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Podcast Throwback: Why is the Beatific Vision our Hope? Michael Allen and Matthew Barrett

, · October 17, 2023

The apostle John once wrote to the church and made a bold promise: “Beloved we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). What does John mean when he says the Christian will see God? Older theologians referred to this doctrine as the beatific vision. Although often overlooked by evangelicals, the beatific appears everywhere in the New Testament as the Christian’s most blessed hope and source of everlasting happiness and holiness. For this reason, the Great Tradition pursued the beatific vision to better understand the goal of theology and the Christian’s spiritual ascent to God.

In this episode, Reformed theologian Michael Allen joins Matthew Barrett to discuss why the beatific vision is essential to our doctrine of God, the Christian life, and eschatology.

 

Matthew Barrett

Matthew Barrett is Research Professor of Theology at Trinity Anglican Seminary. He has been appointed the McDonald Agape visiting scholar at Dominican House of Studies and the Thomistic Institute. He is the founder of Credo. He is the author of award-winning books like Simply Trinity and On Classical Theology. Currently he is writing a Systematic Theology with Baker Academic. He is the theologian-in-residence of Anselm House at St. Aidan’s Anglican Church. Subscribe to his newsletter to receive updates on his writing.

Michael Allen

Michael Allen serves as the John Dyer Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology and Academic Dean of Reformed Theology Seminary in Orlando. Previously, he taught at Knox Theological Seminary, where he held the D. James Kennedy Chair of Systematic Theology and also served as Dean of the Faculty. He has published many academic articles and books, including Justification and the Gospel: Understanding the Contexts and Controversies, Reformed Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval in Theology and Biblical Interpretation (with Scott R. Swain), Sanctification, a volume in the New Studies in Dogmatics series, and Grounded in Heaven: Recentering Christian Hope and Life in God. 

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