Don Carson: Home at Last – The Spectacular God at the Center (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)

To read the near-transcription from Dr. Carson’s plenary (including worship with the Gettys, the Scripture passages, helpful links, etc.), just click “Replay” below:

Here is a picture of Dr. Carson as he was teaching:

The actual LiveBlog replay above has around 7,200 words in it, so I won’t even attempt to restate the entirety of this teaching. However, here are just a few points that will hopefully whet your appetite and encourage you to read the entire entry:

• One reason God uses so much symbolism is because we are so dead to God, so blind, so unable to understand, so without category, without vocabulary; that when someone like Paul is caught up to the third heaven, things may be forbidden for Paul to explain, they are also inexpressible.
• Jesus  doesn’t say guard your heart, he says choose your treasure. What you treasure is, that’s where your heart will go.
• It is extremely important for us to maintain a high valuation of our destiny.
• I can’t imagine the dimension of grief and tears represented by 3,000 women. But there will be no more tears. No more death. No more mourning. For the old order of things has passed away.
• v7 is badly translated in most translations. (I’m a pedant at the end of the day; that’s what people who write books are like.) [Note from Tara … a pedant is a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.]
• You sometimes hear people saying stupid things like “I want to go to hell because all my friends will be there.” There are no friends in hell.
• Sidebar: You must not always think that all numbers in Scripture are symbol-laden. But most in Apocalyptic literature are. I keep files of screwball interpretations of numbers in Scripture. [Then he gives an example so screwball I can’t even keep up.] It is unmitigated rubbish.
• We join Christians of every age —- Christ says, “I am coming soon!” And we respond, “Come, Lord Jesus!”