Biblical Reasons Why We Should
And Practical Suggestions on How We Can
Create Heaven on Earth
Are we in heaven now?
Most people think this is ridiculous. This can't be heaven, they say, because of (and the list begins: imperfections in life, bad people doing bad things, or death at an early age). They can't even begin to imagine that this is what God promised; that what we have somehow fulfills God's end of the bargain.
Let me lower the standard a bit, and then I'll come back to the question of "heaven."
Suppose I were to retract my claim that we're in heaven now, and claim instead that we are in "The Kingdom of Heaven." Suppose I were to claim that when Jesus came that First Christmas He set up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and we are now in the Kingdom of Heaven -- provided we repent and do everything else Jesus said to do in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
There's a lot of confusion among Christians about "kingdom"-related terms. We hear the terms "millennium," "Kingdom Age," "Kingdom of God," and "Kingdom of Heaven." Many people aren't sure when one ends and the other begins.
But one thing is sure. Many Christians don't care about life on earth. They just want to get to heaven. They're not even interested in "the Kingdom of God," if "the Kingdom" takes place on earth. Notice this paragraph from Dave Hunt's Whatever Happened to Heaven?:
[T]here 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 Christian would only catch the vision of taking over the world and would unite to fulfill it.[1]
In Hunt's prophetic timetable, after the rapture (and seven years of tribulation and such) there is a 1,000-year reign of Christ on the earth. But throughout his book, Hunt speaks as though the rapture leads directly to heaven. If you get the impression from the title of the book that Hunt's emphasis is on heaven, not "the Kingdom of Heaven," or any other "kingdom" ideal, you're not as correct as you think. In fact, for Hunt, all kingdoms on earth are failures, even Christ's. Hunt audaciously declares:
In fact, dominion – taking dominion and setting up the kingdom of Christ – is an impossibility, even for God. The millennial reign of Christ, far from being the kingdom, is actually the final proof of the incorrigible nature of the human heart, because Christ Himself can’t do it.[2]
As Hunt criticizes "the Reconstructionists, Kingdom Now Dominionists, and the Coalition on Revival (COR)," he says
All three of these groups either reject the belief that Christ will one day take His church out of this world and home to heaven, or relegate it to a position of such minor importance that it has no practical role in today's Christianity.
By contrast, Hunt and others relegate life on earth -- even under the direct rule of Christ -- "to a position of such minor importance that it has no practical role in today's Christianity." The question is, where does the Bible -- in 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,273 verses -- place the emphasis: on our life in heaven or our life on earth? Are we to pray that we be taken out of the world and into heaven, or that the will of God would be done "on earth as it is in heaven." Is heaven an obsession or a blueprint?
"Out of this world and home to heaven." That's what Hunt and millions like him want. Even the Thousand-Year Millennial Reign of Christ on this earth doesn't interest them. They skip right to heaven.
We should take some time to see how the Bible uses the phrase "Kingdom of Heaven."
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In what sense was the Kingdom of Heaven "at hand?"
If the people who heard Jesus and John the Baptist preach were being told that "The Kingdom of Heaven" is where they were going to go when they died, then Jesus and John the Baptist must have been saying that mass death for all of them was "at hand." Otherwise those who heard the preaching would have heard something false. Dave Hunt's "millennial reign" was not "at hand," nor was "the rapture." Both of those were at least 2,000 years away when Jesus and John the Baptist started preaching "at hand-ism."
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Suppose after saying the Kingdom of Heaven is "at hand," Jesus had said, "Blessed are the citizens of Israel, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven," would you understand Jesus to be saying that at some point in time Rome would be overthrown and those who were citizens of Israel would see the coming of the Kingdom and would no longer be under the domination of Rome and would start living in the Kingdom of Heaven, or would you understand Jesus to be saying "Blessed are all the people who have ever been citizens of Israel, for they will all be in the Kingdom of Heaven after they die."
Jesus wasn't saying, "Blessed are the zealots (revolutionaries who plotted to overthrow the Roman Empire by violence) who are persecuted for righteousness' sake." Nor was Jesus saying that the Pharisees were part of the Kingdom of Heaven because they endured persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire. The Pharisees were actually collaborators with the Empire. In fact, it was the Pharisees who would do most of the persecution!
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Jesus told the Pharisees:
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Matthew 24 should be read in its context of Matthew 23. "Persecution" had a very specific reference when Jesus spoke, and it was definitely "at hand."
But what about our "reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:12)? If you were told that your reward was "in the bank," would you want to move your furniture into the lobby of the bank and take up residence there? Matthew actually says their reward is in "the heavens," plural (as he usually does; Luke does not [Luke 6:23]).
Here are more references to "the Kingdom of Heaven":
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Was anybody really about to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, or would they all have to wait until they died? Or would they have to wait 2,000 years for the rapture?
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Did Jesus mean that the coming of many from the east and west was "at hand?" Did He mean that the sitting together of these people from east and west with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was "at hand?" What is it that was "at hand?"
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If you believe you enter the Kingdom of Heaven when you die, in what sense will that Kingdom of Heaven grow like a mustard seed? If you believe you enter the Kingdom of Heaven when you die, in what sense will that Kingdom of Heaven be unleavened when you arrive, only to become leavened as "time" goes by? What is it about the Kingdom of Heaven that grows?
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Have you understood all these things?
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Why does Jesus use the present tense instead of saying "such will be the Kingdom of Heaven?"
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Why does Jesus criticize the Pharisees for failing to "go in yourselves" to the Kingdom of Heaven? How were the Pharisees keeping them that were entering the Kingdom of Heaven from going in? Were they keeping them from dying? from being raptured?
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Is "the Kingdom of Heaven" heaven, accessible only after death?
Or is "the Kingdom of Heaven" an outpost of heaven here on earth?
The Vatican is a separate political sovereignty within another political sovereignty.
Does "the Kingdom of Heaven" exist on earth in a way that transcends physical geographical political or national borders?
Are we in the Kingdom of Heaven now?
Can we be?
Should we be?
Have you understood all these things?
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1. Whatever Happened to Heaven, p. 61, emphasis added.
2. Dave Hunt, "Dominion and the Cross: Tape 2 of Dominion: The Word and New World Order (Ontario, Canada: Omega-Letter, 1987). See also Dave Hunt, Beyond Seduction: A Return to Biblical Christianity (Eugene, OR Harvest House, 1987), p. 250.
