I finished a book, Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel (2006), by Jon D. Levenson. This was part of my reading on the topic of resurrection. Although it did not add much to my knowledge of Jesus’ resurrection, being about Jewish views of the concept of the general resurrection, it did cause me to reflect on this idea about a new life after the end times.
I found myself thinking about it in a different way. Previously my thoughts were about whether I can believe in such a thing. I think this is common. People think they need to believe such a a wonderful new life is possible before they can have faith in a God who somehow can make up for all the wrongs and suffering of this life. In other words, if I can’t believe this idea of an eternal life in a new earth in which all wrongs are put right, how can I believe in an all-powerful and loving God?
I now think that is backward. It should go like this: if I believe in God’s love, how can I envision all wrongs being put right? The Judaeo-Christian concept of resurrection, judgment, and eternal life in a renewed earth is about as good a picture as I could come up with.
The starting point is faith in God, the consequence is holding some kind of imaginative picture of how God will work things out in the end. The starting point is not believing in the imaginative picture, with a consequence of faith in God.
It has been an interesting journey researching and thinking about these various topics again. I am somewhat surprised at how some of my views are shifting. More on that later, after I’ve traveled a bit farther down this road.
Jesus Reconstructed 