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02 Mar, 2011 11:53 AM
Previously Beaminster School wrote:
please can you describe in everyday language how people can get to heaven? what you believe it is like? what do you believe is hell?
Thanks. By believing in Jesus Christ. Jesus told various stories about the Kingdom of Heaven and they usually involve parties, and fun and joy and deep relationships, and reunions and worship and eating. We have a foretaste of heaven here on earth when churches are as open in welcome to everyone as God is and worship is lively and engaging and draws in people of every tribe, and nation and celebrates Holy Communion. Hell, I believe not so much an eternal place of torture as de-creation back into the nothingness out of which creation originally was called by God. So those who really don't want to live with God in heaven and fiercely insist on their own way will not be forced by God to live with him, but - sadly and tragically, will be de-created back into nothingness. I've developed some more thinking on heaven and hell in my 'Signs and Seasons: a guide for your Christian journey'.
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Eighth live discussion Wed 2 March 2011, Beaminster School, Beaminster, Dorset
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14 Dec, 2011 11:40 AM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
if god is all loving why is there so much suffering?
Thanks. really difficult question - the most stretching. I think the way to look at this is that for us to respond to God in real love - which he longs for - we also have to be free to reject his love. You can't be locked in a room and told you can only come out when you say you love me. Forced love is not love. So where there is freedom to reject love, there is bound to be suffering too. But much suffering is innocent suffering and we are all bound up together as humans in one group of humanity. God doesn't sit at the edge of the universe and twiddle his thumbs, but is deeply involved. So much so that he, in Jesus, suffered innocently. I can, in the end, only point to the cross. Hope that helps.
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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14 Dec, 2011 12:12 PM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
Have you ever felt God's presence?
Thanks. Great question. Yes, I have. Very moving indeed it is too. Sometimes surprising, always extraordinary and welcome. In church services - especially during music and readings - in the open air; with friends in the pub; reflecting on the Bible in the early mornings in my chapel in the garden at Sherborne House; praying with people who are sick - yesterday I visited a retired woman priest who has been very ill and God's presence in her house was tangible. Feeling God's presence is open to everyone - pray to be filled with God's Holy Spirit; at home, in quiet, or with a friend.
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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Bishop Graham
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14 Dec, 2011 11:31 AM
Looking forward to your questions. Yours Graham
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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14 Dec, 2011 11:43 AM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
Do you believe we will all be judged when we die?
Thanks. Yes. And justice and judgement can be hopeful, especially for the oppressed. The President of Syria will be judged for the 5000 people who have been killed in the uprising against him. God is perfectly just and has provided, in Jesus of Nazareth, our way through judgement into eternal life. Clinging onto him, in faith and trust, means we pass through judgement into new life on the other side.
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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14 Dec, 2011 12:02 PM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
Hello Please can you explain why God, who in the Old Testament is portrayed as a vengful ruler who punishes his enemies, is so different to the loving father who gives forgiveness through Jesus in the New Testament?
Hello. I like the smiley. I can't really explain but I can explore with you. Jesus's bible was the Old Testament and he prayed to the God revealed there. God is serious and takes tragedy and sin and oppression seriously, so he does judge. This is not necessarily vengeful, but just. God in the OT is also seen as deeply loving and compassionate. The focus of God in the OT is in Jesus in the NT. Jesus, in the NT, also mentions the seriousness of oppression and God setting people free and judging those who mess people up. So, yes, there is a development of the doctrine of God in the Bible, but that this gradual and not a huge shift from OT to NT.
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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14 Dec, 2011 11:36 AM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
Do you believe in the after life?
Thanks. Yes. Because Jesus came back from beyond the grave and let us know about it. I also believe in the 'before life', which we can enter into now.
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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14 Dec, 2011 11:54 AM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
if you break the 10 commandments will you go to hell?
Thanks. God sent Jesus to sum up the law in his own life and show us how to live authentically. We are sin and fall short of what God has designed for us. If all who sinned were sent to hell, heaven would only have God in it. Wonderfully, in linking ourselves into Jesus's life in faith, we are forgiven our sins. There is still, judgement, I believe but those who respond in Christ pass through judgement. Much more needs exploring on this.
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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14 Dec, 2011 11:51 AM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
Hello, what is your view on utilitarianism in everyday life?
Hello. I find it really useful...actually to be serious, life is more than mere functions and joy is more than mere happiness, in spite of what Jeremy Bentham may have claimed. Joy is deep down and profound and can be in the midst of crisis and horror - I was present at the Indepedence celebrations of South Sudan on 9 July 2011 in Juba. Their joy was overflowing in the midst of wider suffering. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/18/south-sudan-leaders-of-africa
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
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14 Dec, 2011 12:15 PM
Previously St Edwards Poole wrote:
Do you beleive that everyone should be forgiven?
Thanks. Yes, I long for everyone to be forgiven, but because free will is so important, it seems to me that, sadly, not everyone will accept the free forgiveness of God in Christ.
This is been a great Grill a Bishop session - the most powerful so far with about 162 questions! I will try to answer the rest in my own time during the week, and before Christmas. Have a great Christmas holiday. Yours, +Graham
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Thirteenth Live Discussion Wed 14 Dec 2011, 11.30-12.00: St Edward's RC and C of E School, Poole
