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Heaven. 12 th October 2013. Imagine there is a heaven… it’s easy if you try. What the New Testament says about the reality of heaven.
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Heaven 12th October 2013
The first feature of New Testament teaching about heaven is that it belongs to a much larger picture. The Christian hope is cosmic in scale – it involves God’s renewal of the whole of creation.
The second feature is that God and intimate relationship with God are at the heart of heaven.
The third feature is that heaven is a corporate experience. A fourth feature is that heaven has a certain conviviality to it.
A final feature heaven is that it transcends all the difficulties of life on earth. It is a sphere where the final and irreversible victory of God’s love over all that was devilish and divisive and destructive in the first creation is reaffirmed and rejoiced in.
So, the Biblical portrayal of heaven sees it as part of a cosmic renewal by God; centred on God’s presence; corporate in nature; possessed of a certain materiality; and filled with conviviality.
Thomas Aquinas gives the classical definition in these words: “The fulfilment of man consists in his attainment of his final end, consisting in the vision of God. The vision of God results in the immutability of both intellect and will…………. Our final fulfilment is perfect stillness or immobility”
The second major interpretation – the anthropocentric or human – centred. The name most strongly linked to this interpretation is Emanuel Swedenborg.
Swedenborg believed that heaven was very close to earth and the dead entered into it immediately. Heaven is a continuation and fulfilment of material existence and the occupants of heaven are engaged in lots of activities, experience spiritual progress and are caught up in a motion-filled environment. Finally, a focus on human love expressed in communal and family life becomes more and more prominent.
C.H. Spurgeon the great Victorian preacher saw work as one of the keys to this soul-making. ‘The idea of heaven as a place of rest will just suit some indolent professors’, he wrote. ‘A true idea of heaven is serving God day and night in his temple and never to know weariness and never to require slumber.’
The anthropocentric or human-centred interpretation of heaven much of the fulfilment of being there has shifted from the enjoyment of God in contemplation and stillness to the enjoyment of one another in an environment which not only strongly resembles but in many ways gives continuity to life on earth.
The main legacy of the late 20th century is that belief in heaven has largely collapsed even among church people. The details of heaven have become less and less definite.
“Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. Whatever we were to each other that we are still. Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is absolute unbroken continuity. All is well. Nothing is lost.”
Death is. Death is. Nothing at all can quench the pain. We can only hold out, enduring the loss, to see if time does heal. Death is. Nothing at all can fill the gap. God doesn’t attempt to; God perhaps keeps it empty for the space preserves our communion. Death is. Nothing at all can defy our mortality. We are framed by it, our constant companion, and its shadow illuminates our path. Death is. But nothing at all can alter our natality; that we are born and blessed to live and love. Matt Vernon
Q. Which interpretation are you most attracted to? Q. Has this lecture made you think differently about your picture of heaven?
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. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,‘See, the home of God is among mortals.He will dwell with them;they will be his peoples,and God himself will be with them;4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.Death will be no more;mourning and crying and pain will be no more,for the first things have passed away.’
5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ 6Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
What is the passage about?What is promised? What is not promised?What does it mean to you?
Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more." (Isaiah 65:17-19)
Parallel with Isaiah 65 and other places in the OT • Sea represents chaos, unordered creation, perpetual unrest • The Bride is not just the church but the whole renewed world • God used to dwell in the temple in Jerusalem, now God dwells in the new Jerusalem – the redeemed and transformed world
“It is one thing to think that God is preparing a place for us ... It is an entirely other thing to look around at the very place in which we live, the injustices, improprieties, and problems, and get ready for God to come here, transforming all of it into the new beginning and end that God is.”
Heaven and earth are no longer separated • Belief in heavenly Jerusalem was widespread (Gal 4:26, Lord’s Prayer?) • The people are not ‘taken up’ rapture style, but God makes God’s home on earth • It is a vision of life with God after judgement. Judgement is primarily purposeful not punitive
Importance of ‘new’ - New Israel, the new covenant, the new commandment, the new wine, the new man, the new Adam, the new age and so on. - God is establishing a new heaven and a new earth. • The promise of newness is not made through the angels, but by directly by God
Interactions of the raised • Reading the words on the gravestones • Both wedding and birth are evoked – the roses over the door, and God holding the Christ Child in his arms • Ordinary and Extraordinary
Stanley Spencer: • “The ordinary everyday meaning of things, and the imaginary meaning about it all”. • Full of as “little ordinary intimate happenings which bring me to a new state of awareness.” • “Nobody is in any hurry in this painting, those men lying on top of the tombs I like very much, they gave me the feeling that the Resurrection is a peaceful occasion, and very positive. I like the happiness, that's the main idea of the picture.”
Continuity: the lives and relationships of the old world, being renewed in the next, the familiarity of place and person. • Discontinuity: the laws of nature are overturned, transformation of the familiar. • Spencer recognizes, and beautifully conveys, that when all things are made new- it will be the renewal of the familiar.
In the Christian community, it is the fulfillment of relationship, the perfecting of the ordinary, that is the context of the life to come. • The promise of new life is part of our present, and not just our future reality. • It is the consolidation of the moments of beauty that we experience in this life
There will be continuity in heaven. We will still be the people that we are, but fully or completely so. • The perfected beings that we will be will have the capacity to see God face to face, not in a mirror darkly as we currently do. • We will be perfected in Christ – the version of us that God already sees
Frequently Asked Questions: • Do you think X has gone to heaven? / Where do you think X is now? • Will there be dogs in heaven? • Can I play golf in heaven? • Do you think X is a star / raindrop /snowflake etc? • Will I be reunited with X in heaven? Pick one of these questions and consider how you might respond to it in light of what we have talked about today.
Why does the Christian teaching about heaven matter? Can teaching about the afterlife be separated from other teachings of Christianity?
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. 15We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 1 Corinthians 15
A 46 year old man has been killed in a car accident. The family are very well known in the community and they have asked to have the funeral at your Church. They want to play some of his favourite music and have his friends give eulogies. They ask not to have any of the “religious bits” as he never went to Church and they don’t want to be hypocritical. • What might you say? Why?
A 14 year old girl in your church died of leukaemia. One of the youth leaders told the young people that Annie was to special to stay on earth, she was so special that God couldn’t wait any longer for her in heaven. One of the parents has complained. • What might you say? Why?
