Imperfect Heaven

Some bright morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away.  To that home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away.

Despite the myriad of teaching and instruction on the nature of heaven both in Scripture and early church literature, there persists much confusion about it.  

Even among many professing christians today, the dreadfully prominent view of heaven seems to be a mashup of cartoons and secularism – of harp-playing, cloud-hopping, winged cherubs playing around like fairies, flitting between their massive mansions and the pearly gates.

We’ve fallen for the trap of thinking that heaven is “far away”, somewhere “out there”.

We’ve fallen for the trap of thinking that if we say (fill in the blank) or do (fill in the blank), that we get to “go to heaven” when we die.

We’ve fallen for the trap of thinking that heaven is perfect, and outside of time, and somehow infinitely different from our life on earth.  “Earth is here, but it’s messed up, and heaven is “there”, and it’s perfect – we’ll know everything when we die, and never again experience challenges, never have to learn, never have to improve, never have to exercise free-will again.”

But this is un-biblical utopian escapism.

Perhaps one of the greatest contributors to the Western Church’s decline over the past century stems from a rise in practical escapist theology within the Church.  We’ve given up much of the personal responsibility for learning and growing in our biblical knowledge, heaving the burden onto the shoulders of a secular culture, with occasional  input from our local pastor or priest.  And as a result we’ve diluted and distorted the Gospel message.

We have sacrificed what is difficult and necessary for what is simple and easy.

But it’s time to arise.

“Wake up o sleeper, rise from the grave.”

In the creation account, the word for “heavens” effectively translates to “sky” or “skies”.  We don’t get any impression of a distinct location where God’s presence is more manifest and His will more honored.  We rather get the impression that heaven and earth were conjoined aspects of a single reality – a reality wherein the physical and the spiritual were united and cohesive.

It’s not until after the Fall that we see a “rift”, “chasm” “divide” enter in and distort the true, original order of reality.  It’s not until after the Fall that we begin to see a separation between spirit and matter.

And as we read through the Scriptures from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we discover a story of God’s relentless pursuit of His creation, and the attempt to reunite and reconcile reality back to wholeness.

Isn’t it curious how the enemy always seeks to divide, to separate and to distinguish? 

In His earthly ministry, Jesus encouraged His disciples to engage in the ministry of reconciliation – of manifesting and promoting God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.

At this point, the people had developed a theology to the effect of heaven being a spiritual place where God’s presence is more fully expressed and where God’s will is honored more completely.  But Jesus makes it clear that the physical realm – “earth” – remains a top priority for God’s kingdom.  

And of course as we read through the rest of the New Testament and come to the great hope at the end of the age, what we see is a portrait of ultimate redemption – the re-fusing of heaven and earth as a single reality once again.  

That leaves us to piece the “puzzle” together regarding our current status.  If the original created order is effectively the same as the “final” created order at the end of the age (namely that of a single, unbroken reality), we can draw the conclusion that neither heaven nor earth in their current broken state are perfect.  This is why there is good work for us to do, that we are invited into – the ministry of reconciliation, to be ambassadors of Christ, to bind and loose on earth so that it may also be bound and loosed in heaven.  We get to be a part of the work of bringing heaven and earth back together.  This is what it means when Peter says that we can “speed the Lord’s coming” in 2 Pet. 3:12.  The current, broken/divided relationship between heaven and earth will pass away, and the original created reality will be reunited as a “new heaven” and “new earth”.

And if we want to see what this perfected reality will look like, we can take clues from pre-Fall Genesis.  There will be growth, free-will, meaningful work, and plenty of nature to explore and beauty to appreciate.  There will be intimacy with God, opportunities for creativity (think of Adam naming the animals), and beautiful relationships with the animals, plants and other people.

If I dare say so myself, that is a reality worth fighting and working for.  It’s a ministry worthy of our effort and energy.  It’s a portrait of heaven and earth that makes sense.  And it’s a future that we can truly look forward to.