Category Archives: Heaven

The Impossible Possibility: Heaven

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One day the impossible possibility will finally be possible in consummate form. Faith will become the concrete sight that it is even now, but in its fully living bodied-color. The dead grass will blow away once and for all, and all that will be left standing is the enduring and eternal Word of God (Verbum Dei manet in aeternam). And all those in participatory union with the Logos of God; indeed, all the saints, both militant and triumphant will finally come together in eschatological bliss, in the One who is blissful for us, the Eschatos of God, Jesus Christ. The brokenness, the woefulness, the despair, and angst, the doubts and anxieties, the unbelief and its heartache, will finally be put under the Savior’s feet; indeed, as He declares ‘the last enemy, death,’ is dead. The futility the unwilling world was put under will be doused by the springs of eternal life as they flow freely from the belly of the Son of Man for us, for the world. Even though we will, even though we do experience tragedy upon tragedy, thlipsis unimaginable in this fallen and broken world; take heart, Jesus says, for “I have overcome that world.” New creation has come, is coming afresh anew, and will finally come! Maranatha

The 24 Elders, 4 Living Creatures, and Real θΡολογία Theology

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After a long small print section of commentary on Revelation 4β€”5 on angels and heaven vis-Γ -vis a Heaven-world relation, Karl Barth ends the whole thing with the following passage:

A final observation may be made. At one time θΡολογία was thought of as knowledge of the kind of matters which have occupied us here. Rev. 4β€”5 was thus regarded as a typical specimen, and it was for this reason that the author was called John ὁ Ξ˜Ξ΅ΞΏΞ»ΟŒΞ³ΞΏΟ‚. He would have been most surprised, and the 4 living creatures, the 24 elders and the many angels in heaven, must surely have been surprised, at most of the things which have since been given the name of theology.[1]

Barth wrote this in the mid-20th century; how much more so is his indictment even truer in the 21st century church and churches? Kyrie eleison

[1] Karl Barth,Β Church Dogmatics III/3 Β§50–51 [476] The Doctrine of Creation: Study EditionΒ (London: T&T Clark, 2010), 190.

The Surd of Sin Juxtaposed with the Glory of Heaven

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I just wrote the following reflection for Twitter, then cross-posted it to Facebook. I become overwhelmed by all of the evil and chaos in the world, quite frequently these days. It keeps me coming back to the living Hope we have in Jesus Christ. Out of necessity I must meditate on the reality of reality in Jesus Christ. If I don’t the darkness of this world would attempt to rob me of the great joy and light I have in our dear Lord.

Evil is a surd; sin is absurd. There is nothing rational about evil. You can’t reason with it. Jesus didn’t come to reason with it. He came to destroy it from the inside out. He assumed it in his flesh, and put it to death. He left it in the grave, with the last enemy: death. He’s coming again, and when He comes again He’ll take that old grave, where He left death, and the earth and rock that founds it, and irruptively re-create it; the heavens and the earth. In the re-creation there is no death, that last enemy; for it will have finally been put under His feet in the reprobate of outer darkness. Just as the seed falls into the ground, dies, and springs to new life, so too Christ, the image of God, rose and became the firstborn from the dead; the first fruits! At His coming this earth, being subjected to futility, will rise again where there is no longer any possibility for disease, sickness, anxiety, panic and death. The only reminder of that old world will be the scarred hands, feet, and side of the Lamb of God slain and resurrected before the foundation of the world. Jesus is King!