‘The End of The Christian Life,’ with Dr. J. Todd Billings

Dr. J. Todd Billings returns to the show to discuss keeping hold of the goodness of God in face of the horrors of death.

J. Todd Billings

How do people keep ahold of the goodness of God in the face of the horror of death? While there is no easy answer to such a question, Dr. J. Todd Billings—professor of Reformed theology at Western Theological Seminary and a terminal cancer patient himself—joins Matt, Derek, and Alastair to discuss his recent book, The End of The Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live. Listen in as Dr. Billings helps the cast and crew reflect on death, life, and what it means to be united in the death and life of our Lord.

Mere Fidelity is excited to announce our new partnership with Lexham, a publisher that seeks to increase biblical literacy, thoughtful Christian reflection, and faithful action around the world by publishing a range of Bible study materials, scholarly works, and pastoral resources. The Book of the Month is Dual Citizens: Politics and American Evangelicalism, a collection of articles from Christianity Today originally published between 1956 and 2016. Timothy D. Padgett has collected a number of articles that traces a variety of perspectives in evangelical political thought, giving a more nuanced understanding of how American evangelicals have acted politically over the past decades. For the month of October 2020, our listeners will get a 25% discount on their purchase of this volume with the code MEREFIDELITYOCT at checkout.

Timestamps

0:00
What moved you to take up a project focused on death?
7:01
Is death an enemy, or a natural part of life?
12:18
What kind of shift have you seen in the church in how it has historically spoken about death and how it speaks of death today?
19:14
In what ways should churches introduce the topic of death to congregations?
26:08
A funeral is not a celebration of life
28:36
How does the practice of the sacraments help us to reflect on death?
34:39
Our bodies are also in union with Christ
39:39
What are the most prevalent ideologies today that attempt to deal with death?
44:47
How do people keep ahold of the goodness of God in the face of the horror of death?

Follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Caleb Wait for keeping us organized. Special thanks to Tim Motte for sound editing. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.

Suffering Death
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