It seems to me a lot of the ideas I hear about what the Christian haven will be like seems generally unappealing to me. I've heard it as place to sing praise and become one with God (which sounds horrible), I've heard it as a place where all sin is removed and we can live forever with our loved ones. But if you removed all your sinful desires will you even be the same person anymore. Sounds like living for eternity as a tree or robot not something I really want. Heck forever is a really long time would you ever want to live forever?
What are some of your thoughts? or what are some of your ideas of how the Christian heaven is like.
Well, for one, I think it gets confusing by conflating "heaven" with the Christian hope of the age to come. But since I believe, as has been confessed down through the centuries, that God will make all things new that the age to come isn't about existing as pious automatons; but rather about participating in life in its fullest expression and being; what that ultimately and totally looks like is regarded primarily as incomprehensible. But the point is that we aren't
less human, but
more human.
I think there are certain sign posts that are significant in pointing us in the right direction in Scripture. Isaiah speaks of a time when men beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that men will no longer know war or how to wage war. The language of plowshares and pruning hooks seems to look a lot like there is stuff happening. People are living together. They are doing things together. Agricultural language points to life in community, peaceful life in community. We are together, sharing, enjoying the earth, its beauty, and our life together in and with God. The same prophet also speaks of the leopard laying down with the lamb, and of the lion eating straw like an ox; the brutality, cruelty, and barbarism of nature we observe today won't have a place there. God's creatures exist together in peace, the competition for resources won't exist, the violence of creature against creature won't exist. This is where justice, peace, and love reign. Not apart from the earth, but right here, in a world transformed by God's justice and love.
We aren't ghosts floating around strumming harps acting like pious robots; we are human beings, with relationships, interacting with one another, enjoying the world, living in peaceful coexistence and joyous life together with all God's creatures--all, together, in peace, love, and the goodness of God. In a way that is better than our imagination could ever comprehend.
Christ in teaching us that God's reign means the least is greatest, and the first is last, is calling us to "repent, for the kingdom of God is near"; by this "repent"--metanoia in Greek--it means to change the way we think about things and look at them another way. Christ invites us to instead look through the lens of the kingdom, in which greatness is not defined by power, might, and strength against the weak; but by loving service toward others "the greatest among you is your slave". And Christ shows us the greatness of the kingdom by Himself laying down His life in love, "No greater love is there than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Because God's kingdom, fully realized and manifest in the world to come, is not the place where men seek glory for themselves, but where we live in love for others. The calling begins with "repent, the kingdom of God is near, believe the good news".
-CryptoLutheran