Heaven as Sharing in the Triune Life of God

This is a message based on John 14 and Jesus' teaching on the Father and the Spirit indwelling us, now and forever.

Into the Divine Nature, Into the Family God Is

A message on 2 Peter 1:1 - 4; God is a loving Tri-Unity, and salvation is His work of adjusting us to the culture of the Trinity

Heaven as Sharing in the Triune Life of God

This is a message based on John 14 and Jesus' teaching on the Father and the Spirit indwelling us, now and forever.

Into the Divine Nature, Into the Family God Is

A message on 2 Peter 1:1 - 4; God is a loving Tri-Unity, and salvation is His work of adjusting us to the culture of the Trinity

Hell as the Love of God

Text of an essay, along with long and short versions of a slide presentation. The long version comes from the 2022 Reconstruction class. This is a full exploration of how hell is the love of God because (1) the united church taught that for over a thousand years; (2) God's Triune nature requires all other activity of God to flow out of His love; (3) literary exegesis of fire shows that it is God's call to purification. This study largely depends on the theme of fire in Scripture. For more, see the resources on the page Divine Fire: God’s Goodness in the Theme of Fire.

The early Christian understanding of human destiny is that our ascent to God is infinite, because we are finite beings loved by an infinite God of love, which means infinite growth.

Papias, Fragment 5, says:

"But that there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce an hundredfold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold; for the first will be taken up into the heavens, the second class will dwell in Paradise, and the last will inhabit the city; and that on this account the Lord said, "In my Father's house are many mansions:" for all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-place, even as His word says, that a share is given to all by the Father, according as each one is or shall be worthy. And this is the couch in which they shall recline who feast, being invited to the wedding. The presbyters, the disciples of the apostles, say that this is the gradation and arrangement of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature; and that, moreover, they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father; and that in due time the Son will yield up His work to the Father, even as it is said by the apostle..."

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 38.3 says:

“By this arrangement, therefore, and these harmonies, and a sequence of this nature, man, a created and organized being, is rendered after the image and likeness of the uncreated God — the Father planning everything well and giving His commands, the Son carrying these into execution and performing the work of creating, and the Spirit nourishing and increasing [what is made], but man making progress day by day, and ascending towards the perfect, that is, approximating to the uncreated One. For the Uncreated is perfect, that is, God. Now it was necessary that man should in the first instance be created; and having been created, should receive growth; and having received growth, should be strengthened; and having been strengthened, should abound; and having abounded, should recover [from the disease of sin]; and having recovered, should be glorified; and being glorified, should see his Lord. For God is He who is yet to be seen, and the beholding of God is productive of immortality, but immortality renders one near unto God.”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 6.24, says:

"Conformably, therefore, there are various abodes, according to the worth of those who have believed. To the point Solomon says, "For there shall be given to him the choice grace of faith, and a more pleasant lot in the temple of the Lord." For the comparative shows that there are lower parts in the temple of God, which is the whole Church. And the superlative remains to be conceived, where the Lord is. These chosen abodes, which are three, are indicated by the numbers in the Gospel -- the thirty, the sixty, the hundred. And the perfect inheritance belongs to those who attain to 'a perfect man,' according to the image of the Lord."

Christopher John Gousmett, Shall the Body Strive and Not Be Crowned. Academia.edu PhD dissertation, University of Otago, 1993. Gousmett gives a great overview, citing and exploring multiple sources in early Christian history.

Closer to Truth, What is God's Judgment? | Episode 412 | Closer To Truth, Jan 21, 2021. Host Robert Lawrence Kuhn first interviews Christian scholars Richard Swinburne (Oxford philosopher) and John Polkinghorne (Cambridge physicist and Anglican priest). Both explain the human being as a human becoming, and therefore hell as the condition of having destroyed our sense of agreement with God’s definition of good and evil, healing and addiction. Kuhn also interviews representatives of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

Amanda McCracken, How Longing [for Love] Keeps Us from Healthy Relationships. TEDx Talks, Sep 29, 2023. McCracken shares her personal journey of realizing that she had become addicted to the longing for love, which was rooted in a sense of personal shame and also neuro-chemical realities about how we can become addicted to unrealistic fantasies, rather than believing she was worthy of love and understanding what healthy love is. This insight is going to be increasingly important to Christian spiritual formation.