Authors: Randy Alcorn
Heaven (28 page)
WILL THE NEW EARTH BE AN EDENIC PARADISE?
T
his world—including its natural wonders—gives us foretastes and glimpses of the next world. These people—including ourselves—give
us foretastes and glimpses of the new people to come. This life—including its culture—gives us foretastes and glimpses of
the next life.
If we take literally the earthly depictions of life on the New Earth, it allows us to make a direct connection with our current
lives. When I'm eating with people here, enjoying food and friendship, it's a bridge to when I'll be eating there, enjoying
food and friendship. This isn't making a leap into the dark of a shadowy afterlife; it's just taking a few natural steps
in the light Scripture gives us.
Every joy on earth—including the joy of reunion—is an inkling, a whisper of greater joy. The Grand Canyon, the Alps, the Amazon
rain forests, the Serengeti Plain—these are rough sketches of the New Earth. One day we may say, as a character in one of
my novels said, "The best parts of the old world were sneak previews of this one. Like little foretastes, like licking the
spoon from Mama's beef stew an hour before supper."
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All our lives we've been dreaming of the New Earth. Whenever we see beauty in water, wind, flower, deer, man, woman, or child,
we catch a glimpse of Heaven. Just like the Garden of Eden, the New Earth will be a place of sensory delight, breathtaking
beauty, satisfying relationships, and personal joy.
God himself prepared mankind's first home on Earth. "Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there
he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to
the eye and good for food" (Genesis 2:8-9). The phrase "planted a garden" shows God's personal touch, his intimate interest
in the creative details of mankind's home. In the same way that God paid attention to the details of the home he prepared
for Adam and Eve in Eden, Christ is paying attention to the details as he prepares for us an eternal home in Heaven (John
14:2-3). If he prepared Eden so carefully and lavishly for mankind in the six days of creation, what has he fashioned in the
place he's been preparing for us in the two thousand years since he left this world?
God poured himself, his creativity, and his love into making Eden for his creatures. But at that time, that's all we were:
his creatures, his image-bearers. Now that we are both his children and his
bride,
chosen out of the human race to live with him forever, would we expect more or less than Eden? More, of course. And that's
exactly what the New Earth will be.
WILL THE NEW EARTH BE A RETURN TO EDEN?
Some people assume that the New Earth will "start over" with Eden's original paradise. However, Scripture demonstrates otherwise.
The New Earth, as we've seen, includes a carryover of culture and nations. History won't start over with the New Earth any
more than history started over when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden. Eden was part of history. There was direct
continuity from the pre-Fall world to the post-Fall world. Similarly, there will be direct continuity between the dying old
Earth and the resurrected New Earth. The earthshaking Fall divided history, but it didn't end history. The resurrection of
all things will divide Earth's history, but it won't end it.
Culture won't regress to Eden, where musical instruments hadn't yet been invented or where metalworking and countless other
skills hadn't yet been developed (Genesis 4:20-22). The fact that God mentions in Scripture these and other examples of technological
progress suggests that he approved of the use of creativity and skills to develop society, even though people were hampered
by the Curse.
Some people expect the New Earth to be a return to Eden, with no technology or the accomplishments of civilization. But that
doesn't fit the biblical picture of the great city, the New Jerusalem. Nor is it logical. Would we expect on the New Earth
a literal reinvention of the wheel?
Consider this analogy: a young man has been sick from infancy and is suddenly healed. Does he become a baby again? No. He's
a well young man. He doesn't go back and start over from the point his health went bad. Rather, he continues from where he
is, going on from there. He doesn't abandon the knowledge and skills he's developed. He's simply far more capable of using
them now that he's been healed.
Having used such an illustration, Albert Wolters says,
By analogy, salvation in Jesus Christ, conceived in the broad creational sense, means a restoration of culture and society
in their present stage of development. That restoration will not necessarily oppose literacy or urbanization or industrialization
or the internal combustion engine, although these historical developments have led to their own distortions or evils. Instead,
the coming of the kingdom of God demands that these developments be reformed, that they be made answerable to their creational
structure, and that they be subjected to the ordinances of the Creator.
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Will the New Earth start over as a new Eden, or will it contain the cumulative benefits of human knowledge, art, and technology?
Life in the new creation will not be a repristination of all things—a going back to the way things were at the beginning.
Rather, life in the new creation will be a restoration of all things—involving the removal of every sinful impurity and the
retaining of all that is holy and good. Were the new creation to exclude the diversity of the nations and the glory of the
kings of the earth, it would be impoverished rather than enriched, historically regressive and reactionary rather than progressive.
To express the point in the form of a question: is it likely that the music of Bach and Mozart, the painting of Rembrandt,
the writing of Shakespeare, the discoveries of science, etc., will be altogether lost upon life in the new creation?
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HOW DOES EDEN ANTICIPATE THE NEW EARTH?
Eden wasn'tjust a garden. It was an entire land of natural wonders. The Pishon River, originating in Eden, flowed "through
the entire land of Havilah.... (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there)" (Genesis 2:1112).
The precious onyx stone was located not only near Eden but actually
in
Eden(Ezekiel28:13).
Later in Israel's history, God commanded the high priest to wear two onyx stones with the names of the twelve tribes written
on them. God calls these "memorial stones" (Exodus 28:9-12). Not just the names but the stones themselves were apparently
memorials. But what would onyx stones memorialize? The Genesis and Ezekiel passages suggest the answer: Eden.
The onyx stones on the high priest's shoulders served to remind the people of Eden, the perfect Earth that should be kept
alive in the hearts, dreams, and hopes of God's people.
