The New Heavens and the New Earth: the Real Rapture
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The New Heavens and the New Earth: The Real Rapture Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the Heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for new Heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. ~ 2 Peter 3:11-13 OR SOME CHRISTIANS IN TODAY’S CULTURE, last few centuries and becoming widely believed only the single most important question has to do in the 19th century in English-speaking Protestant F with the “end times,” when the world will communions. Popular novels of the 20th century and experience great tribulations, according to in our modern day have spread this belief even fur- our Lord’s proph- ther. What does ecy (see Mt 24:3- “We hear the promise of a new creation, the Church teach 44). Many of on the subject? these Christians where God will be always with us, and we are caught up not will be able to drink unceasingly of the The New only in specula- Heavens and the tion about the end water of life, the Holy Spirit.” New Earth times — when it The Church will come, whether teaches us that it has started, what “God is preparing evils of contempo- a new dwelling rary culture match and a new earth in the Scriptural which righteous- prophecies — but ness dwells, in also what will hap- which happiness pen to them per- will fill and sur- sonally. To that pass all the desires end, a variety of of peace arising in speculations have the hearts of men”1 sprung up around (CCC 1048). the concept of the From the begin- “rapture,” a term ning of Sacred expressing the no- Scripture, there is tion that not every- a theme of Para- one must undergo dise, of an Eden the prophesied tri- for which we were als but will be exempted from them, “raptured” (tak- created: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in en up) from the earth to Heaven in a “secret” coming the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. of Christ before the Second Coming. These ideas are And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree quite new in Christianity, having arisen only in the that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of 1 Gaudium et Spes 39 § 1 The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. life also in the midst “Current theories of the end times focus on from Jerusalem.… of the garden, and And the Lord will the tree of the knowl- fear and a hope of escape from suffering.” become king over edge of good and evil. all the earth” (Zec A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden” (Gn 2:8- 14:5-9). These were the shining visions of a future 10). In this vision of loveliness and tranquility, God life of perfection, everlasting happiness in a garden “walk[ed] in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gn 3:8) sustained by flowing water from God’s own sanc- and spoke with Adam and Eve. This is the initial vi- tuary and filled with good things, over which God sion that God gives us, of a garden watered by a river reigns supreme. and centered on the tree of life, in which we humans The symbolic themes of water and the garden had intimate communion with God. This is what our with the tree are especially evident in the Gospel of first parents lost in their rebellion against God (see John. When Jesus encountered a woman at a well Gn 3:23), when God barred their “way to the tree of in Samaria, he told her, “If you knew the gift of God, and life” (Gn 3:24). who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would St. Paul tells us that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, have asked him, and he would have given you living water.… nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for [W]hoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will nev- those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). This promise of future er thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him joy suggests that, no matter how hard we try, we can- a spring of water welling up to eternal life ’” (Jn 4:10, 14). not truly imagine the joys of Heaven. However, God The “gift of God” is the Holy Spirit, as St. John tells in his goodness and kindness has given us ways to us when Jesus proclaimed to the crowds gathered think about it. He promises a new creation in which for a feast in Jerusalem: “‘If any one thirst, let him come the visible universe will be transformed and returned to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has to its original state. Through the prophet Isaiah, he said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ Now promised: “For behold, I create new Heavens and a new this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, be- into mind” (Is 65:17). The prophet Ezekiel saw a vi- cause Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn 7:37-39). Jesus sion of the temple in Jerusalem from which water himself “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pt 2:24), flowed ever more copiously, until it became a river and “in the place where he was crucified there was a garden” (see Ez 47:1-5), and God told him that “on the banks, (Jn 19:41). Jesus’ tomb was in the same garden. on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for There, “early, while it was food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but still dark” (Jn 20:1), they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the Mary Magda- water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their lene encountered fruit will be for food, and their leaves for heal- the Risen Lord, ing” (Ez 47:12). And Zechariah whom she at first prophesied: “Then the Lord your God took for a garden- will come, and all the holy ones with er (see Jn 20:15). him. On that day there shall be neither God again walked cold nor frost. And there shall be con- with his people in a gar- tinuous day (it is known to the Lord), den, not in the cool of not day and not night, for at evening the evening but of the time there shall be light. On morning. that day living waters shall St. Benedict, by f l o w Timothy Schmalz out New Heavens and the New Earth — Page 2 “This is the initial vision that God gives us, of a garden watered by a river and centered on the tree of life, in which we humans had intimate communion with God. ” JUPITERIMAGES The ethereal Cathedral of Milan, Italy constructed from 1385 to 1485; the entire building is of pure white marble, with thousands of statues on the exterior The hope of the new Heavens and the new earth is who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ taught by the apostles as well. St. Paul teaches that ... And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of from the fountain of the water of life without payment’” (Rv its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; 21:1-6). In this passage, we hear again the promise because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to of a new creation, where God will be always with us, decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. and we will be able to drink unceasingly of the wa- We know that the whole creation has been groaning in tra- ter of life, the Holy Spirit, the very expression of the vail together until now” (Rom 8:19-22). All that God love between the Father and the Son. has made shares our destiny. St. Paul also tells us As the vision continues, God “showed me the river of that God “has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with things in him, things in Heaven and things on earth” (Eph its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and 1:9-10).