Paul Luckraft reviews ‘A New Heaven and a New Earth’ by J Richard Middleton (Baker Academic, 2014).

In writing this book, the author has performed a great service for scholars, clergy and lay people alike, by providing a comprehensive analysis of what the Bible teaches on the final destiny of the redeemed.  

Middleton’s contention is that the traditional view that we ‘die and go to heaven’ does not have its origin in the biblical texts rather it comes from the Greek thinking that permeated Christian doctrine from the 2^nd Century onwards. His aim is to replace this error with the more Hebraic understanding of how God’s plan to redeem the whole of Creation culminates in a new heaven and a new earth.

Accessible Theology

After a preface and an excellent opening chapter which serves as an introduction, the book divides into five parts containing a further 11 chapters. The book concludes with a substantial appendix entitled ‘Whatever happened to the new earth?’ in which the author attempts a historical review of how the biblical teaching of a redeemed cosmos had to battle against other views which emerged during the course of Christian history, views which promoted an eternal bodiless existence in an ethereal realm.

Finally, the book is well indexed both in terms of subjects and scriptures.

The first part, ‘From Creation to Eschaton’, sets up the plot of the biblical story, and is followed by a sections on ‘Holistic Salvation in the Old Testament’ and ‘The New Testament’s Vision of Cosmic Renewal’. Don’t be put off by these rather theological titles. There is nothing stuffy or overly academic in the way he writes.

Middleton’s contention is that the traditional view that we ‘die and go to heaven’ does not have its origin in the biblical texts.

Part 4 examines ‘Problem Texts for Holistic Eschatology’ before in the final part, ‘The Ethics of the Kingdom’, the author basically asks ‘So what?’ How does this make a difference to the individual Christian life and the way the Church should operate in the world today?

Separating Truth from Myth

The author is a lecturer and professor of theology, but his writing style suggests he is more than capable of putting things across in a way that is accessible to anyone keen to listen and learn.

He tells in an amusing way how he frequently offers a monetary reward to anyone in his classes who can “find even one passage in the New Testament that clearly said Christians would live in heaven forever or that heaven was the final home of the righteous” (p14). He is happy to report that he still has all his money. “No one has ever produced such a text, because there simply are none in the Bible” (p14).

For the author the key question is, “Where, then, did the idea of ‘going to heaven’ come from? And how did this otherworldly destiny displace the biblical teaching of the renewal of the earth and end up dominating popular Christian eschatology?” (p30).

The answer, he suggests, lies in the innovative teaching of Plato in the late 5^th and early 4^th Centuries BC. This Gnostic emphasis on ‘physical bad, spiritual good’ laid the foundation for redemption being simply an escape policy from a material existence into an other-worldly ‘heaven’.

One eye-opening section of the book makes us realise how our Christian songs (hymns, carols and modern choruses) have, perhaps unwittingly, endorsed this. Wesley’s Love Divine, All Loves Excelling tells us we will be “Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place”. In one of our favourite carols, Away in a Manger, we sing “And fit us for Heaven, to live with Thee there”.

It was Plato who laid the foundation for redemption being simply an escape policy from a material existence into an other-worldly ‘heaven’.

What Happens When We Die?

The author does take seriously the question of whether we go to heaven temporarily once we die. He asserts that the hope of a period of blessedness while awaiting our new bodies does not contradict the final hope of being part of a restored cosmos.

He also tackles the thorny question of the rapture, cutting through the speculation and confusion of more recent times and providing a simple explanation of what it meant in biblical times.

Overall there is much in this book to commend. It promotes a view of God who is committed to his original plan and its full restoration. It shows how eternity in a new body, in a new heaven and a new earth, is a better hope to live for, a better future to move toward, and a better Gospel to proclaim.

The author’s exegesis of Biblical passages is sound and compelling. The result of his considerable labours is a resource that will inform, inspire and correct. Highly commended.

A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (332 pages, paperback) is available on Amazon for £11.42. Also on Kindle.