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<\/a><\/p>\nI have specialized in the study of biblical eschatology for over fifty years. So, I am always delighted to read a good book on this genre. And I was especially interested in this one because its title indicates that it is about an important subject in eschatology that one of its endorsements says is \u201ca key biblical theme that is all too often neglected in academic circles.\u201d Yet this book\u2019s subject matter is the eternal destiny of the saints, which should be of interest to all of them.<\/p>\n
I like this book even though I disagree with a few of its minor points. Middleton is a good researcher and knows the secondary literature on this subject (although there isn\u2019t that much). Yet you wouldn\u2019t know it at first glance since Baker Academic didn\u2019t require Middleton to furnish a bibliography or author index, which is not very academic. The authorial style is quite accessible. However, Middleton commits the bane of scholars with too much prose material in footnotes. Chicago Manual of Style<\/em> recommends against this, even for academicians.<\/p>\n I will only do here a partial review of A New Heaven and a New Earth<\/em>. I fully subscribe to Middleton\u2019s primary thesis in this book. It is that nearly all Christians believe heaven is their eternal destiny, whereas the Bible teaches to the contrary, that God\u2019s people will live on a transformed earth. John, the author of Revelation, says, \u201cI saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God\u201d (Rev 21.1-2). I think the \u201csea\u201d being \u201cno more\u201d indicates its saltwater will be replaced with freshwater. Saltwater obviously has its limitations: it cannot be used for drinking or for growing crops.<\/p>\n Middleton also does not address the difference between the singular for \u201cheaven\u201d in Revelation and its plural in Isaiah: \u201ca\/the new heavens and a\/the new earth\u201d (Isaiah 65.17; 66.22 NRSV). These three texts are the Bible\u2019s only mention of this expression. The singular in Revelation has led some to think it refers to the heaven where God dwells whereas these two Isaiah texts seem to refer to the heavens of the universe, thus referring to all of God\u2019s creation. But \u201cthe first heaven and the first earth\u201d in Rev 21.1 clearly refer to original creation.<\/p>\n (The Hebrew word for \u201cheaven\u201d is shamayim<\/em>. Its plural ending, yim<\/em>, is like elohim<\/em>, the Hebrew word for \u201cGod\/God,\u201d in that it can mean either singular or plural. In both Isaiah 65.17 and 66.22 in MT, the adjectives \u201cnew\u201d that modify \u201cheaven\u201d are plural but singular modifying \u201cearth.\u201d So, in both Isaiah texts, shamayim<\/em> must be understood in the plural, signifying \u201cthe heavens\u201d of the universe. However, the LXX does render \u201cheaven\u201d in both Isaiah texts in the singular.)<\/p>\n Middleton rightly says this coming down of new Jerusalem from heaven will occur at the yet future eschaton, when God establishes \u201ca new heaven and a new earth\u201d (v. 1). However, Middleton does not make a distinction between the heaven where God dwells and the heavens of creation. This omission allows Middleton to say (pp. 71-72, \u201cHeaven was never part of God\u2019s purposes for humanity in the beginning of the story and has no intrinsic role as the final destiny of human salvation.\u201d I don\u2019t think that is quite right, which will become evident as I proceed. Middleton continues, \u201cIn Scripture the term \u2018heaven\u2019 (or the \u2018heavens\u2019) represents, first of all, part of the created universe\u2026. the creator has chosen to dwell within the created universe\u2026. this transcendent part of the created order is pictured as the location of God\u2019s throne room.\u201d<\/p>\n If so, where was God, not to mention angels, before or when he created the universe? I think this question and science\u2019s discovery of big bang require God being outside the universe. So, Middleton does not distinguish between \u201cthe heavens,\u201d referring to creation, and \u201cthe heaven\u201d where God dwells. This is a difficulty in scripture. The New Testament (NT) sometimes refers to \u201cthe heavens\u201d of creation with the singular (Gr. ouranos<\/em>). But I think the heavens of creation should be distinguished from God\u2019s abode in heaven. When Jesus said to pray, \u201cOur Father, who is in heaven,\u201d and \u201cYour will be done, on earth as it is in heaven\u201d (Matt. 6.9-10), he must have meant heaven in distinction from the heavens of the universe. Thus, I accept the old three-tiered concept of heaven literally above the cosmos as the best fit with scripture.<\/p>\n Middleton assumes that the new Jerusalem will be on earth, so he doesn\u2019t discuss alternative views. I contend that can\u2019t happen for various reasons, one being its size. Revelation 21.16 says, \u201cThe city lies foursquare, it length the same as its width;\u2026 fifteen hundred miles; its length and width, and height are equal.\u201d Like most commentators on Revelation, Middleton (pp. 170-71) interprets this description as cube-shaped, with the height and each side 1,500 miles long. Such a monstrosity not only seems bazaar for the shape of a city, but it would not fit present earth. Biblical prophecies of a renovated or transformed earth in the eschaton (not another created earth that replaces it) indicate that the new earth will be comparable to its present size.