HEAVEN NOW

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NOTES

The Bible is indeed a fascinating book with intriguing stories and profound ideas that could satisfy curiosity for many lifetimes. But, if we aren’t careful, satisfying curiosity is all we will use the Bible for and miss out on all its other benefits.

People misuse the Bible in many ways and for many reasons. In recent posts, I’ve addressed how heaven-aimed Christianity causes people to misunderstand and, therefore, misuse the Bible. Heaven-aimed Christianity purports that God made us for heaven and sent Christ to save us and to take us to heaven to live with him there forever without ever living on something like an earth. That chasm between life right now and what life will be like causes immense confusion about what it means to follow Christ right now. If humanity forfeited an earth, then why are we still here and how should we live until we get to heaven. For this post, the question is, “Why is the Bible so long if its main point is to teach us how to get to heaven?” Heaven-aimed Christianity misconstrues the answer to that question.

How? Well, God must have given us the Bible for more than giving us the gateway to heaven. Why else would it be so long and contain all its fascinating stories and ideas. So once we know how to get to heaven—and that info takes only about two minutes to learn—when then do we do with the Bible? Let it collect dust? Surely not. Surely it’s more useful than a dust collector. Heaven-aimed Christians know this instinctively so they in good faith put the Bible to use, but their heaven-aimed assumptions lead them astray.

Here’s another way heaven-aimed Christianity leads folks astray. Assuming God made us for heaven tempts people to use the Bible as nothing more than an escape. Assuming God made us for heaven tempts people to use the Bible as nothing more than a fanciful distraction. Something to make the time pass—useful for nothing more than scratching the itch of our curiosity.

Okay. What does this look like? I often see this happen in three ways.

First, people read the Bible in order to glean mysteries about God and this world from it. Did some obscure statement in Ezekiel foreshadow World World One? Did Jesus predict the aids virus in Revelation 2? If you lay out the Bible in a scroll like fashion with 30 lines and each line having 30 letters and then you take the fifth and seventeenth letter of each line, then you’ll find the date of the of the end of the world. Do you see what I mean? Folks do that! The emphasis is less on what the Bible plainly says and more about what you can creatively make it say.

Second, people read the Bible only to understand its history. What really happened? Why did it happen? What are the consequences of the event? If I err in any way, it is often in this way because I am a student of the Bible and I think it fascinating on its own right. But reading it merely for scholarly purposes or as pleasure reading prevents you from accessing all the benefits it offers.

Third, people read the Bible only to correlate end-times prophesies with current geopolitical events. In my Christian circles this is very common. To have an interest only in what the Bible says about the last days and then to read the newspaper and predict what nation or what leader might do what in order to set the world stage in order for the last days to initiate. Now, the Bible does have quite a bit to say about the end of the world. And what it does say, we do well to learn, believe, and heed. But reading to Bible only for understanding the end of the world keeps from you getting all the good things the Bible provides.

By now, you can see the common thread through all three. These reasons primarily inform and entertain rather than foster your relationship with God or transform your life. Relationship and transformation. That is why God gave us his word. When the apostle Paul was training his protégé Timothy, he told him, “The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.” A deeper relationship and life transformation. Those are the key aims of the Bible. Those are the intended outcomes for knowing the information in the Bible.

Heaven-aimed Christianity pigeon-holds people from fully experiencing those aims because it misconstrues what Christianity is about and the purpose of the Bible. But there is a better kind of Christianity, which I call heaven-now Christianity. Heaven-now Christianity emphasizes that the whole point of Christ is to help us to have a foretaste of the life of heaven here on earth. Some who hear me say heaven might immediately think pleasure or giddiness. That’s not I’m saying. Living on earth the life of heaven is possible because we can experience a real relationship with Jesus through the Spirit. His Spirit helps us connect with him and receive from him by faith all the good things his presence brings.

For example, you might be at church Sunday morning but your mind is concerned about a hospital bill you have to pay from an ER trip last month. While in worship, you begin to hand your stress and worry over to God who takes it from you and calms your heart by assuring you that he is in control and that he will take care of you. Heaven-now Christianity also helps you become the kind of person God intends humans to be. Sin corrupts humanity. The Spirit helps you overcome sin and vice and live a life of character, a life of virtue, so that you begin to be the person right now that you will one day in heaven be—morally flawless.

