Many of us have grown up with a traditional view of heaven that came from the culture around us. In fact, our traditional view of heaven is diametrically opposed to where the Bible actually ends:
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. (Revelation 21:1-3)
The first heaven and earth (where we live now) has passed away. And what replaces them? It is not an other-worldly, ethereal place called “heaven.” NO! Our ultimate destiny is a “new heaven and new earth.” Just like the current heaven and earth, it has a physical reality—it’s still on planet earth…there’s a physical city of Jerusalem. If we were to read farther in Revelation 22, we gain even more vivid pictures of this new physical reality—there are rivers, trees, etc.
So here is a very basic point: The biblical story begins in a material, physical garden…it ends in a material, physical city—a new Jerusalem. Some commentators call it an “urban garden;” in fact, we find the tree of life prominently mentioned in the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden appearing again in this new Jerusalem (Rev. 22:2).
Contrary to popular imagination, no one goes “up” to heaven to be with God. No, just the opposite! The text says God comes “down” to dwell among his people. When we pay attention to the biblical story, why should we be surprised? Coming down has always been God’s intent.
It all begins in the Garden of Eden, where God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. In the Old Testament, God comes to earth and dwells with his people in the Tabernacle in the desert and then the temple in Jerusalem. In the New Testament, God comes to earth in the second person of the Trinity—Jesus Christ—God in human flesh. After Jesus’ resurrection, God comes to earth to indwell his people through his Spirit. Finally, at the end of the story, God comes to dwell with his people in this new creation.
Why do I speak of the “politics” of heaven? Some Christians hold a worldview at odds to the sweep of this biblical story. Caring about what is happening to the creation around us is pointless in this worldview.
This escapist worldview supports (subtly or openly) a political agenda which denies any need to responsibly care for creation. Climate change already impacting the lives of millions of poor people around the world is denied. Pollution is condoned. Extracting natural resources or economic growth at any cost to the larger environment is OK. If our ultimate destiny is an other-worldly, ethereal heaven, this creation is expendable—indeed, worthless—to God and to us.
But the whole biblical story tells us physical, material creation is not worthless to God! We must care for creation as God instructed in Genesis while awaiting the biblical destiny of a new heaven and new earth.
So what do we believe happens to those who have already died? Are they asleep until God comes to dwell among us again?
Jody, thanks for your question. As the whole chapter of I Corinthians 15 describes, believers in Jesus Christ look forward to the resurrection of our bodies, just as Jesus’ body was resurrected from the dead. As Paul says: Jesus is the “first fruits” of our own resurrection. Along with many biblical commentators, I believe that wondering what happens to those who have died and thus must “wait” for their resurrection body and the “new heaven and new earth” is not a problem. Here’s why: like fish in water, we live in a space/time universe, but God exists outside space and time. In fact, God created space and time when the universe was created. When someone dies, I believe their next (instantaneous) experience is to be with the Lord–no longer does space and time have a hold on them. To those of us still immersed in space and time (like the fish in water) it looks like “waiting”–for them, I believe it is not.