Thoughts on Heaven: It will be more awesome than we can imagine

This blog post is a preface to a preface to some thoughts I have been praying and wrestling with God about. What will life in the New Heaven and Earth be like? As a child I remember being a little scared with the concept of Heaven because, to be honest, the idea of us floating around clouds with harps for an endless eternity sounded...boring. But God is not boring, and the more I learn about Him the more I am convinced of this. I remember finding comfort in the thought (perhaps this was God speaking) there will be baseball in Heaven (which is funny because I now think baseball is boring).

Our cultural image of Heaven, this place somewhere in the sky, all of us with halos and harps, is a gross underestimation of how awesome the New Heaven and New Earth will be. Heaven will be so much better than this feeble image. As best we can describe it, Heaven is the place where God (who is omnipresent) is; it  is the where He dwells. By place, I do mean Heaven will have the same three spatial dimensions we know here; Jesus in his resurrection body (a foreshadow of our own bodies to come 1 Cor 15:20) inhabited these spatial dimensions. This of course does not mean Heaven is restricted to those three dimensions.

An issue we finite creatures encounter when discussing Heaven is our ideas and descriptions are limited by our words; how can we define the infinite glory of Heaven with finite human words? This is why so much of theology is metaphorical. Now before you dismiss me as a heretic, hear me out. 

The metaphorical nature of theological concepts does not make them not true, what I mean is that such concepts as the truth of who God is, the Son's relationship to the Father, etc. are more true than what our limited words can express or our finite minds can comprehend. The Son and the Father are not only in a deep familial relationship with each other like a father and son, but they are one, and the metaphor of father and son is actually an understatement of their deep relationship, love, and unity. Jesus used the words "father" and "son" not because it perfectly describes Him and the Father, but because we can wrap our finite minds around these ideas; I understand what it is to have a father and to be a son. God and His awesome nature is too big for us to fully understand, this is just an aspect of our creature nature; God is God and we are not. 

This is why I think a reoccurring image used to depict Heaven is music (Rev 4:8-11). Have you ever listened to a piece of music which stirred up emotions or captivated you with its beauty and for a time, perhaps only a moment, you were transfixed by the experience? This, I think, is a better descriptions of what Heaven will be like than human words can say, which is why Scripture often uses music when describing Heaven. These passages do not mean Heaven will be one endless church service. Heaven will be more awesome than we can say or imagine because God is more awesome than we can understand.

"Copy and Paste" and Intra-Biblical quotations

Have you ever read a passage in the New Testament, perhaps in the writings of Paul or Matthew, where the author quotes a passage from the Old Testament, but when you compared the New Testament quotation with the original source you found slight variations in the wording? For example, the Luke 4 quotation from Isaiah 61: (red added to show differences)

Lk 4: 18-19 (NIV)

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Isa 61:1-2a (NIV)

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Should the New Testament authors have not been more careful when quoting the Old Testament? Because the Bible is God’s word, shouldn’t we be extra vigilant to get our wording right? What’s the deal?

The good news is there is a logical explanation for these “loose” standards of quotation, and ultimately the word variations between Old Testament sources and New Testament quotations, while it may give nuance to the passages, do not change the meanings especially when the passages are viewed as a whole and not by word count.

The reason why the New Testament authors were not as “precise” in their citing of the Old Testament reflects a difference between their first century Near Eastern culture and our own twenty-first century Western culture. It was sometime around the third century when the quotation mark was invented and the idea of exact, word for word quotation, began. By the societal standards of the day, the New Testament authors were being accurate in their quotation of Old Testament texts. The challenge for us now is understanding their standards of accuracy and our modern standards of accuracy are different. Today with modern technology I can copy and paste a paragraph, quote, or even an entire manuscript with complete confidence I am not forgetting a word or letter. Computers are really good at assisting with these kinds of tasks. Such luxury was not available to Paul. Neither was a personal copy of scripture; before the advent of the printing press copies of the Bible were too laborious and expensive for an individual to own.

It is fine for us to adhere to the standards of precision afforded to us by modern technology, but we should not be upset when we cannot impose our cultural value upon biblical texts written in the context of a different culture.

A theology of viruses

You may have learned by now that I have a morbid fascination with diseases (why else does one study microbiology?). With my studies came some interesting theological observations, particularly about viruses. As I have discussed in previous posts, viruses are composed of a nucleic acid, either RNA or DNA, wrapped in a protein shell. A virus may or may not have a lipid membrane around the protein coat. Also important to note is that viruses are not classified as living organisms. Viruses by themselves have no metabolism, cannot replicate on their own, and lack other basic qualifications for being considered “alive”.

Because viruses cannot self-replicate, but hijack the cellular machinery of a host cell in order to reproduce, it is believed the origin of viruses is after that of cells. Viruses can only reproduce by attacking and killing other organisms; there is no such thing as a self-sufficient virus. To me this corresponds well with the Genesis creation accounts.

In the beginning God creates everything: light, space-time, molecules, plants, animals, and people, and after each step He stops to admire His work and declares that it is “good” (Gen 1.4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). The Hebrew word used is “towb” and translates as “good, pleasant, excellent, and valuable.” All throughout God’s creating process, He affirms the goodness of His creation. He even concludes the sixth day, after creating humanity, by declaring His work to be “very good” (Gen 1:31).