Heaven-aimed Christianity takes away the overlap between this life and the next while heaven-now Christianity helps you live out your God-given purpose in the here and now—which you will then complete in the next life when you have an imperishable body that is pure and perfect in every way.

So the Bible is not merely to transfer interesting information or entertain with intriguing stories. Instead, God gave you the Bible to help you go deeper in your relationship with him and to transform you into a reflection of him. I’m Aaron. Thanks for listening.

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NOTES

Did God make the Bible so long to hide secrets for success? Will it give you just the formula you need for each one of your problems … All you need to do is find it, apply it, and watch your issues melt away? Not quite.

Heaven-aimed Christianity causes all kinds of problems in the Christian life. A key problem that I frequently see is that it distorts our view of the Bible. Heaven-aimed Christianity teaches that Jesus made us for heaven and saves us with the intent of taking us to heaven to be with him there forever. No earth. We forfeited an earth when he ate the forbidden fruit. Now all humans are consigned to wander the earth. The fortunate ones who trust in Christ receive eternal bliss in a non-earthly heaven. That’s the general idea of heaven aimed Christianity. It aims your life toward heaven. So when you hear the gospel, confess your sins, place your faith in Christ, and decide to live for him—that living for him is nothing more than counting the days until you get to heaven.

Well, what are you supposed to do once you place your faith in Christ and begin to follow him? The answer to this question is found in the Bible. Instinctively, all Christians believe this. The Bible teaches us about salvation and instructs us in our walk. But heaven-aimed Christianity discolors what that walk looks like and distorts what the Bible teaches us for that walk. It says we have a total different purpose for life right now on earth than we will have when we die and go to heaven. Because of that difference, people misunderstand the purpose of the Bible. And then, they create all kinds of alternative purposes. In recent videos, I’ve discussed those distortions. And there are more. Right now, I want to talk about the success distortion.

By thinking Christianity is only about going to heaven, many folks then assume the Bible is nothing more than a book of formulas for successful living. Heaven-aimed Christianity leads people to read the Bible as self-help book. How do you get rich? How do you lead? How do you run a business? How do you parent well? How do you resolve conflict? How do you win right now?

Now, caveat, I do believe the Bible contains wisdom, truth, and principles for living well. The Bible is the richest source of insight available to us.

But here’s the problem with treating the Bible as a self-help book. We become the ones defining what a successful life looks like and then we use the Bible as nothing more than a means to get the life we want. Success according to the Bible does not necessarily look like success according to Netflix, or success according to Tony Robbins, or success according to Elon Musk, or success according to Taylor Swift. Sure, there’s overlap here and there because everyone is human and we all, therefore, share similar desires and hopes for this life. But the Bible gives a different answer to the question, “What does a successful life look like?”

The reason it gives a different answer to that question is due to its eternal perspective. Life doesn’t end in death. This life is not all there is and human life is not the highest life form. All humans live forever and God exists. Those two realities shape what success right now actually looks like.

Heaven-aimed Christianity misconstrues what the Bible has to say about success for this reason. It says true success according to the Bible must wait until after we die and get to heaven. For now, then, we live upright lives and bide our time until we get to heaven. As we bide our time, we must make a life for ourselves somehow, so we need to figure out what kind of life that is and then find and follow the biblical formula for getting there right now.

Of course, there’s a lot we could go into regarding this topic, regarding what true success looks like and doesn’t look like. But for now, I want to focus on the path to biblical success: that’s submission. Jesus gets pretty direct in these words from Luke 9:23–26:

23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?

Here, you see the two key assumptions at work, which often aren’t in the world’s definition of success. The first assumption is that there is a God, that God is active in this world, and he’s very interested in us. Second, life for folks continues after death. For now, what could be more beneficial that gaining the whole world: unlimited resources, freedom to travel as you wish and where you wish, power to control what you wish, all the pleasure you could ever want at your finger tips. Except one thing—you are still going to die. But giving your life to Christ, following him and his ways, embracing his mission and vision for what life is really all about—well, as Jesus said, “If anyone believes in me, even though he dies, he will live.” Inheriting Christ forever is better than inheriting the whole world for a few years.

