Emily Hunter McGowen shares in a post this morning from a talk she gave at a church last night. The subject was the Gospel and the Apocalypse.
She states:
So, why talk about the Gospel, or Good News, and the Apocalypse? I want to address this matter tonight for two interconnected reasons: (1) The Apocalypse has a message about God’s salvation that must be included in our view of the Gospel. That is to say, there is something in Revelation that we must add to our view of God’s Good News in Jesus. (2) The Apocalypse must be read in light of the full view of God’s Good News. We cannot separate the visions and prophecies of this book from the rest of the Bible’s message to us.
She then begins to lay out how the Gospel and the apocalypse intersect and makes some observations. The third observation states:
Third, notice what the ultimate goal of God’s plan is: “a new heavens and a new earth.” This is very different from the popular notion of heaven: ghost-like souls playing harps as they float through the sky on clouds. And, it’s different from the common Christian understanding of heaven as an eternal “worship service” in the sky. Revelation reveals that, as God restores all things, humanity will be live upon a redeemed earth in the holy city of Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven (21:2). So, we’re not headed for heaven. We’re headed for heaven on earth.
N.T. Wright is doing a good bit of talking about this as well. As a kid, I thought it was ludicrous to consider we would not spend eternity with Christ in Heaven; that was so Jehovah’s Witness (you know, the meek shall inherit the earth thing). But Emily and Wright are making some interesting arguments.
What do you think?
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The Gospel and the Apocalypse
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