I caught myself feeling something strange yesterday as my wife and I were talking about the new heavens and earth. I had to ask myself “Do you really believe this?. Could this honestly be true? Would a rational person accept this kind of thing. I realised that to the everyday person this would seem like sheer nonsense, and even to some people who profess to be Christians for a few reasons. Firstly it may be because the world we live in in either so hopeless that we can’t imagine what a cosmic redemption would look like, or we’re too happy where we are and don’t want anything else.
For me the problem begins whenever I start to see God in impersonal terms, that is whenever I talk about God without ever talking about Jesus. This is the major problem with the world today. They are hostile towards Jesus. Many are happy to accept the idea of a God (or host of gods) who made the world, but if you want to talk about Jesus as the fullest revelation of that God you’re crazy. For a long time I’ve noticed that the kids in my youth group are happy to talk about God, but seldom if ever mention Jesus, and for me thats a concern.
When I start somewhere other than Jesus I’m in trouble. My Christianity quickly seems like a farce to be abandoned in favour of new evidence from science and reason. Jesus gives God eyebrows, kneecaps, saliva glands and a spleen. He brings God into the ordinary, and personal. We must resist all efforts to depersonalise the Gospel, God, and Christianity. Our Gospel will be co-opted into the current cultural story and eventually will look no different.
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