So if you were to ask me what success looks like according to the Bible, I would say submission. Sure, there’s more to it, but that is the best place to start in my opinion. Especially, if you are influenced by heaven-aimed Christianity which easily produces a kind of prosperity focus. Some call it the prosperity gospel—which, at its worse, is no gospel at all.

Submission, however, puts you in line with what the Bible truly teaches, which I call heaven-now Christianity. Success and real life, as we will experience it in heaven, begins in part right now. So there is quite a bit of overlap between eternal success and temporal success. For me, that’s why heaven-now Christianity is so powerful and meaningful. It helps align us with who we are meant to be and promises us that we will ultimately fulfill that identity with Christ. Fulfilling that identity begins with a thriving connection with him which is possible right now and beneficial right now. I hope this has been helpful. I am Aaron Massey. Thanks for listening.

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NOTES

Is the Bible one long legal rule book designed to control our lives until we get to heaven? Or, is there something more going on that we need to know about?

Hey guys, for this post, I want to continue looking at how heaven-aimed Christianity twists the Bible’s teaching and warps how we treat the Bible. You’ll remember that heaven-aimed Christianity is what I call a specific kind of Christianity. It teaches that God made us for heaven. It teaches that Jesus came to save us from the earth and take us to heaven forever. It teaches that an earth one day will no longer be part of our lives. It will disintegrate. The only dwelling for believers will be heaven.

That teaching is wrong. The Bible doesn’t teach that. It distorts the truth and causes a lot of people to mistreat the Bible. I’ve talked about three distortions already. Here’s a fourth. Heaven-aimed Christianity causes you to treat the Bible as nothing more than a set of rules until we get to heaven. How? Well, heaven-aimed Christianity implies real life, our ultimate purpose, awaits us in heaven with Christ. Since we experience sin right now and endure evil right now, the Bible exists as nothing more than a set of procedures for surviving in this thick, treacherous jungle. Once we have made it out of the jungle and into heaven, we can breathe a sigh of relief and get to what we were really designed to do.

Now this assumption is understandable. Here’s what I mean. If God gave us the Bible only to teach us how to get to heaven—which is what heaven-aimed Christianity insinuates—then what else is the Bible for once we know how to get to heaven? If learning how to get to heaven takes only two pages of information, why is the Bible fifteen hundred pages? What else does it have to offer? Those are legitimate questions. What Christian hasn’t thought that? Well, to follow the train of thought, the Bible must then convey God’s do-s and don’t-s for the here and now. Since real living is all about getting to heaven and since our world is so saturated by sin, then God has given us rules to follow in order to avoid sin and bide our time until we get to heaven—where we can really begin living.

This idea is perfectly understandable. The Bible is a long book. Sometimes it is complicated to discern how it all fits together. To boil it down to getting to heaven and living cleanly creates simplicity and clarity. But that is false because it is inadequate and insufficient. And here’s why.

First, the Bible conveys more than God’s do-s and don’t-s for the here and now. Of course, some of the Bible’s commands are only for the here and now and don’t apply to life in heaven after death. But the general aim of the commands is to cultivate the kind of people God intends for us to be as his representatives and reflections. Like loving instead of hateful. Truthful instead of deceptive. Responsible instead of lazy. Selfless instead of selfish. You get the picture. If the do-s and don’t-s in the Bible are primarily for the here and now, then they become a bit arbitrary, ornamental, inessential to our humanity. They’re like God’s personal preferences that we must align our lives with—regardless of how beneficial they actually are to us. But God’s commands are loving because he is loving. They’re for our good and they’re meant to shape us into the kind of people who have a vibrant relationship with him. Before death and after death. That’s the point. The whole thrust of God’s do-s and don’t-s aim at perfecting us into reflections of him in a profound relationship with him. And that leads me to the next point.