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God wanted his people to look at the Temple and the high priest—a symbol of mankind reconciled to God—and to remember Eden,
where people lived in communion with God. The stones suggested that in redeeming mankind, God would restore them to Eden.
The final biblical reference to onyx stones, and the only one in the New Testament, tells us they will be on the foundations
of the New Jerusalem's walls (Revelation 21:19-20). The onyx of Eden and on the high priest's shoulders—representing two places
where God dwelled with his people—will be displayed in the Holy City, where God will forever live with his people. Hence,
the onyx on the high priest and in the Temple simultaneously points us to our past in Eden
and
our future on the New Earth.
Just as Eden is our backward-looking reference point, the New Earth is our forward-looking reference point. We should expect
the New Earth to be like Eden, only better. That's exactly what Scripture promises. Notice the earth's restoration to Edenlike
qualities prophesied in these passages:
Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness He will make like Eden, and her
desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of a melody. (Isaiah 51:3,
NASB)
They will say, "This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are fortified
and inhabited." (Ezekiel 36:35, NASB)
The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. (Isaiah 35:1,
NKJV)
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree. (Isaiah 55:13,
NKJV)
Commenting on such passages, theologian Anthony Hoekema writes, "Prophecies of this nature should be understood as descriptions
of the new earth, which God will bring into existence after Christ comes again—a new earth which will last, not just for a
thousand years, but forever. . . . Keeping the doctrine of the new earth in mind... will open up the meaning of large portions
of Old Testament prophetic literature in surprisingly new ways."
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WHAT WILL NEW NATURE BE LIKE?
We've never seen men and women as they were intended to be. We've never seen animals the way they were before the Fall. We
see only marred remnants of what once was.
Likewise, we've never seen nature unchained and undiminished. We've only seen it cursed and decaying. Yet even now we see
a great deal that pleases and excites us, moving our hearts to worship.
If the "wrong side" of Heaven can be so beautiful, what will the right side look like? If the smoking remains are so stunning,
what will Earth look like when it's resurrected and made new, restored to the original?
In the truest sense, Christian pilgrims have the best of both worlds.We have joy whenever this world reminds us of thenext,
and we take solace whenever it does not.
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien saw core truth in the old mythologies, and in their books they give us a glimpse of people
and beasts and trees that are vibrantly alive. What lies in store for us is what we have seen only in diminished glimpses.
As Lewis and Tolkien realized, "Pagan fables of paradise were dim and distorted recollections of Eden."
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The earthly beauty we now see won t be lost. We won't
trade
Earth's beauty for Heaven's but
retain
Earth's beauty and
gain
even deeper beauty. As we will live forever with the people of this world—redeemed—we will enjoy forever the beauties of
this world—redeemed.
C. S. Lewis said, "We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass
into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it."
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And so we shall.
WILL THIS EARTH'S PLACES BE RESURRECTED TO THE NEW EARTH?
In becoming new, will the old Earth retain much of what it once was? The New Earth will still be just as much Earth as the
new us will still be us. "The world into which we shall enter in the Parousia of Jesus Christ is . . . not another world;
it is this world, this heaven, this earth; both, however, passed away and renewed. It is these forests, these fields, these
cities, these streets, these people, that will be the scene of redemption."
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Shouldn't we expect, then, that some of the same geological features of the old Earth will characterize the new? Shouldn't
we expect the New Earth's sky to be blue? Might God refashion the rain forests or the Grand Canyon? If the earth becomes
the New Earth, might Lake Louise become the New Lake Louise?
Might we travel to a familiar place and say, "This is the very spot we stood on," in the same sense we'll be able to say,
"These are the very hands I used to help the needy"?
In
The Last Battle,
C. S. Lewis portrays the girl Lucy as she mourns the loss of Narnia, a great world created by Asian, a beloved world that
she assumed had been forever destroyed. Jewel the unicorn mourns too, calling his beloved Narnia "The only world I've ever
known."
Although Lucy and her family and friends are on the threshold of Asian's country (Heaven), she still looks back at Narnia
and feels a profound loss. But as she gets deeper into Asian's country, she notices something totally unexpected. What happens
next, I believe, reflects the biblical revelation of the New Earth:
"Those hills," said Lucy, "the nice woody ones and the blue ones behind—aren't they very like the southern border of Narnia."
"Like!" cried Edmund after a moment's silence. "Why they're exactly like. Look, there's Mount Pire with his forked head, and
there's the pass into Archenland and everything!"
"And yet they're not like," said Lucy. "They're different. They have more colours on them and they look further away than
I remembered and they're more . . . more . . . oh, I don't know. . . ."
"More like the real thing," said the Lord Digory softly.
Suddenly Farsight the Eagle spread his wings, soared thirty or forty feet up into the air, circled round and then alighted
on the ground.
"Kings and Queens," he cried, "we have all been blind. We are only beginning to see where we are. From up there I have seen
it all—Ettinsmuir, Beaversdam, the Great River, and Cair Paravel still shining on the edge of the Eastern Sea. Narnia is not
dead. This is Narnia."
"But how can it be?" said Peter. "For Asian told us older ones that we should never return to Narnia, and here we are."
"Yes," said Eustace. "And we saw it all destroyed and the sun put out."
"And it's all so different," said Lucy.
"The Eagle is right," said the Lord Digory. "Listen, Peter. When Asian said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the
Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a
copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only
a shadow or copy of something in Asian's real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered,
all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different
as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream." . . .
