Help N.T. Wright! Please clarify salvation

Ask NT Wright Anything

Premier Unbelievable

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, History

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today on the Ask NT Wright Anything Podcast, Mike Bird and Tom Wright tackle three challenging listener questions that get to the heart of Christian theology and biblical imagination.Should we pray for Satan? Tom unpacks how centuries of Christian mythology have distorted biblical ideas of “the Satan” (the accuser), explaining why evil has no rightful place in God’s good creation,and what it really means when Scripture says Jesus “disarmed the powers.”Next, the pair discuss Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross — “Today you will be with me in paradise.” What does “paradise” actually mean in the Bible? Tom draws on ancient language and early church thought to clarify the difference between “life after death” and “life after life after death”, showing how the Spirit sustains believers in Christ’s presence until the resurrection.And our last question today is on the life of purification: what it means for God to prune and refine us, not as punishment but as preparation for holiness and fruitfulness. Tom uses the image of pruning from John 15 to remind us that when God cuts things away, He is often closest to us.Support us: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/geolink/donateGot a question for Tom? Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠askntwright.com⁠⁠⁠Start going deeper in the Bible with a free trial at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠logos.com/NT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠👉 Refer a friend to become a subscriber like you - they can get 10% off by clicking here.SOCIAL LINKS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/unbelievablefeFacebook: / https://facebook.com/premierunbelievable Instagram: / https://instagram.com/premierunbelievable Tik Tok: / https://tiktok.com/@premier.unbelievable Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Ask NTWrite Anything podcast, the program where we look at Jesus,
0:09.0	the Bible and the life of faith, answering your questions. I'm Mike Bird from Ridley College,
0:15.0	and I'm joined by...
0:17.1	I'm Tom Wright from Oxford. Tom, great to be with you again.
0:21.8	Thank you.
0:23.3	Now, I've been noticing that we get a lot of people giving us comments on our YouTube channel, Tom.
0:29.5	I imagine you don't, Tom, but I love to go through and see the feedback so I can gauge what people are enjoying.
0:36.2	And I'm glad to say, people are definitely enjoying the show.
0:40.2	That's great.
0:41.0	Well done.
0:41.7	I tend not to read comments on anything if I can avoid it,
0:45.6	unless I suspect that I'm being scammed or something,
0:48.5	in which case I'll go squirreling away to see if other people are saying,
0:51.9	I think this is a scam.
0:53.2	But hopefully this isn't a scam,
0:54.8	and certainly your presence, Mike, is a delight as always. Anyway, we've got some good questions this
1:00.1	week. I mean, this is a, it's a doozy to start off with. Should we pray for Satan? Then about, you know,
1:08.0	what is paradise in the New Testament? And what does it mean to live a life of purification?
1:13.9	So our first question is from a friend in the USA who asked this. If Satan has free will,
1:21.9	should we pray for his repentance? If Satan doesn't have free will, doesn't that mean God created evil?
1:30.9	I mean, this is interesting. Like, if God is not the author of evil, then how can God be the
1:37.0	creator of Satan? Is Satan a fallen being? We should pray for their redemption.
	...

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