Heaven Is Not the Final Destination
Years ago I had the privilege of sitting under one of the Bible scholars of our time. NT Wright was still a bishop and had not been teaching academically in years. But the California West Coast of Pasadena at Fuller Seminary drew him to teach a class. I have revisited this week long intensive many times and look forward to doing so again.
Surprised by Hope was published right after our class. I heard the echos of his voice in many ways he challenged the reader that he did to us earlier in the year. In this book, Wright reorients the Christian thinking from a hope clinging to the destination of a disembodied soul to a person with two feet on the future new creation ground.
After my son had passed away, I have heard many different takes on where he is and what he is doing. I try to take each idea communicated with a grateful smile. I know that when a person would speak about where my son is, they were trying to comfort both me and themselves. Death makes us all uneasy. I rarely corrected them for different reason. I should probably just carry a copy of this book around to hand out…
Let me encourage everyone to read this book even if you don’t believe in God or Jesus. We all need to be reflecting and thinking as we move forward to our common destination. Wright explains, “From Plato to Hegel and beyond, some of the greatest philosophers declared that what you think about death, and life beyond it, is the key to thinking seriously about everything else - and, indeed, that it provides one of the main reasons for thinking seriously about anything at all.” (6)
Wright is clear in pointing to the end of life is not the end of life. The eternal life that Christians profess is life after life after death. There is scarce amount of Biblical square footage that speaks about the first life after death in time and space. We are clearly made to look like our Savior, resurrected in bodily form. Wright is about sparking a fire about our real future rather than our future temporary home.
But for me, who longs for my son, I wonder about “where” he is. I can’t help it. Wright describes this heaven in perspective of the resurrection. The great example is the thief on the cross that Jesus promises to see in Paradise. Jesus saw the thief but for a moment before He was raised on the third day. But until the day of resurrection, Paradise is where my son is as well. Wright describes it as “the blissful garden where God’s people rest prior to the resurrection. When Jesus declares that there are many dwelling places in his father’s house, the word for dwelling place is mone, which denotes a temporary lodging.” (41) He states later that “it is a state in which the dead are held firmly within the conscious love of God and the conscious presence of Jesus Christ while they await that day. There is no reason why this state should not be called heaven, though we must note… the New Testament routinely doesn't call it that and uses the word heaven in other ways.” (172)
The book therefore focuses on the other ways heaven is described and why. Wright is about placing our hope in our present and future mission. We are to be people of the kingdom of heaven and earth for here, now and forever. But currently death, though defeated, still plays a part. We are incomplete. But the sign of our future wholeness or “the bridge from one reality to the other, is love.” (286) Let us be about His love.
Please order the book HERE and begin to let him reorient your mind. Wright is an excellent guide as you question what you think you know about your hope and future.