As we consider the biblical revelation, we may notice certain important events -- a good world in which God and humanity were at peace with one another, the loss of this relationship and the corruption of creation, the forming of the Old Testament covenant, and finally, the restoration of the relationship between God and humanity achieved in Jesus Christ who died to put us right with God and each other.
Although the nature of salvation was perfectly revealed in Christ Jesus, it was not fully consummated in his life. Even as he overcame sin and death, sin and death remained in the world. Even though he healed the sick and cast out demons, sickness and evil still exist in the world. Even though he reconciled sinners to God and each other by his sacrifice on the cross, conflict and broken relationships still haunt the world. In the new heaven and new earth, however, none of these evils will exist. They will all be abolished. The possibility of the final destruction of evil raises the question of hell.
Within the Christian tradition there have been a number of ideas in regard to hell. One view is that all will, in the end, be saved. Others believe that all those who do not accept the gospel of Jesus Christ in this life will go to hell, and this will include those who never heard the gospel. Others believe that some will go permanently to hell and some to purgatory where they will be purified from sin as preparation for life in heaven. Some believe that only those who do not respond to the gospel will go to hell, and those who never heard the gospel in this life will be judged by what they did know of goodness. Among those who believe that some human beings will go to hell, some believe that they will be tormented there forever, while others believe they will be consumed by the fires of hell and eventually cease to exist. In that case, they will no longer be tormented.
Solving all these issues is beyond the scope of this short essay, except to say that when the church over the centuries has adopted a variety of views on a given topic, it is wise not to be too dogmatic. Further, the new heavens and the new earth that God will create for eternity is qualitatively different from what we know now, and therefore, we cannot expect to attain full understanding in this life. Having said this, however, I am inclined to believe that not all will be saved, and for those who never heard the gospel in this life, the Lord Jesus will judge them according to the light given them. Also, as an Anglican (Article 22 of the Articles of Religion), I do not believe in the doctrine of purgatory. Further, it seems to me that hell will fully destroy a person making it impossible for a person to be tormented forever.(1) Having said this, however, I believe that the final revelation of God's mercy and justice will resolve matters in ways that lie beyond our present comprehension.
Our emphasis in this essay, however, is not hell, but “the life of the world to come.” These words are the final words of the Nicene Creed and of great importance. We want to know something of this life as it is the hope of all believing Christians, a source of comfort in adversity, and motivation to remain faithful until the end.
What is the nature of this final life with God? We may begin to address this question by noting that the Lord’s Prayer contains the petition, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus prayed this prayer because he knew that the Kingdom under the rule of God had appeared in his ministry, and therefore, we can know something of the future Kingdom by seeing how it appeared in the life of Christ. What is the nature of the salvation found in the Kingdom established by Christ Jesus? The essay, God Creates the World, affirms that the world was created through Jesus Christ and that the salvation given in creation was restored by the Lord Jesus. In addition to these blessings, there were aspects of salvation given in Christ Jesus that were not given in God’s original creation. For example, Genesis 1 and 2 do not teach that God would take flesh and die for us. The fullness of salvation, from creation to incarnation, is given in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Furthermore, believers experience Christ’s salvation even now as a foretaste of the life to come. Therefore, in order to know something of this final life with God, we need to see how salvation first appeared in Genesis 1 and 2 and how it was fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Although God was working to bring salvation throughout the biblical revelation, we will focus on creation and the Lord Jesus because that revelation is of primary significance.
We can consider this in light of the Nicene Creed. The first two paragraphs of the Creed refer to the work of the Father and the Son, creation and redemption, and for that reason we understand creation and the revelation in Christ who redeems creation to be the anchor for the whole of the biblical revelation. According to the third paragraph, the Spirit brings “the life of the world to come.” Since the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, the work of the Spirit is to make real in life the redemption given in the Son who redeems the Father’s creation corrupted by sin and death. The Spirit’s final act will be to make this redemptive work complete on the last day when the salvation given in Christ is finished for all time. On that day believers will enter into “the life of the world to come.”
To see these truths we will do three things. First, from the essay God Creates the World, we will list the blessings of creation. Second, from the essay Baptism and the Lord Jesus, we will list the blessings that come from the words and deeds of Jesus, and finally, we will read passages from Revelation which speak of the new heaven and the new earth where all sin and sorrow are abolished as the Spirit makes Christ’s redemptive work effective forever. As we read Revelation, we will pay attention to how the salvation mentioned there is first seen in Jesus Christ the savior of the world. Let us begin with salvation as given in creation, followed by the words and deeds of Jesus as a foretaste of the new heaven and the new earth.
