Chris's Courses @ Westlink: Recent Episodes
Chris Perrey
Courses on God, Scripture, and life from Chris Perrey, Family Life Minister for the Westlink Church of Christ. Current course is Revelation: Victory Unveiled, which looks at how this book was relevant in its time and in ours. How does God overcome evil, and is it the type of victory we'd expect?
An incident of sexual violence leads to even more violence. Plus a discussion of the authorship of Genesis.
Jacob meets his match in a powerful metaphor for his relationship with God, as he tries not to be killed by his brother.
The final stories of Abraham, and moving into Jacob's story to reflect on what God's choice does and doesn't mean.
The promise comes true, but then seems threatened by God's command. How should we wrestle with the Binding of Isaac?
Abraham's story continues with stories of trust and failure. And yet God blesses those we hurt and forget.
After one last Noah story, we move into the transitional story of Abraham, who responds to God's call and promise with faith (mostly).
Let's take a look at the flood story, focusing on how God is affected by and tries to deal with the human inclination toward evil. Does undoing creation really solve the problem?
Human morality declines with stories of murder and self-centeredness. How do Cain and the Towel of Babel illustrate impulses we still face?
Sin has consequences, but should we maintain them or work against them? How is God still working with humanity even after sin enters the picture?
What does it mean to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What tempts humanity to define right and wrong on our own terms before we're mature enough?
What's the job description for being human, and how do we relate to one another? Genesis depicts everything in harmony, not heirarchy.
What does it mean to be created in God's image, and to be human? And how do we reconcile the two creation stories in Genesis?
Our new series Questions in Genesis begins...in the beginning. How does the Hebrew creation story compare to other ancient creation stories? How is the Creator and creation good?
We come to the end with the final depiction of God making all things new and restoring all things. So who comes into the city whose gates are never shut?
More visions of the end, with a depiction of humanity's reign, and how judgment is more than pass/fail. You are in the Book of Life, and your actions matter.
The visions of the end begin with an often misunderstood symbol of Jesus' word of judgment.
Babylon appears as a symbol of oppressive empires throughout history, and how they're ultimately self-destructive.
The symbol of the bowls helps us consider how God's love, justice, and wrath all fit together. How do we reap what we sow?
Handout
Hebrew gematria (numbers = letters)
Caesar Nero as ultimate evil
Perversion of the Shema (Deut 6:4-8)
The mark & buying and selling
Handout
The irresistible beast
You reap what you sow
This session was shorter because I started with a video recap of the first 11 chapters from The Bible Project. It's not on the recording so I highly recommend you check it out.
Handout
Creation care
Symbolic meanings for the woman
Overcoming evil with good
In the Wilderness
Handout
Mystery, biblically speaking
The bittersweet scroll
How the church witnesses
The world's response to self-sacrifice
Handout
Echoes of Exodus
The locusts and God's use of evil empires
Punishment ≠ repentance
Retributive justice vs. restorative justice
Handout
How do We Understand the Message? Methods of interpretation
Symbolism
Who, When, and Where? Authorship & Setting
Handout available here
What is the message? Themes & Purpose
How is the message presented? Genre
Handout available here
Recap: resurrection, restoration, and views of hell
Revelation 21-22 as summary
- Fate of the wicked
- Invitation to life through open gates
- The nations and kings of the earth
- Warning and hope together
"Do all dogs go to heaven?"
- Restoration of all things
- Self-centered salvation
Mourning those not in heaven
- Memory, relationship, and identity
Judgment for murderers and philanthropic atheists
- Matthew 25 and judgment of "the nations"
- Jeremiah 31 - God's laws on the heart
"Does it matter if you like God?"
- Older brother syndrome
Conclusion: Bring heaven to earth
Handout available here
"All" passages exercise
Which view do we privilege or take at face value?
Does God get what God wants? (1 Tim 2:4 & 2 Pet 3:9)
Love gives freedom
"The doors of hell are locked on the inside." -C.S. Lewis
Definitions of freedom, modern vs. classic
Sin as ignorance
'Freedom' that's actually insanity
The cleansing fire of God - who or what consumed? (Heb 12:29)
Hell as unwanted loving presence of God
Justice and discipline (Rom 12:19-21)
Christian cleansing (Mark 9:49-50)
Next: Test case in Revelation 14 & 21-22 and your questions!
Handout available here
Review: Does hell torment, destroy, or purify?
Matthew 25:46 - How to translate and understand "eternal punishment"
Give 'em hell! Why we hold on to hell as torment
Objections to 'everyone goes to heaven!'
Purpose of Punishment
- Earthly and heavenly parental discipline (Matt 7:9-11)
- Padeiai, timoria, and kolasis - which does God not use?
- Retributive and restorative justice
- Justice = punishment fits the crime
- In the end, does God change?
The Mystery and Consistency of God
- Misuse of Isaiah 55:8-9 (see v. 7)
- Faithful followers question God's justice (Gen 18:25)
- Language, consistency, and meaning
- God's primary attribute (1 John 4)
The Parable of the King's Offer (Bradley Jersak)
Handout available here
What's hell like? What's it for?