But where in God’s good creation does a parasitic “almost-living” thing like a virus belong? I think we have to turn to Genesis chapter 3 for the explanation. Here we have the Fall of Humanity and all of creation with it. God’s very good creation became marred by human sin and there were grave consequences; death entered creation and with it came viruses. It should be noted that Satan is not creative himself, but instead subverts preexisting things. We see with the temptation of Adam and Eve that the serpent twisted God’s words: "did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Gen 3:1b). Similarly, viruses are fraudulent creatures which mimic life, but exist by means of death, the result of sin. Viruses are a corruption of life, and there is no place for viruses in God’s good creation. They are an unfortunate result of sin and a reality we must face until all of creation is made new, but we know that when creation is transformed there will no longer be viruses to kill and destroy. We have not yet eradicated all viruses, but the day of their destruction is coming and there will be justice for all that has been stolen from humanity and creation by viruses.

Thoughts on Turning Thirty

I turn thirty tomorrow and want to share a few thoughts on the subject of leaving one decade for another. Getting older has never bothered me, and whenever someone asks what are my feelings about turning twenty-two, twenty-five, etc. I like to joke it “beats the alternative.”

It is strange to think it has been ten years since I left my teen years behind, but I was ready for that transition and I feel ready for this one too. There are a few things which are affecting my preparation for the completion of my tridecennial year.

The first is I have enjoyed my twenties. There is the idea your twenties are a time of self-discovery, personal reflection, adventure, and trying new things, and I have loved these aspects of my last decade. I have questioned, explored and contemplated who I am, and my life has been enriched by this process. Looking back, it is hard to believe who I was ten years ago, in many ways I hardly recognize the 20 year-old Tim, and I am okay with that. I am relieved to not be the same person I was then. Having enjoyed this season of learning, I am ready to move on. I do not want to keep asking the same questions forever. I have some ideas now of who I am, what I love, and what I want to do with my life. I feel I have accomplished the goal of my "self-discovery twenties." Now is the time for my thirties, a season of launching out into what I feel called to do, becoming who I want to be, and the beginning of those things which my twenties have prepared me for.

I have been basing these ideas about the nature of our twenties and thirties off of what I have observed and what I have read from sociologists and bloggers, but I also realize it was at the age of thirty when Jesus began his three years of ministry. Jesus, in part, was following the rabbinic traditions of his time (which specified not beginning ministry until thirty) and I think this tradition acknowledges the same anticipation I feel now. This does not mean I am prepared or expect to not make any more mistakes or discoveries, I most certainly will. I do not feel like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, but I do feel like a fledgling bird ready to try jumping out of the nest.

The second factor is that I have completed the major life goals I had hoped to accomplish by now. I was twenty-five when Emily and I were married and we had hoped to wait five years(ish) before having children, and we also wanted to live in Europe for two years. We have enjoyed this time of being married without children (no, we are not pregnant!), and we have lived in France for eighteen months now. God has been good and my life has unfolded, for the most part, as I had hoped.

The third thing is I am curious who 40 year-old Tim will be. What goals and dreams, adventures and misadventures, lie between me now and me then? Just as I look back on myself ten years ago and think “wow, I have come a long way,” I hope in ten years I will be able to do the same. This is not a reflection of dissatisfaction with who I am at the present, but a desire to not be static as a person. I hope I have not “peaked” at thirty.

So here's to being thirty and the adventures to come!

Stuck in the Present

When Emily and I first decided to move to France I was excited; not only was this the opportunity to live in Europe which we had dreamed of, but France is the home of such delights as croissants, pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants), baguettes, and a range of other delicious foods besides pastries. I only had one concern: I do not speak French.

Having growing up in California, when it came time for me to study a foreign language in high school I chose Spanish. Now with our plans to move to France I sought out various options and resources for learning this new language. I found a few helpful, and free, websites which taught me a lot of useful words, and I poured time and brainpower into learning French.

When we arrived in France I certainly did not know much French, but I knew a few key words and phrases like “ou sont les toilettes?” (where is the bathroom?), “bonjour” (hello), and “comment ça va?” (how are you?). I also soon learned other important phrases like “je voudrais ______” (I would like…. a hamburger, some water, cold medicine, etc.)

But when it came to verb conjugations all I knew was present tense. At first I thought this tense would serve a purpose. It had not until my second year of Spanish class in high school that I had learned the past tense, so certainly the French present tense would carry me through some conversations right?

Turns out the present tense is only helpful if you want to narrate your life as it occurs, but the moment someone makes small talk by asking “comment était ta journée?” (how was your day?) or “qu'est-ce que tu as fait aujourd'hui? (what did you do today?) you are reduced to sounding like an idiot saying “je mange…j’écris une lettre …je voudrais dire quelque chose!” (I eat, I write a letter… I would like to say something!). In conversations I was made into a near-mute, unable to use words to express myself. I was stuck in the present tense.

After living in France for two months we started language school and at last I started learning the beloved passé composé (the tense used for finite events in the past and analogues to the preterito in Spanish). Now I could say “j’ai mangé et j’ai écrit une lettre” (I ate and I wrote a letter). Next came imparfait which is used for descriptions and for reoccurring events in the past. Now I could understand and answer the question “how was your day?” (comment était ta journée?). Futur proche opened the door for describing near future events. No longer was I stuck in the present, I could speak French in four dimensions!

I am still learning French and have tons more to learn. I have developed relationships with a few more verb tenses (turns out the conditional and simple future sound the same in spoken French). It may be I have only scratched the surface of French, but as I dig deeper I am ever growing in my ability to express myself. The constraints of time no longer bind my speech. I am finding my voice again, now in French.

(this post was originally published on my new writing blog: tholdenkamp.wordpress.com)