The Elizabeth Whitworth Podcast

In a recent conversation with Jeremy Boreing, Mark Driscoll said that “Eternal life begins the day you meet the Lord, not the day you die and stand before Him.” Is that what the Bible teaches? It depends on what Driscoll means. The Bible makes an important distinction between two kinds of life — and two kinds of death. We need to make the same distinction.
 
I dig into several passages to understand when eternal life begins — and to see how the Bible distinguishes between spiritual life and literal life (and between spiritual death and literal death):
John 5:24
Genesis 2:16-17
Genesis 3:6b-7, 21
John 3:7
1 John 3:14
1 Corinthians 15:51-54
Daniel 12:2
Acts 2:29, 34a
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Job 4:17
Isaiah 56:1-2
 
To learn more about what scripture teaches about death, check out my series “Death & Hell: What Does the Bible Say?”
 
The clip in this video is from “Mark Driscoll: Scandal, Forgiveness, and the War for Young Men's Souls | Ep. 55” on Jeremy Boreing’s channel.

Join me as I watch a video for the first time and react to what I hear. The video I watch is “Is Death Final?” from *Closer to Truth*. Host Robert Lawrence Kuhn interviewed theologians and philosophers to get their take on the question. I added my analysis from a biblical perspective.
I encourage you to watch my series "Death & Hell: What Does the Bible Say?" to dive deeper into these topics.
These reactions are my first-time impressions and are intended for the purpose of education and discussion. I encourage you to search the scriptures for yourself. “They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Atheist philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris is right about something important:
“The version of the afterlife that is really on offer traditionally … entails the resurrection of the dead. Most people think that the afterlife religion is offering — Christianity, Judaism, and Islam — has something to do with the soul floating off the brain into a tunnel of light and into paradise. But, that’s actually not the canonical afterlife. In the canonical afterlife, God has to do the humble work of reassembling us.”
Of course, Harris considers this notion to be “implausible” and “crazy,” but he’s not wrong about what the canon (the collection of religious scripture) says. The Bible doesn’t talk about “the soul floating off … into paradise.” Here, I demonstrate what the Bible teaches about what actually happens when we die.
To learn even more, check out my series Death & Hell: What the Bible Says.

Did you know that America's national anthem ends with a question? In this audio essay, I explain why, over 200 years later, it's a question we still need to ask.

Join me as I watch a video and react to what I hear. The video I watch is from Michael Knowles’s YouTube channel. Knowles and Kirk Cameron discuss “hellgate” — the theological controversy surrounding Cameron’s exploration of conditional immortality (“annihilationism”).
I encourage you to watch my series “Death & Hell: What Does the Bible Say?” to dive deeper into these topics.
The video I watch in this episode: “Hellgate: Kirk Cameron Explains The Viral HELL Controversy”
These reactions are my first-time impressions and are intended for the purpose of education and discussion. I encourage you to search the scriptures for yourself. “They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Join me as I watch a video and react to what I hear. The video I watch is from the YouTube channel Closer to Truth. Host Robert Lawrence Kuhn interviews Philip Larrey, Ph.D., about the Roman Catholic view of consciousness. Larrey is a Catholic priest and professor of philosophy at Boston College.I encourage you to watch my series "Death & Hell: What Does the Bible Say?" to dive deeper into these topics.The video I watch in this episode: "Philip Larrey - Theories of Consciousness"These reactions are my first-time impressions and are intended for the purpose of education and discussion. I encourage you to search the scriptures for yourself. “They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).