Paradise

In spiritual context, my logic forbids me from believing that God is ever thwarted – even if in mortal logic it appears to be so in some conflicts of evil with good.  It can’t be possible for conclusions, so his plans will be completed for every project that he originates.  At the beginning of earth life for mankind, the feature of the image of God related to mankind assured that the perfect beginning (Eden/Adam/Eve) would be made with future consequences of perfect completion.  We dare not say that for mankind – depravity, folly, mismanagement, death or any other negative, large or small, will survive in the ultimate denouement of the creative gesture of God that we summarize as nature.  Mankind is at the acme of that earthly creation.  God may permit himself to be delayed, as time measures nature.  He will not permit himself to be thwarted.  His delays and permissions are likely accepted in that his order permits larger blessing than if evaluation and judgment appeared early in the course of events.  At the least a greater number of persons will share the outcome of a redeemed (preserved creation) Church society than might have occurred otherwise.  However, that vision from Scripture is all we have to work with.  The story is beyond earth’s proofs.

We have differing stories related to that which follows any total earth conflagration (whether generated by mankind or the forces of nature) – a conflagration (ending) believed to be somewhere in the future.  The differences in the scenarios do not deny the general unity in belief that an ending of earth life will occur.  That following is interpreted by the naturalist as largely observed in the common condition found on many planets in the solar system.   Much of current research focuses on finding water on some planets so to discover if life ever visited them, perhaps with some simple life forms remaining.  Scientists press on to find out what was, and is, the true situation.  Some researchers also seek to discover how devastation might be avoided for earth, or at least delayed.  While studies of the human being, especially related to health, proceeds to gain lifetimes of 150 years, the physicist and astronomers are seeking for ways to make earth safer.  All this is related to finding longevity and benefit for mankind.  Scripture affirms that the solution is not to be found in the study of the universe, but in the inner conditioning of mankind that prepares the individual for that which offers life beyond any blessing or cursing available in the physical context of which human beings are a part.  No matter what the events may be that end earth as we know it, Scripture makes clear the earth will continue in renewed form and will be occupied by humankind, and that in a context God meant to apply in the story of the initiation of Adam and Eve to life.  The Garden will be restored, as will the character of the citizens that inhabit it.  The closing chapters of John’s Revelation affirm it.  To speculate: the earth children of God may be permitted to visit the land of their natural birth.  Risen bodies may have large purpose.  We do not know the details.  Our limitations are already tested to extreme when we work with the verities of God.  We would be overcome, and too far from the limitations of nature as we know them to make some sense even to those believing in spiritual life.  For those present and earth bound only, the story is too far out to be further aggravated with speculative details. 

Christians do not have a timeline that can be imposed on God. Time is a factor of nature, not from the nature of heaven.  That policy was set in the interesting statement that a day is as a thousand years to God, and a thousand years as a day.  (2 Peter 3:8)  Physicists tend to look for and project timelines – especially from the past.  Timing for Christians is related to God’s management of humankind with variant forces in a faith/unfaith context with the creator.  It is encountered directly in the conflict of righteousness and sin.  For secularists the concern of mankind is related to space collision, to energy loss, to dissipation of resources – some natural forms of destruction like global warming/freezing.  For the Christian the matter, no matter what forces or causes may be employed, will be determined by the mind of God and that will be affirmative.  God affirms that he originates from his own will.  It is possible for the individual to live in the spirit of this affirmation, even in the context of uncertainty, doubt, violence, destruction, or whatever negatives may be suggested and employed.  In humanism, life ends.  In Christianity, it is transitional.