Where did “The Overlap Life” come from?
I spent a lot of time studying heaven and what happens to believers after they die.
I found that a lot of the conversations that I was having with people outside of the church were really confused – people were really thrown off by what they thought the Bible was teaching. So, I decided to do a deep dive!
- I read a lot of the church fathers.
- I went through a lot of our history as a church.
- I studied from all kinds of different denominations and theological systems
And I found that this confusion spreads back quite a ways… it’s not a new thing.
So, I just decided to let the Bible speak for itself! I found that the the most interesting thing for me was that there’s a lot of dialogue between the first two chapters (that describe the Eden narrative) and the last two chapters (which describe what’s called the “New Creation”, or the “Restoration of All Things”, or the “New Heavens and the New Earth”).
Tom & Jerry, or the Bible?
My understanding growing up was that heaven was something fundamentally “disembodied”: that it was ethereal. You’re out in in the clouds somewhere.
I think that idea came more from Greek philosophy and Tom and Jerry than the Bible; because the last picture you get in the Bible is of God’s city, the heavenly Jerusalem coming down to Earth like a bride prepared for her husband!
Then, God dwells with his people on the earth that He’s remade again!
I think of, perhaps, Romans 8: where Paul says that this world, (“the creation”) groans with labor pains while it waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
That’s really what this channel (and this book) are about:
- What changes if that’s the future?
- What changes if that’s the eternal state? If it’s not just disembodied heaven, but it’s physical and embodied?
- How does that change our priorities?
- How does that change what we think we’re doing here?
That turned into a book, called “The Overlap Life”!
It turned into a YouTube Channel!
It has turned into some Challenges!
There’s a lot more in the pipeline – honestly, we are just barely scratching the surface.
But if you are at all interested in studying Christian Hope, developing an eternal mindset, having a good theology of work, and just general good Biblical theology, then you are in the right place!
