A New Earth – “the life of the world to come”
Pharisaic Judaism
at the time of Christ shared many beliefs in common with what is known as apocalypticism
and likely expected a radical inbreaking of the rule of God along with a new
heavens and a new earth.[1] Such expectation can be
seen in the prophecy of Isaiah in the Old Testament (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22). Still,
the Judaism from which Christianity sprang did not have a unified and
well-developed teaching concerning the afterlife. They even disagreed about
whether there would be an afterlife at all.
Jesus himself spoke
of the afterlife quite often (Matthew 5:11-12; 6:19-21; 18:8; 22:23-32; John
11:21-27). His focus on the world to come did not lead to an otherworldly
detachment from the affairs of this life. Rather, Jesus revealed that heavenly minded
people do the most earthly good (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 14:12-14). Jesus’
taught the resurrection as a threat and a promise (John 5:28-29; Matthew 16:27;
25:31-46). Yet, for all his emphasis on the world to come, Jesus did not give
many details about what that world will be like.
Belief in the world to come played a key role in early
Christian thought and practice.[2] This belief served as the
basis for urgent pleas for the practice of Christian ethics.[3] Just as with every other
belief articulated in the Nicene Creed, belief in a world to come was held by
Christians since the time of the apostles.
[1] Porter, Dictionary of New Testament
background : a compendium of contemporary biblical scholarship.
[2] “Each
major tenet of primitive Christian belief must be understood in this
apocalyptic context: the very charter of Christian orthodoxy, the command of
the risen Lord to the apostles to make disciples and to teach them to observe
everything that he had commanded, was predicated on the promise and the
prophecy that he would be with them until the consummation of the age” Ferguson, Backgrounds of early
Christianity, 123.; Further, He says to them, “Your new moons and
your Sabbaths I cannot endure.” Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths
are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when,
giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is,
a beginning of another world” Barnabas
XV, ANF I p. 147
[3] “If
we please Him in this present world, we will also inherit the future world. For
He promised to us that He will raise us again from the dead.” Polycarp to the Philippians V, ANF I p.
34; “Wherefore, then, my brethren, let us struggle with all earnestness…And
should we not all be able to obtain the crown, let us at least come near to it.
We must remember that he who strives in the corruptible contest, if he be found
acting unfairly, is taken away and scourged, and cast forth from the lists.
What then think ye? If one does anything unseemly in the incorruptible contest,
what shall he have to bear? For of
those who do not preserve the seal unbroken,
the Scripture saith, “Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be
quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.”” 2 Clement VII, ANF VII p. 519; “As long, therefore, as we are upon
the earth, let us practice repentance, for we are as clay in the hand of the
artificer. For as the potter, if he make a vessel, and it be distorted or
broken in his hands, fashions it over again; but if he have before this cast it
into the furnace of fire, can no longer find any help for it: so let us also,
while we are in this world, repent with our whole heart of the evil deeds we
have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord, while we have yet an
opportunity of repentance. For after we have gone out of the world, no further
power of confessing or repenting will there belong to us.” Ibid., VIII; “the righteous
man also walks in this world, yet looks forward to the holy age [to come].” Barnabas X, ANF I p. 144; “If,
therefore, you do these things, you shall be able to bear fruit for the life to
come.” Shepherd of Hermas Similitude
IV, ANF II p. 33
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