nouwenHeaven and Hell

Is everybody finally going to be all right?  Are all people ultimately going to be free from misery and all their needs fulfilled?  Yes and no! 

Yes, because God wants to bring us home into God's Kingdom.  No, because nothing happens without our choosing it.  The realisation of the Kingdom of God is God's work, but for God to make God's love fully visible in us, we must respond to God's love with our love.

There are two kinds of death:  a death leading us into God's Kingdom, and a death leading us into hell.  John in his vision saw not only heaven, but also hell.  He says:  "The legacy for cowards, for those who break their word, or worship obscenities, for murderers and the sexually immoral, and for sorcerers, worshippers of false gods or any other sort of liars, is the second death in the burning lake of sulphur" (Revelation 21:8).   We must choose for God if we want to be with God.


Reflections to Consider

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Publications

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Music

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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Embracing God's Mystery +

    One of the sad aspects of humanity is our jadedness, Read More
  • Soaring by Surrendering +

    How do birds soar? Read More
  • Transcendence & Immanence +

    Scripture Isaiah 57:15 For this is what the high and exalted One says— Read More
  • October Devotional: Deliverance +

    Isaiah 49: 8 This is what the Lord says: Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Transforming this World: The Hope of Glory by NT Wright +

    Wright confronts the perspective that this world doesn’t matter, and that we live only to be in heaven. He shows… Read More
  • What is Good in a World that Defies Hope: a talk by NT Wright +

    This is the second part of three talks by NT Wright at Harvard University in November, 2008 on the topic… Read More
  • The Stream, the Lake and the River: NT Wright +

      Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39; a sermon at the Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost, 11 May 2008, by the… Read More
  • Jesus in the Perfect Storm by NT Wright +

    Zechariah 9.9-17; Luke 19.28-48; A sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011, In the University Chapel of St Salvator, St… Read More
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