Mike McLoughlin's Blog :: Is Heaven Really our Home? Advent Hope is for New Creation not Heaven

Advent is the season of hope, that time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and look forward to his coming again. No surprise then that Barbara Walters has done a special on Heaven. (ABC News: Heaven — Where Is It? How Do We Get There?).

Pastor Ted Haggard, President of The National Association of Evangelicals and listed by Time Magazine as one of The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, says to Walters “Jesus Christ guarantees eternal life to anybody that'll follow him. … The purpose of life is to glorify God and go to heaven … 'cause heaven is our home."

IS HEAVEN REALLY OUR HOME?

According to popular opinion in the church, heaven is our ultimate home. The last words of many faithful believers are “I’m going home to be with Jesus.”

For many Christians, “heaven is our home” defines the Christian hope. For instance, Christian music artist, Kathryn Scott’s debut album features a lead song entitled “Heaven is our Home.” In her explanation for this song she states, “Recently I’ve been thinking about Heaven…I realized that it is not something we sing about very often in the Church… even though it’s our future hope and destination! that’s why I wrote this song, so that we could remind ourselves of what we are heading towards, and celebrate that together now.”

But does our Christian life really end with heaven? Is heaven our “future hope and destination”? Is it really our home?

SOME BIBLE TRANSLATIONS SPEAK OF HEAVEN AS OUR HOME.

Several Bible paraphrases seems to suggest this notion. The Living Bible Translation of 2 Corinthians 5.1 states, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down--when we die and leave these bodies--we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.”

However, Eugene Peterson does a better job with this verse in “the Message”, “For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven--God-made, not handmade.” (Click here for the verse)

ABSENT FROM THE BODY, PRESENT WITH THE LORD

We have the promise from Jesus that those who believe in him will have eternal life. (John 11:25) No question about that! But where will we spend this eternal life? Will it be in heaven?

Paul clearly believes that when he died he would be with Jesus (Philippians 1:22-24). Christ is in heaven, therefore, he must believe he would be with Jesus in heaven.

But this is where it gets tricky. Paul also clearly believes that when he is in heaven he will be “absent from the body.” So heaven is a place where the dearly departed go to be with Jesus as disembodied spirits.

But for Paul this is NOT the end of the story. Paul also clearly believes in the bodily resurrection of Christ and that we too, one day, will be raised like Jesus and therefore we will get new bodies! “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (RSV Romans 6:5)

PAUL DEFINES THE CHRISTIAN HOPE AS BODILY RESURRECTION

So, a fuller understanding of the Christian hope comes from 1 Corinthians 15; Romans 8 and Revelation 21-22. Each of these passages envisage a future hope in which we have resurrected bodies. This hope is realized at the final resurrection of the living and the dead.

For example, Romans 8:19-25 states, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait 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. “

BEING IN HEAVEN WITHOUT A BODY MEANS WE ARE STILL DEAD!

When we are with Jesus in heaven, we do not have bodies. Death means disembodiment. So if we are in heaven without our body we are still dead! We have not realized eternal life until we get our bodies back! So how can we hope that heaven is our final destination?

According to Paul the Christian hope is BODILY resurrection not heaven. Heaven is a holding place for Christians who have died and who await resurrection. The Christian hope is for a bodily resurrection not a disembodied home in heaven.

HEAVEN COMES DOWN TO EARTH

As Brian Walsh has said in his book Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian World View, “the New Jerusalem comes down to earth, rather than Christians going up to heaven. Biblical eschatology is creational eschatology. Indeed, there is not one biblical reference to Christians living eternally in heaven.” (page 194.)

The Christian hope which is the hope we celebrate in this advent season is for a new creation. “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 bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." -- Revelation 21:1-5

We are not “going to heaven”, heaven is coming to earth! We will be resurrected persons in a transfigured universe so that our final home is “a presence, a people and a place” according to Paul Stevens who has a Bible Study guide on this entitled: End Times: Practical Heavenly Mindedness (Lifeguide Bible Studies).

For more articles on heaven visit this page at the Monergism website.

