"Have An Apocalyptic Day." Chapter 21: The Kind of Earth You Won't Want to Fly Away From

 

The Gospel is, was, and always will be: 

Heaven Comes Down.

Once more for the people in the back: 

Heaven Comes Down.

A third time, before we get another rapture prediction:

Heaven. Comes. Down.

In the penultimate chapter of Revelation, after the final judgment comes a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and earth have passed away. 

There's a voice saying: "God lives here now." 

A new Jerusalem comes down, and there's no Temple in it, because why would you need a special, holy place when the whole land--every blade of grass, every grasshopper, every microbe in every drop of water in every river, and every person drinking it--is already holy? 

Why would you sing, "I'll Fly Away" when that kind of earth is coming?

Why would you fantasize about all the tribulation and torture your friends and neighbors will endure while you hop a cloud and take off for some celestial realm,

when the words of Holy scripture are so clear and so final in saying,

Heaven

Comes

Down?

Why would you waste your thirty seconds on a Sunday morning, or ever, praying as your Lord taught you, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven," if you don't believe it will actually happen, or believe that our world needs yet more calamity and destruction in order to make it so?

The plan was always for heaven to come down.

That's what happened in Bethlehem.

That's what the angels on the mountainside promised would happen again.

Don't let false teachers lead you astray with doomsday scenarios pieced together with a patchwork of out-of-context verses about how to escape this world. 

If Jesus chose to live here, you better believe none of us is too good for it.

It's right here in the Book of Revelation.

Heaven comes down. 

My Poetic Interpretation of REVELATION 21 

21. New heaven, new Earth, new Jerusalem,

Prepared, as bride for husband, now descends;

This mortal people, God shall dwell with them,

Of mourning, tears, and death to make an end.

“Behold, for I am making all things new!

Drink now my living water, gift sublime;

Inscribe my words, the trustworthy and true,

I, Alpha and Omega, hold all time.” 

Of gold and jewels, the city stands Foursquare,

No lamps: the Lamb himself will be their light;

Twelve gates, with twelve apostles’ names, are there,

By day they open, and there is no night.

No need to climb; God comes to you and me,

Oh, taste the living water and be free.