Scot McKnight shows in this book that the vision of Heaven the Bible gives is precisely what we need for a vision of what life should be on earth through Jesus by the gospel through the church.

If you want a book recounting traditional teaching from scripture on Heaven, you need to look elsewhere. But if you want a book that moves toward breaking new ground and is potentially a paradigm changer in one’s faith, you’ve found a great book here.

McKnight begins by considering how the subject has been approached, and how it ought to be approached. McKnight’s writings seek to be true to what the Bible says. In McKnight’s understanding, the reason Heaven matters is because God promised it to us. Thus, it’s as good as the God who promised it. And the promise of Heaven relies on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Heaven is a resurrection world.

The most important part of the book is the groundwork McKnight lays from scripture, listening and challenging tradition. Orthodoxy is often much wider than many seem to acknowledge. The important thing is to remain faithful to the spirit and truth of the gospel.

Heaven is essentially the promise from God in and through Jesus and Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. What will be true of Heaven? God will be God, Jesus will be Jesus, Heaven will be the utopia of pleasures, Heaven will be eternal life, Heaven will be an eternal global fellowship, and Heaven will be an eternal beloved community.

What will the first hour of Heaven will be like? McKnight’s view is a stark contrast from the traditional Roman Catholic view of Purgatory. His emphasis is not on human cooperation but on God’s grace. Entrance into Heaven will be a transformation that will leave no stones unturned, including the need for reconciliation in what was left of very broken relationships on earth.

The issues addressed near the end of the book are near-death experiences, rewards in Heaven, who will be there, the fairness of God, whether our children and even spouses still have a special relationship to us, children who die, cremation, purgatory, pets in Heaven, and why one should believe in Heaven in the first place. Be ready for some surprises, and to be challenged as to what scripture actually teaches on some things. McKnight places an appropriate emphasis on the hope and the wideness of God’s mercy without resorting to universalism.

The two great views of Heaven in the church, that it is an ecstatic worship experience largely between gathered individuals and their God, or that it is a time of great communion in love and work and service in the kingdom end up being joined together in God’s vision of Heaven from scripture. Heaven is a dynamic, not static existence.

I would commend this book as a good model to help us think biblically. This book helps us see that the vision of Heaven is related to the entire Story found in scripture. Our view of Heaven directly impacts our view of earth and life in the present, since Heaven is destined to come down to be joined to and become one with earth in Jesus. God’s will is to be perfectly done on earth as it is in heaven.

Reviewed by Ted Gossard

Engage Further:

“Scot McKnight Answers Questions on the Topic of Heaven – The Heaven Promise” [Vimeo]

Scot McKnight, “10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Heaven: Who will be there? Are near-death experiences reliable? And more on eternal life” On Faith (October 6, 2015).

Scot McKnight, “The Heaven Promise Podcast” Jesus Creed (November 5, 2015).

Preview The Heaven Promise: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Heaven_Promise.html?id=JHYlBgAAQBAJ

Publisher’s page: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/books/236717/the-heaven-promise-by-scot-mcknight/

N. T. Wright, The Paul Debate: Critical Questions for Understanding the Apostle (Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2015), xi + 110 pages.

I must confess that I am writing this double-review with both volumes of N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Fortress Press, 2013), sitting on my desk, partially open, and partially read. I must also come clean that I have intentionally decided to read first the two books under review in part because I am unsure when I will finish the Wright magnum opus (so far), but I have read and been positively challenged both by Wright’s Christian Origins and the Question of God series which go back to the early 1990s (to which Paul and the Faithfulness of God adds the fourth installment) and his earlier book on Paul (What Saint Paul Really Said, Eerdmans, 1997). For those who find themselves in situations somewhat like mine, I say up front: Paul and His Recent Interpreters (PRI) and The Paul Debate (PD) are very different books that interface with Paul and the Faithfulness of God (PFG) in contrasting ways, and will not in the end alleviate from those serious about the New Testament the burden of taking up and persisting through the latter books. Let me explain.

Wright tell us in the preface to PRI that as originally imagined, it intended to serve as an introduction to PFG, particularly in terms of mapping the trajectories of Pauline scholarship in the modern era. However, the material “quickly became more complex than I had imagined, to the point where it could no longer be contained within the larger book” (PRI, xvii). One response might be that tacking on the 350 plus pages of PRI to the beginning of PFG would have resulted in an expansion of book 1 to about the current size of book 2; on the other hand, the complicating factors appear to be less about size or length than with conceptuality, and perhaps setting off PRI on its own account can be appreciated only after working through the details of PFG.

