There are any number of actions I take as a youth leader assuming that my students will respond or at least understand why we are doing it. I have been very intentional in my ministry designs and decisions for many years, but realized that I had not communicated to my students my intentionality.
Violence done in the name of religious and political ideology by people who do not represent their governments has become a pressing issue, while people victimized by terrorism—both strong and vulnerable—struggle to answer with a successful response. In this Seven Minute Seminary, Dr. James Thobaben introduces us to current issues involved with terrorism and possible Christian responses.
Will you sit with the helpless ones and hear their cries even if you are powerless to break through the walls that bind them? Will you sit and ache with them so they don’t suffer alone? Will you honor the cries that no one else hears and give validity to their pain? Will you face death with a tenacious hope that resurrection is always possible?
Well, the Christian doctrine of the afterlife is simply integral to Christian doctrine, period, and indeed, the faith as a whole makes no sense if the life to come is ignored or trivialized. The heart of the Christian faith is the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ, which provides salvation and redemption for God’s whole fallen creation.
I believe these Christian doctrines of the afterlife provide powerful resources to make sense of some of the perennial big questions like the problem of evil, the foundations of morality, and the very meaning of life. And again, insofar as we think Christianity is true because it makes sense of things, we also have reason to think the doctrines of the afterlife are true, since they are integral to Christianity.