What if there were no hell?
1 John 4:18, do we focus on fear or love?
Greek, Hebrew, and English terms
Sheol/Hades - the place of the dead (NOT hell)
Gehenna/corr
- Only 12 occurrences (really 6)
- Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, place of child sacrifice (2 Chronicles 28:3)
- Place of judgment by Babylon (Jeremiah 7:31-32)
- Jesus' use mirrors Jeremiah, with coming Roman destruction
- Brad Jersak, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut
Meaning of 'aionios' - eternal?
- How long it lasts or qualities of Age to come?
- Hebrews 9:12 & 2 Thessalonians 1:9
- Happens once and endures
Hell as Destruction
- Edward Fudge, The Fire That Consumes
- John 3:16 - what it plainly says and how it's interpreted
- Matthew 10:28; Romans 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3; Galatians 6:8 - destroyed/perish/corruption
- Implies destruction that endures, not ongoing torture
- Plato vs. Paul
- Is destruction not bad enough?
Handout available here
Grace vs. works
God's judgment will be perfectly just and perfectly loving
Saved by grace - Romans 8:1; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:4-9
Works still matter - Ephesians 2:10; James 2:12-17
Why work for good on earth? NT Wright, Surprised by Hope
Build for the kingdom
Saved and judged
Revelation 20:11-15 - Two sets of books
1 Corinthians 3:8-15 - Buildings tested by fire
Heavenly rewards? What is our crown?
Unloving Christians won't feel very much at home in heaven
Love endures from this life to the next - 1 Cor 13
Handout available here
Common views of what we do in heaven
Clip from The Good Place "Patty" - The problem of infinite pleasure
The Biblical Story of God, Creation, and Humanity
Inferior versions of the story (gospel of sin management)
Human dominion/responsibility for creation
Sin's effect on creation
Jesus restores our vocation
Scriptures about human rule
All good comes from God, sin is not fun
Eating and drinking in the afterlife?
Restful work
Participating in the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4)
Living our purpose now
Handout available here
Relationships in the afterlife are unclear, so start with the nature of God
The big picture - community
Social Trinity - God is Love
Not good to be alone (Gen 2:18)
Communal focus of Scripture vs. individual focus of American culture
Resurrection = you will still be you
1 Thessalonians 4:18 - we will be reunited with Christ and one another
Luke 20:27-38 - Marriage and the Resurrection
- Sadducee's beliefs about death and Scripture
- No marriage, no more marriage, or something else?
- Like angels, don't become angels
- Purpose of 1st century marriage - children to carry on your name
- Purpose of 21st century marriage?
Watching over us?
Finding God in all relationships now
Handout available here
Philippians 1:20-26
- Common struggle between going to be with Christ or being like Christ here
- Self-centered salvation
2 Corinthians 5:6-8
- Recap on Paul's metaphors for the current and resurrection bodies
- Away from the Lord now, with the Lord then
Acts 23:8-9 & 12:15
- Sadducees = no resurrection
- Angel = spirit = intermediate state of bodiless existence
Luke 16:19-31
- The Rich Man & Lazarus is a parable
- Focus of parable is wealth (not the afterlife)
- Problems with literal reading
- Abraham's side and Hades
Living the kingdom now - inflicting hell or bringing heaven to earth
Handout available here
Recap on our hopes and how they involve heaven
Two views of the intermediate state: soul sleep or soul in heaven
Resurrection as life after life after death
Luke 23:39-43 - Today in Paradise
- Paradise = Eden = heaven?
- Jesus between death and resurrection
- When Jesus comes into his kingdom
Two notes on reading Revelation responsibly
Revelation 6:9-11 - Martyrs before God's Throne
- Lamenting but resting
Revelation 7:9-10, 13-17 - The Great Multitude
Revelation 20:1-6
- Millennial reign as Jesus' ministry to now
- Christ's reign (1 Cor 15; Heb 2)
- Satan bound (Mark 3)
- First & second resurrection, first & second death
How we live in this intermediate state
Handout available here
Heaven as home concept more from songs than Scripture
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - Coming and Meeting
- Traditional reading: Jesus comes back and takes us to heaven
- Not 'The Rapture'
- Paul's pastoral purpose
- Left hanging in the air
- Parousia (royal visit) & apantesis (meeting and escorting the king)
Philippians 3:20-21 - Citizenship in Heaven
- Traditional reading: Citizens of heaven = heaven is home
- Citizenship in the Roman Empire & Philippi
- Jesus comes here from there (not vice versa)
John 14:1-3 - Jesus Prepares a Place
- What's not said
- Translations of 'dwelling places' (monai)
- Where/what is 'my Father's house'? (Answer is less clear than we assume)
- The place is prepared in heaven now to be revealed here later
The pastoral point: We are not abandoned (and neither is any of God's good creation)
BONUS SERMON from my archives, from the series 'Senseless: Trusting God When Life Goes Wrong.' What do we do when God fails to live up to the black and white promises of protection like we find in this Psalm?