What PRI does, then, is situate PFG within the broader landscape of Pauline studies, particularly around the turn of the twenty-first century. The three parts of PRI unfold three dominant conversations about Paul: 1) on the Jewishness of the apostle, particularly as negotiated and disputed after E. P. Sanders’ Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1997); 2) on Paul as apocalyptic thinker and theologian from Ernst Käsemann at mid-century through J. C. Beker, J. L. Martyn, and Douglas Campbell more recently; and 3) on the social world of Paul and the apostolic Christians, particularly as initiated and developed by the work of Wayne Meeks and David Horrell. While the discussions are explicated along separate tracks (in the three parts), Wright’s account clarifies the interconnections while also locating how these important issues are relevant to other developments in Pauline scholarship, whether the so-called “New Perspective,” those working in empire studies, or the philosophical-continental Paul. Along the way, we get glimpses about how Wright’s own constructive vision in PFG has been shaped in dialogue with these developments. In particular, we understand better Paul, not to mention Jesus, as Jewish and apocalyptic visionaries, but in ways that make sense given the social and historical world of first century Palestinian life under the shadow of the Greco-Roman empire and amidst Hellenistic culture.

Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary.

Ben Witherington III, “Why I’m Not Hoping For Heaven: Jesus’ miracles promise a better fate—including for my daughter, who died at age 32” Christianity Today (April 2016).

Ben Witherington on faith, healing, the miracles of Jesus, and resurrection.

Eddie L. Hyatt, “7 Important Lessons from Azusa Street” CharismaNews.com (April 11, 2016).

Eddie Hyatt writes: “In 2005, I was asked to edit the Azusa Street Papers, published between 1906-08, for publication and write an introductory chapter. The book was subsequently published by Charisma House under the title Fire on the Earth: Eyewitness Reports From the Azusa Street Revival, and used as the official book for the Azusa Centennial held in Los Angeles in 2006.

“In doing the research, which required reading through those papers again and again, certain emphases and themes stood out—emphases and themes that need to be revisited by those seeking revival in our day. I have, therefore, categorized below quotes from those old Azusa Street Papers that will guide us in our quest for revival in the 21st century.”

Roger E. Olson, “A Pentecost Sermon: The Holy Spirit” Patheos (May 14, 2016).

Today is Pentecost Sunday. That’s our Christian celebration of the birth of the church as recounted in Acts 2. … So what happened then, in that “upper room,” that birthed the Christian church? Christian tradition says what happened was the Holy Spirit was for the first time given to people—as an indwelling gift. The Holy Spirit, who before had been a somewhat elusive presence and power of God descending on prophets, suddenly came to dwell within Jesus’s followers.

Michael Brown, “Five Reasons Why I’m Not Worried About the Antichrist” In the Line of Fire (April 4, 2016).

This brief post on End times was recommended to PneumaReview.com with this comment: “Nice article from Dr. Brown. Not theologically deep, but good.”

“Jesus Is Alive in London: A snapshot of Christian witness in the world” Christianity Today (May 2016).

“For every Anglican church that closed in London since 2010, more than three Pentecostal churches opened.”

 J. Lee Grady, “10 Occupational Hazards of Ministry” Fire in My Bones (May 25, 2016).

Lee Grady, former editor of Charisma, offers warnings to young ministers about hardships they must expect if they want to survive and thrive in their callings.

I had been given opportunity to review Denzil R. Miller’s 35 page booklet, Spirit-Empowered Mission: Africa’s Decade of Pentecost and the New Testament “Strategy of the Spirit.” Miller gives us here a brief overview of a continent-wide initiative of the Africa Assemblies of God Alliance (AAGA) from 2010-2020 known as the Decade of Pentecost (DOP) to evangelize Africa.

Denzil Miller offers a brief but honest evaluation of the work, its successes and challenges in terms of the Great Commission to evangelize the sub-Sahara Africa and Indian Ocean Basin areas of the continent which requires indigenously raising all the resources, finances as well as personnel, to “go into all Africa” and “make disciples of all African tribes and clans.”

Miller supports a Pauline approach to evangelization. A large part of this brief work is taken up in referencing Paul’s missionary focus. And as Paul pointed out to community after community, this work requires an empowerment only available with an infilling of the Spirit. Miller refers to this as “A Spirit-driven Call to Missions.”