Second, the Bible invites us into a friendship. On the evening of Jesus’ arrest, he spoke with his closest followers at length in an upper room. He spoke plainly about who he is, why he came, what will happen to him, and what his plans are. We have what he said in John chapters fourteen through seventeen. In the middle of his conversation, Jesus told his followers, “Now, you are my friends because I have told you everything the Father has told me.” Jesus contrasted their new status as friends with that of a servant. Yes, Jesus is their master. Our master. A master doesn’t tell his servant why he is doing what he is doing. A master doesn’t have to explain himself to his servant. But Jesus explained himself to his disciples, and by extension, to all of us who read and cherish what the Bible says. If Jesus wanted us to be servants only, then the Bible would be only about rules. But it isn’t only about rules. The Bible is about a relationship. Treating the Bible like a rulebook is like going on a date and focusing only on the rules of dating and being a good date without actually focusing on your date, without actually enjoying your date, without actually connecting with your date. The rules of good dating are meant to foster a good connection. Likewise, with God’s Word. The commands he gives us, and they are important—Jesus said his friends are characterized by their obedience to his word—but the commands set up and foster the relationship, which is primary. And that leads me to my third point.

Third, the Bible is more about worship than rules—about a living relationship rather than stale religion. Jesus told an outcast woman in John 4 that the Father is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. Worship entails acknowledging he exists, seeking who he truly is, and engaging him for who he is and on his terms. The Bible is God’s worship invitation. Of course, there are rules for engagement, but the rules fit within the larger purpose. That larger purpose is nothing less than giving the whole history and trajection of the world, nothing less than expressing who God is and what he is like, nothing less than inviting us to become whom we were made to become and be with whom we were made to be with. The Bible is about ultimate things. Rules fit within that umbrella, but they aren’t ultimate.

If you have always seen the Bible as nothing more than a rulebook, I hope this post has sparked some renewed interest in you to find out what it is all about. Thinking of the Bible as only a rulebook makes God like the Eye of Sauron in Lord of the Rings doing nothing more than inducing fear and demanding obedience for those in Mordor. That’s not what God is like. On the day when the Christian goes to heaven, he will see Jesus face to face. Until that day, the Bible helps break the barriers—offering something like a video chat or phone call—so we can cultivate that connection in anticipation of that day. I’m Aaron. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

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NOTES

If you disobey God, is he out to get you like a mean, vindictive, lawyer looking to take you to court and sue you? Or is he always following you around to make his blessings rain on you if you walk in obedience to him?

Say you told a little white lie about your friend’s ex-boyfriend to make her feel better about breaking up. A week later, you’re driving to work and your front passenger tire blows out, making you swerve off the road and crash into a pole. You’re fine. But your car’s wrecked. Was that God getting back at you for that white lie? What if you’re walking on a city sidewalk and you notice someone dropped his wallet. You pick it up, see five crisp 100-dollar bills. Then, you notice the man’s business card with his number. You call him. Let him know where you are and y’all meet up so he can get his wallet. When he arrives, he thanks you for your kindness, pulls out one of those hundreds and hands it to you as a nice tip for your honesty. Was that tip God immediately rewarding you for doing good?

Who hasn’t had those kinds of thoughts? You think you’re receiving bad for doing bad and receiving good for doing good. This perspective is very common. I would say natural—and whether you follow Christ or not. Countless cultures across the world and throughout history have viewed God in this way. Many still do. But this kind of immediate reaction from God—whether we do good or bad—is not what the Bible teaches. It is unbiblical. Sure, sometimes God does immediately discipline or even punish folks for bad behavior and shower gifts upon others for doing good. But … But that kind of correspondence between our actions and our circumstances is not always how life works. People who do bad have it easy and prosper and people who do good suffer loss and hardship. It’s a fact of life. It’s what the Bible teaches. Now, if that’s what the Bible teaches, then why do Christians still operate with that kind of retribution mentality?

