Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

No heaven? Heavens no!

When Christians die, where are they? St. Paul, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, says: “With Christ.” And where is Christ? He’s seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father. (Acts 1:33) So…yes, when we die, we go to heaven.

And that should be a great comfort. The Bible says, when Christian believers die, their loved ones “do not grieve as those who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) Again, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ – neither death nor life…neither things present nor things to come…nor height nor depth nor any other created thing.”

We need to acknowledge a huge mystery here. The Bible says we are “with Christ” and intimately connected with Him (not separated), no matter what happens to us. Even when we experience biological death. How can we live apart from our body? This question invites all kinds of imaginative speculation. The fact is, the Bible doesn’t explain how. God knows, we don’t – and it’s not difficult for us to believe that God can figure out how.

At the same time, a very elaborate “mythology of heaven” has grown up over the last several hundred years. Many of our notions of heaven are romantic musings that have no basis at all in scripture, but which we have somehow managed to accept. Some of these notions are unworthy and pagan and have nothing to do with faith in Christ. Many who hold popular ideas of heaven find very offensive the biblical teachings of a last judgment, of heaven and hell (Jesus, for example, had more to say about hell than about heaven), and of salvation through Christ alone. The Bible is the Christian’s absolute authority. Are we willing to sift our accumulated notions of heaven through the sieve of scripture?

As I read the Bible, I cannot find anywhere the notion of “going to heaven.” Not because we don’t go there. But because it’s not as important as our ultimate destination. Again, our ultimate destination is new creation – a world like the one God created, but free of sin, suffering, evil, and death. The Lord will dwell there with his redeemed people. When Christ returns, he will resurrect our dead bodies; we will receive glorified bodies that are immortal – like Jesus’ Easter body. Finally, we can inhabit a world where God’s presence, glory, righteousness, and love fills the whole earth. You and I were always intended to live in a world like that. God isn’t finished until he has literally saved the world just like that.

What we call “heaven” is the sort-of stopover place between death and the return of Christ. Jesus called it “paradise” when he reassured the dying thief beside him on the cross. It’s a garden-like place of rest and refreshment. But just like a rest stop on a long vacation trip, while we are “in heaven” we will feel like this journey isn’t over and we haven’t arrived at our real destination yet.

When the Bible speaks of “heaven,” most of the time it means either “the sky” (Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and earth” means “he created everything up there and everything down here”) or “God’s realm.” Not a geographic realm, but God’s realm of being. Jesus taught us to pray, saying: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What are we praying? That the earth would become a heavenly place – that is, that the obedience and love that abounds in God’s realm would abound on earth as well. At the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, nobody goes up to heaven. Heaven comes down to earth!

How does that change the way we’re living? It means that we must love and care for this creation because Jesus came to die for and redeem it. We must treat the environment and our own physical bodies as something God expects us to care for. We don’t trash this earth ecologically. We care passionately that everybody on this planet is treated respectfully and with justice. The kingdom of God is God’s will being done on earth just as it is in heaven. God so loved the world that he sent his Son. This fallen, broken world is the place God expects us to focus our Holy Spirit-filled life right now, because one day it will be completely redeemed and glorified. It’s going to be our home forever.

Heaven on earth – now that’s something to look forward to!

 

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