We’ll never get our theology totally right (though no theologian would ever agree). But the truth is that when we stand before God he will reveal entirely new ways of reconciling theological distinctions. The old arguments about free will and predestination will evaporate. The old lines we’ve drawn between Reformers and Wesleyans, Catholics and Lutherans, Charismatics and Contemplatives will dissipate as God patiently reveals we are all, partly, wrong. I imagine we’ll find out we’re mostly right, too—especially given the wide- scale agreement between us—but the things about which we’re so passionate are often the issues about which the Bible is especially unclear. I suspect that’s where our passion comes from, feeling like we’ve figured something out that you couldn’t discern just by reading it off the page.
Adapted from Then. Now. Next.: A Biblical vision of the church, the kingdom, and the future.