Surprised By Hope

Growing up in the church, I believed that the Gospel was all about dying and going to heaven. I no longer believe that. Wait! Wait! Before you gasp and declare me apostate, let me explain.

Throughout the past 10 years, the faithful and accurate preaching of God's Word has convinced me of the truths that N.T. Wright carefully lays out in his book, Surprised By Hope. These truths contradict much of what I was taught or what I perceived from my early years in the church, but , in my estimation, are consistent with Scripture.

Early American Revivalism and its host of zealous, but highly-unlearned, preachers led us into an era of shallow thought, erroneous interpretations of Scripture, and largely misguided teaching in America's protestant churches. In addition to a faulty emphasis on the individual (how very American!), large-scale evangelistic efforts with little or no discipleship to follow, and a ridiculous fascination with eschatology, we've inherited a non-Biblical view of man and of his "end"! Not exactly minor details, folks.

Wright's book addresses two basic questions: What is the Christian's final destination? And what does that have to do with the here and now?

The simple answer to the first question is: not heaven. Christianity is not about dying and going to heaven! It's true that at death, what we call the "soul" is ripped from the body, separating that which was meant to remain whole, and that the personhood of the believer is transported into the presence of Christ. And that is a good and blessed state - an estate of joy, an estate free from the effects of the curse - but it is most definitely not the final state or the end-goal of our salvation!

Mention salvation, and almost all Western Christians assume that you mean going to heaven when you die. Salvation means, of course, rescue. But what are we ultimately to be rescued from? The obvious answer is death. But if, when we die, all that happens is that our bodies decompose while our souls go on elsewhere, this doesn't mean we've been rescued from death. It simply means that we've died.

And if God's good creation...really is good and if God wants to reaffirm that goodness in a wonderful act of new creation at the last, then to see the death of the body and the escape of the soul as salvation is not simply slightly off course, in need of a few subtle alterations and modifications. It is totally and utterly wrong. It is colluding with death. It is conniving at death's destruction of God's good, image-bearing human creatures while consoling ourselves with the thought that the really important bit of ourselves is saved from this wicked, nasty body and this sad, dark world of space, time and matter! As we have seen, the whole of the Bible, from Genesis to Reveleation, speaks out against such nonsense. It is, however, what most Western Christians , including most Bible Christians of whatever sort, actually believe. This is a serious state of affairs, reinforced not only in popular teaching but also in liturgies, public prayers, hymns, and homilies of every kind.

All of the churches in which I was raised, acknowledged the reality of the resurrection - both Christ's and ours - and yet our bodily resurrection and life in the New Heavens and New Earth were completely neglected. We even memorized I Corinthians 15, but the emphasis was invariably on the fact that Christ came back to LIFE...with very little, if anything, about the resurrection of Christ's or our own bodies! I even remember having specific visions of heaven placed before me...it was always "up there," wherever "there" is...and involved some sort of disembodied or "ghostly-body" existence. The final state of man was in a world with no resemblance whatsoever to the current world. It was implied that there would be no work, no creativity, no growth...man would immediately arrive in a state of perfection (not just "without sin" but a state of completion in which we would suddenly attain absolute understanding of God, the former world, His purposes, etc.).

My more recent understanding leads me to believe that the Bible presents a different picture than that. We have reason to believe that the New Heavens and New Earth will be very much like the present world...only absent of sin and the curse! Of course, we can only imagine the way that might look! But the fact is, we will not arrive onto that scene as perfected individuals. We will still be creatures made in the image of God...we will still work...we will still create...we will still grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom over time! We will, as Adam should have the first time around, take dominion over the creation by working, beautifying and glorifying, but we will now do it in an atmosphere where the ground is not working against, but with our efforts. The animals will not be at enmity with us, but will submit to man and cooperate with his work! THIS is the end goal of Christian humanity...not an ethereal existence in "heaven." The question of what happens to me after death is not the major, central, framing question that centuries of theological tradition have supposed. The New Testament, true to its Old Testament roots, regularly insists that the major, central, framing question is that of God's purpose of rescue and re-creation for the whole world.

The second question Wright addresses is: what does an emphasis on the bodily resurrection and life in the New Heavens and New Earth mean for the here and now? Well, first of all, we must view life on this earth as significant, because there will be some transference of man's knowledge, work, etc. The wood, hay and stubble will burn, but the gold, silver and precious stones will be refined and inherited for our use in our continued growth and dominion. So what we do here matters. The present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die. God will raise it to new life! Maybe [we need] to focus not on the question of which human beings God will take to heaven...but how God is going to redeem and renew his creation through human beings and how he is going to rescue those humans themselves as part of the process...

Additionally, the Gospel was never intended to only project us into that "other" future. The good news of Christ is to transform us now. The effects of that transformation ought to be that we, in turn, transform the world around us. He did not want to rescue humans from creation any more than he wanted to rescue Israel from the Gentiles. He wanted to rescue Israel in order that Israel might be a light to the Gentiles, and he wanted thereby to rescue humans in order that humans might be his rescuing stewards over creation. So, the Gospel matters NOW! We believers in the Gospel should be propelled by its truth, grace and beauty to apply its transformative power to everything around us - architecture, horticulture, community living, deeds of justice, deeds of mercy, parenting, education, fashion, music, literature, etc., etc.! We are not to sit idly by waiting for it all to disintegrate and be destroyed at the last day! Our duty is to build for His kingdom, all the while believing that our work is not in vain and that Christ is more than able to transform the world even here and now in ways that will matter in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Wright's book offers a very thorough defense of Christ's resurrection and then presents a Biblically-based eschatology that springs from that solid belief in and understanding of the resurrection. Though I take issue with him on some points, I highly recommend the book and think you too will find his primary views Biblically-sound and encouraging too! No "to hell in a handbasket" attitude here! Prepare to be surprised by hope.