In Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, N. T. Wright challenges us to rethink our notions of heaven and the implications of the doctrine of heaven for the entire Christian faith.
In Chapter Six Wright lays out the biblical answer to “What is God’s purpose for creation?” in contrast to the popular options explored in chapter five: evolutionary optimism (EO) and souls in transit (SIT). In summary, Wright argues that the early Christians did not believe the world was getting better and better on its own steam (EO) or that it was getting worse and worse and their task was to escape it (SIT). Instead, early Christians believed “that God was going to do for the whole cosmos was he had done for Jesus at Easter.”
Wright shows three themes from Paul and from the book of Revelation which point to a true Christian hope. First, the goodness of creation. Christians refused to believe in creation as anything less than good and God-given. They did not, however, believe that God was a part of creation – rather creation reflects his glory.
Second, the nature of evil. Evil is real and powerful but “it consists neither in the fact of being created nor in the fact of being other than God nor in being transient. That is, something is not evil merely because it is created, or because it is not divine, or because it decays over time. In fact, “Transience acts as a God-given signpost pointing not from the material world to a non-material world but from the world as it is to the world as it is meant to be–pointing, in other words, from the present to the future that God has in store.”
Third, the plan of redemption. “Redemption doesn’t mean scrapping what’s there and starting again from a clean slate but rather liberating what has come to be enslaved. And because of the analysis of evil not as materiality but as rebellion, the slavery of humans and of the world does not consist in embodiment, redemption from which would mean the death of the body and the consequent release of the soul or spirit. The slavery consists, rather, in sin, redemption from which must ultimately involve not just goodness of soul or spirit but a newly embodied life.”
Thus, “Redemption is not simply making creation a bit better, as the optimistic evolutionist would try to suggest. Nor is it rescuing spirits and souls from an evil material world, as the Gnostic would want to say. It is the remaking of creation, having dealt with the evil that is defacing and distorting it.”
Wright closes by exploring six themes/images from the New Testament that speak of the cosmic dimension of Christian hope.
- Seedtime and Harvest (1 Cor. 15) – Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruits – the first if many.
- Victorious Battle (1 Cor. 15) – Every force and authority and the cosmos will be subjected to the Messiah.
- Citizens of Heaven, Colonizing the Earth (Phil. 3) – to be called “citizens of heaven” doesn’t mean we are done with this life and we’ll be leaving the earth to go live in heaven. It means Jesus will come from heaven to earth to transform our bodies to be like his.
- God Will Be All in All (1 Cor. 15) – The ultimate goal is for God to fill all creation with his own presence and love; to fill the earth with knowledge of himself (Is. 11). “…the world is beautiful not just because it hauntingly reminds us of its creator but also because it is pointing forward: it is designed to be filled, flooded, drenched in God…”
- New Birth (Rom. 8) – God doesn’t throw away what he’s made; rather something new is born (reborn) from it.
- Marriage of Heaven and Earth (Rev. 21-22) – It is not we who go to heaven, it is heaven that comes to earth. The final goal is not the separation of heaven and earth, but the uniting of heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are “radically different, but they are made for each other in the same way…as male and female. And when they finally come together, that will be cause for rejoicing in the way way that a wedding is…”
