What is the most biblically, thoughtful picture of eternal
life? Let’s start at the beginning: “So God
created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and
female He created them. Then God blessed
them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and
subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,
and over every living thing that moves on the earth’.. . . Then God saw
everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis
1:28, 29, 31). This was a situation that
could not be improved—practical, eternal life on earth.
But rebellion by Adam and Eve changed everything. They were ejected from “the Garden”, changing
their operating posture with the earth; their authority over the earth was shot
to pieces being usurped by Lucifer (see Luke 4:6); and their relationship with
God?—largely nowhere.
If the “Genesis Experience” (before sin) could be recaptured
and restored, would that not put us back to “square one”? Given this possibility, how does the concept
of spending eternity in heaven fit in?
It doesn’t. Meanwhile, Sheol was
a holding tank for the righteous dead until the blood of Jesus was shed
removing their sins, He then “led
captivity captive” (Ephesians 4:8).
That is, upon His resurrection Jesus took with Him to heaven all the
spirits of the righteous dead, a re-location project. Paul speaks of this new situation, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather
to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians
5:8).
Nifty as this seems, in heaven there are missing several basic
elements: man’s work, exercise of man’s authority over the earth (see Psalm
8:6) and life in a body (together constituting the “Genesis Experience”)—as of this point resurrection of
the righteous dead has not taken place.
So the search for ultimate destiny continues. Acts 3:21 furnishes another clue about man’s
future when it speaks of Jesus being pent up in heaven “until the times of restoration of all things”. Logically this “restoration” must take
place on earth.
Many of the destructive events detailed in the Book of
Revelation that will happen to the earth reshaping large parts of it, need to
be seen as part of the “restoration of
all things”, precipitating the Lord’s return.
We continue our search indicating man’s ultimate destiny
(recapture of the “Genesis Experience”) with Psalm 115:16: “The
heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the
children of men.” On its face this
indicates man doesn’t belong in heaven, rather are the redeemed spirits there presently just “hanging
out”. Therefore the present task is to
get them back to earth joined with their resurrected bodies. Jude, verse 14 shows how this happens: “Behold,
the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment. . . .” This gets the saints back to earth.
“And the dead in Christ will rise first (there it is—joining spirit and
body together). Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (transformed
bodies) together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we
shall always be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:16b & 17).
At this point comes one of the biggest assumptions of all
time—that Jesus and this whole entourage is heading back to heaven. No. Work Scripture with Scripture. Jude, verse 15 says the purpose of Christ’s
coming at the head of this company is “to
execute judgment on all” and ultimately set up His Kingdom on earth. In this process redeemed man’s destiny will be
fulfilled.
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