A massive assumption has been made in Western Christianity that the purpose of being a Christian is simply, or at least mainly, to “go to heaven when you die,” and texts that don’t say that but that mention heaven are read as if they did say it…” (N. T. Wright in Surprised by Hope, p. 90).
Following in the footsteps of N.T. Wright, I would like to suggest that it is most appropriate in Biblical Theology to look first at what the Bible has to say about cosmic redemption before contemplating the ultimate destiny of individuals. While the latter is an important existential question, to ask it first is like putting the proverbial cart before the horse. The Enlightenment has done a thorough job of indoctrinating us with the notion that I, as an individual, am the starting point of all things important.
So we tend to read the Bible assuming that its message is all about me. Well it is about me, but “me” in the context of the larger cosmic redemption that the world is waiting for. It is not about escaping from the earth, a project God once called good but now pronounces a failure.
The message which Jesus and his disciples preached was “the good news of the Kingdom.” And that was good news for the whole cosmos. So the prayer on our lips which Jesus taught us, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), encompasses not only me and my world, but the world writ large – that is all of God’s creation.
It comes as a surprise to many Christians that this is the predominant theme within the apostolic letters as well. Some would like to read Paul, for example, as a corrective to the “non-evangelical” message that appears to permeate the Gospels and Acts. Supposedly he is the champion of the “me first, escapist” theology that has become the focal point of much Christian thinking. But it turns out that actually Paul is the champion of a renewed cosmos based on resurrection, not on a great escape.
Let’s consider some key biblical passages.
Romans 8:18-25
Paul notes that “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed…in the hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God…Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies…” No sign here of abandoning God’s creation, rather being caught up in the renewal of all that God has created.
I Corinthians 15
This great Pauline chapter on the Resurrection is anything but an affirmation of the popular opinion of ultimate things: that everything burns while we escape the world in “spirit” form. “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive…the last enemy to be destroyed is death…so that God may be all in all.” No indication here that the scene has moved off into space somewhere. We are firmly planted on the earth.
A lot of confusion has come from some unfortunate translations in verses 42-29. “…it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body…If there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body…” A more accurate translation would refer to a “corruptible” body followed by an “incorruptible” body in the resurrection. Some, however, have read into this passage a move from a physical body like we now have to a “disembodied soul” that can fly away at a whim. But that interpretation simply doesn’t fit the context of this chapter. The “incorruptible body,” Paul states, “…shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven” which we take to be the resurrected body of Jesus.
Ephesians 1:9-10
Here Paul reminds his readers that we have come to understand the mystery that in the end, when all is said and done, God purposes “…to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” Note that the earth has not disappeared in a fiery conflagration, but participates in the renewal process.
Colossians 1: 19-20
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” In other words, whatever it was that Christ was doing on the cross, it was more than securing the redemption of individual persons like you and me. You might say that God had the whole cosmos on his radar screen.
Revelation 21-22
According to popular, folk theology, this passage speaks about God’s people being whisked away with Jesus to live forever in a wonderful place called heaven. But even a cursory reading makes it clear that the New Jerusalem is coming down from heaven to be wedded to the renewed earthly realm. So there shall be a new heaven and a new earth. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God…And behold, I am making everything new.”
Much more could be said about this subject and many more texts quoted. Suffice it to say at this point, that the notion that this world doesn’t really matter because it will disappear anyway is simply not a biblical notion. Rather the biblical narrative sets the stage for those who belong to God’s Kingdom to be fully engaged now in the renewal process of this earth ; a process which will be fully ushered in by Christ himself at the time of the resurrection. And the location for that activity, both then and now, is right here on planet earth.
