SIMON PHIPPS

Welcome to the final part of my blog series on Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy". Please look at the chapter list to move between the other parts of this series. What I learnt From This Chapter The final chapter is an attempt to create a vision of what the divine conspiracy is working towards. It is an incredibly powerful vision and speaks of a life that begins now and carries on into eternity. For me personally the conversation around materialism and the kingdom of heaven were very helpful (I particularly enjoyed the "God doesn't have a brain, and he has never missed it" line). I love Dallas's description of ourself becoming more christlike towards death and the end quote from Augustine's City of God is truly wonderful. Chapter List Introduction Chapter 1 - Entering the Eternal Kind of Life Now Chapter 2 - Gospels of Sin Management Chapter 3 - What Jesus Knew: Our God-Bathed World Chapter 4 - Who is Really Well Off? - The Beatitudes Chap...

We recently passed the 100 year mark since the beginning of World War 1. The media was filled with stories of lives lost and destroyed through this tragic event. In the book of revelation, the final book of the bible we see two riders riding white horses. Each of these riders are identified as conquerers. I believe that we are meant to see these riders as juxtapositions. To notice the similarities, but more so to notice the differences. The first rider is followed by three others, war, injustice, and death. I believe that this first rider stands for Rome (or any other empires / civilisations). It set about to conquer, to win, and usher in the pax romana (the peace of rome). But each of its conquests brought with it war, injustice, and death. The second rider on a white horse is given a distinctive description that marks him out as none other than Christ. He is not accompanied by other riders, he stands alone and victorious. Christ’s methodology for conquering comes in direct con...

I grew up by the seaside town of Torquay; trips to the beach are some of my fondest memories. As a tourist destination, people would come from all over the country, just to be beside the ocean. In the book of Revelation , the last book of the bible, John is describing how he sees the world when it is remade into a place of peace.  In his description he adds that the ocean will be no more . To our western minds this is a negative thing, not a positive one; but to a 1 st century Jewish mind-set, the understanding of the ocean is altogether different. We in the west have a romantic view of the ocean. We forget about the countless lives it has claimed , or what it is like to be aboard a boat and be tossed around in a storm . This idea of chaos is the metaphor that John is using, that the ocean stands for the hatred , death and pain that covers the land like a flood. Tom Wright describes Christians as ‘ people of hope ’. This is what defines us, we look forw...