Resources by Topic: Doctrine and Theology

In the previous blog I expressed concerns about some doctrines in the new bestselling book To Heaven and Back, by Mary Neal. This is my second and last article on this subject.

After its release two months ago, I guessed Mary Neal’s book To Heaven and Back would become an influential bestseller like its predecessors, so I read it. 

Question from a reader: On page 35 of the revised edition of Heaven, what do you mean when you write that Jesus took on the hell we deserve? I cannot explain this statement biblically. I can say that He took on our sins, that He faced the enemy on our behalf by dying, but did He really? Did He literally?

It’s been fascinating to watch the very vocal and prolific new atheists, such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, make a case for objective morality.

When I came across this statement somewhere, that bad doctrine is a cruel taskmaster, it stuck with me. I asked EPM staffer Julia Stager to provide some verses demonstrating it, and I added my summary statements to hers.

I don't deal with election in the Heaven book, though I do believe in election, since the Bible teaches it. Election does not change the default destination issue. All are conceived and born in sin; that is the sense in which our default destination is hell. 

Jesus is the center of our faith. These verses are evidence that true belief in God must include believing in Jesus Christ.

Last month Kevin DeYoung posted an excellent blog called “10 Reasons to Believe in a Historical Adam.” I can’t say enough about the importance of this subject. 

My experience has been that writing long emails back and forth on areas of disagreement is rarely helpful in resolving a theological issue, particularly when both parties have arrived at their positions over a long period of time.

Question from a reader: I understand that the Lord allows His people to either enter the Intermediate Heaven or, if they have not come to the Lord in faith, to be sent to the Intermediate Hell…but I am wondering what passage of Scripture supports this statement. 

God is triune. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father and Son are both explicitly masculine terms. The Holy Spirit could be viewed as gender neutral, through His comforting and nurturing roles suggest attributes we usually associate with females.  

Question from a reader: On page 359 of your Heaven book, you mention speaking with the saints of old: “I would like to ask Elijah about being taken away in the chariot.” Elijah and Elisha were separated by a chariot of fire, but both NIV and KJV say in II Kings 2:11 that Elijah “went up to Heaven in a whirlwind.”  

When Jesus called His first disciples: Simon (who is also called Peter), his brother Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, they are said to have “immediately” left everything to follow Jesus.

I’m sure this passage in Genesis could have been further clarified, but perhaps it doesn’t need to be. God must have created out of nothing because there was nothing before he created (otherwise he would not be God).