We’ve all heard songs, read books, or seen movies that focus on Heaven. While many people don’t believe in a place called Heaven, just as many use the word “heaven” to speak of the all-encompassing place where their loved ones go after death. Peoples’ conceptions of what Heaven is like and who goes there aside, American culture has led people to believe that Heaven is a destination, a place we leave for when we die. But is this true?
Well, kind of, but less so than you might think.
According to the Bible, the Heaven as a destination idea that our culture feeds into does exist, but it’s only a “temporary residence” so to speak, until Jesus returns to restore the Earth and dwell with those who have believed in Him here.
This means that though when we die, for awhile we will go to the realm where God is, Jesus will come back to put evil in its place, God’s Kingdom (or Heaven) will come down to Earth and eternity will actually be lived out on a renewed and redeemed Earth.
John, the author of Revelation, describes what this looks like in his vision:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bridge adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’
And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” (Revelation 21:1-5)
And you thought “Heaven on Earth” was just a phrase you say when you’re sitting on the beach with a margarita in your hand!
If you feel like you’ve been tricked into believing something entirely different about Heaven, it’s probably not completely your own fault. Aside from just American culture in general, the Church has not always done a great job of teaching this correctly. For instance, many of the Church’s prominent songs of worship promote this idea that Heaven is a destination we will go to when we die and our permanent resting place. Even some of the most famous hymns ever written have been slightly off-base. Take this one for example:
“When Christ shall come
With shouts of acclamation
And take me home
What joy shall fill my heart”
So what difference does it make? Does it actually make a difference whether I believe that I’ll one day GO to Heaven versus God’s Kingdom coming to Earth and reigning with Him here?
ABSOLUTELY!
The theology of all of this rests squarely on an event that all of Christianity itself rests on.
The resurrection. (If you’ve read more than one blog in this series, hopefully you’re beginning to see a trend!)
When Jesus was resurrected, death was destroyed and something that will take place in God’s future was breathtakingly demonstrated in the present. That all believers will one day be resurrected is a future reality that Jesus demonstrated ahead of time.
Here’s how the Apostle Paul says it:
“But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries…But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father.” (1 Corinthians 15:20,23 – The Message)
When Jesus was resurrected, death was destroyed, Jesus proved that He had the power to forgive our sins, and our earthly realm and God’s realm began to overlap.
This means that God isn’t simply going to do away with this Earth and start from scratch but that He is going to restore, renew, re-energize, and redeem the Earth and EVERYTHING that He’s created, human beings included, and we get to be a part of that (see footnotes). We, sinful, messed up human beings get to pray for and work toward the furthering of God’s Kingdom here on Earth, that His realm of justice, love and beauty might begin to overlap more and more.
This is incredibly mind-blowing and game-changing in a lot of different ways, but here are two that I believe resound all throughout the Bible and don’t hold quite the same punch if we simply end up forever in a Heaven that’s a disembodied destination.
1) We’d better get busy, because what we do on this Earth matters
1 Corinthians 15 is a masterpiece of a chapter that gives us much of our Biblical foundation for the resurrection and why it matters. Each phrase is significant and powerful in itself, but this section reaches its climax and the point that Paul is really striving to get across when he finishes with this:
“With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.”
The efforts we take to care for the Earth, the conversations we have with a hurting friend, the evangelism that we do, the ways in which our work and businesses honor God, the compassion and humility we show in our relationships, the sin we’ve confessed and the lives we’ve lived in submission to God – none of this is done in vain or without eternal significance if Christ has been raised from the dead.
2) There is hope because our God is loving and faithful
If God had essentially created the Earth and created humans and let His entire creation fall to pieces because He was just going to start all over – a new place to live, entirely new bodies, and so on – we would question whether He had considered “good” what He created in the first place if it wasn’t even worthy of rescuing and restoring before it’s all too late.
But God has come, and He has set His restorative, redemptive plan in motion. We are worthy of His love and affection and so He has come to rescue us.
If it was our belief that when we die, we just go to Heaven, there would be absolutely no hope for change and redemption in this life. On the other hand, if we know that God has begun his plan to restore and redeem the land and seas, the deserts and plains, the valleys and mountains, how much more will He begin to renew and redeem us, those He has created in His own image!
God has called His creation “good,” and He will not stand idly by as it deteriorates. Because He loves us and all He has created, there is hope for redemption not just in the “next life,” but in this one too.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, be we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:18-25)
-CK
1 There is somewhat of a debate between scholars whether God will restore the Earth or scrap it completely and create an entirely new Earth. While I don’t have time to go into detail, the theme of God renewing and restoring runs throughout the entire Bible and the similarities between Jesus’ pre-crucifixion body and his post-resurrection body make it much more likely that both the Earth and human bodies will be restored and improved upon, and not simply destroyed and created again from scratch.
Recommended Reading –
Book: Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15
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