Death and the Afterlife: Biblical Perspectives on Ultimate Questions

Significant aspects of death and the afterlife continue to be debated among evangelical Christians. In this NSBT volume Paul Williamson surveys the perspectives of our contemporary culture and the biblical world, and then highlights the traditional understanding of the biblical teaching and the issues over which evangelicals have become increasingly polarized. Subsequent chapters explore the controversial areas: what happens immediately after we die; bodily resurrection; a final, universal judgment; the ultimate fate of those who do not receive God's approval on the last day; and the biblical concept of an eschatological "heaven." Taking care to understand the ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman backgrounds, Williamson works through the most important Old and New Testament passages. He demonstrates that there is considerable exegetical support for the traditional evangelical understanding of death and the afterlife, and raises questions about the basis for the growing popularity of alternative understandings.

Publisher: IVP
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781783595990

______________

Paul R. Williamson is Lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew at Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Abraham, Israel and the Nations and a contributor to The Land of Promise, the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and the Dictionary of the Old Testament.

______________

‘Christians were once known as those who knew how to die well. In the Western world today, however, many of us have succumbed to the pressures of the surrounding culture, making us slow to talk about death and what lies beyond. Our creeds teach us to long for the new heaven and the new earth, and to trust Christ so as to escape the judgment we deserve, but instead of joining Christian voices across the ages and crying, 'Even so, come, Lord Jesus!', we sometimes succumb to a practical atheism. The first step toward regaining an eternal perspective is to rediscover what the Bible actually says about life, death, judgment, resurrection, and hell. And that is what Paul Williamson has undertaken. Taking care to understand the Ancient Near East and the Graeco-Roman world against which backgrounds the biblical documents were written, he surveys the emphases of the Old and New Testaments, working through the most important passages. This volume is likely to become the stimulus for more than one series of sermons on this subject. More important, it may well stimulate its readers to live life now and die well because they have learned to live with eternity in view, cherishing the blessed promises and consolations of the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ D. A. Carson