“But alas, how little fit for heaven are many who talk of ‘going to
heaven’ when they die, while they manifestly have no saving faith, and
no real acquaintance with Christ. You give Christ no honor here. You
have no communion with Him. You do not love Him. Alas! what
could you do in heaven? It would be no place for you. Its joys would
be no joys for you. Its happiness would be a happiness into which you
could not enter. Its employments would be a weariness and burden to
your heart. Oh, repent and change before it be too late!” – J.C. Ryle
Over the past few months the topic of heaven has kept cropping up in my thoughts. Whilst I was in Manchester last year I had the chance to study topics related to the new creation, and I heard a sermon by Wayne Grudem where he put forward his views on the subject. He talked about how he sees the new earth actually quite a lot like the old one, minus the curse/sin/death etc. So, according to his view in the redeemed Earth we will have hobbies such as football or playing cards, we’ll be able to learn instruments play music, and create art etc etc. We’ll live in cities, we’ll make technological advances, all sorts of things you would find in this Earth, only better, without sin, and all for the glory of Jesus.
Now, I have to say this vision of heaven sounded very attractive to someone who had classically not been as excited as a Christian should be about eternal life. If I was honest, heaven according to my pre-conceptions sounded, well, boring. I read passages such as Revelation 4:8, and I was too scared to admit to myself or anyone else that the idea of repeating the words ‘holy, holy, holy’ forever didn’t fill me with joy. Surely the same old song might lose its novelty 45 billion years into eternity. One primary image of heaven in my mind was of a bunch of people staring at the ‘glory of God’ (which I pictured as a very bright white light, obviously) constantly forever. This wasn’t exciting.
So when this fresh idea of the new creation was introduced to me, I was amazed. Suddenly heaven sounded exciting, and I started to look forward to it. Grudem recommended a book from where he had got a lot of his ideas on heaven, the cryptically titled ‘Heaven’ by Randy Alcorn. I went out and bought it, and looked forward to reading about whether we’ll have pets in heaven, and whether I’ll be able to learn the mandolin for a thousand years before moving onto new hobbies. What I was most interested to see however, was the theological backing. As far as I was aware, Scripture had seemed fairly silent (save some passages I thought were ambiguous) on the specific details of the new creation, and I really wanted to see how Alcorn was going to back up his ideas.
Now, this article isn’t meant to be a critique on the book (that’s not the main point I want to put across, as you’ll see in a minute) but as I read it I was left frustrated. Without going into details, I’m not convinced that Alcorn has enough backing biblically for some of his views (although without doubt I would agree with some of his foundational ones: that the new earth will be a material place, we’ll have material bodies etc), in particular in some of the details. I feel he has done quite a bit of extrapolation, and realising I hadn’t found the biblical backing I was looking for I was saddened. The idea of doing things like dancing to redeemed trance music had sounded too good to be true, and I was slightly gutted that I didn’t feel there was enough biblical evidence to back it up. Now, I’m not saying the new earth won’t have any of the things Alcorn or Grudem suggested – they may well do. But I concluded that we just can’t be sure biblically on some of them, and this was a great shame to me. Heaven didn’t seem as exciting anymore, and I was left having to grumblingly accept that, as many people say, ‘we just can’t imagine what heaven will be like’. But how could I be excited about something I couldn’t imagine?
I was left frustrated for quite a while, and once again the topic of heaven left the forefront of my mind, that is, until a few days ago. And since recently, there has been a paradigm-shift in my thoughts on the subject. How? Blame it on John Piper:
“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—
is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the
friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and
all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties
you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no
human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with
heaven, if Christ were not there?”
A crushing question. As I read this in ‘God is the Gospel’ I realised that I had not been looking forward to the ultimate Joy in the all the universe at all when considering heaven, but rather merely His gifts. I had been acting as if being able to dwell with my Creator wouldn’t be enough. What sin! The joy of looking forward to heaven isn’t the prospect of days on sunny beaches, it’s beholding and seeing the face of Jesus, and dwelling with him! Everything else is utterly secondary, and inconsequential in comparison to being in the full presence of He who has made, saved, and sustained me since my birth. To finally see Him in His glory will be the ultimate thing, not anything else. In my previous frustrations concerning those uncertain details of heaven, I had totally missed the point.
