“Then I saw the new heaven and the new earth” (Revelation 21:1) My childhood Catholicism involved the belief that unbaptized children could not go to heaven; apparently God didn’t love them enough. They went to a place called Limbo. This was described as a place of full natural happiness and joy. The Second Vatican Council tacitly put to rest the doctrine of limbo. It is not mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
My childhood Catholicism involved the belief that heaven was a place where we would see God and spend a lot of time singing and praising Him. As a child I always wanted to go to Limbo, even though I was baptized.
Maria Shriver wrote a children’s book called What’s Heaven? The book has lots of pictures of fluffy clouds in blue skies. Each page has one sentence in extralarge type. Heaven, says Shriver, is “a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk to other people who are there. At night you can sit next to the stars. And Grandma is alive with the stars and the angels, etc. (cf. W.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, p.17)
This is more or less what many Catholics have come to believe, and to teach their children. What the Bible teaches is very, very different. In the New Testament we hear of a new creation that will transform and perfect all things. Salvation is a healing and transformation of this present world.
Three things make a human being a person: we are bodily, communal, earthly beings.
We are embodied, and God made us for each other, and also for His creation. The world was created for human beings. Genesis 2:15 says “the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” We belong here.
What the New Testament teaches is a central concept in ancient Jewish writings.
Isaiah writes of creation’s eventual full restoration: Isa.42:9: “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare.” Isa.43:19: “See, I am doing a new thing!” Isa.65:17: “For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth. There are the famous words from Isa.65:25: “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox… They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
The ancient Jewish religious work titled The Book of Jubilees speaks of “the day of the new creation, when heaven and earth will be renewed” (Jubilee 1:29). Another ancient Jewish religious work, the Book of Enoch speaks of how the creation will be made anew to last forever (First Enoch 72:1).
When it comes to the New Testament, the conclusion to the Book of Revelation is a fitting conclusion to the Bible as a whole. As Genesis began with the creation, so the Bible ends with telling how creation will be renewed, transformed. Rev.21:1- 4: “then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying…”and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
In Romans 8:18-25 Paul speaks of the sighing and groaning of all creation. It is not only people who sigh and groan, but the rest of creation as well. It suffers together with humanity. God’s reconciliation does not end with humanity; it embraces “all things on earth or in heaven.” All creation will be transformed.
Some other New Testament references to the new creation would include: Gal.6:15: “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 2Cor.5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Col.1:15-20: “through him (Christ) God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven”
Thus, eternal life is not unworldly; it is a world elevated, healed, and transformed. Salvation does not involve a completely different life from the one we have now, but the perfection of that life. Salvation involves a new bodily existence in a newly remade world. We are destined for eternal life in the new creation. God remakes the creation, not abandons it. Eternal life is not radically new, it is the completion of what we have lived here. What we can expect after death is not a completely different life but the perfection of what we are already doing. One can take the blessings we enjoy in this life as foretastes and pictures of the joys of heaven. The New Creation will involve a vibrant and active human life. This world will be transformed and set right. This new world will be exactly what we need and want, with the love and beauty of this present world taken up and transformed.
The Second Vatican Council paid special attention to the New Creation. In the Lumen Gentium document it states that the whole earth will receive perfection when the time of renewal of all things arrives. The Council’s Constitution On The Church in The World pro claims that God is preparing a new earth where righteousness dwells, happiness fulfills for all God’s sons and daughters all that arises in human hearts. Love and its works will remain. Death will be conquered.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses the same kind of thinking. The CCC teaches that “the visible universe is destined to be transformed so that the world itself returns to its original state, with no further obstacles.”
A number of years ago, there was much discussion as to whether pet dogs would be in heaven. Not only will dogs be in heaven, but all species of animals, along with the sky, the oceans, seed-bearing plants, trees, the sun and moon, the teeming creatures of the sea, etc. Isaiah wrote of creation’s eventual full restoration. Jesus was even more specific. Jesus said that His father does not forget even the lowly sparrow.
What might the New Creation look like? What does the Bible actually teach about the New Creation? The picture offered by the Scriptures include: death and decay will be overcome; the hazards of life will be removed, life will no longer be precarious and uncertain, but perpetual and safe; the new creation will transform and perfect all things, everything will be set right; there will be no division between peoples.
Thus, God is both creator and redeemer, and humans are destined for eternal life in a new creation, in the liberated and healed human world. The Book of Revelation ends with the plaintive cry, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