Salvation and Creation
A1. God created everything good.
A2. God created by his Word and can still do so.
A3. God created all persons for relationship with him and each other.
A4. The whole human race was intended to be in unity without divisions.
A5. God created human beings for worship.
A6. God lived among his people giving them eternal life.
A7. God preserved humanity by showing them the good.
A8. The material world was a blessing, a place of food and shelter.
A9. Human beings were made for work, the delightful work of Eden.
A10. Human beings were made to rule over creation under God’s direction.
A11. Men and women were at peace with one another.
A12. Evil, sin, disease, chaos, and death were not a part of God’s original creation.
The Saving Words and Deeds of Jesus
B1. The Lord Jesus worshipped God and taught others to worship.
B2. He reconciled sinners to God and each other by his cross and resurrection.
B3 He performed revelatory acts known in the sacraments.
B4. He forgave sinners and created a community of love.B5. He proclaimed the Kingdom and taught the love of God.
B6. The community he created contained all sorts of people.
B7. He fed the hungry.
B8. He healed the sick and cast out evil spirits.
B9. He was generous and lived simply.
B10. He served others and chose leaders who served others.
B11. He proclaimed judgment against sin.B12. He chose leaders, the apostles.
We are now going to read portions of Revelation, but before we read, we need to comment on its interpretation. There are significant differences of opinion among those who interpret Revelation. My goal is not to solve those differences, but to indicate what I consider to be the best approach. In this regard, I have been most influenced by Richard Bauckham’s book, The Theology of the Book of Revelation.(2)
According to Bauckham, the Revelation of John was addressed to Christians at the end of the first century. At that time Rome ruled the world and her military, political, economic, and pagan religious powers were brutal, alluring, and pervasive. It offered power and wealth to those who cooperated with the pagan system, and for those who would not participate, who would not worship the pagan gods and the emperor as the personification of Roman power, there was often repression and persecution. Some Christians resisted this oppressive system, others cooperated, and some willingly participated in the worship of pagan deities. Revelation was written to fortify those who resisted and to warn those who adopted the values of the demonic system.
As literature, the book of Revelation is a Christian drama, absorbing many of the images and themes of the Old Testament and transforming them by the revelation in Christ Jesus. It was written to the seven churches in the Roman Province of Asia. The number seven represents the whole, so the book was written to all churches, and included in Scripture as an address to all Christians everywhere for all time. As a letter to the seven churches, it was to be read in worship, quite likely in one sitting. It was a dramatic narrative which transformed the listener from believing in the final power of Rome to experiencing the great and awful power of the living God who, one day, would overthrow the present evil system, create a new heaven and earth, and wipe away every tear from the eyes of those who had been faithful to the end. It was not written to be connected through meticulous correlation with other biblical verses in order to correctly predict the series of events that lead to the end. That approach distances the listener from meeting the living God. Rather, its goal was to enable the listener to experience the living, transcendent God who will establish his final Kingdom in which God the Father sits upon the throne with Christ at his right hand, the four and twenty elders before them, and surrounded by those of every, tribe, nation, and language who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb
We may summarize the foregoing with this quotation from Bauckham,
We have already noticed the unusual profusion of visual imagery in Revelation and its capacity to create a symbolic world which its readers can enter and thereby have their perception of the world in which they lived transformed. To appreciate the importance of this we should remember that Revelation’s readers in the great cities of the province of Asia were constantly confronted with powerful images of the Roman vision of the world. Civic and religious architecture, iconography, statues, rituals and festivals, even the visual wonder of cleverly engineered ‘miracles’ (cf. Rev. 13:13-14) in the temples – all provided powerful visual impressions of Roman imperial power and of the splendor of pagan religion. In this context, Revelation provides a set of Christian counter-images which impress on its readers a different vision of the world: how it looks from the heaven to which John was caught up in chapter 4. The visual power of the book effects a kind of purging of the Christian imagination, refurbishing it with alternative visions of how the world is and will be.(3)
Due to technological advances, radio, television, print, and internet, as well as the character of the economic system that dominates the world,(4) we are surrounded by visual images which glorify such things as wealth, power, sex, status, advancement, and physical beauty. This relentless bombardment produces the sensation that only the bright, the beautiful, and the successful are truly happy. Even more, it can appear that many who trample on others to get ahead, or use the system to enrich themselves, are riding a wave of well-being without the worries that affect so many with limited resources. Those who serve the Lord Jesus, who seek to do good even when no one notices, who give up advancement for the sake of the Kingdom, can appear insignificant and of little value. According to the book of Revelation, however, this is not how God sees the world, and this is not how the world is going to end.
