How does the Bible describe the end of it all? What is heaven going to be like? Can we actually know?

In this episode of the Thinking Theologically podcast, Spencer and Jack begin a multi-part series on New Creation Theology (also called NHNE theology). We hope you enjoy this interview and all of the episodes to follow on this dense, deep subject.

Music:
“Kid Kodi”
Blue Dot Sessions
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SHOW NOTES

Episode #35 – New Creation Theology: Part 1 – An Overview of the Biblical Story

Introduction

• The Bible witnesses to God’s story/activity with his creation. This story begins with the creation of the cosmos (Gen 1) and ends with “heaven” (Rev 21 & 22), with the pinnacle or center point being Jesus. 
• Our lives as Christains are dependent upon this story. When we make the decision to follow Jesus, we make ourselves characters in God’s bigger story. Our story becomes God’s story. Therefore, everything that we do as followers of Jesus is determined by God’s larger story. 
• Therefore, it is critical for Christians to ask the question, “What is God’s story?” 
• Recently, there has been much debate within Churches of Christ as to the nature of God’s story, particularly the ending to the story. What is heaven? Where will heaven be? Will it be on this earth? A new earth? Or in a disembodied or “spiritual” realm? 
  • Let’s allow the biblical story to determine our answer to these questions. 
  • In this episode, we are going to give an overview of our understanding of God’s story as presented in the biblical text. 
  • In subsequent episodes, we will dive into the particulars of this view. 

The Beginning (Genesis 1–3)

• The biblical story begins with these words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen 1:1)
• After each day of creation in Genesis 1, God says that what he created is “good.” After his creation of humankind, he says that it is “very good.” 
  • God’s creation of this physical realm is good, it is perfect, it is what God desired to create. 
  • This physical world is not inherently bad. It is actually inherently good, but has been corrupted by sin. (Platonism or Gnosticism) 
    • Lesser god created cosmos
    • Denying physical needs
    • What we do in our bodies does not matter
  • Therefore, God’s desire is not going to be to take us out of the world, but to take sin out of the world. 
    • If a person is sick with a disease, you don’t kill the person to kill the disease, you kill the disease and so save the person. 
• The goodness of God’s creation means that the entire earth is meant to be the perfect dwelling place for humankind and God. 
  • “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’” (Gen 1:28)
  • As image bearers of God, humankind is given a royal vocation, or special work by God to steward his entire creation. 
  • A compelling argument has been made that the creation account in Genesis 1 corresponds to the creation of a Temple (i.e., a dwelling place for a god) in the ANE. God intended to create the earth to be a place where he could dwell with his creation, as we see when God is said to be walking through the garden of Eden. 
• The goodness or perfection of God’s creation also means that everything exists in perfect harmony. The OT word for this kind of harmony is “shalom” or peace. Shalom means that everything is whole, complete, in its proper place, functioning like God designed it. 
  • Right relationship with God, fellow human beings, and the creation

The Fall (Genesis 3)

• Sin enters into the world and destroys God’s perfect and good creation. 
• Humankind, in particular, no longer perfectly reflects God’s image. They are no longer able to fulfill the royal vocation they were created for. 
  • “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children’” (Gen 3:16a)
    • Difficulty filling the entire earth
  • “And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’” (Gen 3:17–19)
    • Difficulty fulfilling their work
  • “Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.” (Gen 3:23)
    • Kicked out of the garden; the symbol of the perfect harmony God intended for his creation
• The shalom of the original creation is destroyed. 
  • Sin separates humankind from God. 
  • Sin destroys human beings’ relationships with one another. 
    • “Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Gen 3:16b)
  • Sin destroys humankind’s relationship with creation (Gen 3:17–19). 

Isaiah 65–66

• New Heavens and a New Earth
  • “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isa 65:17)
  • “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD; so shall your descendants and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.” (Isa 66:22)
• Restoring Humankind’s Work
  • “They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” (Isa 65:22) 
• Restoring Shalom
  • With God
    • “They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD–and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear” (Isa 65:23–24)
  • With People
    • “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives buy a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.” (Isa 65:19–20). 
  • With Creation
    • “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent–its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.” (Isa 65:25) 

2 Peter 3

• New Heavens and a New Earth
  • “But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” (2 Pet 3:13) 
• Restoring Shalom
  • “Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish” (2 Pet 3:14)

Revelation 21

• New Heavens and a New Earth
  • “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (Rev 21:1) 
• Restoring Shalom
  • “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” (Rev 21:3–4) 

Conclusion

• Scripture, from beginning to end, presents the conclusion of God’s story (what we like to call “heaven”) as “new heavens and a new earth,” reminiscent of the perfection that existed in the original “heavens and the earth.” 
• The conclusion of God’s story is not for “Christians” to escape the “corruption” of this world to exist in a disembodied spiritual world, but for heaven, for God, to come and dwell with his creation in a new earth. 
• If we conclude God’s story in any other way, we are left with several problems:
  • How can we say God’s original creation was “good” and human beings are “very good” is God’s ultimate plan is to destroy the creation and the human body? 
  • What kind of God are we left with if we say that his original creation was just plan 1, knowing that he was just going to destroy everything and do something different? Does it not make more sense for the original creation to be God’s one and only plan? 
  • What view of the human body or of creation are we left with if the ultimate goal is to escape it and allow it to be destroyed? 
  • Why does changing the world matter if it is just going to be destroyed? 
  • Why did Jesus need to become incarnate? 
• Why does this matter? Because it impacts how we live as a part of God’s story.
  • If God’s story ends with heaven and God coming down to earth to dwell with his creation, then our job, as the people of God, is to take part in God’s story by bringing as much of heaven to earth as we can. 
    • We no longer look at the world as an evil place to escape, but as a field, ripe for harvest and redemption. 
    • We have a responsibility to try and solve the problems of our world, like justice. 
  • We care about people and physical bodies because God does and they will be a part of heaven. 
  • We steward God’s creation because that is what we as God’s image bearers were created to do, because that is what we will be doing in heaven, and because the creation is a part of God’s redemptive plan. 

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Looking for more? Check out our study on being God’s image bearers below.