Well, one key cause of it, in my opinion, is what I call heaven-aimed Christianity. This flavor of Christianity emphasizes that Jesus came to save us from the earth and take us to heaven to live with him there forever. So when a Christian dies, he or she goes to heaven and stays in heaven. Here’s how it goes. When humanity rebelled against God, God made them forfeit the earth. So the earth has a place for now, but eventually the earth will not remain. Therefore, God must have made us for heaven. But as Christians, we aren’t in heaven. We are “stuck,” if you will, on earth until we die and get to heaven. So, according to heaven-aimed Christianity, one might say, “We tell others about Jesus” (which is biblical), “We worship God” (which is biblical), “We do well and we do right” (which is biblical), “We learn from God and grow our faith” (which also is biblical). All, right. But there’s a subtle flaw. Heaven-aimed Christianity easily makes you think that in this current holding period, until heaven, God ferociously reacts to your behavior as a way to train you and teach you, correct you and chastise you, bless you and reward you. In other words, your relationship with God becomes contractual. And in your aim to get blessing and reward, you read the Bible to find out what he wants and give him what he wants so you can get what you want: blessing and reward, prosperity and ease. Do you see the reasoning? Can you relate to it?

Early on in my Christian journey, my mind often drifted there. I was a competitive golfer. So if I lost a tournament, I would think over the shots of my rounds where my ball was merely inches away from something better. Missing 4 puts by just a hair, being a foot out of bounds, a bad kick into the sand. And there’s your tournament. Then I’d reflect back over the prior weeks and connect it with something bad I must have done. My flawed thinking was due to heaven-aimed Christianity.

God did not give us the Bible in order to teach us how we can earn his favor. God did not give us the Bible in order to teach us how to place him in our debt. God did not give us the Bible in order for us to manipulate him to give us our dream life today. That posture is very easy to adopt with heaven-aimed Christianity. It is very subtle. But it is poisonous because it creates false expectations when reading the Bible. It creates false assumptions about the Bible. It projects false reasons for having a Bible in the first place. All of us have an impulse in us to try to please God in order to get from God. That impulse is part of our corrupt nature that leads us to mistreat others—we call it abusing the relationship or using a person without carrying about the person. Now, I’m not saying heaven-aimed Christianity automatically causes you to use the Bible that way. I’m saying if you follow Christ and sense yourself using the Bible as a tool to learn about God and then scratch his back so he will scratch yours, then it’s very likely you’re in step with heaven-aimed Christianity.

And right now, I want to express a different kind of Christianity more in line with God’s Word. I call it heaven-now Christianity. Heaven-now Christianity teaches that Jesus saves us and will take us to heaven when we die, but he will eventually return to the earth to remake it and that those who are saved will return with him to live in perfect bodies on a perfect earth in a perfect relationship with our perfect God and his perfect community. That remaking part, that renewal part, that transformative part starts right now. Even though it’s partial, it starts right now. By grace, God brings heaven, himself and his power, to you so that you can live on earth the life of heaven. So you can have a taste of the future and express in a dark world the light of the future.

That means you can experience Christ in a deeper way than you could before you followed him. He gives you joy and peace and strength and wisdom so you can navigate this chaotic world. Heaven-now Christianity teaches that when you approach the Bible, you first receive the word of his grace. What he offers and gives to you. Not what you must earn from him. It is by grace he saves you. It is by grace he sustains you. It is by grace speaks with you. It is by grace he sends you into the world to be heaven’s representative. Heaven-aimed Christianity doesn’t connect how you live in the present with how you will live in the future. There’s not earth in the future so what you do presently on earth has little overlap. Heaven-now Christianity says you receive heaven now so that you can begin to think, act, feel, and be as if you were in heaven. Of course we still live under the mountain of sin and the curse and death and pain. Heaven-now Christianity, though, teaches that God gives you his light so that you will shine all the more brightly in this domain of darkness.

I want to end this post with a few sentences from the apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Philippi. They express this idea of heaven-now Christianity very well. It’s Philippians 2:12–16 from the New Living Translation:

Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

I’m Aaron Massey. Thank you for listening.

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NOTES

Is the only purpose of the Bible to teach people how to get to heaven? If that is why God gave it, then why is it so long? Is the Bible so long merely to prove God’s point about getting to heaven? Or, is God teaching us something more with the goal of doing something more in our lives?

