I remember growing up and raising my hand Sunday after Sunday to receive Jesus. The Pastor explained each week that if we wanted to go to heaven when we die, we needed to say the sinner’s prayer. And so each week, many of us would repeat the prayer together. 

Deep down inside, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go to heaven. I was terrified of the place. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I imagined that I would be a disembodied spirit floating through space forever. It horrified me. I was specifically afraid that there would be no end. That I would be floating forever and ever. This idea would physically make my stomach turn. I didn’t know it at the time, but my ideas of what heaven would be like were way off.

Thankfully, the Bible offers a way better idea of what the future holds. 

A New World

As I took the time to study the Scriptures, I discovered that God has a beautiful plan to recreate the heavens and the earth. The Hebrew writers of the Old Testament offer great insight into this. I was relieved to find, first off, that they definitely didn’t believe we were going to be spirits floating aimlessly in space forever. Instead, they believed God would create a new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17). And they believed God’s promise to Abraham that one day all peoples on earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). They had a real hope in a brand new earth that would be filled with the glory of heaven. 

The New Testament testifies to the same thing, the promise of a new world with Jesus the Messiah as king. A world where peace and righteousness dwells and worship and praise resounds from all creation. A future where friends and families are reunited and can enjoy Jesus together. God the Father has promised, “I am making everything new” (Revelation 21:5)! 

I wrote this book so that you would live life “overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” as Paul told the Romans (Romans 15:13). My prayer is that you will be truly excited and looking forward to the new heavens and new earth God has promised us. May his perfect love cast out all fear as you look forward to the future! 

Heaven Now 

Now, there is one more dilemma I ran into when studying the New Testament. It seems that when Jesus was born and started his ministry, he declared, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17, ESV, italics added). I discovered that heaven has arrived in the person of Jesus. 

So, not only are we looking forward to the future hope of a new heaven and new earth, but we can experience heaven now because of the incarnation of the Messiah. This was eye-opening to say the least. And I began seeing it all over the New Testament. I saw that we are currently seated in heavenly places with Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). I read that we can enter the “most holy place” because of the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19).

It seemed to me that not only was there a future heaven and earth, but that we are tasting the “powers of the age to come” in the present (Hebrews 6:5). In other words, Jesus’s prayer that it would be “on earth as it is in heaven” is actually being answered. Heaven is revealing itself on the earth every day. We just need eyes to see and ears to hear it. 

The Origin (Genesis 1) 

As we dive into this amazing subject of the new world, let’s remember a few things about how this world got started. When God created man and women, he said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). It was not a lonely singular God who made this world. It was a Trinity, a family of Father, Son, and Spirit. 

Christian orthodoxy teaches, “I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made…And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life” (The Nicene Creed). 

This world was born out of the love of the Trinity. Everything you see was made by Father, Son, and Spirit. Proverbs 8:30-31 gives a remarkable picture of the Trinity rejoicing, laughing, and playing as they made the world together. The Son and the Spirit can be heard in this flashback to creation: “I was there, close to the Creator’s side as his master artist. Daily he was filled with delight in me as I playfully rejoiced before him. I laughed and played, so happy with what he had made, while finding my delight in the children of men” (Proverbs 8:30-31 TPT). 

It is vital to remember the origin of this world, that we are the creation of a holy, infinite family of Three who played, rejoiced, and laughed together as they made us. This origin story will give us the right perspective as we navigate the end-times. We will hear the familiar voice of joy, even in the new world, when we hear things like, “Come and share your master’s happiness” (Matthew 25:23). It was God’s joy that started this story, and it will be his joy that we share in forever and ever. 

The Promise (Psalm 2)

One of the most fascinating things about our world is that it has been promised as a gift from a Father to his Son. This is one of the great mysteries of creation. One of the places in Scripture we discover this is in Psalm 2. 

In this Psalm, the writer David gets a glimpse into the Trinity. He hears a conversation between the Father and the Son in verses 7-9. Verses 7 and 8 read, “You are my son, today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Psalm 2:7-8). 

The nations, the ends of the earth, are the inheritance of Jesus from his Father. This shows so clearly that this world is valuable to God. Far from being a piece of trash that will just be burned up and thrown out one day, the nations of this earth are a promise to the eternal Son of God from the Father of all creation. This should help you understand how much God loves this world and loves you. You are part of the gift from God the Father to God the Son!

Hope 

Here’s a helpful insight when it comes to the Old Testament… The Spirit of Christ was already at work! “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11). 

The Spirit of Christ was at work in the Old Testament, giving people of faith insight into a kingdom that was coming. Abram was one of the first ones to get a prophecy of hope concerning this world. It was in Genesis 12 where the Lord spoke to him and said, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-3). 

This is one of the original promises from God that he was going to make a new world. The world had fallen into sin, but God planned to restore the world to blessing through Abraham. This was a spark of hope for humanity. God was not going to leave our world in its brokenness. He still wanted to make it new and restore it to its original glory, in relationship with him.