John Bevere in Driven by eternity : making your life count today and forever by John Bevere (Warner Faith, 2006) seeks to exhort Christians to take more seriously the Biblical teaching on judgment, since it is not only non-Christians that will be judged. Christians will also be called to account for how they spent their lives and what they did with the gifts and callings God placed in their lives. There will be great rewards but also serious losses. There is much comfort and assurance about the eternal destiny of a Christian in the Bible but there is also much that makes us feel uncomfortable when it comes to judgment.
Bevere uses a story about a mythical place called Affabel to teach about the Judgment Day, much like Jesus used parables. While the story is an effective teaching tool, I found it a little long winded. Particularly as he tells much of the story before he breaks for some instruction. Nevertheless through the story Bevere is able to effectively present his viewpoint.
Bevere draws on many Scriptural references to reinforce his views and is not distracted by pointless arguments about the timing of end time happenings.
A very challenging and thought provoking read.
Technorati Tag: Driven by Eternity
What did you think of his descriptions of Hell and Heaven, namely he doesn’t think it’s one big room that everyone mills around in he thinks their are different parts of hell and various responsibilities/rewards in heaven
What did you think of his descriptions of Hell and Heaven, namely he doesn’t think it’s one big room that everyone mills around in he thinks their are different parts of hell and various responsibilities/rewards in heaven
About 25 years ago our pastor preached a series on the 7 different crowns that are awarded to the saints. This was to do with responsibilities/rewards in heaven so Bevere’s ideas were not new to me. (Except perhaps his thoughts on the different levels in hell.) Generally speaking I think his ideas are quite valid and he certainly uses a lot of Scripture to back up his ideas.
However I do think that heaven is quite beyond our comprehension (1 Corthians 2:8) so I don’t like to have any hard and fast ideas about heaven.
About 25 years ago our pastor preached a series on the 7 different crowns that are awarded to the saints. This was to do with responsibilities/rewards in heaven so Bevere’s ideas were not new to me. (Except perhaps his thoughts on the different levels in hell.) Generally speaking I think his ideas are quite valid and he certainly uses a lot of Scripture to back up his ideas.
However I do think that heaven is quite beyond our comprehension (1 Corthians 2:8) so I don’t like to have any hard and fast ideas about heaven.