Tell me if this situation sounds familiar. Bobby is 22. He’s disappointed with life. College has become boring. He’s in his last year and still doesn’t know what to do. But he has watched his friend Steve only grow more enthusiastic about life and life after college through these past few years. Steve is a Christian. His invitation to Bobby is always open to come to church. Finally, Bobby decides to join Steve one morning. People sing with joy about this Jesus who created them, loves, and saved them. Toward the end of the sermon, Bobby hears about sin. How sin is human rebellion against God. How sin is a rejection of God’s ways and God’s presence. How sin has caused a curse on the earth and one of the effects of this curse is a sense of boredom, purposelessness, apathy, aimlessness. Most of all, how sin has consigned all people under God’s judgment to hell forever. Bobby then hears how Jesus came to save us from this curse and our sin and hell by dying a cross, taking the place of the punishment we deserve, that we might be forgiven and welcomed by God into heaven when we die. Bobby wants that. The preacher at the end of the sermon invites those who want to be saved to come speak with him afterward. Bobby walked up to the preacher after the sermon and the preacher told him if he prayed a simple prayer confessing his sins and asking Jesus to forgive him, then Jesus would forgive him and give him the hope of heaven. Bobby prayed and left, already feeling a little better.

Now, from that moment of prayer, typically one of two things happens. And I’ve done them both. I want to address only one for now—the unfortunate path. Bobby continues to take an interest in church and singing and preaching and the Bible, but his enthusiasm for Christ saving him wanes. It wanes because he doesn’t understand how Christ saving him actually applies to his life today. He begins to assume Christ’s salvation is something relevant for him only after he dies—that he will go to heaven and avoid hell. Bobby started with the hope of finding purpose in the hear and now, but the only message he hears on Sunday mornings is that Jesus came to save us from the consequences of our sin and take us to heaven. Finding no sense of direction or purpose for life in the here and now, Bobby’s interest in Christ flickers out and he stops going to church and he begins to seek something else for help.

Unfortunately, this kind of story is all too common. People pray to Jesus with excitement and interest in his salvation and the prospects of following him and the newness of what he can do in a person’s life. But because it is emphasized to them that Christ came to take them to heaven and help them stay out of hell, their excitement fades away and they stop going to church and return to life as usual. Or perhaps to a different life than prior to Christ but one that goes on without the involvement of Christ. Why? Because they don’t learn about the relevance of Christ for today. It’s very sad. I hate stories like this. That story was my story from the time I was thirteen to the time I was seventeen. I thought the only purpose of praying to Jesus is to receive his forgiveness so you can get heaven and avoid hell in the future. I got bored with Christ because he seemed irrelevant right now.

That seeming irrelevance is due to a specific kind of Christianity that is sub-biblical in my opinion. I call it heaven-aimed Christianity. Heaven-aimed Christianity emphasizes that Christ came to save you from the consequences of your sin and take you to heaven to be with him there forever. But here’s the radical problem with that: by assuming Christianity is only about going to heaven, we assume the Bible is only about getting to heaven. One more time: by assuming Christianity is only about going to heaven, we assume the Bible is only about getting to heaven. So, once you hear a brief invitation about praying to Jesus to forgive your sins and asking him for the hope of heaven, you get the impression you’ve already learned all that the Bible has to offer. Then, once you think you have learned all that the Bible has to offer, then why even crack it open?

Do you see the logic. Thousands, if not millions, of people miss out on a real relationship with Jesus because they aren’t taught how to have a relationship with him right now. But Christianity is not only about the sweet by and by. Yes, it is about that. And that part is essential. And it is truly sweet. But Christianity is also about right now.

At the dawn of Jesus’ ministry, after he had been baptized by John the Baptist and after he overcame Satan’s temptation in the wilderness of Judea, he came preaching the same message as John: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus is saying turn to God because you can experience Him now. His rule, His presence, His guidance—you can have it all right now. God’s kingdom begins now. Of course, we still live in a battle zone and the full blessing of his reign and presence we won’t experience until we die, but we can experience it in part right now. That’s why I like to call biblical Christianity heaven-now Christianity. Heaven is at hand. Right now. Heaven starts with a transformed heart when you turn to Christ and begin living under his rule and with his presence. How does all that happen? Through his word.

