Hope is one of those virtues about which we don’t often think. Somehow, it doesn’t even seem like a virtue.
We talk a lot about how to love more or be more faithful or trustworthy or just. But hope?
Indeed, it seems a bit strange to imagine encouraging people to have more hope. Hope is one of those things that silly optimists have, right?
Level headed realists and practical pessimists surely don’t need hope. Life is what it is. Life is a tragedy. Why do you want hope?
But, once you start thinking about it, you realize this: you do want hope. Indeed, you need hope. If you really believe that nothing good is on the horizon, then this world is a very poor place.
John Eldredge in All Things New wants to give you hope. Not just a small amount of hope, though. He wants to give you a massive, overwhelming, tear-inducing joyful kind of hope.
The book has a simple argument. It is one of those books that makes its argument by a long string of anecdotes, both real and literary. (Middle Earth and Narnia are frequently referenced.)
Eldredge’s argument begins with gospel of Matthew:
Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19: 28-29, ESV)
“In the new world.” Or, as the NIV puts it: “At the renewal of all things.” Eldredge wants you to notice that life after death does not take place in Heaven. It takes place on the New Earth, with all things made new, all things renewed or restored.
From that observation, Eldredge spins a tale telling you how much you should be looking forward to, hoping for, that new world. So far, so good.
What is that new world going to be like? To hear Eldredge tell it, the new world is a super-amazing version of the current world. Think of your favorite spot on Earth and imagine going to that spot in the future when that spot is perfect.
You don’t have to imagine only spots you have been. You’ll get to go to every spot on earth in the infinite length of time in which you will live in that new earth. You can hear Eldredge on every single page saying, “It is going to be awesome.”
Will it? Not, “will it be awesome?” That question is easy. If the new Earth is going to exist in anything resembling the way Christian theology discusses, it will, by definition, be perfect.
Will it be the way Eldredge describes it? To hear Eldredge talking, the New Earth is like the greatest place imaginable to spend eternity hiking and camping. Lo and behold, Eldredge really likes hiking and camping. So, much of the book is Eldredge imagining a new world made exactly to his specifications. He is going to love it.
Late in the book, he lets everyone else know that even if they don’t want to go hiking and camping forever, there will also be great things they can do on the New Earth.
You can learn to play a musical instrument or listen to the most amazing people playing the most amazing songs ever. You can take classes with Aquinas and learn some theology. You can have Galileo teach you about astronomy. Lincoln can tell you stories about the Civil War. (Yes, those are really his examples.)
It all sounds really nice.
If you buy into it, then Eldredge has just given you hope, which is undoubtedly the reason Eldredge wrote the book. Not only will you be able to spend eternity with the people you love who are no longer living, but you will get to spend time with them doing all the things you really wanted to do with them here on earth if only they had lived a little longer. And, you will get to do those things in a more amazing version of the Earth than the one in which we currently live. It will be great. Stand firm, have hope, and someday this will all come.
But, is this true?
Here is where I get stuck. Will time and space exist in eternity? I have no idea.
If we accept the Christian narrative, then God created time and space when he created this world. Eldredge is reading Mathew 19 and the account in Revelation of Heaven and the New Earth as telling us that time and space do not pass away, that we continue to live in them forever.
Maybe that is true. Or, maybe that language is figurative, meant to convey to us that our future will be every bit as amazing as Eldredge imagines it to be, actually even better than Eldredge imagines it to be, but there are no words in human language to describe the reality of what we will experience. So, the language used in the Bible is there because it is as close as we can get in our language to describing that future reality.
Eldredge’s book is wonderful in reminding us to have hope. Life is painful; indeed, as Eldredge notes, if we are being honest, it is very, very painful. But, a future standing in the presence of Christ will be joyful.
All that is true. But, will that future be exactly the way Eldredge describes it? I still suspect it will actually be much better than this.
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