Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

Central to Christianity is its perspective on God and the world: “The Christian story claims to be the true story about God and the world […] it offers itself as the explanation” (55). Equally important to the Christian claim is what it declares is not true, for it claims that God is not the same kind of being to which we are accustomed—that God is not something that is observable within the world. Additionally (and this is what makes a book of this sort necessary), “[M]any people today have only the sketchiest idea of what Christianity has said about God” (57).

Much of Western society lives in a post-Christian world that claims to already know what Christianity teaches and has declined the invitation to join the ranks of those who believe. One of the most common misconceptions concerns the reality of heaven and what Christianity actually teaches: Heaven is not, in fact, the ultimate destination of humanity. It is merely a waystation and preparation for the ultimate destiny of the universe: the new heavens and the new earth. For now, however, the spheres of the divine and the human overlap in all kinds of mysterious ways that force us to be open-minded and accepting of the fact that God is able to work within creation without impinging on human freedom.