This has been a massive challenge to me, and I’m still thinking it through. Now though, I know that I don’t have to know whether there’ll be graphic design in heaven to be able to be excited about it…all I have to know is that I will be able to behold Jesus and see Him ‘as He is’ – this is the primary thing to look forward to. After all, only God can truly satisfy the heart of man, no amount of other gifts. So of course I can be excited about heaven; it’s great to be in communion with God now on this Earth – how much better will it be then?!
3 comments
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March 22, 2010 at 10:29 am
Zac Wyse
Thanks for this thoughtful post, Jez. I share a lot of sympathies with you regarding Grudem and Alcorn’s perspective on the topic of heaven. Many of the conclusions they reached seemed like a stretch to me, although they may be true. I think the neo-calvinist theology is similar, but that’s a discussion for a different time…
The new creation has been a big talking point lately. British evangelicals (who are becoming very indebted to the neo-calvinists) are trying to distance themselves from some traditional views of ‘heaven’ as being entirely ethereal. I wonder if many of them are doing what you just described, i.e., exciting people that the new creation is a lot like this creation rather than exciting people about being with Christ.
Thanks again! Cya soon!
March 22, 2010 at 11:58 am
japesy
Thanks for your comments Zac. Actually, I had a skim through Alcorn’s book again yesterday, and read an article on Theology Network, and perhaps there is more backing for some of his ideas than I first thought. As I said in the post, I believe in a very material new creation; I’m certainly not a proponent for the ‘ethereal’ view of heaven (what’s your view on this by the way? I’d be fascinated to hear it!), so perhaps it’s logical given some aspects of Eden (eg. freedom to name animals) to anticipate things such as creativity in heaven. Some of his ideas are definite extrapolation though, he quotes Revelation 2:28′ I will give him the Morning Star’ and says that since the Morning Star is Venus (not Christ himself?) possibly there will be a redeemed Venus (a low point in the book haha!). My main issue with Alcorn’s theological basis was his use of Isaiah 60 – he interprets the passage with a full literal hermeneutic, then says that v7′s links to animal sacrifices in the new creation merely ‘raise questions’. Surely that’s a pretty massive question!
That said, even if there was full Biblical backing for all of Alcorn’s ideas – you’re certainly right that its far too easy to elevate the gifts over the Giver. I guess I’m finding it hard to get the balance. Then again, I’ve always struggled with this issue – 1 Tim 6:17 baffles me at times. I’m much clearer now though that we must ram home the point of the new creation all being about Christ, not anything else.
Do you see any view of heaven that isn’t ethereal as being one which could take away from the centrality of Christ there? (I’m reading between the lines of your post, I may have mis-judged.) By the way, it was very interesting reading the Jonathan Edwards quotes in Alcorn, Edwards seemed to be a pro-material New creation too (some of his ideas didn’t seem too far off from Alcorn’s in places).
March 29, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Zac Wyse
Hey bro – sorry I missed this!
Re: the new creation – I definitely believe it’ll be a re-creation and that it will be physical. Just as our bodies will be glorified, I think the universe will be glorified.
Re: Edwards – I’d be interested to read Alcorn on this. I’m wondering if he quoted from Edwards on the Millennium rather than the eternal state. Here’s some Edwards on the eternal state from his “History of the Work of Redemption” (ch. 13, part 9):
“VI… The redeemed church shall all ascend with him in a most joyful and triumphant manner: and all their enemies and persecutors, who shall be left behind to be consumed, shall see the sight, and hear their songs. And thus Christ’s church shall for ever leave this accursed world, to go into the highest heavens, the paradise of God, the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.”
“VII. When they are gone, this world shall be set on fire, and be turned into a great furnace, wherein all the enemies of Christ and his church shall be tormented for ever and ever… When Christ and his church are ascended to a distance from this world—that miserable company of the wicked being left behind, to have their sentence executed upon them here— then, this whole lower world shall be set on fire, either from heaven, or by fire breaking out of the bowels of the earth, or both, as it was with the water in the time of the deluge. However, this lower world shall be set all on fire.”
A few paragraphs later, Edwards writes:
“VIII… And now shall that new heaven and new earth, or the renewed state of things, be completely finished, after the material frame of the old heavens and old earth is destroyed: Rev. xxi. 1. “And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.”
Edwards is emphatic that we depart “this earth” to enter the “highest heaven” (both geographical locations, not eschatological stages). The unrighteous are punished on “this earth”. But he still sees a ‘renewal’ rather than a brand new creation. What chapter and part does Alcorn quote from?