That’s why I think heaven-aimed Christianity is so insidious. It encourages people to ignore Christ’s word. But it’s through the word that the life of heaven, the life of God, the life of Christ is channeled to you. Into your mind and into your heart. When Christ was tempted by Satan before he began his ministry, he was fasting as a way to train and test himself and cause himself to depend solely upon his father. Satan told him to use his own power, as the son of God, to make himself a warm loaf of bread for an empty stomach on a cold evening in a barren land. What did Jesus say? “But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

Heaven-now Christianity helps you to connect with Christ each day. The primary means of connecting with God is through his word. A relationship is built upon intentional time together and intentional communication both ways. Imagine your partner never talking to you. Imagine your partner never listening to you. And, sadly, some of you may not have to try real hard to imagine. And it’s miserable. Because what could be a thriving relationship is thwarted by bad communication. It’s no different with Christ. The Bible is a word from heaven. The point of the Bible is not necessarily to get us to heaven. Of course, that is a remarkable and essential outcome. Without that outcome, Christianity would not be worth understanding. But that outcome is a consequence of its purpose. The Bible’s purpose is to give us heaven. It’s to give us God right now. And that’s why I call biblical Christianity heaven-now Christianity. I hope this distinction is helpful to you.

Thanks for listening. I’m Aaron Massey. See you next time.

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NOTES

Have you given up on reading the Bible? Don’t. The Bible is not broken. Nor is it some ancient relic like an Egyptian mummified skeleton, to be studied only by those with special skills and peculiar fascinations. The Bible can work for anyone. It’s message is forever true and always useful. But there are reasons why the Bible may not be working for you and in this post I want to explore them as well as a common misconception.

Before their day starts, Dave and Dan sit down at the breakfast table with their Bibles and cups of coffee to engage with God for an hour. Forty-five minutes fly by for Dave, but they feel like an eternity for Dan. Dan stops before the hour is done feeling as full and satisfied as you’d be after a few bites of dry Kale. Dave is sad his hour is over, but feels like he just had a spiritual breakfast of steak, pancakes, hash browns, and eggs. Now, both attend the same church, had the same amount of sleep, sat at the same table, drank the same coffee, and read the same Bible translation. So why the different experiences? Why did Dan walk away empty and Dave full?
Well, I think there are typically three kinds of problems that keep the Bible from working in your life.

First, there are technical problems keep the Bible from working for you. These are practical problems. Problems that have to do with technique and knowledge. For example, your mind might wander and you have difficulty focusing and you can’t trace an author’s flow of thought from chapter to chapter. Paul wrote, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” at the beginning of Romans 8, but if you don’t know what the earlier chapters are teaching, then you’ll miss the force of his meaning in chapter 8. Why did he say, “therefore”? What did Paul write in chapters five, six, and seven to make him say there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus? Sidenote: if you don’t know, it’s worth discovering. Not only is it important to understand an author’s flow of thought in a single text, but also in the whole narrative of the Bible. Even though the Bible contains 66 texts with more than 40 authors, key themes and allusions thread each piece and tie them all together forming a single story. So it’s helpful to know what Isaiah wrote about Christ, even though he wrote 700 years before Christ, in order to understand what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John teach concerning Christ. One technical problem might be something as simple as not understanding Bible-study methods, which help you properly study the Bible so that you come to an understanding of what it means and how it applies to your life. Another technical problem might be something as sophisticated as not understanding the significance of a Greek or Hebrew word—on the cross Jesus said it is finished! But there are two verb tenses in Greek available to John to communicate Jesus’ statement. John used the perfect tense instead of the aorist tense. Using the aorist tense would have kept the focus on the event, but using the perfect tense expands the focus of Jesus’ outcry to the consequences of Jesus’ death. Technical problems are the easiest problems to fix. All you need is some time, some tools, and maybe some teachers and you’re well on your way to understanding and enjoying God at a deeper level than you ever have.

