When we imagine heaven we think of somewhere remote and far away. Whether we imagine it (wrongly) as our eternal destination or (rightly) the abode of God and the angelic host, it is still somewhere of which we have no direct experience. But it is also true that we have all seen heaven, at least those familiar with the ministry of Jesus have. When Jesus began his ministry he proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God. Through his words and deeds people around him saw the will of God being done, God's kingdom in action. People were healed, the demons were exorcised, the lost sheep were saved. Jesus walked on the water and stilled the storm. Here, in these actions and in this man, God's kingship could be recognised. In other words what was happening around Jesus on earth was exactly the same as what happened in heaven all the time. The ministry of Jesus was 'heaven on earth', a glimpse of what the world would be like when renewed and restored at the end of history. So if we have seen Jesus we have all seen heaven, at least in sense that the kingdom of God on earth is a mirror reflection of the kingdom of God in heaven. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven", this is exactly what he had in mind, of the church on earth expressing the divine rule that takes place in heaven. 'Heaven' is not so far away after all. "Where and how will these things happen? When the earth is remade and reborn as the paradise of God. Then the meek, the powerless, the downtrodden, the victims of the ambitions and cruelty of others will inherit the earth. Their earth. The earth they were born into, the earth whose blessings they were not allowed to enjoy, the earth which was denied to them by violence and injustice. The gospel hope says nothing about going to heaven when they die. It is the earth, this earth, that is the focus of their longing and hope, and it is the earth that is the focus of God's promise and salvation. This is where the kingdom "happens" - now, through the life and work of the church of Christ, and "then" when all things submit to the will of God, when the creation will "be set free from its bondage to decay". In the meantime we wait and work and pray "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"
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When we think of hell we usually think of fire. Somewhere deep within the bowels of hell we imagine there is a fiery furnace stoked by demons waiting for the ungodly. Interestingly, in some conceptions of hell the opposite is true. In Dante's poetic vision of hell, despite its name (Inferno), the lowest depths of hell, where Satan is held, is a place of icy coldness. There is no fire, there is no energy. Here, the essence of hell is not flame but lifelessness. But the reason we associate hell with fire is probably because in the New Testament the word often translated 'hell' is actually the word Gehenna, a word which originally conveyed the meaning of the terrible fiery furnace of apocalyptic judgement. Jesus makes frequent references to Gehenna, warning his listeners that their behaviour may well lead them there on the last day when he returns to judge the world! The problem is that by translating the word as 'hell' modern day readers associate his warnings with the kind of hell with which we are familiar; a post-mortem place of punishment and torment inhabited by the devil and his demons. But Jesus had no such notion in mind. For him, as for the Hebrew prophets and the Jewish pseudepigraphal writers before him, Gehenna meant fiery destruction, God's incinerator, where all the rubbish all that opposed the good purposes of God would be burned up. "In these writings Gehenna has become a metaphor for the fiery judgement of God on the wickedness of the earth. When God's great eschatological judgement comes, all that is wicked and defiling will be thrown into the great lake of fire of Gehenna. Once, that had been a place where wicked people lit fires to sacrifice their children to Molech. Now, in these visionary, imaginative documents, it has become a place where the fire of God will consume all wickedness. So, when Jesus warned his hearers that by their actions they risked Gehenna, he was warning them that they risked finding themselves on the wrong side of history, being part of that part of the cosmos that will have no place in the new creation of God. Beware, says Jesus, lest you find yourself on the wrong side of God, for ultimately only God's purposes will last. Everything else will be "burned up". In the end, only God and those things conformed to his love will remain".
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Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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