New Book Project

I am working on a new book that I have tentatively titled Death and Judgment: Exploring the Final Frontier. Here is an exerpt from the Introduction:

I came to a place where I was unwilling to take anyone’s word for doctrine without studying the Scriptures for myself. Martin Luther’s cry of sola scriptura (scripture alone) seemed like a good place to start. I came to some initial conclusions about death, judgment and everything in between in my blog, wascanafellowship.wordpress.com, and later in my book, The Bible as Truth: Musings About Evolution, Jesus, Hell and Salvation.

I confess that I do not have the philosophical or theological sophistication of most who have looked at these issues before me. All I have going for me is that I believe what the Bible says right there on the surface of the text. I then use what it says on the surface to interpret other things it says that are based on previous writings. I take the plain meaning of words without complicating them unless the evidence for other, deeper meanings is overwhelming. You might call me a biblical literalist.

On the other hand, I let poetry be poetry, history be history and figures of speech be figures of speech whenever the textual evidence supports those readings. If God shows a prophet a vision, then explains the vision, I go with whatever explanation he provides, without assuming an allegorical meaning. Why add complexity to something God has already explained? Why reinterpret something that God has already interpreted?

There are many questions that we might want answered from the Bible. What is the meaning of life? What is salvation? What is death? What is resurrection? What is a “spiritual body?” What happens between death and resurrection to life or resurrection to judgment? What is final judgment and when does it happen? Is the final judgment simply a matter of pronouncing guilt and meting out punishment, or is there more to it? Did Jesus die the same kind of death that we do? If so, what does that mean for what happens when we die?

I have not found sufficient scriptural grounds to believe the popularized notion of conscious immortal souls who immediately go to heaven or hell upon death. Nor can I find evidence that all who have not known and accepted Jesus as Saviour and King during their lifetime are automatically consigned to an eternal conscious torment in hell. For that matter, I long ago concluded that Edward Fudge is correct in believing that hell’s torment is time–limited and ends in destruction (loss of existence) of the incorrigible sinner.¹

The time has come to test my initial conclusions by interacting with the works of very erudite and intelligent writers who have been at this for far longer than I have. These issues have been considered for many generations, and I discovered that a surprisingly diverse set of ideas about each of these issues has been believed by a surprising number of Christians over those many generations.

As a result, I changed some of my conclusions, as you will see below. In other areas I found more evidence supporting my other conclusions. Following those interactions I took a deeper dive into the notions of predestination, the fate of the lost, and whether there is any hope of post–mortem salvation. The results gave me a greater appreciation for the marvelous, world–changing grace of our Father in heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ.

What follows here is my attempt to develop a biblical theology of death and final judgment. The road will seem narrow and filled with twists and turns, but if you stay on it, you may find it leads to a place of peace, comfort and rest for your soul.