The World to Come

A Portal to Heaven on Earth

Derek Leman

• Publisher: Messianic Jewish Communications
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781936716098
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Escatología religiosa

Exposes fallacies and false teaching about Heaven and Hell.

CONTENTS

Introduction
Chapter 1	Magic and Desire
Chapter 2	The Vision of Prophets
Chapter 3	Israel as the Vessel
Chapter 4	The Nations as the Goal
Chapter 5	Yeshua and the Kingdom of God
Chapter 6	The Vision of John
Chapter 7	Hints of Heaven
Chapter 8	Horrors of Hell
Chapter 9	The Drama of the Coming Ages
Chapter 10	The Days of Messiah
Chapter 11	Love
Chapter 12	The Holy One
Chapter 13	Further Up and Further In
Appendix A	Scripture Compendium
Appendix B	Ages Past and To Come
Endnotes
Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

I wasn’t raised in a religious home, so my earliest thoughts about the afterlife came from cartoons like Tom and Jerry. Whenever a character died, they became transparent, grew wings, found themselves in a white robe, and ascended into heaven. Heaven, apparently, was a purely spiritual or non-material place. Cartoons can be surprisingly influential in a person’s worldview. Although I considered myself an atheist as a young adult, I defaulted at times to my earlier view of the afterlife. I wanted to believe in something.

Most people believe that death is not the end. The hope that death is not the end is too important for most people to dismiss. It is not common to find someone who will baldly assert that death leads only to non-existence.

Yet there are voices opposed to the idea of the hereafter and occasionally they even belong to religious leaders. A friend was shocked when attending a liberal Jewish funeral where the rabbi implied that we live on only in the memory of loved ones. Where was the powerful Jewish hope, “All Israel has a share in the World to Come”?¹

Then there is the perspective of famed atheist Isaac Asimov:

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I don’t believe in an afterlife, so I don’t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.²

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In some deep place, I think many people fear that the afterlife will be boring. The Tom and Jerry version of heaven, floating on the clouds in a white robe, is an uninspiring vision to be sure. Who wants to spend eternity as a ghost with angel’s wings?

In fact, that Tom and Jerry heaven is more than just an idea in a cartoon. Certain very real philosophical ideas stand behind a view of the afterlife as ghostly and non-material. Are material things somehow unspiritual and unworthy of eternal existence? Is the body a prison for the soul? If our view of the afterlife is non-material, then we will look at material things in this world as less important than the “spiritual.” Ideas about the afterlife have relevance for living life in the present.

What is the World to Come? Why does Jewish tradition use this term for the afterlife? Why not talk about going to heaven or to the great beyond? Many and varied views of the afterlife present themselves to us.

Sometimes people are afraid to talk about the World to Come, as if it is impossible to really know much about it. Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven, mentions a common objection people have with regard to studying the afterlife: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no one’s heart has imagined all the things that God has prepared for those who love him.”³ Yes, says Alcorn, but how many read the next verse, “It is to us, however, that God has revealed these things”?⁴

If it is true, and I think it is, that our belief about the afterlife affects our view of this present life, then the study of it is all the more important. The subject of the World to Come deserves neither a yawn nor a skeptical smirk. Contrary to such cynicism, the book of Hebrews attributes Abraham’s faithfulness to a clear vision: “For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”⁵

The familiar line about being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good has it exactly backwards. Most of us are not heavenly minded enough and so we are too little earthly good. The diminishing conversation about the hereafter in some religious communities is not a positive sign. It needs to be reversed. As A. J. Conyers puts it:

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Even to one without religious commitment and theological convictions, it should be an unsettling thought that this world is attempting to chart its way through some of the most perilous waters in history, having now decided to ignore what was for nearly two millennia its fixed point of reference—its North Star. The certainty of judgment, the longing for heaven, the dread of hell . . .⁶

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A healthy fear of judgment restrains evil decisions, causing people to think about the greater consequences of their actions. Should world leaders be making decisions that mean life or death to thousands or even millions without a firm belief in the life to come and the certainty of judgment? A belief in and longing for reward in the life to come motivates us to make selfless choices to do good in this world. Should we be living our lives largely in ignorance of the hereafter?

The fact is, the hope of future paradise is vital to the full experience of this present life. Abraham was faithful through many years without even seeing the birth of an heir. He kept following God against all evidence. He was carried by his certainty that the promises of God would be fulfilled in a future age. And Yeshua commended such thinking to us as well in Matthew 6:19. He called us to a forward-looking lifestyle, a way of storing up treasure in heaven.

Of course, objections to discussing what the World to Come will be like come from many places. Some followers of Yeshua are convinced that the afterlife is an impenetrable mystery. Many non-religious people would suggest a similar objection. How can we know anything about the afterlife at all? Who has been there and back and can reliably tell us? Indeed, it is faith on two points that can give us a reason for the hope of future life: the fact that God has truly spoken in the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity and the certainty that one man, the central man in God’s redeeming plan, has gone beyond and returned.

The rabbis were not afraid to talk about the World to Come. The Mishnah and Talmud have many sayings about it. They were persuaded that Isaiah and other prophets provided a true vision of things to come. Neither have the great leaders of Christendom been afraid to speak about it. They were persuaded that Yeshua the Nazarene died and was resurrected.

So we will explore the nature of the World to Come. We will look for answers to important questions. What will it be like for those who enter the World to Come? What will it be like for those who do not? What events will lead up to the World to Come? What are the visions of different prophets and apostles who wrote on these matters? What hope does the World to Come bring to this present world?

Certain misconceptions will be challenged. Certain views of the World to Come are too limited. Others are simply wrong. Studying this vital subject, it is a good idea to be open to new paradigms that are supported by scripture.

I write this book as a member of the Messianic Jewish community. We are Jews and non-Jews living our lives in a Jewish ma...