Customer Reviews

Heaven Is Not My Home

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book encapsulates and summarizes much of my own struggle with Western Christianity. If my faith is true, then why is it that it seems only to speak of what is beyond this life? Is there not meaning to life here? Is there not inherent value in work itself, or in art, or even in play?

This book is not only a strong challenge to commonly held Christian perspectives, it is wonderfully freeing. It means that I can find God in even the simplest and "menial" of tasks - not just those so-called higher things associated with church and "spiritual" life. It lays to rest the dualist heresy many evangelicals live.

If the Christian church can be called a sleeping giant, than this book is without a doubt its wake-up call.

Using very clear language, vivid description, and intriguing personal stories, this book drives home the point that Christians are called to be at home in God's world, and about the King's business, rather than always attempting to escape this world.

The impressive endorsements by notable figures such as evangelical theologian J.I. Packer ring true as one reads chapter after surprising and enjoyable chapter. This book will help the church discover a very old and orthodox truth: Christ frees us up to be fully human and radically engaged in realizing in the here and now his age-old purposes for his world. No, it will not all burn in the end as some milennium fear-mongers would have us believe. God has not fashioned the works of his hands to end in futility, but to be infused with meaning and purpose. Rather with Christ's return, our world--perfected with its redeemed and transformed people, animals, institutions, and ALL that God has made--will ineed blaze brilliantly with the glory of its Creator.

This book is one of the best introductions to Christian worldview thinking I have read and should prompt one to more robust reflection on the many ways one's commitment to Christ should form all of life. Marshall's treatment is thoroughly biblical, and he writes in an engaging style. He first explains the Reformed pattern of Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation and then explores its impact on our learning, our work, our rest, and our play, as well as its implications for how we think about the natural world, politics, the arts, and technology, among other topics. Throughout, he utilizes clear illustrations and helpful applications that make the biblical principles concrete. (For example, his discussion about how to think about the way we dress is alone worth the price of admission.) All told, Heaven Is Not My Home is an excellent catalyst for thinking Christianly about God's world.

The author definitely chose a provocative title for this book. I hope that no one avoids it because of the title. If you read between the lines you can see that he is not denying the biblical doctrine of the eternal state. In fact, I thought that another way of titling the book could have been "Disembodied existence somewhere in an ethereal third dimension is not my destiny."

The view that many Christians have is that, after this life, our souls go to heaven and we walk streets of gold, wearing white robes and singing hymns for eternity. What Marshall does is show that our eternal destiny may in fact look a bit more like our current earthly existence than we realize.

Marshall correctly brings out the biblical teaching that the created order is basically good, and therefore it can be embraced. Sin is not the essence of the creation, sin is an imposter.

Because many Christians have wrongly interpreted Biblical passages on the world and worldliness we have adopted an attitude that sees this world as something evil at worst, or unnecessary at best. Either way, this world and this earth and this creation are to be avoided or endured until the time when we will be freed from all of it.

However, Marshall shows very well that sin is to be removed from the creation, the creation itself is not destined to perish. He demonstrates that this creation is destined for renewal, not eradication. Eternity will be spent in a new heavens and a new earth.

Such a view has implications for how we live now. Our work, our rest, our play, our culture, our politics, and all human activity has value. We are to embrace our earthly callings. He makes the comment that all honest work is pleasing to God. Paul tells us - wheter we eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.

All of life can be and should be done to the glory of God.

One weakness of the book is that he does go overboard on showing that this earth is our home. I once had a professor who said that when a ship is listing badly to the right, you don't jump up and down in the center to get it straightened out. You jump up and down on the left. I think this is what Marshall has done here - he has seen how the church has overdone it on the otherworldliness and is trying to get us back on course about our responsibilities in the here and now. As such, he doesn't deal adequately with the verses that speak of our identity as pilgrims, strangers, aliens, etc..

With this minor weakness I still have no problem giving the book 5 stars. It is a beneficial and necessary read for Christians.

This book is insightful, readable, enjoyable, and brilliant. I will recommend it to many friends. Marshall summarized many of my thoughts about modern Christianity, and challenged me to take the Kingdom call of God more seriously in my everyday life. Highly recommended.

Was given this book in college to read over the summer. Addresses Christians with the mind set of separatism and asceticism. Realistically that's a limited audience, and what is needed more is a book that challenges Christians to be radical influences within the culture and still be set apart (but not a 'hermit'). My biggest problem with the book is that it is riddled with Open theism, aka God doesn't really know everything nor does he have power over any or everything. Very distracting from the main points of chapters. That pretty much destroyed his ethos for me.

His section on technology was particularly weak (Check out "Small is Beautiful" by E.F. Schumacher instead). Overall, I would avoid this book.