BODILY RESURRECTION IS FOUNDATIONAL TO CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY

So why is this distinction important? Why do we need to emphasize the Christian hope as resurrection and not heaven? Why do we need to think of New Creation as the end of the story verses a disembodied existence in heaven?

It is because we are not truly persons and not truly able to be who God made us to be without our bodies. Bodies matter, for today and for our future existence.

It is on the basis of our bodily existence that we will be judged. “So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.” (RSV, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10)

Thus Christian spirituality is not about being so “heavenly minded, that we are no earthly good” It is about EMBODIED life on the earth both now and forever.

What we believe must be embodied in how we physically live our lives today!

SPIRITUALITY AT WORK - THEREFORE OUR WORK IS NOT IN VAIN!

So how does a resurrection hope for bodily existence make a difference for Christian Spirituality at Work?

Paul ends his chapter on the resurrection with the words, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

The implication is that since there is continuity between this world and the world to come, what we do in this world (WITH OUR BODIES), even what we do in secular work (WITH OUR BODIES), has value in the world to come (WE RECEIVE GOOD ACCORDING TO WHAT WE HAVE DONE IN OUR BODIES.)

So, work that is done “in the Lord” is work that will not be done in vain. As Tom Wright comments in his commentary: 1 Corinthians For Everyone.

“If it is true that God is going to transform this present world, and renew our whole selves, bodies included, then what we do in the present time with our bodies, and with our world, matters. For far too long many Christians have been content to separate out future hope from present responsibility, but that is precisely what Paul refuses to do. His full-bodied doctrine and promise of resurrection sends us back to our present world, and our present life of bodily obedience to our Lord, in the glorious but sobering knowledge (as we saw in 6.14, 13.8-13 and elsewhere) that, if there is continuity between who and what we are in the present and who and what we will be in the future, we cannot discount the present life, the present body and the present world as irrelevant.

On the contrary. It is a matter of the greatest encouragement to Christian workers, most of whom are away from the public eye, unsung heroes and heroines, getting on faithfully and quietly with their God-given tasks, that what they do 'in the Lord' during the present time will last, will matter, will stand for all time. How God will take our prayer, our art, our love, our writing, our political action, our music, our honesty, our daily work, our pastoral care, our teaching, our whole selves - how God will take this and weave its varied strands into the glorious tapestry of his new creation, we can at present have no idea. That he will do so is part of the truth of the resurrection, and perhaps one of the most comforting parts of all.” (page 228)

In summary, a “heaven is my home” hope is Folk Christianity! Similar to the hope that one hears at funerals about the dearly departed becoming angels in heaven. The real hope for Christians is Bodily Resurrection. For more on this hope, please see my article - It's Easter time and I am Passionate about the Resurrection! and the article Jesus is risen from the dead! Therefore our work is not in vain!

BOOKS THAT LOOK FORWARD TO NEW CREATION

For some other books that discuss the Christian Hope and Heaven, see

Heaven Is a Place on Earth : Why Everything You Do Matters to God by Dr. Michael E. Wittmer For an excerpt visit Wittmer’s website at Heaven Is a Place on Earth.

Another great book is Paul Marshall’s Heaven Is Not My Home: Learning to Live in God's Creation.

Finally, for a thorough historical and exegetical view read N T Wright’s book, The Resurrection of the Son of God. (especially see his section on heaven on page 417ff)

for more books on heaven check out Top 7 Books About Heaven by Mary Fairchild

MORE ON THE BARBARA WALTERS SPECIAL ON HEAVEN

Belief Net Interview with Barbara Walters on heaven -- by Rebecca Phillips)

MSNBC NEWS: Barbara Walters explores life after death

Hollywood Reporter: Heaven: Where Is It? How Do We Get There? by Barry Garron

Catholic Online: Heaven Where is it? ABC Special by Harry Forbes

BLOGGERS TALKING ABOUT HEAVEN

For some bloggers who are talking about heaven and the Christian hope visit:

Thinklings » Blog Archive » Wright Speaks (A review of N T Wright’s interview with Christianity Today where he talks about heaven.)

It Takes A Church...: And Heaven and Nature Sing by Tod Bolsinger Trackback

dissonant bible: prooftexts for heaven

Bloghardt's Reflector - "Heaven, where is it? How do I get there?"