My Need for Repentance

Until just recently, I have been making a distinction between Heaven and Eden or its Greek equivalent, Paradise. I’ve been saying believers who die don’t go to Heaven but to Paradise. I’ve been emphasizing in my mind Tim Mackie’s concept of Eden as Heaven overlapping with places on Earth.

The idea I had was that Heaven is NOT the ultimate goal of believers in Jesus as God’s Anointed King. In the end (Revelation 21), God will make a new Heaven and a new Earth and those who are surrendered to Him and overcome the world’s opposition will live and reign in that new Earth – not in Heaven.

No Such Distinction

So, I pulled up Tim’s Bible Project video, Learn Where Heaven and Earth Overlap. And I heard otherwise. He talked about believers going to Heaven after this life and he explained about Heaven and Earth overlapping 

• in Eden, the garden of pleasure God organized out of the chaos before Creation, where all provision was within easy reach
• in the Wilderness Tabernacle, where the decorations mimicked things seen Heaven’s throne room and Yahweh dwelt with his people 
• in the Jerusalem Temples, which did the same in a fixed building.

Jesus Carried Eden with Him

Tim then explained that the Word took on a body and “tabernacled” among humans (John 1:14). To be with Jesus was to be in Eden (Psalm 16:11). Holy Spirit gave Him life and empowered Him to do things He could not do in His mere humanity. He taught His followers what it meant to live in the Father’s Kingdom and benefit from its provisions. He taught the attitudes required of His followers then demonstrated His sacrificial love. Then He told His apostles to teach all of that to all nations…and He left.

His Ecclesia Carries Eden to the World

Now, His followers carry God’s presence and power to the world around them. Ideally, they make Heaven’s provision available to those in need. “I will bless you…and you will be a blessing.”

By the “end of the age”, the new Earth will again be Eden/Paradise as the Creator first envisioned it. (See Isaiah 11:6-9 and Isaiah 65:25.)

Not a Matter of GOING to Heaven

I  have had a belief for a long time that, here on Earth, if a person is in a relationship with Jesus, is actively following His commands, s/he is in a state of Heaven. Tim Mackie would say s/he is in Eden (Psalm 16:11). If the body dies, the soul then moves more fully into God’s presence.

If a person rebels against God and His commands by acting by his or her own decisions, the results are chaos. If the body dies, the soul moves more fully out of God’s presence, and that is Hell.

Questions

I would never ask someone if s/he is “saved”. That is a Christian religious concept I abhor. My question would rather be, “Are you surrendered to King Jesus. Do you have a trusting, obedient relationship with Him.”

Do you delight in God’s presence? If you are in Eden now, you don’t need to worry about whether you will go to Heaven. 

Shalom