<\/p>\n Middleton and commentators on Revelation should know that ancient cities were measured by their circumference. Thus, \u201cthree days\u201d in Jonah 3.3 make no sense unless they are understood as how long it took to walk the circumference of ancient Ninevah. In my book, Warrior from Heaven<\/em> (p. 213), I explain concerning new Jerusalem \u201cIt is a great and high mountain that is much more massive than earthly Jerusalem. New Jerusalem is shaped foursquare at its bottom, with each side being 375 miles long, making its perimeter measure 1,500 miles. Not only is the city\u2019s length and width equal, so is its height. But this does not mean the city is cube-shaped; rather, it is shaped like a mountain, with its peak rising up at its center to measure 375 miles high.\u201d (See my post, \u201cWill Holy New Jerusalem Be Cube-Shaped?\u201d)<\/p>\n John the Revelator only says the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven; he does not say where it locates. Thus, it is an assumption to say it be on earth. Due partly to its huge size, I speculate that new Jerusalem will hover over earth, with both connected by a stairway\/ramp which Jesus symbolizes by joining God\u2019s heavenly city with renovated earth (Genesis 278.17; John 1.51). In fact, the size and perhaps the shape of the base of new Jerusalem approximates the entire promised land on earth. Perhaps it will serve as a canopy to protect the promised land from sunlight. Another reason is that scripture says of the earth, \u201cday and night, shall not cease\u201d (Genesis 8.22), whereas in new Jerusalem, \u201cthere will be no more night\u201d (Rev 22.5). Thus, I distinguish between the Jerusalem on the new earth and new Jerusalem \u201cabove\u201d (Galatians 4.26). Ezekiel 48.16 says the circumference of that earthly Jerusalem will measure about six miles. See my Warrior from Heaven<\/em>, p. 181.)<\/p>\n I further concur with Middleton in his saying (p. 174), \u201cwe have to get rid of the unbiblical idea of \u2018going to heaven\u2019 as our final destiny.\u201d Middleton (pp. 132-36) rightly says that at death, human souls go to Sheol, not heaven, to await resurrection. Middleton (pp. 131-54) emphasizes the importance of the resurrection of God\u2019s people and says Jesus\u2019 resurrection parallels the future transformation of heaven(s) and earth. He (pp. 227-31) later well states that the two main biblical texts that Christians cite to support their view of going to heaven when they die\u20142 Corinthians 5.1-8 and Philippians 1.21-23\u2014do not teach that.<\/p>\n Middleton sometimes seems influenced by Tom (N. T.) Wright in his emphasis on God\u2019s future return to Zion with a de-emphasis, if not ridicule, of Christ\u2019s second coming. For example, he states (p. 222), \u201cFirst Thessalonians 4:13-18 is the classic \u2018rapture\u2019 text. However, it does not intend to teach some esoteric doctrine about the second coming.\u201d Heh, let\u2019s ignore the Dispensationalists favorite term \u201crapture\u201d for this text. Paul says therein of dead saints, \u201cthrough Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died\u201d (1 Thess. 4.14). Paul means Jesus\u2019 yet future return, which Christians have well termed \u201cthe second coming of Christ,\u201d when \u201cthe dead in Christ will rise first\u201d (v. 16). Middleton then says (p. 225), \u201cThe text is not about removal of believers from earth at all.\u201d<\/p>\n On the contrary, Paul teaches in 1 Thes 4.13-18 what Jesus taught in his Olivet Discourse and John 11.25-26 since Paul says, \u201cby the word of the Lord\u201d (v. 15). Jesus had said, \u201cthe Son of Man will appear in heaven\u201d (Matt. 24.30). (Here is an example of the Greek word ouranon<\/em> being in the singular, yet referring to the heavens of the cosmos.) Jesus adds concerning himself as Son of Man, \u201che will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other\u201d (v. 31). This is the same trumpet Paul mentions in 1 Thes 4.16. How did those elect get in the sky? God raised them from the dead, as Paul says, and further raised them into the sky all over the earth. The angels then gather them together, which I believe is over earthly Jerusalem because Jesus will descend from there to destroy his enemies and deliver Jews there from annihilation begun by the nations militaries headed by the Antichrist.<\/p>\n Middleton often characterizes his view of a future, transformed heaven(s) and earth, with believers living on earth in Jesus\u2019 kingdom, as a \u201cholistic eschatology.\u201d I concur. In a large appendix (pp. 283-312), he rightly documents how early church fathers taught this, but Augustine, especially in City of God, taught otherwise, that Jesus\u2019 promised kingdom had been fully realized in the church, thus departing from the scriptural view of God\u2019s transformation of heaven(s) and earth in what is still future for us, when God\u2019s kingdom on earth with be fully consummated at Jesus\u2019 return.<\/p>\n Overall, I recommend Middleton\u2019s A New Heaven and a New Earth.<\/em>\u00a0It will stimulate the thinking of Bible students, especially those who cherish the Bible\u2019s eschatological teachings.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. J. Richard Middleton is professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis at Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York. He is the author of A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014, pp. 332). It has received critical acclaim and has stellar endorsements, including from Walter Brueggemann and Donald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1477,"featured_media":2544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[441,2718,713,58,69],"class_list":["post-2512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-afterlife","tag-new-heavens-and-new-earth","tag-new-jerusalem","tag-resurrection","tag-second-coming"],"yoast_head":"\n