Episode 58: How Far is Heaven

Without Works

Show Notes

**Not Necessarily the Good News **

On June 8, 2023, Televangelist, three times decorated veteran, political consultant, media mogul, presidential hopeful, philanthropist, founder of Regent University and the Christian Broadcast network died in his home at the age of 93.

He had a few close calls in the closing years of his life. He had taken a bad fall from a horse in 2017, suffered an embolic stroke in 2018, and suffered another fall in 2019 in which he broke three ribs. Despite all this, he continued mostly regular appearances on his syndicated television program, The 700 club, which he had hosted since it began in 1961.

The 700 Club was the first television program of his Christian Broadcasting Network, which went from a local Virginia Beach station to a cable network in 1977, and eventually to The Family Channel, which remained on the airwaves until 1997.

Robertson was affiliated with the Southern Baptist fellowship,

Welton Gaddy: Interfaith Alliance’s former longtime-president, Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, has died at the age of 81. Welton was a beloved leader, and an inspiration to everyone who cherishes both religious freedom and democracy. Welton’s journey took him from being a rising leader in the Southern Baptist Convention to one of the most respected voices seeking to ensure the first amendment’s promise extends to all Americans regardless of faith or belief. It does not go without notice that we are remembering Welton just as the LGBTQ+ community is celebrating Pride Month. Welton wrote about full inclusion and dignity for LGBTQ+ people long before many other religious leaders. Across so many areas, Welton used his platform to project a vision for America that was inclusive of different beliefs and respectful of every individual’s inherent dignity. He was unwilling to accept that any religious tradition in this country should take precedence over another. Over the course of seventeen years, starting in 1997, Welton led Interfaith Alliance and established it as one of the leading advocates for religious freedom. Under Welton’s leadership, “interfaith work” was not about a bunch of people from different faiths coming together just for the sake of optics. It was about building relationships between communities so that together we could have an impact on the critical issues facing our nation. Among Interfaith Alliance’s many accomplishments under Welton’s leadership were his incisive paper making a case for marriage equality from a faith perspective; his passionate advocacy challenging antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and other forms of hate targeting religious minorities; and the protection of the vital boundaries between religion and government as he pushed successive administrations from both parties to avoid unnecessary entanglements. Rev. Gaddy increasingly focused his ministry on the relationship between faith and public life. He joined the board of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and served as its president before leaving to lead Interfaith Alliance in 1997. There are few people that have made such a lasting impact on America, and I continue to be in awe and so thankful for Welton’s life in the ministry

In 1991, he became senior pastor at Northminster, a church affiliated with the progressive Alliance of Baptists, which now proclaims to people visiting its website that “every part of you is welcome here — your gender, your race, your politics, your theology, your sexuality.”

https://interfaithalliance.org/interfaith-alliance-mourns-the-passing-of-rev-dr-c-welton-gaddy/ https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%204&version=NIV https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/us/the-rev-c-welton-gaddy-dead.html https://youtu.be/IBysfGR90us

The More You Know

There are many ideas about heaven in the Old and New testaments. Like Christian ideas about Hell, they have developed over time. In many cases it is ambiguous, in others it is very detailed. The Book of Revelation has a very detailed vision of the throne of God, and it has influenced poetry and art for centuries:

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits[a] of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelations 4: 2-11

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14: 1-6

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