N.T. Wright on the Colbert Report

I don't make a habit of watching the Colbert Report for all the obvious reasons, but when I saw that N.T. Wright was going to be on the show I was intrigued and just had to watch.

I was a little frustrated that I had to wait the entire show to see Dr. Wright's segment appear at the end of the show. Now I do want to complement Dr. Wright on his ability to convey anything meaningful on a show like this one, whose main goal seems to be the highlighting of clever and sometimes mean satire.

Dr. Wright did a great job explaining that Heaven is not a permanent eternal home. We are actually looking ahead to the New Creation after the resurrection of the dead. This is a truth that has simply slipped out of evangelical thinking, to our detriment.

But it was what he did not say that left a bitter taste in my mouth. There was no word about how one gets to this New Creation or if there was a corresponding place of eternal torment. The Gospel was simple missing. There was no mention of Jesus, there was no mention of the Cross that makes entrance into the New Creation a reality and no word about how one must respond to God's offer of salvation. This was a tragedy. But I am not shocked.