Heaven and Hell with Dr. Robbie Griggs
Today we chatted with Dr. Robbie Griggs on the topic of heaven and hell. Dr. Griggs is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the ThM program at Covenant Seminary. We pray that this conversation not only grows your understanding of life after death, but also grows your understanding of God’s character, leading you to love him more and testify all the more boldly to the hope you have in Jesus, especially as we’re in the Christmas season.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How does the knowledge of heaven and hell help us know God? What does it tell us about who God is?
We probably all maintain ideas about what heaven and hell are like, but can you offer us a biblical foundation for understanding heaven and hell?
How does knowing that hell exists and growing in a biblical understanding of hell actually help us know and love God? For those who do not know and love God, what will hell be like?
What is the purpose of judgment? Will both believers and unbelievers face it?
For those who do know and love God, what will heaven be like?
How does knowing that heaven exists increase my knowledge of and love for God?
We often use the term “heaven” to describe the place believers are after they die, before Jesus’ second coming. Is that accurate? How can we think about that biblically?
What does the reality of heaven tell me about God and his character?
How should the knowledge that heaven and hell are real influence the way we walk through grief and suffering?
How does knowing that heaven and hell are real influence the way we evangelize and love people around us?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“This climatic image helps us to know God as the one who sustains his creation. It’s heaven and earth together that forms the last picture. So what that says is that God has a deep commitment to caring for the things he has made. It’s heaven and earth that John sees there in the end.”
“The new heavens and the new earth—it’s that newness that signals to God as Redeemer, the one who is going to perfect the things that he’s made.”
“The end of the story is not one where God is giving up on the things that he’s made, but instead he is bringing them to their final fulfillment. As their Redeemer, as the one who cares for them and is going to make them whole. It matters tremendously to recognize that that is the story of where the world is going.”
“It’s not just that God takes away our pain, it’s that he transforms the conditions that make pain possible.”
“God is the one who is beyond our grief and can transform it.”
“Hell will be like a place of darkness where there is bitterness and deep deep sadness.”
“Hell is meant to point out that life matters, that there are consequences to how we live. And that because God is good there are ultimate consequences for our lives because our lives are so valuable.”
“God loves his creation and his creatures, that means he’s not going to forever tolerate the destruction of the things he’s made and that he loves.”
“This tells Christians that we need to live lives of repentance and trust in Jesus and patience in this time of God’s forbearance.”
“Ultimately sin leads to the loss of everything we care about.”
“The purpose of judgment is ultimately the display of God’s love for the things he has made.”
“The final judgement is primarily about three things: 1. To magnify God’s sovereign care as the Creator of all things, 2. The degree of reward or punishment for each human being, 3. The place where God will assign each person his final place.”
“The one who is our Judge is also the one who is our Savior. That means we should have confidence to stand before God.”
“Hell is maximal discomfort. Heaven is maximal joy—and it’s joy that doesn’t stop; it doesn't end.”
“The biblical imagery [of heaven] is pointing toward the idea that our joy will never cease and it will always multiply.”
“Eschatology is for ethics, in other words having an idea of where things are going is meant to inform how we live now.”
“We can enjoy what God has made; really living a holy life is about loving God and the things that he’s made.”
“We treasure the good thing; yet we’re aware that that thing has limits.”
“There is tremendous glory in this world and we should aim for it, and there is tremendous loss. And the God who is behind both of those things loves us, cares about us, understands what it’s like for us to lose things, and ultimately is going to magnify the good and take away the loss.”
“We need to let our grief and suffering be what it is...for Christians that means being the kind of people who sit in the questions and don’t run straight for the answers. To follow the pattern of biblical lament, which often spends a long time with the reality of the brokenness of the world and of sin and evil before moving to the resolution of these things in God.”
“My desire for joy that is unalloyed doesn’t mean I’m going to get it, but it does mean I was made for it.” - C.S. Lewis paraphrase
“What suffering and grief does is that it’s a sign for us that we were made for something more, and it leads us to that question ‘Who made me for this and what is he like?’”
“The things I’m struggling with all find their questions and their answers in God.”
“[Our understanding of heaven and hell] humbles us tremendously…It should give Christians a kind of gravity.”
“There’s a rootedness to our hope; there’s a rootedness to our joy that does not deny the seriousness of the life that we live.”
“Start with the words of Jesus in the Gospels. Slow down and pay very careful attention to what Jesus says in the various places where he talks about these things. Don’t get hung up on the precise imagery he’s using and how it all relates together, just ask the question, ‘What’s the point that Jesus is making?’”
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Exclusion and Embrace, by Miroslav Volf
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
SIMPLE JOYS
Music (especially listening to it really loudly)
A good book of philosophy or theology essays
Premier league soccer
HYMN
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How does considering the realities of heaven increase your love for and worship of God as gracious and good?
How does considering the realities of hell increase your awe of and love for God as righteous and holy?
How does understanding God’s judgment and wrath make you feel?
How does knowing that heaven and hell are real influence the way you evangelize and love the people around you?
What might you change or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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