How do people keep ahold of the goodness of God in the face of the horror of death? While there is no easy answer to such a question, Dr. J. Todd Billings—professor of Reformed theology at Western Theological Seminary and a terminal cancer patient himself—joins Matt, Derek, and Alastair to discuss his recent book, The End of The Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live. Listen in as Dr. Billings helps the cast and crew reflect on death, life, and what it means to be united in the death and life of our Lord.
This episode of Mere Fidelity is sponsored by our friends at Lexham Press, and also features a new special: Mere Fidelity’s Lexham Book of the Month.
For the month of October, our listeners will get a 25% discount on their purchase of Dual Citizens: Politics and American Evangelicalism, edited by Timothy Padgett. Dual Citizens is a collection of essays originally published in Christianity Today which reveals a variety of evangelical thought towards political developments from 1956-2016.
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Timestamps:
What moved you to take up a project focused on death [0:00 – 7:01]
Is death an enemy, or a natural part of life? [7:01 – 12:18]
What kind of shift have you seen in the church in how it has historically spoken about death and how it speaks of death today? [12:18 – 19:14]
In what ways should churches introduce the topic of death to congregations? [19:14 – 26:08]
A funeral is not a celebration of life [26:08 – 28:36]
How does the practice of the sacraments help us to reflect on death? [28:36 – 34:39]
Our bodies are also in union with Christ [34:39 – 39:39]
What are the most prevalent ideologies today that attempt to deal with death [39:39 – 44:47]
How do people keep ahold of the goodness of God in the face of the horror of death? [44:47 – 52:11]
Resources mentioned:
The End of The Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live by J. Todd Billings
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Finally, as always, follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Timothy Motte for his sound editing work. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.