Jim Hamilton in his highly recommended commentary on Revelation (pages 381-382):

My friend Denny Burk had prayed a beautiful prayer during our wedding ceremony, and the morning after the wedding I sat at the kitchen tale, reading that prayer. Before long I was weeping. I think it was a kind of emotional catharsis. Before the wedding I was amazed that I might get to be Jill’s husband (I’m still amazed by it!), and I couldn’t wait for it to happen. Now I was overwhelmed that it had really come true.

To be honest, I wondered if there was anything else to look forward to in life. The best day of my life had come and gone. Was there anything left to long for in life? I was too short-sighted to see that life with Jill was going to be even better than our wedding day itself and there were all sorts of things to look forward to, from doing things together to having children to walking life’s pathways and enjoying each other’s company. Just being with her is a blessing unto itself.

Perhaps when you think about what will happen in the new heaven and new earth you wonder if there will be anything else to look forward to. Perhaps you wonder if all suspense, all the drama, all the tension will be gone. To think about the new earth as through there might not be sufficient contrast to make it interesting would be as foolish as a single man being worried that after the wedding day there is nothing left to which to look forward.

In the context of forgiveness, I have previously written that A soft view of hell makes hard people. Those who do not believe that people will stand before a just judge are far more likely to be bitter about wrongs done to them. Now a Huffington Post article reviews a study that shows that those who do not believe in hell are more likely to commit crimes.

Religions are thought to serve as bulwarks against unethical behaviors. However, when it comes to predicting criminal behavior, the specific religious beliefs one holds is the determining factor, says a University of Oregon psychologist.

The study, appearing in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, found that criminal activity is lower in societies where people’s religious beliefs contain a strong punitive component than in places where religious beliefs are more benevolent. A country where many more people believe in heaven than in hell, for example, is likely to have a much higher crime rate than one where these beliefs are about equal. The finding surfaced from a comprehensive analysis of 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries.

Read the rest here.

Where will you spend eternity? If you’re a Christian, then it will be on earth (as it is in heaven). But what earth?

Dr. Mike Wittmer has an important post on the continuity between this earth and the New Earth where Christians spend eternity. In this post he interacts with a recent book, but even if you haven’t read the book, you will benefit from the post.

I haven’t yet dug into What is the Mission of the Church?, the new book by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert. It looks promising, and I plan to read it carefully soon. I did read their section on the continuity and discontinuity of the new earth (p. 213-19), and thought I could make a few contributions to their discussion.

1. They rightly note that Scripture teaches both discontinuity (Matt. 24:35–“heaven and earth will pass away”) and continuity (Rom. 8:18-25–“creation itself will be liberated”) between this world and the next. Indeed, both elements are included in the phrase, “new earth.” The term “new” implies that something is different while the term “earth” means that much remains the same. Kevin and Greg make an admirable and helpful attempt to explain both groups of passages.

2. They suggest that one way to understand the biblical teaching of discontinuity and continuity is that perhaps this earth will experience a death and resurrection (p. 216). If this earth is burned up and dies, then there is discontinuity between this world and the next. And if this earth is raised again, like a phoenix from the ashes, then there will also be continuity (p. 217). I think this is a helpful way to think about how the end might go, though I also think that their suggestion implies more continuity than they realize. Let me explain.

3.  There must be much continuity between the resurrected earth and the present earth, because if the new earth is too different from the present earth, then it hasn’t been resurrected but replaced. The same is true of you. If the “resurrection you” is too different from the “present you,” then you will not have been redeemed but replaced (note the future pluperfect tense, a difficult tense to pull off. This is one of those times I wish I had a blog editor). So their hypothesis of cosmic death and resurrection does not leave the continuity/continuity question as unresolved as they think (p. 219). It actually is a strong argument for continuity. The resurrected you and the resurrected earth must be really you and the earth, or there is no resurrection.

Read the rest here.

As Z points outs, this is only the smallest foretaste of what it will be like for Christians on the New Earth when we have resurrection bodies.

HT: Denny Burk

From The Gospel Coalition Blog:

We’re continuing our new feature, “You Asked,” where readers send us theological, biblical, and practical ministry questions that we pass along to The Gospel Coalition’s Council members and other friends for an answer we can share in this space. If you’d like to ask a question, send it to ask@thegospelcoalition.org along with your full name, city, and state.

We posed today’s question to Justin Taylor, vice president of editorial at Crossway Books and blogger at Between Two Worlds. He’s contributed to and edited several books, such as The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World and The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. He was also the managing editor for the ESV Study Bible.

Andrew G., from Suffolk, UK, writes:

What are these rewards in heaven which Jesus talks about? Should thought of receiving them motivate us?

Taylor answers:

In its most general sense, “reward” (Greek, misthos) is the appropriate consequence or consummation of a course of action. . .

Read the rest here.

Francis Chan reflects on people who begin sentences with phrases like, “I can’t believe in a God who. . .” This brief video is well worth 10 minutes of your time.

HT: Randy Alcorn