Dual Citizenship??

That slogan that Paul was a dual citizen of Rome and Heaven is used without analysis to wiggle out of Jesus clear teaching that you cannot serve to masters.

Paul was clear that he was a citizen of heaven and that is how he lived.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil 3:20).

He explained his attitude to political and religious citizenship in Phil 3:5.6. Paul considered these all crap.

Paul was recorded once as using his Roman citizenship, but that does not make it right. He was already a prisoner, and pulled his Roman citizen card to avoid another beating (Acts 22:22-30). I am not sure if the was right in doing this, as in the past he seems to have chosen to take the beating.

I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones (2 Cor 11:23-25).

Maybe in Jerusalem he could not just face another beating. I can understand that and would probably have done the same, but that does not make it right. The problem for Paul was that it left him under the control of Rome. By appealing to Caesar, he go taken to Rome, but he lost his freedom to operate as an apostle. If he had taken the beating and been rescued by the Spirit, he would have been free to travel to Rome as an active apostle. He might have achieved more for the Lord.

Maybe God needed to put Paul into prison, to prevent the church from turning him into a Pope. Perhaps God took him out of play, so he would write more letters and open the way for others to step up.

Whatever, Paul’s decision in a moment of weakness, should not be used as a basis for a political theory.

Our Home is in Heaven?

Many Christians believe their true home is in heaven and they cannot wait to get there. However, this is not completely true. Our current home is on the earth. Paul had dual citizenship. He was a Jewish citizen and a Roman citizen. He had rights in both places. We are dual citizens as well. We are citizens of both earth and heaven, having rights in both places. We should not become so focussed on life after death that we forget our role on earth. Earth belongs to God. We are his stewards. He needs us to exercise authority on earth.

We are already seated with Jesus at the right hand of the Father in the spiritual realms (Eph 2:6). That is our home now, and understanding that should transform our life on earth now. It would be sad if we were so focussed on life after death, that we failed to understand that we live in the spiritual realms now. Our home is in heaven, but not in the way we usually think.

The Afterlife

The New Testament givers very little detail about the afterlife, so we should take a humble approach to the topic. We must not assume we know more than Jesus wanted us to know (probably because human minds are not capable of grasping it).

When describing the afterlife, Jesus used images (fire, lake, rubbish dump). He also used textual descriptions (eternal punishment, eternal destruction). An image can take a number of meanings, so we should be careful about interpreting these as detailed descriptions of the afterlife.

The images are all physical. Fire is physical fuel being oxidised. Smoke is floating ash particles. The after life takes place (at least in part) in a spiritual world. Images of physical things cannot be a perfect description of a spiritual world. For example, a spiritual body will not burn. Therefore the physical images that Jesus used to describe the negative afterlife must be interpreted analogically and not strictly empirically.

The same applies to the image of a rubbish dump, which the modern church has transliterated as hell. We must work out what a rubbish dump means in a spiritual world.

I presume the purpose of the images was to invoke emotions and elicit a change in behaviour, not to be a. Fire is a powerful image that can elicit strong emotions, such as comfort or fear, depending on the situation. However, fire as an image can take a variety of meanings:

• Heat
• Pain
• Light
• Destruction
• Torture

We need more information to determine which meaning Jesus had in mind when talking about the afterlife.

We should use the textual descriptions provided by Jesus to explain the images, and not vice versa. Likewise, we should be very careful about going beyond what the textual descriptions say, on the basis of an image. Textual descriptions of negative afterlife are quite rare, so our knowledge of it will be quite limited.

More at Afterlife.

Dimensions (6) Heaven

Christians tend think of heaven and earth as two different places. Heaven is way up there, and earth is way down here. There is a huge gap between. The gap between heaven and earth is real, but the assumption that they are far apart is misleading. A better way to think about the earth is to see heaven as spiritual dimensions that exist alongside, or within our physical world.

An even better way might be to see the physical world as three additional dimensions added on to a multi-dimension spiritual world. The spiritual world is more real than the physical world, so this latter view is most likely correct, but it is too hard for us to handle, because our eyes are calibrated for a physical world. Seeing heaven as spiritual dimensions attached to our physical world is not perfect, but provides some useful insights.

At the ascension, the disciples saw Jesus ascending and a cloud hid him from sight. It is not that he disappeared out into space, like an interstellar rocket, to a place on far distant planet. Rather, he moved back into the spiritual dimension from which he had come. Because the eyes of the disciples were calibrated to the physical world, he was hidden from their sight.

Angels and evil spirits live in the spiritual world. They can touch our physical world at only once place at one time. This limits what they can do on earth. In contrast, the Holy Spirit is present everywhere on earth at any time. This gives him unlimited power and makes him far greater than any angel and gives him much greater reach than the devil.