“The evangelization of Africa,” Miller maintains, “[needs] an ongoing information database … to be shared with our constituent national churches, strategic partnerships across the continent between the national churches affiliated with the [AAGA], a strategic prayer network focusing on the unreached peoples of Africa, missional mentoring among … national churches [the indigenous principle, and] … compassion ministries, all the while remaining focused on the core mandate of the church, that is, reaching the lost for Christ.”

He concludes by saying, “Therefore, during these final seven years [since 2013] of the DOP initiative, we anticipate the greatest forward advance, and the greatest harvest of souls, in the one-hundred year history of the church of Africa.”

Reviewed by John King

Find Spirit-Empowered Mission on the Decade of Pentecost free download page: http://www.decadeofpentecost.org/booklets/

Dr. Denzil R. Miller has written an important and timely work that will be a great tool for pastors and teachers of the Pentecostal persuasion.

This small e-book lists all the ingredients that are necessary for a much neglected subject. Miller begins by addressing what he calls a “troubling decline in spiritual experience”, which can be reversed as there is a “reawakening among Pentecostal preachers”. He makes compelling arguments for preaching and teaching on this important subject.

This brief introduction followed by Miller addressing four preliminary considerations—priority, context, focus, and preach with faith, and three important goals—create desire, inspire expectant faith, and bring to clear understanding—gets the reader ready for the meat of his message—the sermon itself.

Miller provides the reader with an abundance of Scriptures to support his writing, which will be beneficial to the pastor and teacher.

He concludes by giving detailed information on conducting an altar call.

Pastors and teachers who have neglected preaching and teaching on this subject will be most grateful for this practical work.

Reviewed by Larry Russi

Find How to Preach on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit on the Decade of Pentecost free download page: http://www.decadeofpentecost.org/booklets/

This work is part of a pamphlet series produced by the Assemblies of God World Mission for their Acts in Africa initiative. It can be downloaded without cost. The author is an Assemblies of God missionary to Africa and prolific writer. Traveling and preaching all over East Africa, he also served as academic dean of the Assemblies of God Seminary in Malawi.

Overcoming the Enemy gives basic instructions on both personal exorcisms and expulsion and binding of territorial demons. The latter is a ministry pioneered by C. Peter Wagner who has written extensively on this controversial ministry.

This work has many pluses. For one, the author avoids speculating on the exact nature of the demonic hierarchies; something other authors attempt. His steps in preparing for the ministry and the deliverance ministry itself are clear and succinct. It has a useful, simple bibliography of works cited.

On the other hand, this pamphlet attempts too much in too little space (36 pages). It lacks specific examples of exorcisms or the binding of territorial spirits. It may give the new Christian the impression that the deliverance process is easy. However, it could be very useful as a resource (it is a free download) for a Bible study or home group that is led by someone who is experienced in the deliverance/exorcism ministry and can flesh out the details.

Reviewed by William De Arteaga

Find Overcoming the Enemy on the Decade of Pentecost free download page: http://www.decadeofpentecost.org/booklets/

In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist refers to Jesus, saying, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy and fire.” The Bible is very clear that Jesus is the one who implements this baptism, immersing us in the Holy Spirit. We also read in Act 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”. This is a biblical truth that can transform our lives, however we need to recognize the importance of retaining and cultivating our relationship.

I am so thankful to Denzil R. Miller’s reminder of the importance of maintaining the Spirit-Empowered life. As he mentioned, “Failure to do this will result in backsliding and loss of power.” It is clear to me, that failure to see the importance of maintaining the Spirit-Empowered life will produce a devaluing of what God is valuing.

Denzil R. Miller will encourage the reader to value the Baptism of Holy Spirt in a way that will be fruitful in your life and ministry. You will want to read and study what he gives as the, “Guidelines for Maintaining a Spirit-Empowered Life.” As he beautifully states, “Life in the Spirit in not an automatic thing. It must be nourished and cared for.” His teaching encourages me to continue to pray, Dear Jesus, let me value what you value.

Reviewed by Alan James Schrader

Find Maintaining the Spirit-Empowered Life on the Decade of Pentecost free download page: http://www.decadeofpentecost.org/booklets/

John Lathrop interviews award-winning photographer Shamow’el Rama Surya for PneumaReview.com about his art and what he has seen God doing in remote places in West Papua.

John Lathrop: You are a photographer. How long have you been doing photography?

