For the last year and a half, I have been writing a book titled Hades, Heaven, and the New Earth. It is still a work in progress, but to give you an idea of what I am doing, here is the latest draft of the book introduction:
As I write this introduction, the #4 song on Christian radio is Chris Tomlin’s “Home”:1
This world is not what it was meant to be
All this pain, all this suffering
There’s a better place waiting for me in Heaven
Every tear will be wiped away
Every sorrow and sin erased
We’ll dance on seas of amazing grace in Heaven, in HeavenI’m going home where the streets are golden
Every chain is broken
Oh I wanna go, oh I wanna go
Home where every fear is gone
I’m in Your open arms where I belong
Home
Chris Tomlin is, as always, brilliant, and his song inspires a much-needed hope for millions of Christians. But what many do not realize is that Chris Tomlin’s lyrics repeatedly allude not to biblical “Heaven” imagery but to biblical “New Earth” imagery. In short, the destination of followers of God has changed in the past, and it is going to change again. When believers die, they go to Heaven, which will be their temporary home. But when Christ returns, believers will live on a New Earth. The New Earth is described in Revelation 21 as a place where “he will wipe every tear from their eyes” (21:4), a place where the streets are golden (21:21). Often Christians today read Revelation 21-22 as if it describes Heaven, but it is John’s description of the “heavenly Jerusalem,” which comes down to the New Earth. Sure, it is a city that is being prepared for us in Heaven, but it is not yet what it will be. The image of every tear being wiped away was John’s way of envisioning a future state that believers still await. According to Revelation 6:10, before the return of Christ, martyrs are crying out with a loud voice, “How long, O holy and true Lord, will you not judge and avenge our blood from those dwelling on the Earth?” It is only after a final battle and the creation of the New Heavens and the New Earth that believers experience the final rest described in Revelation 21.
This is not to say that Heaven won’t be so great or that Chris Tomlin has gotten it all wrong. Paul said it is better by far to depart and be with Christ (Philippians 1:23). I imagine tears will be wiped away as soon as we reach Heaven. Perhaps as we await the New Earth our spirits will already be in the heavenly Jerusalem. Certainly we will be “with Christ.” As MercyMe has put it:
I can only imagine what it will be like
When I walk by your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see
When your face is before me
I can only imagine, I can only imagineSurrounded by You glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine, I can only imagine
This book is not written to downplay believers’ experience in Heaven. Rather it is written to let believers know that Heaven is only the appetizer and the God has a full table set for us.
In the pages that follow we will explore what happens to people when they die. Chapter 1 will demonstrate that the Old Testament expectation was Sheol or Hades, a place where one’s existence is less than their earthly experience. Many Christians do not know what to do with passages like Psalm 6:5 where David says that no one remembers God or praises him after death. This chapter will demonstrate a thoroughgoing Old Testament expectation of a shadowy existence in Hades after death.
Chapter 2 will discuss the glimpses of hope that are found in the Old Testament. While the general Old Testament portrayal of the afterlife is grim, those who know God’s character conclude that this cannot be the end of the story. From this emerges a hope for the resurrection of the dead – not upon death, but in the future on the day of the Lord. Something cataclysmic must happen before believers can be delivered from Hades and experience the resurrection.
Chapter 3 investigates the first of two cataclysmic events – upon Jesus’ death, his spirit left his body with a shout and descended to Hades so quickly that “the Earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 27:51-52). After his resurrection Jesus has “the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18) so that its gates no longer prevail against God’s people (Matthew 16:18). This means that since Christ’s descent into Hades, believers have a new destination: Hades has been replaced (for the believer) with Heaven.
Chapter 4 discusses what such a disembodied existence in Heaven is like. It is temporary, as believers anticipate the resurrection of their bodies and the renewal of the Earth. At the same time it is blissful and an experience of the Lord’s presence that surpasses our earthly experiences. So whereas Hades was a step down from earthly existence, Heaven is clearly an improvement. But it is still not the resurrection hope that was expressed in the Old Testament and throughout the New Testament. For such a hope to become the reality, another cataclysmic event is needed: the return of Christ.
Chapter 5 explores the second coming of Christ, which will involve a sequence of events: the revival of Israel and the rebellion of the Lawless One, Jesus’ return, the resurrection of the dead, the rapture of the living Christians, the millennial reign, the final judgment, and the renewal of the Earth. The goal of all of this is the redemption of “all things” (Colossians 1:15-17, 20). This means that God plans to redeem not just humanity, but the Earth and the rest of creation as well (Romans 1:19-21). It also means that Jesus will transform our physical bodies (Philippians 3:21). Just as Jesus’ tomb was empty because his physical body was raised, so will our tombs be empty.
The Bible describes two final destinations for humanity – the Lake of Fire and the New Earth. These are the focus of Chapters 6 and 7. Like Heaven, Hell is a very often misunderstood concept in Christianity today. Notions of the devil tormenting people for eternity are rooted more in later church tradition than in Scripture. In the Bible, Gehenna is a place where the soul is “destroyed” (Matthew 10:28) or “consumed” (Matthew 3:12). Later Christians came to think of Hell as a place of eternal torment, due to a misreading of the Bible’s language of “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43) as implying unending torment. This misunderstanding is probably rooted in Greek notions of the immortality of the soul, which oppose the biblical concept of humans as mortal. Chapter 7 surveys the biblical teaching on this subject.
Chapter 8 then investigates the renewal of the Earth. The idea of a “New Earth” is not one in which something entirely distinct from this Earth is created. Just as our bodies are transformed in the resurrection, so the Earth is transformed in the renewal. Peter compares the process to that of “the former world” in Noah’s flood (2 Peter 3:6). It is a New Earth, but it is a New Earth because Christ is “making all things new” (Revelation 21:5).
Chapter 9 explores the difference that understanding this can make in the way we think, speak, and act. Many Christians have never thought about the distinction between our spirits going to Heaven when we die and our transformed bodies inhabiting the New Earth when Jesus returns. Blurring these lines has caused us to care less about both our bodies and the Earth. Sometimes we have become, as the saying goes, so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good.
This book also makes a difference in the way we read and understand the Bible. Many Christians ignore passages that teach a different afterlife expectation than the traditional Christian one. We must let the Bible challenge our theology rather than thrusting our theology upon the Bible. Chapter 10 investigates how evangelicals have come to silence biblical afterlife teaching that does not fit our theological traditions and makes suggestions about how we can better let Scripture be Scripture.
If this book causes us to think more deeply about our hope as Christians and inspires us to live Christ-centered lives in the midst of a confused and broken world, it will have accomplished its purpose. One day “we will be like Jesus, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). In the meantime we can explore this hope, because “everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). Let us begin!
1 Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs, May 27, 2017; http://www.billboard.com/charts/christian-songs/2017-05-27.
