The Goals of this Book

If This Isn't Heaven, I Don't Know What Is

Biblical Reasons Why We Should
And Practical Suggestions on How We Can
Create Heaven on Earth

The purpose of this book is not to dash the heavenly hopes of millions of Christians into pieces.

You may have heard that this book seeks to deny the hope of nearly every Christian to be resurrected and go to heaven. But it's not the purpose of this book to say anything at all about what happens to anyone after death.

This book is about life here on earth.

The goal of this book is to encourage millions of Christians to "bring in the Kingdom of Heaven."

Millions of Christians presently believe that goal is misguided, even sinful.

When Christ was born the world was characterized by nations which were submerged in spiritual darkness and slavery, violent brutal dictatorship, degrading poverty, rampant sickness, and early death. A handful of Apostles, wavering in faith, were commissioned to "makes disciples of all nations." D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, in their books, What if Jesus had Never Been Born, and What if the Bible had Never Been Written have chronicled the success of that commission. If any of the apostles could be transported through time into the 21st century, they would be astounded at the progress that has been made toward the Christianization of the world.

. . . so great I thought I had
died and gone to heaven!

Every single day of our lives, we should give thanks to God for the blessings to us that have resulted from the Advent of Christ.

Christ taught His disciples to pray for heaven on earth.
"Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
That prayer has been answered a thousandfold.

But many Christians are not contented.

There is some justification for this discontent. There is still much work to be done.

But this discontent has not transformed itself into productive action. Contemporary discontent among Christians manifests itself in a longing for "the rapture."
"This life sucks - when does heaven start?"
Efforts at Christianizing the world are denounced as "worldly."

Nobody washes Kleenex®. It's disposable.

When Jerry Falwell said "Let's Clean Up America," Dave Hunt responded, Whatever Happened to Heaven?:

In the early 1970's the rapture was the most-talked-about topic in the church.. . . Our hope [was] not in taking over this world but in being taken to heaven by our Lord. . . . All that has changed.
(pp. 63, 76)

Their "hope" was that the world would be destroyed.

Hunt bemoaned the fast-growing "Christian Reconstruction" movement. But that movement now seems dead, along with its founder, R.J. Rushdoony, whose Chalcedon Foundation was identified by Newsweek magazine back in 1981 as the "think-tank" of the Religious Right.

Failed predictions of the rapture by 1988 have doused the flames of the premillennialists. But the sense of hopelessness remains. The work of creating heaven on earth will not resume as long as Christians believe their efforts are doomed.

I believe escapist prophecy is fed by a lack of gratitude for the incredible blessings we have.

The evils in our world invite a Christian response, but the widespread unwillingness to right wrongs and overcome evil reflects a failure to understand our duties under Christ's Great Commission.

Increase gratitude and encourage acceptance of our duties: two goals of this book.

The final goal is to introduce a new paradigm, a new way of thinking about social organization and reform. One of Hunt's major criticisms of Christian Reconstruction was its tendency to see the State as the preeminent instrument of social reform. Hunt pointed out the evils throughout history of a State-imposed religion, and concluded that in this present age we should not try in a systematic or institutional manner to leaven society with God's Word. Hunt failed to see that we can have a society "under God" without being under a state-imposed despotism. The reason he didn't see this is that Hunt, like all premillennialists, is committed to socialist dictatorship. I left out a line in the quote above:

Out hope is not in taking over this world but in being taken to heaven by our Lord, to be married to Him in glory and then to return with Him as part of the armies of heaven to rescue Israel, destroy His enemies, and participate in His millennial reign.

It's not that Hunt opposes all armies, and all bureaucrats. He supports only bureaucrats with glorified bodies. Hunt objects to Christian Reconstructionists gaining positions in the machinery of the State to rescue Israel, execute rebels, and "rule and reign with Christ," but does not object to Christians with glorified bodies doing exactly the same thing during "the millennium." It's not that Hunt opposes on libertarian grounds the fascist tendencies of the Moral Majority. Hunt supports only a kind of glorified fascism.

Hunt warned back in 1988:

Even so, there are many Christians today (and their number is growing rapidly) who view the hope of an imminent rapture as the negative product of a defeatist theology. They sincerely believe that the expectation of being taken home to heaven at any moment undermines the "victory" they are convinced could be won by the church if Christians would only catch the vision of taking over the world and would unite to fulfill it.

On the contrary, there is a much more exciting and worthwhile hope for those who believe in the rapture. We will return with Christ from heaven in transformed bodies to reign over this earth with Him. That hope involves a truly new world order far superior to anything we could establish in these mortal bodies and without His physical presence on earth. Such a vision of the future helps us to realize that we are not part of this old world order and to make a clear break with it even now.

The ground is being laid for a major confrontation between those who long to leave this earth for heaven in the rapture, and others equally sincere who believe it is the Christian's duty to establish the kingdom upon this earth and that only when this has been accomplished by the church in His absence will our Lord at last return. That such an attitude could be prevalent and growing in influence today seems astonishing in view of the widespread expectation of the any-moment rapture that prevailed so recently.
(p. 61)

There was no such confrontation. The two groups are both essentially dormant. Hunt should no longer be worried.

The Moral Majority and the Christian Reconstructionists are both out of business. Taking over the Republican Party is no longer viewed as the key to bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven.
And although Tim LaHaye's series of fictional books on the rapture are selling well, they haven't captured the religiously-dedicated forces that Hal Lindsey had in the 1970's.

Both the Republicans and the Democrats are zealously pursuing a "New World Order." A uniquely Christian voice is not being heard. Perhaps this book will ignite a new flame.

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