Second, spiritual and moral problems keep the Bible from working in your life. For example, if you go a year without praying, without reading your Bible, without worship at church, and then if you attempt to engage with God, he might feel a bit distant and the experience might feel a bit awkward. It’s like a boyfriend ignoring his girlfriend for a year and then attempting to go out on a date afterward. Picking up where he left off will be a bit tough. Another example of this problem might be a willful sin. A willful sin is an action you know to be wrong but you persist in it anyway. Watching pornography three times a week will absolutely affect where your mind drifts to during Bible reading and prayer, how you look at women during worship, during work, during working out, and your day-to-day sense of God’s presence. If a girlfriend keeps lying to her boyfriend and the boyfriend consistently catches her in her lies, that will have an affect on the relationship. Likewise, willful sins against God affects our sense of God’s presence. Moral problems and spiritual problems are personal problems because they are heart problems. They require intentionality, humility, confession, and change—which is repentance. Repentance means a change in lifestyle. It means a turning away from that action or practice or attitude and a turning to God. To return to our date example, imagine you go on a date even though the relationship has been tense. You’re at the same table, you’re in the same space, but the relational connection has been broken and it needs to be restored before that date can be enjoyable. Thankfully, God is not hardened against you and frowning and wanting you to fail and hoping you won’t come to him. God wants the relationship to be restored. That’s the whole reason he sent Jesus. For those struggling with heart problems and not getting the Bible to work in your life, God has made all the moves to restore the relationship. You aren’t alone. You aren’t destined to feel cut off from God forever. Christ and his people want to help you in your move toward God so that you can connect with him and engage with him as you study his word.

So, first there are technical problems, which are like hand problems. Second, there are spiritual and moral problems, which are like heart problems.

Third, there conceptual problems that keep the Bible from working for you. Conceptual problems are perspective problems. They’re head problems. These problems are like technical problems, but they’re way more problematic because conceptual problems distort nearly your whole perspective to keep you from reading the Bible. These problems are like wearing green colored glasses that make everything you see green. For example, if you read the Bible assuming there is no God, you’ll take language about God to be mythical inventions, hallucinations, or wishful thinking. You will explain away and obfuscate clear teachings—clear passages—in the Bible from beginning to end. Assuming God doesn’t exist is a massive conceptual anchor that colors how you read the whole Bible. Another assumption might be assuming Jesus never claimed to be God, which insinuates the New Testament writers distorted and lied about his teaching.

Now, those two assumptions are obvious. If you hold them, you will read the Bible in a way it is not intended to be read and you will not get out of the Bible what it intends to give you. But there’s another assumption that is far more subtle, far more pervasive, but almost just as drastic and destructive. I call this assumption heaven-aimed Christianity. This kind of Christianity assumes God made us for heaven and sent Jesus to save us from the earth so that we can live with him forever in heaven. What’s wrong with heaven-aimed Christianity? Well, first let me say what’s right about it. God did send Jesus to save us and the earth is corrupt and certainly contains problems that we need saving from. But heaven-aimed Christianity is wrong because it downplays our inward sin that needs to be transformed. Heaven-aimed Christianity is also wrong because it assumes we will stay in heaven forever and because it neglects God’s full purpose for us in this life before we die. First, in this life, God gives us the freedom, energy, and wisdom to overcome sin—not to be perfect, but to live above its constant power. Second, God takes Christians to heaven immediately when they die, but God says he will create a new heavens and new earth for Christians to eternally inhabit. Third, regarding God’s purpose, we’ll explore that in the videos to come.
These kinds of conceptual problems definitely keep the Bible from working in your life. The way to fix these is to learn the key teachings of the Bible and to keep spending time in God’s word with good tools and good teachers.

Alright, let’s recap. Why is it that you sit down to read the Bible and it feels like God is distant and you walk away feeling empty? Well, I mentioned there are three main problems that keep the Bible from working in your life. First, there are technical problems. Second, there are moral and spiritual problems. Third, there are conceptual problems. They’re all very common and they’re all as I call them problems.

God gave us his word in order for it to work in our lives. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The Word of God is alive and powerful.” It works in our lives. It convicts. It restores. It reproves. It comforts. It heals. It saves. It secures. God’s word is for you. If you aren’t in the word, turn to it. If you are in the word, but it isn’t quite working for you, well, I hope something I’ve said can be some help.

Thank you for listening. I’m Aaron Massey.