Theological Term of the Week: Beatific Vision

This term was recently suggested by a reader. (If you have a theological term you would like to see featured here, you, too, can email your suggestion to me by using the contact button in the navigation bar above.)

beatific vision

The hope of seeing God face to face in heaven; “the unhindered … view of God that believers will have in the new heaven and new earth.”1

• From scripture::

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV)




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 ESV)




Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8 ESV)

• From the Westminster Larger Catechism :

Q. 90. What shall be done to the righteous at the day of judgment?

A. At the day of judgment, the righteous, being caught up to Christ in the clouds, shall be set on his right hand, and there openly acknowledged and acquitted, shall join with him in the judging of reprobate angels and men, and shall be received into heaven, where they shall be fully and forever freed from all sin and misery; filled with inconceivable joys, made perfectly holy and happy both in body and soul, in the company of innumerable saints and holy angels, but especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity. And this is the perfect and full communion which the members of the invisible church shall enjoy with Christ in glory, at the resurrection and day of judgment.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is the beatific vision?
2. Sinclair Ferguson: What is the beatific vision?
3. David Mathis: We Will See His Face: What Is the Beatific Vision?
4. Samuel Parkison: What Is the Beatific Vision?
5. Liam Goligher: The Beatific Vision (video)

 Related terms:

• parousia

Filed under Last Things

1 What is the beatific vision? at Got Questions.

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

Sunday's Hymn: Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above

Sing praise to God who reigns above, 
the God of all creation, 
the God of power, the God of love, 
the God of our salvation. 
With healing balm my soul is filled 
and every faithless murmur stilled: 
To God all praise and glory.

The Lord is never far away, 
but through all grief distressing, 
an ever present help and stay, 
our peace and joy and blessing. 
As with a mother’s tender hand, 
God gently leads the chosen band: 
To God all praise and glory.

Thus all my toilsome way along, 
I sing aloud thy praises, 
that earth may hear the grateful song 
my voice unwearied raises. 
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart, 
both soul and body bear your part: 
To God all praise and glory.

Let all who name Christ’s holy name 
give God all praise and glory; 
let all who own his power proclaim 
aloud the wondrous story! 
Cast each false idol from its throne, 
for Christ is Lord, and Christ alone: 
To God all praise and glory.

—Johann Jakob Schütz (1675), translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox

Theological Term of the Week: Concupiscence

This term was recently suggested by a reader. (If you have a theological term you would like to see featured here, you, too, can email your suggestion to me by using the contact button in the navigation bar above.)

concupiscence

Disordered inclinations or illicit desires. In the historic protestant view, acts that arise from illicit desires and the illicit desires themselves (concupiscence) are both sins for which people incur guilt.

• From scripture::

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. [6] On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Collosians 3:5-6 ESV)

• From the Second London Baptist Confession, 1689 :

Chapter 6: Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof

5. The corruption of nature, during this life, does remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified, yet both itself, and the first motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is the meaning of concupiscence in the Bible?
2. Jared Kennedy: Concupiscence. It’s Not Just About Sex.
3. Kevin DeYoung: Hamartiology, Concupiscence, Temptation, and Suffering (video)

 Related terms:

• fall (of man)
• original sin
• sin
• total depravity

Filed under Anthropology

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.