Dimensions (5) Higher Life

When the visitor to Flatland carried the narrator into Spaceland two things surprised him. The first surprise was that he could see into himself. His organs that had been enclosed in a two-dimensional world, were totally exposed when he was taken into a three-dimensional world. The narrator was totally embarrassed by what he saw.

This describes how we will feel when we stand before God on judgment day. We will have moved into a world of extra dimension where time does not count and physical things are totally exposed. On that day we will see ourselves for the first time as we really are. That will be totally embarrassing and we will be full of shame. Just as well we can call on the blood of Jesus to wipe our sin and shame away.

The narrator of Flatland was totally amazed by what he saw in Spaceland. He looked down on the two-dimensional world that he had come from and it seemed poor and shadowy compared with the new world that he had entered. We are impressed by life in this world. When we have access to the dimensions that God moves in we will realise how small and insignificant is life on this earth. We will look back on our lives and feel like they are just a blink of an eye.

This is a problem for scientists trying to understand they world. When they look into space through their powerful telescopes, they are only seeing three dimension. When you include time that is four dimensions, but they are not certain about time. The problem is that they are only seeing three dimensions of a multi-dimensional existence. Without an understanding of the spiritual dimensions of life, they are not seeing all that exists, so naturally they do not understand it.

The narrator was totally blown away by what he saw in Spaceland. His eyes were calibrated for seeing in a two-dimensional world, so he just could not make sense of what he saw. He just knew that it was absolutely wonderful.

Christians who get a vision of the heavenly realm face the same problem. Their senses are tuned for a physical world. Their language is designed for describing a physical world. This makes it impossible for them to communicate what they have seen. For example, Paul visited the third heaven in a vision. He was dramatically affected by what he saw, but he could not describe it (2 Cor 12:2-4).

John faced the same problem in the book of Revelation. He had a wonderful vision of worship in heaven, but he did not have the words to describe it. He took words like emerald, crystal, rainbow, glass, sea, thunder, gold, lampstand, snow, that describe some of the most amazing things in this world, and jumbled them up to describe what he saw in heaven. We should not assume these are literal descriptions. John was doing his best with words designed for describing a three-dimensional world, but he was actually describing the indescribable.

We should be very careful about Christians telling us they know what life in heaven will be like. Even if they have seen it, they will not really understand what they have seen, and they will be totally incapable of describing what they have seen.

After Life (13) - Where

Where does our future life take place? Some say on this earth, while other say their will be a new heaven and a new earth somewhere else. Here are some scriptures.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Pet 3:10-13.

Peter says that the heavens (ouranos) will disappear (v.11). Here he must be referring to the sky, however it is not clear how the sky disappears. It may be that the glory of Jesus appearance is so dazzling and bright that the sky cannot be seen. The expression “destruction of the heavens by fire” (v.12) is interesting, because Peter does not use the usual Greek word for destruction. The literal meaning of the word he uses is “loosen”. The sky being loosened up by fire may just mean that the universe is shaken up.

Peter says that the elements will be “loosened by fire” (v.10) and “melt in the heat” (v.12). This suggests a real transformation, but may not mean total destruction. The earth and everything in it will be “laid bare” (v.10). This suggests a lot of destruction, but it does not mean that the earth will be totally destroyed. It also has a sense of things that are hidden being exposed.

Peter’s message is that the earth and the atmosphere will be really shaken up by Jesus return, but he does not seem to be saying that the universe will actually disappear.

Both Peter and John speak of a new heavens and a new earth.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them (Rev 21 1-3).

These references do not explain whether the word “new” is used in the sense of “totally different” or in the sense of being “totally renewed”. I suspect that it is the latter. The whole universe will be so totally transformed by Jesus coming that it will appear to be totally new.

We must also remember that once we have spiritually bodies, we will be able to see the spiritual dimension of the universe as clearly as we now see the physical dimension. And because the spiritual dimension is vastly more important than the physical, it will appear to be totally different. It will be like God has taken the lid off the universe so we can see everything.

The only way that I can think about this is to imagine an ant living in the middle of my lawn. All he can see is enormous columns of green grass and the brown soil it grows in. He may see some of the microbes in the soil and the structure of the worm holes more clearly than I can, but essentially he lives in a two dimensional world of green and brown. If the ant could come up to my level and see the world from where I see it he would see a totally different world. He would see mountains, trees, animals and stars that he had never seen before. Although nothing had changed, he would feel like he was living in a totally new world.

When we see this world in both the physical and spiritual dimensions, our experience will be similar, although the contrast will be even greater. The best way to describe such an experience in human words might be to be as a new heaven and a new earth.

