Happy New Earth

[spectrumbot]

The memory text from Revelation 21 for this week’s lesson includes one of the most hopeful and anti-conservative lines in scripture. 

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/sabbath-school/2022/happy-new-earth

[frank_merendino (Frankmer7)]

@spectrumbot

“When the sin problem is over, the heavenly sanctuary will once again revert to its original function. In Revelation 21:22, John the revelator reports that he no longer saw a temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. But does that mean there is no longer a house of the Lord where His creatures can come and have special fellowship with Him? By no means!”—Richard M. Davidson, “The Sanctuary: ‘To Behold the Beauty of the Lord,’ ” in Artur Stele, ed., The Word: Searching, Living, Teaching, vol. 1 (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research Institute, 2015), p. 31.

This is just apologetic nonsense! It can’t even read the text of Revelation for what it is saying.

@spectrumbot

Have we dug in so deep defending our theology regarding October 22, 1844, that we now worry about where we will worship God in heaven?

@spectrumbot

And in heaven, where all things are new, we are at one with the divine. It’s a happy new spiritual reality.

Revelation doesn’t even speak of where we’ll worship God in heaven, it speaks of heaven coming to earth, the whole idea of the gospel of the kingdom/rule of God on earth as it is in heaven. The earth is filled with God’s presence which no sacred space could contain. God’s presence makes all things into sacred space, he and the lamb are its temple, as you have rightly pointed out, and as Revelation clearly states.

If one wants to debate the idea of people going to heaven, portions of Paul’s letters such as 1 Thess 4. can be brought into the discussion…and even the meaning of that passage about the saved ascending to heaven is debatable. But, for an apocalyptic movement like SDAism to base its identity in Revelation and then to muddy up what the book is saying regarding new creation and insisting on a continued sacred space is inexcusable, party line apologetics.

Frank

[c_j_wesn (Carolyn Wesner)]

But wait! There’s more: a sanctuary is needed because the saved will gather there every 7th day sabbath. One thing thing does tend to lead to another… this in a place/time where there is no more night, no need for any more holy buildings, etc.

[frank_merendino (Frankmer7)]

Of course…! Seriously, the whole thing is an interpretive mess that needs to be razed and rebuilt.

Frank

[NY_G_PA2 (Bruce Clements)]

@spectrumbot

that we now worry about where we will worship God in heaven?

Watching a rerun of Family Feud last, I happened upon an similar question.

The players were asked, “What do you expect to see in heaven?”

To which one of them responded, “God.”

Steve Harvey, the host, agreed heartily, saying something to the effect that he certainly hoped to meet god there, otherwise what was the point?

But I started thinking. What if we get to heaven and not only do not see EGW’s dream temple but what if god the father isn’t there in person, either?.

That is, what if an unchanging and corporeal god is, and always was, as illusory as her temple and the rest of SDA’s “dreamed up” eschatology?

Indeed, what if there is no “end time” and the best perspective and conception we will ever have of our creator is that one which is being shown to us right now?

Will Adventists feel cheated if John Lennon was right in imagining no hell below us and above us only sky?

I, for one, wouldn’t be disappointed if this is all there is, or that this world is as good as it gets, as I find both this creation and my ever evolving image of its creator sufficiently fascinating and perpetually awe-inspiring.

But I’m fairly certain that those who have higher expectations, and who desire a heaven exponentially more miraculous than this one, will feel duped and defeated by the fact that they chose the losing team, had so many dreams that didn’t come true and believed so many things that were just plain wrong.

Or what if I’m wrong, and Graceland really is a place where all will be received, as well as being infinitely better than this world in every possible way?

Fantastic!

I’m in the bonus round!

If the opposite is the case and hell is my eternal fate?

Since I can’t imagine what the world was like before I was born, I’m not overly concerned with what will happen if permanent and utter nonexistence is my punishment and reward, nor overly worried about what the saints will do if I never show up.