Fear and not discovery and love shaped much of my spiritual formation since my childhood. Jesus inspired me so much, and as a child, I wanted to follow him and love him. But when I came to the Revelation ( Last book of the Bible), I somehow could not put my finger on it? I was confused because the Revelation was explained in our churches more like the latest commentary on geopolitics than the end game of Jesus. Therefore Revelation was a scary book for me. I didn't understand it, nor was I very motivated to study it. So my simple plan was I would engage in the "now" part of the Kingdom and let someone handle the "future" aspect of the Kingdom. But that is so lame and naive to watertight my thinking like that. As a believer, we must own your faith, wrestle even till our soul is satisfied. Where and how we spend our eternity is the question that must be answered with the truth, holding the Biblical worldview. Popular movies and shows shape our worldview about heaven and eternity. According to the word of Jesus, we will not turn into stars up in the sky when we die.
Voltaire once said that if Christianity is to be stamped out, the resurrection of Jesus would be a problem. Bingo! Resurrection and Revelation are two sides of the same coin. I think it is not just me, but many Christians face the dilemma of finding the right categories to put the physical body in our faith system. When we are in heaven, will we be embodied or disembodied? I believed in the resurrection, but it was hard to comprehend that I would 'live forever as physical beings in a redeemed physical world'. In Luke 24:39, Jesus said Spirit does not have flesh and bones. His scarred hands and feet proved that his 'new body is the old body made new'. The resurrected Jesus had flesh and bones, and we will have the flesh and bones when we are resurrected as well.
The 1646 Westminster Confession says, "All the dead shall be raised up, with the self-same bodies, and none other."
Eternity is the continuity God designed and intended before the earth's foundation. The resurrection is God's masterstroke to salvage the plan damaged by evil and sin to continue that original plan of eternal continuity.
'I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end, he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! ' Job 19:25-27
It is Job himself and not any other, in his flesh and bone and on earth not in heaven. It was Jesus himself and not any other. It will be you and me and not any other. This is the continuity God designed and made possible for us by the death and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ. We will remember who we are who our families are. We will not be dumber in heaven but more intelligent because we have to give account to God of what we have done on earth, and our personality and soul will continue in heaven. We will continue to be co-creator with God.
When we come to Christ, we become new, but we are the same old us but made new in the power of Christ. Your friends and family will recognise your face when you walk down the street. Your children will come and hug you. We are the same us but made new in Christ. So transformation and continuity in eternity is not a contraction but a gift of God to humankind. So new people will be old people made new, the new earth will be old earth made new, the new body will be an old body made new. Marvellous continuity.
For now, I can live with this understanding of Revelation. I know I see in part, and I see dimly, but this gives me hope and faith to live in the present with so much focus for the future. A future that is not going to end. And I will continue to be myself made new in Christ in that future as well.
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