Over half of Americans believe in a literal heaven, in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. Ehrman shows that eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament, and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. He recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. Ehrman shows that competing views were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. -- adapted from jacket
Most contemporary Christians acknowledge the doctrine of hell, but they’d rather not think about how God punishes the wicked. The authors of Four Views on Hell meet this subject head-on with different views on what the Scriptures say. Is hell to be understood literally as a place of eternal smoke and flames? Or are such images simply metaphors for a real but different form of punishment? Is there such a thing as “conditional immortality,” in which God annihilates the souls of the wicked rather than punishing them endlessly? Is there a Purgatory, and if so, how does it fit into the picture? The interactive Counterpoints forum allows the reader to see the four views on hell—literal, metaphorical, conditional, and purgatorial—in interaction with each other. Each view in turn is presented, critiqued, and defended. This evenhanded approach is ideal for comparing and contrasting views in order to form a personal conclusion about one of Christianity’s key doctrines. The Counterpoints series provides a forum for comparison and critique of different views on issues important to Christians. Counterpoints books address two categories: Church Life and Bible and Theology. Complete your library with other books in the Counterpoints series.
Over 1 Million Copies Sold! Have you ever wondered . . . ? What is Heaven really going to be like? What will we look like? What will we do every day? Won’t Heaven get boring after a while? We all have questions about what Heaven will be like, and after twenty-five years of extensive research, Dr. Randy Alcorn has the answers. In the most comprehensive and definitive book on Heaven to date, Randy invites you to picture Heaven the way Scripture describes it—a bright, vibrant, and physical New Earth, free from sin, suffering, and death, and brimming with Christ’s presence, wondrous natural beauty, and the richness of human culture as God intended it. This is a book about real people with real bodies enjoying close relationships with God and each other, eating, drinking, working, playing, traveling, worshiping, and discovering on a New Earth. Earth as God created it. Earth as he intended it to be. The next time you hear someone say, “We can’t begin to image what Heaven will be like,” you’ll be able to tell them, “I can.” “Other than the Bible itself, this may well be the single most life-changing book you’ll ever read.” —Stu Weber “This is the best book on Heaven I’ve ever read.” —Rick Warren “Randy Alcorn’s thorough mind and careful pen have produced a treasury about Heaven that will inform my own writing for years to come.” —Jerry B. Jenkins “Randy does an awesome job of answering people’s toughest questions about what lies on the other side of death.” —Joni Eareckson Tada About the Author Randy Alcorn is an author and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries, a nonprofit ministry dedicated to teaching principles of God’s Word and assisting the church in ministering to unreached, unfed, unborn, uneducated, unreconciled, and unsupported people around the world. A New York Times bestselling author of over 50 books, including Heaven, The Treasure Principle, If God Is Good, Happiness, and the award-winning novel Safely Home, his books sold exceed eleven million copies and have been translated into over seventy languages.
Most evangelical Christians believe that those people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favor of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed, but due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the "second death"--an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earl Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.
Heaven has received a lot of attention in recent years as bestselling books and movies have told the stories of people who claim to have been there. But what does the Bible actually say about heaven? What difference does it make? What happens the moment after we die? What will our relationships be like in heaven? Chip Ingram sets aside the hype and myths and digs into the Scriptures to discover what God actually wants us to know about the hereafter. Most importantly, Ingram shows why our understanding of heaven matters now, in this life. Because what we believe about heaven actually affects us today in ways we may not have imagined.
God’s Story Will End Better than It Began . . . Experienced Bible teacher Nancy Guthrie traces 9 themes throughout the Bible, revealing how God’s plan for the new creation will be far more glorious than the original. But this new creation glory isn’t just reserved for the future. The hope of God’s plan for his people transforms everything about our lives today.
For Christians, eternity is an exciting promise, but many do not know the details of what life will be like in heaven and throughout eternity. 50 Days of Heaven allows the reader to stop wondering about heaven by teaching the biblical facts regarding what's so wonderful about Heaven. The devotional provides an easy-to-follow, 50-day program that reveals the biblical information on what a Christian's life will be like in heaven. Throughout this journey, the reader will learn and meditate upon the promises, rewards, and expectations that a believer in Christ will enjoy for eternity. This devotional draws on the teachings in Randy Alcorn's best-selling book Heaven.
Have You Ever Wondered . . . What will Heaven look like? Will I recognize my family and friends? Will childhood pets be there? We all have questions about what Heaven will be like, and now the answers are right at your fingertips! Inspired by Randy Alcorn’s million-copy bestseller, Heaven, this beautiful little book provides solid, biblically based answers to more than 100 questions about God, Heaven, angels, and eternity. So if you’ve ever wondered if Heaven is for real—the answer is yes! In fact, you won’t believe how real it actually is.
FIRST IN A NEW SERIES! Tucked away in the rolling Tennessee countryside is the charming community of Watervalley, whose inhabitants are quirky and captivating and more surprising than you might expect… As an ambitious young doctor with a penchant for research, Luke Bradford never wanted to set up practice in a remote rural town. But to pay back his student loans and to fulfill a promise from his past, he heads for Watervalley, Tennessee—and immediately stumbles into one disaster after another. Will he be labeled the town idiot before he’s even introduced as the new doctor? Very quickly he faces some big challenges—from resuscitating a three-hundred-pound farmer who goes into cardiac arrest to not getting shot by a local misanthrope for trespassing. He expects the people of Watervalley to be simple, but finds his relationships with them are complicated, whether he’s interacting with his bossy but devout housekeeper, the attractive schoolteacher he consistently alienates, or the mysterious kid next door who climbs trees while wearing a bike helmet. When a baffling flu epidemic hits Watervalley, Luke faces his ultimate test. Whether the community embraces him or not, it’s his responsibility to save them. And he’ll soon discover that while living in a small town may not be what he wants, it may be just what he needs… READERS GUIDE INCLUDED For stories, recipes, and anecdotes from your favorite Watervalley characters, visit watervalleybooks.com.
"Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth, was chosen by God to conceive and give birth to his only Son, Jesus Christ, as foretold by the Old Testament prophets. At the Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus A.D. 431) Orthodox bishops proclaimed that the Virgin Mary had contained God himself in her womb and, therefore, should be praised as "Birth-giver of God" for her essential role in the mystery of the Incarnation." "At the Church's recognition of her place in christological doctrine, popular veneration of the Virgin grew and feastdays commemorating her began to be added to the Constantinopolitan Church calendar. The twelve sermons translated in this volume are the work of eighth-century preachers John of Damascus, Germanos of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete, John of Euboea, and Kosmas Vestitor and were likely preached in the course of all-night vigils for the feasts in honor of the Virgin."--BOOK JACKET.