After Life (11) - Eternity with God

The word that is used the most in reference to our future life is "kingdom". Jesus said that the righteous shall inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for them since the foundation of the world (Matt 25:34). Speaking of the future life, he said,

The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt 13:43).
And I will confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me (Luke 22:29).

Our future life is not just a state of eternal bliss, where the saints bask in God's glory. It is a kingdom in which they rule with Christ. Our life on earth is a time of training to prepare us for ruling with Christ.

Adam was placed by God in the Garden of Eden, but that was not to be his final resting place. Once he had learned to care for the garden, he was to go out and subdue the rest of the earth. In the same way, our time on earth is a period of training, in which we learn how to rule. The Kingdom of our Lord is an eternal kingdom, which will continue after the last judgment in the spiritual realm (2 Pet 1:11).

After Life (10) - Language Limitations

We have a problem with understanding the heavenly realm because we live in a three dimensional world (four, if time is included). All our categories of thought are shaped by the world in which we live. Our language is inadequate for describing the spiritual dimension to life. The New Testament uses physical images to describe the spiritual dimension, but these will always be inadequate to describe something that is beyond description.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9).

Our human minds are not even capable of understanding what this universe looks like when perceived from the spiritual dimension as God sees it.

When we think of heaven, we tend to think of a place where God dwells. The problem is that God is spirit, so he is not confined to one place. The heavenly realm is not a three dimensional world like the one we live in, so the idea of “being somewhere” does not mean what it means here on earth. The same applies to expressions like “third heaven” or “highest heaven”. These phrases do not mean that the heavenly realm has layers like a multi-level building. Up and down do not mean the same in a spiritual world as they mean in this physical world. The expression “highest heaven” is just an attempt to describe the total difference between the physical world and the spiritual world.

The description of the heaven realm in Revelation 21 should be understood in the same way.

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using (Rev 21:15-18).

John is trying to describe the wonder of the spiritual realm using human words, but they are inadequate for this purpose, so we need to be careful how we interpret them. Length, width and height will not mean much in the spiritual world, so they should not be taken as a literal description. The walls were 144 cubits thick by “man’s measurement”, but thickness does not really mean anything in the spiritual world. Jesus proved this when he appeared to the disciples hiding behind physical walls in a locked room after his resurrection. Thick walls could not keep Jesus out.

John reminds are that these dimensions are “man’s measurement”. He is using human categories of thought so that he can communicate to us, because that is all we can understand, but earthly categories cannot fully capture the glory of the heavenly realm.

The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass (Rev 21:19-21).

I doubt that gold and emeralds will have much value in the future life. Peace and love and truth will be the important values. The problem is that the human mind cannot conceive of a place where love and peace have replaced height and width as the core dimensions. Using precious jewels was a way of describing the indescribable using things of value to a human mind.

After Life (9) - Heaven

Most Christians believe that when they die, they will go to “heaven”. Therefore it is quite surprising to find that the word heaven is rarely used to for our future life in the New Testament.

The Greek word for heaven, "ouranos" is used in a number of ways in the New Testament.

1. The atmosphere is often referred to as the heavens. “Ouranos” is the normal word for describing the sky.
2. God is also said to dwell in the heavens, especially the highest heavens. The word heaven is used to describe the spiritual realm.
3. The word heaven is only used to twice to describe the dwelling place of those who inherit eternal life (Matt 5:12 and Col 1:5). However, even in these verses it describes where our reward comes from more than its location.

   Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven (Matt 5:12).

The word heaven is generally used in the New Testament to describe the spiritual dimension of life. This spiritual dimension exists now. Through the Holy Spirit, we can interact with the spiritual dimension now, even if we cannot fully see into it. Heaven is not a place we will go to in the future. God’s will should be done on earth as it is in heaven, now.

After Life (1)

As an economist, I am interested in valuations. That leads naturally to thoughts about the last judgement. Economists are interested in incentives. That leads on to thoughts about heaven an hell.

A few years ago, when I did a detailed study of these topics, I was strangely surprised. We do not go to heaven when we die. Hell is not what we think it is.

Over the last few weeks I have been tidy up my notes on these topics. I will share some of the highlights in the next few posts.

My Home is in Heaven?

Many Christians believe their true home is in heaven and they cannot wait to get there. However, this is not completely true. Our current home is on the earth. Paul had dual citizenship. He was a Jewish citizen and a Roman citizen. He had rights in both places.

We are dual citizens as well. We are citizens of both earth and heaven, having rights in both places. We should not become so focused on heaven that we forget our role on earth. Earth belongs to God and we are his stewards. He needs us to complete his work here.