The Bible says, God's Word is a "lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (Ps.119:105) But do you stare at the lamp? No. You don't buy a flashlight so you can hold it up to your face and stare into it. The purpose of a lamp is to illuminate other things. In the same way, God's Word is meant to be a light for revelation of God and on His creation. The Word of God helps us to see properly the world that God has made.

We don't find great details about buildings, or marriages, or music, or physics in the Word of God. But in the light of the Word, we can study the world and learn about such things. Because our minds have been darkened by sin, it is only in the light of God's Word that we can understand the creation as it is. (Rom. 1:20, 21). Without a sound knowledge of the Word of God, we are left with a distorted view of God's handiwork.

A LIGHT FOR DIRECTION

God's Word is more than a light; it is a light on a path. It is meant to shine on the way before us. We don't stare into our flashlight. We point it forward and down, hitting the ground about six feet ahead. We shine it on the path before us because we want to see where we are going. It helps us see the stones, cracks, gullies, and slopes so we know where to place our feet without falling.

Paul Marshall wrote: "As we study the Scriptures we need to shine them on the questions that lie before us on our pilgrimage. This includes not only questions concerning our personal life and the church, but also the farmer's questions of how and what to plant or how to make our daily bread, and for all of us, how to deal with fields, factories, studies, politics."

He continues: "We ought to study not only God's Word but also God's world; we study the world in the light of the Word. We need to study not only Isaiah but also industry. Not only Philemon but also politics. Not only Acts but arts. It is not for us to choose between knowing the Bible or the world; we need to know the world biblically."

RESPONSIBILITY & FREEDOM

"What is so important to learn from Scripture is the connection between human responsibility and human freedom. We are bound to the Word of God and free to work out our service to God. Throughout Scripture we can find a continued story of human development in life and society. People everywhere continue to create new things. This cultural development does not stop at the end of biblical revelation. The command to fill the earth and bring forth fruit shows us that historical changes and development are very real, very much part of God's intention for human life."

CALLED TO CREATE, DEVELOP, ADAPT

"We are called by God to create to develop, and to adapt what is about us in response to the guidance that God has given us. The nature of being human, or being made in the image of God, is that we are given responsibility for the earth. And real responsibility often comes when the answer is not obvious, when the laws and rules leave open several options, or when many different laws and rules apply at the same time. We are not just interpreters but also judges or deciders."

REAL RESPONSIBILITY

"We have to make real decisions about how we can put flesh on what God has shown us to be the path of peace, hope, stewardship, and justice. God gives us real responsibility. Our responsibility is both frightening and challenging. We cannot shrink from it."

I commend Paul Marshall's book to you.

Along with may of the other reviewers here I found this book to be interesting and thought provoking. Marshall tells a lot of stories and does a very good job of starting you down the path of applying the Christian worldview to areas that our culture does not traditionally apply it to. I do have a little problem (please don't let it stop you from reading the book) with his interpretation of 2nd Peter 3 that I think is worth mentioning. Marshall interprets this passage's description of the destruction of the world by fire as describing a refining fire which will burn away the bad and leave the good. While this is an interesting idea I don't think a straightforward reading of the passage supports this. Marshall then goes on to say that, "Our good buildings, our great inventions, our acts of healing, our best writings, our creative art, our finest clothes, our greatest treasures will not simply pass away. If they represent the finest works of God's image-bearers, they will adorn the world to come." This is a nice thought but it too depends on interpretations of various scripture passages which many evangelicals would disagree with. For me, "great treasures" which were created as an act of worship to God are intrinsically valuable and it doesn't matter if they don't make it to the New Earth that the Bible describes. I also agree with other reviewers who mentioned that Marshall should have addressed the Biblical teachings on "being in the world but not of the world" more thoroughly. In any case, I thought Marshall's insights far outweigh any problems I had. If you are interested in what Christianity has to say about the environment, art, play, technology, and more this book is a good place to start.

Paul Marshall, in talking about the Christian faith in relation to the secular world, does make some solid, practical points. However, the consistency of these points varies as each chapter arises, and the importance of work, for example, is as important as play, and rest, and so on. His emphasis is placed on all the wrong things. Yes, he does encourage Christians to acknowledge the need for these physical and spirutal rewards, however, he discredits God in many instances. Man's sole purpose on the earth is NOT to take care of it, although that is a big factor. Man is created to glorify God. Marshall discredits God's omniscence in Chapter 12 by stating, without supporting, that "God was directed by Adam's decision" to name the animals. Here, Marshall in talking about the amount of responsibility placed on Adam, discredits God and ignores God's ubiquitous omniscence. Marshall repeatedly contradicts himself and places man as equals with God, which is just messed up. This book may be helpful to new Christians, as a starting point, but there is much more solid, beautiful literature out there and I strongly recommend that no Christian apply his entire spiritual life around this book.