirit indwells it.

So let’s live that truth with courage and joy. Let’s reject the lie. And let’s proclaim to the world: our hope is not to leave the body behind—but to rise with it, made new, forever.

Thanks for joining me today on the Podcast. Until next time, remember—your body is a temple, and your destiny is resurrection.

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Celebrate God’s Good Creation