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{"id":3842,"date":"2008-02-06T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-06T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/02\/06\/surprised-by-hope-7\/"},"modified":"2008-02-06T00:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-06T05:30:00","slug":"surprised-by-hope-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/02\/06\/surprised-by-hope-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprised by Hope 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

(Say the Jesus Creed<\/a> daily during Lent.)
\nThe ascension. So what? That\u2019s really behind chp 6 of Tom Wright\u2019s Surprised by Hope<\/a> $\"\"$ <\/em>. Maybe the best chp yet. When I wrote both Embracing Grace<\/a> $\"\"$ <\/em> and A Community called Atonement<\/a> $\"\"$ <\/em>, I was aware that I had failed to include much about the ascension. Every now and then someone brings up ascension in theology and the subject often quickly fades \u2026 and we go along our merry way ignoring something, not much mentioned, but perhaps of much more significance than we realize. Wright brings it to the surface and shakes it as a central idea.
\nSome see the ascension in flat-footed literalness while others see the ascension as little more than a clever metaphor for the ongoing presence of Jesus. Wright sees it as entrance into heaven, and place and state more real than our reality.
\nWright here says what he thinks heaven is and this will be (I predict) the most talked about feature of this book: heaven is, he says, not a different location than earth in the same space-time continuum, but instead a different dimension (right now) of God\u2019s good creation. The One in Heaven is simultaneously present everywhere and elsewhere. Heaven is, he suggests, the \u201cCEO\u2019s office\u201d or the \u201ccontrol room for earth\u201d (111). It is not so much a place to which we go but a place from which Jesus will return for the New Heavens and New Earth.
\nAscension theology affirms embodied existence, a new existence, and that Jesus is Lord over All.
\nThe quote of the book: \u201cAt no point in the Gospels or Acts does anyone say anything remotely like, \u2018Jesus has gone into heaven, so let\u2019s be sure we can follow him.\u2019 They say, rather, \u2018Jesus is in heaven, ruling the whole world, and he will one day return to make that rule complete'\u201d (117).
\nThen he discusses the Second Coming. As if he hasn\u2019t already given us enough to think about. Two problems: American evangelicals are obsessed by the doctrine, and have gotten it muddled, and mainliners have done their dead-level best to avoid the doctrine, and are likewise muddled.
\nNext chp: Second Coming. See you Friday.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"