We are going to read four passages from Revelation, each of them describing a mighty act of God at the end of time. In light of the lists given above, we will show that each of these mighty acts of final salvation had its beginning in the words and deeds of Jesus. This implies that his way of life will prevail in the end, and those who live as he lived will find that their efforts to follow the Lord consummated by the final victory of God. This changes everything and gives a view of reality completely contrary to the values of the world. Since the world champions the best, the brilliant, and the beautiful, those whose only glory is obedience to Christ will be seen as insignificant. Since the world praises the wealthy and successful, those who follow the way of Christ by renouncing this world’s goods will count as nothing. In other words, those who have little to show for themselves but their faithfulness will appear as the least and the last. In the end, however, only faith and obedience to the Lord will prevail, and therefore, many who appear insignificant are destined to glory, many who appear to be defeated are on their way to victory, and many who seem to be last will surely be first. That is how God sees the world and the people in it, who, even though he loves them, are like grasshoppers in his sight (Isaiah 40:22). Our first passage is Revelation 20:7-10.
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
According to A1 and A12, God created all things good and as a result, there was no disease, sickness, and chaos in God’s good creation. Sin was introduced by the devil in Genesis 3, and after sin entered the world, Christ fought against and conquered the devil. He did so in his temptations, his exorcisms and healings (B8), and above all, by suffering the devil’s worst by crucifixion and conquering him by resurrection (B2). This victory, given in Jesus, will be consummated at the end of time. The devil will be thrown into the lake of fire, never again to make war against the saints. In the new heaven and earth, there will be no devil, no temptation, no demonic accusations, and no torment from the evil one.
Therefore, those who follow the Lord Jesus and fight against the devil, his temptations, his accusations, and his evil deeds, will find that their efforts have contributed to Satan’s final defeat at the end of time. Even if it appears that such efforts are in vain, all efforts to defeat the devil in the name of Jesus will be vindicated. There will come a day when their efforts defeat the devil will bear their final and glorious fruit. For that reason, Christians are called to never give up in their struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our next passage is Revelation 20:11-15.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
There was no judgment in God’s original creation because sin had not yet entered there. There was, however, the warning of Genesis 2:17, that if the man sinned against the commands of God, he would surely die. In regard to Jesus, he proclaimed judgment against sin (B11), a proclamation that leads to the final judgment and the second death,(5) the lake of fire. Further, he created a community of love where sin was being conquered (B2, B3, B6, and B19). Those whose names are written in the book of life are that community, the final community where sin is fully abolished. They will be together in eternity, a togetherness that began when Jesus founded a community by first calling the disciples.
Therefore, even though it may appear that the church is riddled with sin and shame, that efforts to create community by forgiveness and reconciliation often fail, that divisions and conflicts can often lead to resignation and despair, and even though the world so often ignores or even persecutes the church, all efforts to enable the community of believers to grow into her destiny as the bride of Christ will find their place in the final community created by the living God. As a result, Christians are called to persist in their efforts to sustain and reform the church, the very bride of Christ. Our next passage is Revelation 21:1-4.
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. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
After the devil is completely defeated and the final judgment takes place, heaven and the new earth begin. First and foremost, God will be with his people. As the incarnation of God, God began to live among his people in the person of Jesus. Jesus himself was the presence of God on earth, the tree of life in Eden (A6, B2, B3, and B5). Whenever Jesus acts, he creates a community of love. Jesus created this community, fulfilling God’s original intent that all persons live together in harmony (A3, A4, A11, B2, B4, B6, and B10). When salvation occurs, there is no pain, no suffering, no tears, and no death, fulfilling God’s original intent that his creation live in peace. God himself will wipe away all tears. Jesus fulfilled God’s original intent for a life without suffering by his healings, his consoling and serving others, and above all, his mighty resurrection in which he conquered death (A1, A8, A12, B2, B7, B8, and B9).
All who follow in Christ’s footsteps, those who minister to the sick, the hungry, naked, the homeless, the oppressed, the prisoners, the refugees, the lost and the persecuted, will be vindicated on the last day. Therefore, Christians are called to persist in showing mercy even when it seems a thankless endeavor. Our next passage is Revelation 22:1-7.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And he said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.