Handout here
What we say about the end is what we say about God - destroyer or redeemer?
2 Peter 3:8-13 - Found through Fire
Differing translations of v. 10
Textual criticism and New Testament manuscripts
"Revealed" better reading than "burned up"
Fire as instrument of purifying and revealing
"The elements" - powers not periodic table
A new heavens and earth was justice happens
Romans 8:18-23 - The Redemption of Creation
What problem does Jesus’ death and resurrection deal with?
Creation subjected to death (by humanity)
The curse of Genesis 3:17-19
Creation in childbirth, new born from old
Implications for creation care
All things reconciled in Colossians 1:19-20 & Ephesians 1:10
NEXT WEEK: How the 'go to heaven' passages fit in
Handout available here
Implications of resurrection for creation
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In the end God will…
Isa 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1; Acts 3:21
Where, and what, is heaven?
Two concepts of God
The Marriage of Heaven and Earth (Revelation 21:1-5)
Who is going which direction?
The Incarnation and God's consistent movement
Definitions of 'new' (neos & kainos)
Biblical concepts with 're-'
New Heavens and New Earth (Isaiah 65:17-25)
Prophets are poetic (not literal)
The Lord's Prayer and our unchanging hope
This class was filmed ahead of time, so if you want to see my lovely face, watch me say all this on YouTube
Handout available here
How 2 Corinthians sound like Greek Platonism (but isn't)
Paul changed perspective because of suffering
Resurrection means reunion
Outer and inner, seen and unseen
Buildings and clothing metaphors
Textual variant - take off vs. put on
"In the heavens" and champagne analogy
Paul being pastoral and discussing preferences (see Phil 1:21-26)
Jesus' resurrection body has ghostly attributes and normal bodily attributes
The meaning of Jesus' ascension
The imperishable, perfected, resurrection body of Christ still has scars
Handout available here
From 'if' to 'how'
Seed analogy (see also John 12:24)
Body (soma) & flesh (sarx) in Paul's writing
Different biblical writers write differently (see John 1:14)
Our perishable, dishonorable, weak bodies
Soul-ish body (soma psychikon) & spiritual body (soma pneumatikon)
- Bad translations and better ones
- What animates the body, not what it's made of
"The image of the man of heaven"
"Flesh and blood"
Addition, not subtraction
The defeat of death
See the Icon of the Resurrection (Anastasis) which we discuss
Last verse - emphasis is ethical!
The Parable of the Acorn
BONUS SERMON EPISODE: What is hospitality, who is it for, and what makes it hard? How can we look for Christ in the stranger? Sermon starts after the reading of Genesis 18:1-10a.
Handout here
Recap on Greek vs. Jewish views of the body & soul
Justin Martyr on the resurrection
Resurrection as underlying issue of 1 Corinthians
Escapism vs. transformation
Importance of 15:58
The gospel (of resurrection)
If...then...
Put off by raising a body from the dead? 🧟♀️
This life only?
First fruits metaphor
Humanity's purpose (Gen 1:26 & Psalm 8:5-7)
Does 'all' mean 'all'?
Baptism on behalf of the dead 🤷♂️
Resurrection means love is never in vain, love survives
-Link to handout
-Book Club: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
-Resurrection in 2nd Temple Judaism -2 Maccabees 7 - Martyrdom of Seven Brothers (read online here)
-Resurrection is revolutionary
-Martha's hope for Lazarus (John 11:24)
-Paul the Pharisee's belief (Acts 23:6-8)
-Resurrection (anastasis) defined - body raised to new life after death
-NOT resuscitation or soul going to heaven
-Human Nature: Greek Philosophy (Plato)
- Soma sema
- Immaterial world (soul) is good, material world (body) is bad
- Platonism in the church
-Human Nature: Biblical Theology
- God created the material world and saw that it was _____ (Gen 1)
- Body + spirit = soul (Gen 2:7)
- The Incarnation
-Beliefs in 1st Century Corinth
-1 Cor 6:12-14 - Who thinks God will destroy the body, Paul or the Corinthians?
-Your body will always be part of you and your body is good!
-Download the handout
-TL;DR Old Testament beliefs about the afterlife are vague and focus is more on this life
-Bible Nerd Word: Sheol (the grave/realm of the dead)
-Hades vs. hell
-Good death & bad death, not good place & bad place
-Gathered to one's people and sleep
-No afterlife = no point?
-Two focal points: Family & Land
-OT meaning of 'salvation'
-Prophetic hopes of restoration
-"What about...?"
-Hints of a greater hope
-Resurrection Revealed
-Conclusions: Enjoy this life as God's gift
- Download the handout
- "None of this matters."
- Bible Nerd Word: Eschatology
- 1 bad reason to study the afterlife and 2 good ones
- Bible Nerd Word: Telos
- What you hope for = what you live for
- "Heaven and Earth" video from The Bible Project (watch here: https://thebibleproject.com/videos/heaven-and-earth/)
- Afterlife phrase comparison - unbiblical & biblical
- Primary hope: resurrection & restoration
- Methods & meaning
- What we say about the end is what we say about God