Ted Dekker - The Slumber of Christianity: Awakening a Passion for Heaven on Earth

Copyright 2005 by Ted Dekker

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dekker, Ted, 1962
The slumber of Christianity : awakening a passion for heaven on earth / Ted Dekker.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7852-1223-X (hardcover)
1. Revivals. 2. Church renewal. I. Title.
BV3790.D4754 2005
243--dc22

2005008269

Printed in the United States of America

05 06 07 08 QW 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

1. The Slumber of Christianity
The Death of Our Dreams

2. The Search for Pleasure
One Mans Journey to Discover Happiness (Part One)

3. Foundations
The Heart of the Matter

4. Give Me Pleasure or Give Me Death
One Mans Journey to Discover Happiness (Part Two)

5. The Slippery Slope to Slumber
The Fall from Hope

6. In Living We Die; In Dying We Live
Facing the Truth of Our Faith

7. Created to Obsess
The Emotions of God

8. The Eyes of the Heart
Unveiling True Pleasure

9. Bohemian Christianity
Embracing Pleasure on Earth

10. When Ravaging Beasts Bite
Finding Hope Past Suffering

11. What Now?
Tell Me How I Should Live

Rise up from slumber. Set your mind and heart on an inheritance that will blow your mind. Feel your heart flutter and find a new passion for life here and now. This is the call from Ted Dekker, who writes with passion and insight on the search for happiness and heaven.

Are you desperately longing for heaven? Its a question that begs answering. Peter says, We are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth (2 Peter 3:13). But, in fact, as Christians today are we? Are we actually looking forward to and longing for our eternal home?

Heaven plays a major role in my novels and nonfiction. Researching my book Heaven, I read 150 volumes on the subject, many long out-of-print. Ive taught a seminary course A Theology of Heaven. Ive received literally thousands of letters and e-mails about heaven. Theres a great deal I dont know, but one thing I do know is what Christians think about heaven. And how seldom we think about it.

Sadly, Ted is right when he says the church today has little passion for the coming life.

What a contrast to the early Christians. Their pictures on the catacomb walls portrayed heaven with beautiful landscapes, children playing, people feasting at banquets. Believers throughout the ages saw heaven as a constant source of strength and perspective. It was their central reference point, the north star by which they navigated their lives. But today, heaven has fallen off our radar screens.

What God made us to desire is exactly what he promises: a resurrected life in resurrected bodies, in a resurrected community, with the resurrected Christ on a resurrected Earth. This is the eternal heaven that awaits us, and should daily capture our imaginations.

Teds rightwere slumbering. We need to wake up and smell the New Earth. Taste the coming resurrection. The doctrines of resurrection and New Earth mean that this present world, though suffering under sin and curse, is bursting with clues and foretastes of the coming world.

The Carpenter from Nazareth is preparing a place for us. He knows how to build. Hes constructed entire worlds, billions of them. Hes going to strip the damaged paint off the old Earth, sand and refinish it, then present it magnificent and pristine. He says it will one day be our home... and His, for He will dwell there with His people, forever bringing heaven to earth (Revelation 21:3).

With the Lord we love and with the friends we cherish, believers will embark together on the ultimate adventure, in a spectacular new universe awaiting our dominion and exploration. Jesus will be the cosmic center. Joy will be the air we breathe.

And right when we think, It doesnt get any better than thisit will.

So listen to Ted Dekkers wake-up call. Youll never regret the world youll wake up to... not in a billion years.

RANDY ALCORN,
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF HEAVEN

PART I
Our Descent into Slumber

John is forty years old and by all earthly standards a successful man. Hes happily married, has raised four children, and owns a landscaping company that easily affords him a comfortable life. Hes also a godly man as best I can tell.

We leaned against his blue Ford F150 in my driveway after discussing what trees would look best in my backyard. Dusk was upon us. I took a breath and sprang a question Ive asked many godly men lately.

Do you ever feel like all you do is work for a payday that never seems to arrive?

He adjusted his Rockies baseball cap and looked at me past graying brows. I knew immediately that the question had struck a chord. Not surprisingthe question always strikes a chord. I pushed further.

I mean, think about it. Has your payday ever really arrived?

No, not really, he said.

But you have money. A decent life...

Sure.

So what does it take to find true happiness? I asked. Youve lived the life, so tell me. How does someone like me find satisfaction?

He thought a moment and then looked at the horizon introspectively. In the small things. A good marriage, a good family, a good job. And church, of course. A relationship with God. In the end, thats what counts.

Hows that?

This world hands us all kinds of challenges, and without Gods strength I dont think we stand a chance. Like they say, his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Thats the key to happiness.

But your ship has never come in, so to speak, I said. Life is mostly a struggle. No big payday yet. Its always just around the corner; am I right?

Well... I guess. I dont really know what

You ever see The Matrix, John? I interrupted.

Sure. Good movie.

What if were asleep, like Neo was in The Matrix? I asked. What if the reason we cant find any lasting satisfaction in life is because were all asleep to a truth that would change our lives forever?

Thats the advantage Christians have, he said. Thats what Im saying.

No, John. What if Christians are asleep? What if were missing the point of our lives here on earth? What if the church is asleep to a truth that would wake us from a deep slumber? Ever think about that?

John just stared at me.

But that didnt surprise me either. Christians often just stare at me when I first talk to them about the slumber of Christianity.

The Slumber

John is the victim of a slumber that holds hundreds of millions of Christians in the dark, unaware of their own demise.

Perhaps you know of this slumber; perhaps you dont. Either way, any living soul who is even remotely concerned with enjoying life this side of death needs to know about a terrible shortsightedness that has lulled Christians by the millions into a deep sleep. Their life in God simply isnt as thrilling as it once was, and theyve settled for that disappointment.