Alternate Realities

I have just finished reading Philip Yancey’s Rumors of Another World: What on earth are we missing? Yancey’s thesis is that most people, even Christians, don’t live as if there is another world out there somewhere. They live as if this world is the ultimate reality. It is not uncommon for unbelievers to live as if this is all there is; many assume that when they die, they simply cease to exist. What concerns me, as Yancey suggests, is that many believers act as if there is no life after death – no other world to which they will go when they die.

This mistaken attitude is one of several common misunderstandings that are the result of a failure to think Christianly about everything. Another way to say this is that one’s world-view is not thoroughly Christian – not biblical. Paul said believers are supposed to see this world as temporary, passing away. We are supposed to see ourselves as pilgrims, sojourners passing through this world on our way to another. Rumors of that other world are all around us, according to Yancey. That unbelievers fail to see them is forgivable; that believers miss the truth is not.

First, look at the word reality. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.” The “state of things as they exist” to most people refers to this world. Yancey’s point is that most people, even Christians, believe this world is the only “reality.” To these people, heaven is an “idealistic or notional idea.” To unbelievers, heaven is a foolish notion, but sadly, to many believers it is hardly more than an idealistic hope for something better someday – pie in the sky by and by.

The concept of being in the world as opposed to somewhere else (heaven or hell, for example) appears all over the New Testament. In the Gospels, Jesus regularly warned of a time to come when those who believed in Him and those who did not would find themselves in radically different realities. Believers would be welcomed into His presence while unbelievers would be cast into a dark place with “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Paul wrote of being taken to another reality to receive special revelation. He also told the Corinthians and the Ephesians that believers’ true enemy was not from this world.

While I am not a strict dispensationalist as the word is used today, I do believe that the Bible often refers to ages which have different conditions. The Old Testament prophets spoke of a coming day when the Messiah would usher in a dramatic new age. The New Testament speaks often of ages. This age, the coming ages, and interestingly, Paul equates “world” with “age in Corinthians” and in Ephesians. I believe this is important because it implies that our created reality, the world as we know it is just one “age” or time period in God’s overall plan for us. The resurrection all believers look forward to will be into that rumored “world” Yancey wrote about. I have described previously what I believe about that new world in “When Destruction is not Destruction.”

Most Christians believe they will go to heaven after they die. While I agree with that sentiment in principle, I see the situation differently than some. I believe heaven and earth will become one – a restored Eden if you will. So, the “heaven” that I imagine will be a reality that combines all the best of God’s good earth with all the best of Heaven. It is not so much an alternate reality as it is a perfected reality. Heaven and earth exist for this age as intersecting realities; after Jesus returns, I believe the two will become one reality. I believe the Bible teaches that we must begin to live as if Heaven is real because it is.

 How can we make heaven more real? Hear what A.W. Tozer says: “God is a Person and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God, [so that Jesus could say] ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.’”

Jesus, the God who created this world, descended from “heaven” and became flesh to show us what true reality is. If we can avoid the notion that Jesus is some far distant historical figure and fully adopt the idea that He lives today, both in us and in heaven, and if we can convince ourselves that He is a person like us in many ways, we may move closer to a proper view of reality. I believe that is the alternate reality we are called to.

Related Posts: The Presence of God; Waiting for Morning; Friendship with the World; Think, People!; Deer Camp Philosophy; Why Am I Here?; Is Heaven a Wonderful Place?