This passage gives an image of the new heaven and earth as a restored Garden of Eden. In the first Eden, God was present as the tree of life. In the final Eden, God lives with his Son, the Lamb, for this final Eden is only possible because the Lamb gave up his life for the sins of the world (B2). In the original Eden, human beings were created for work, the delightful work of Eden. In the final Eden, human beings will not need to work for food for they will eat of the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit (B7). In the original Eden, the waters that flowed from the Garden gave biological life to the world, allowing the trees of the world to bear fruit. In the final Eden, the waters flow from the Father and the Son so that the waters not only give life to the new earth, but healing since healing is given by the Lord Jesus who suffered the pangs of death in our place (B8). The first Eden was destroyed when the land was cursed (Genesis 3:17-19). This was the result of Adam’s sin, but in the final Eden, the curse is lifted because the Lamb has atoned for sin (B2). In the first Eden, God separated the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:9), although darkness hung over the world as a threat since evil thrives in darkness. In the new Eden, there is no darkness for Christ is the Light of the world (B5). In the first Eden, human beings were created to worship God (A5), and in the final Eden, human beings worship God and the Lamb (B1). In the first Eden, God was present as the tree of life. In the new Eden, he is present as a person, the person of Jesus, and therefore, one can see his face. In the first Eden, human beings were commissioned to reign (A10) over the earth. In the final Eden, human beings will reign forever over the new earth that God has given them.(6)
Therefore, those who follow the Lord Jesus and feed the hungry, those who labor that all may have work that meets the necessities of life, those who work for healing in its many forms, those who labor to conserve the earth with its great variety of flora and fauna, those who gather before the Lord in worship and call others to join them, those who enable the land to be fruitful so that all may eat, those who bring the light of the gospel to the lost, and those who rule as Christ ruled by becoming servants of those they lead, will discover that their efforts contributed to the new Eden where God will be all in all forever.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2: 5-11).
Endnotes
1. I reached this conclusion after reading John Stott, Essentials : A Liberal–Evangelical Dialogue (London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1988), pp. 313–320. Further, in the years after reading Stott, I noticed that the Bible appeared to affirm the annihilationist position.
2. Bauckham, Richard. The Theology of the Book of Revelation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993.
3. Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, p. 17.
4. See the essay, Capitalism and Paganism -- An Intimate Connection.
5. The first death is biological death that occurs at the end of life. The second death is the final death produced by the lake of fire. Notice that this second death is a death, that is, the end of existence.
6. To my mind, this passage as well as the entire book of Revelation, sheds some light on the process by which John wrote the Book of Revelation. It is difficult, probably impossible, to know how much detail, in visions or otherwise, John saw in regard to the end of time. My sense of the book, however, is that John had absorbed the Old Testament revelation such as Genesis 2 and the Garden of Eden, then, in the light of his personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus, he transformed Eden into the new reality of a redeemed creation given by the risen Lord. At the same time, given the emphasis on visions in the book of Revelation, it is difficult for me to believe that he did not have powerful visionary impressions of the end, but these took form as reflecting the images and words that already lived in his heart. The essay, A New Heart and Soul, describes how this could occur. At the same time, the book of Revelation itself, as well as Scripture, present revelation as God speaking, acting, and appearing with definite content, a content that makes use of human capabilities but not created by them. When the human process of revelation is ignored, the book of Revelation comes to be seen as detailed predictions of the events leading up to the end of the world, rather than visionary descriptions of the final state born out of John's knowledge of Scripture, his encounter with the Lord Jesus, and his awareness of the world in which he lived. In that case, the book of Revelation becomes information about a series of events rather than an encounter with a living God whose revelation is a profound judgment against the present evil order, a call to repentance, and an invitation to everlasting joy.
The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
An Egregious Theological Failure
Anglicanism and Justification - Introduction to Anglicanism
Barth - Reconciliation and Economic Life Chapter Three
Barth's Creation and Economic Life Chapter Two
Barth's Doctrine of the Trinity - Chapter One
Capitalism and Paganism--An Intimate Connection
Creation, Science, and the New World Order
Introduction to Anglican Theology - Anglicanism and the Prayer Book
Introduction to Anglicanism - Anglicanism and Justification
Introduction to the Theological Essays
John Jewel and the Roman Church
Karl Barth, the German Christians, and ECUSA - Introduction
Mathematics, Science, and the Love of God
One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Some Reflections On Evil and the Existence of God
The Historical Jesus and the Spirit
