Tom Wright, academia, Simply Jesus and the end of the world

Tom Wright was in town recently for the British New Testament Conference, so we took the opportunity to drag him away from his lunch (and a heated debate with a colleague) and ask him a few questions about his new job, his new book, and whether God is going to blow this world up.

The belief that God is going to destroy this planet before he makes a new one has been around for a while. It strikes me though that this belief isn’t going to do much to motivate care for the environment (why bother reducing our carbon footprint if God is going to turn every atom of the universe into the mother of all atomic bombs?!).

So as Nomad finds itself increasingly concerned about the environment, we thought we’d better track Tom down and get him to sort this one out once and for all. And I think he did a pretty good job.

With the possible exception of one hard to translate passage in 2 Peter 3, the message of the Bible seems clear. Like us, this world is heading for a resurrection, where everything that is good will be preserved forever, and everything that is bad will melt away. That to me seems like reason enough to start knuckling down to the task of making sure there’s plenty for God to preserve.

We’re heading down to Bristol in a couple of episodes time to meet up with the Earth Abbey guys to find out just how to go about this eternal task.

Tim