Shamow’el Rama Surya: My career in photography has already spanned more than 25 years. Starting in 1990, I studied photography in Bandung, West Java after I graduated from High School in my hometown in West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Lathrop: I know that you are also a Christian. Please tell our readers how you became a believer in Jesus.

Surya: I became a Christian on May 10, 2012. On that day, there was an event by a church in Jakarta who was doing a mass baptism service, about 500 people registered. I came there to take photographs of them. It was colossal to see so many people being baptized in this ceremony in the water. And it looked great on camera.

But, when I was there, God’s Spirit touched me and I felt a strong desire that I wanted to get saved as well. So, I spoke with an old lady beside me, telling her that I wanted to be baptized also, like others in this place. The lady’s response was to go quickly and register me. And she asked me, “Have you ‘new born’?”

I replied, “What’s that?”

The lady answered, “Okay, just follow my every word and at the end say Amen.”

So, I followed her instructions, I repeated the words and I said Amen.

I received a Bible as a gift from the lady’s friend, and since that day I started reading the Word of God.

God’s truth has set me free!

Shamow’el Rama Surya with students at Junior School.

Lathrop: In 2014, you made a trip to West Papua. What was the purpose of that trip?

Surya: A Christian ministry called Pelangi, “rainbow,” sent me to West Papua as a teacher. Pelangi ministers to street children from scavengers’ families in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Because the school has no English teacher, they requested that I teach English for the students there.

Before they sent me to Papua, I worked in Jakarta for five months.

After I came back from Papua, I worked with a publisher to produce a book named A Certain Grace.

Most non-Christians think that the Bible reduces to mere interpretation. So why do not more Christians focus on hermeneutics? This is a perennial question that needs to be resolved. Postmodernity, though not fully expressed yet, nevertheless is in full swing at the moment. In postmodernism, it seems, one literary item means one thing to one, and another thing to another. This situation was not the case with the Apostle Paul; rather, he postulated that there were both right ways and wrong ways to understand the Bible.

There are many joys of understanding the Bible correctly; for example, one can hear God’s voice directly; moreover, one can find the truth of the heavenly realm and how to get there; thirdly, one can find out what preoccupies God. This is a book that helps one to find the joy of the Bible, as well as how to understand the Bible. This is not a predefined, laid-out methodology of steps to take; rather, herein one learns principles to apply and thereby learn to do Bible study on their own. Do not leave it to the experts. One can and should do it for themselves.

Andrew Sach

Nigel Beynon

Reading the Bible is both a science and an art. As a science, it is both rigorous and disciplined. As an art, it is something you learn by doing, almost as if by catching something. Each chapter of this small book introduces you to a separate tool of Bible study and explains how it works. At the end of each chapter, there are “dig deeper” exercises that allow one to practice using the tools oneself. The authors deem the Bible a “divine book” (18). Moreover, they contend that one needs God’s Spirit within them in order to interpret and apply the Word in today’s environ. However, the Bible is also a human book; so then, we need to recognize that the Bible was written in a particular time, by particular people, and for particular circumstances. God speaks to us, though, through their particularity.

In applying the principles in this text to Biblical interpretation, one needs to keep in mind the purpose, context, structure, linked words within and beyond the text, vocabulary, tone and feel, repetition, inner textual allusions, genre, and the implications from the text. Herein, one finds suggestions to do just this. I would unhesitantly recommend this title for those Christians who desire to understand the Bible better, and thereafter apply it in their lives.

Reviewed by Bradford McCall

Publisher’s page: https://www.crossway.org/books/dig-deeper-tpb/

Image: Matt Popovich

The Lord has sent us to bring Him glory and alleviate with prayer and loving acts much of the evil and chaos we learn about and encounter. Negative news gives us opportunities to “stand in the gap” for our nation, and for the salvation and welfare of others. The model for this is Moses, when he pleaded with God not to destroy the Israelites. God informed Moses that He was about to annihilate them after they had defied Him by creating a golden calf.  What worse news can there be? And what more authoritative news anchor man? But Moses interceded, and actually changed God’s mind, yes, that is what the scripture says, and the Chosen people lived and were permitted to go on into their destiny (Ex 32:11-14).  Here are some practical examples of “praying the news” for the sake of the Kingdom.

Read the full article: “Pray the News – And bring revival to the nations!”

http://anglicalpentecostal.blogspot.com/2016/05/praying-news-and-bring-revival-to.html