Jamie Lavery
Foundational Truths - The Future State
In the tenth part of our series exploring Elim’s foundational beliefs, Jamie Lavery investigates the second coming of Jesus.
The second coming of Jesus and the hope it gives is crucial to our foursquare gospel. But what happens when he comes?
Our foundational beliefs state four key things that explain this: resurrection, final judgment, eternal conscious bliss and eternal conscious punishment.
Resurrection and eternal bliss
Bodily resurrection and new creation are the Christian hope. This hope starts with those who follow Jesus being in heaven with him when we die.
That in itself is wonderful and joyful, yet there is more for us too; as NT Wright puts it, there is “life after life after death”.
Heaven is where we wait with Christ for his coming and for the day when God will make all things new.
When Jesus stepped out of the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, a new creation dawned. Sin was atoned for and death was overcome.
Now, those who are in Christ look forward to the day of new creation – a new heaven and earth joined, a new Jerusalem with God in the midst and a new garden of life.
We also look forward to creation uncorrupted, where “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away,” (Revelation 21: 4).
The hope Paul gives to suffering Christians in Romans 8 is built upon this reality. Creation is in bondage, groaning, but it will be set free.
When will this be? When we receive our adoption, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8: 23)at the resurrection. We have the first taste of that now through the work of the Spirit in our lives.
This is our future hope, but it also changes how we live now.
Writing to the Corinthians, Paul reminds them that resurrection means what we do with our bodies matters, and that we will be judged for the way we live. Our sexual ethics, care for creation, seeking justice and protecting the unborn flow from this hope.
We are not waiting to escape a bad world; we are raised people waiting on resurrection in a new creation.
This resurrection happens at Christ’s coming. 1 Thessalonians 4 and Revelation 20 describe the first resurrection at Jesus’ coming. Believers will be resurrected and reign with Christ in his millennium kingdom and into the new creation.
Our full gospel needs to be preached with full anticipation of what is to come.
Final judgment and eternal punishment
However, this is not the case for all.
At the end of Christ’s 1,000-year reign, Satan is released, judged and punished.
After this, there is the great white throne judgment when the dead are judged (this is called the second death, in contrast to the first resurrection).
Those who have rejected Christ and the gospel remain in their state of rejection. They receive God’s anger and justice for their sin without Christ as a substitute. They receive their judgment, the lake of fire, and are described in Revelation 22 as outside the city.
Jesus, warning of sin, describes hell as “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”
This is a serious and sober passage.
The good news is good because there is bad news too. Salvation means we require rescue from danger. We must not lose from our gaze the sobering reality of eternal punishment and the hope the gospel gives.
The future state: what Elim believes
We believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the final judgment of the world, the eternal conscious bliss of the righteous and the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked.
Why the future state matters
• Those who believe in Christ have hope of resurrection and a new creation
• Our future hope motivates us to live godly lives now
• Those who have rejected Christ will receive God’s anger and justice for their sin without Christ as a substitute
Jamie Lavery is the pastor of Elim Church Crawley.
This article first appeared in the July 2022 edition of Direction Magazine. You can order copies here.
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