Handout available here
Heaven as home concept more from songs than Scripture
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - Coming and Meeting
- Traditional reading: Jesus comes back and takes us to heaven
- Not 'The Rapture'
- Paul's pastoral purpose
- Left hanging in the air
- Parousia (royal visit) & apantesis (meeting and escorting the king)
Philippians 3:20-21 - Citizenship in Heaven
- Traditional reading: Citizens of heaven = heaven is home
- Citizenship in the Roman Empire & Philippi
- Jesus comes here from there (not vice versa)
John 14:1-3 - Jesus Prepares a Place
- What's not said
- Translations of 'dwelling places' (monai)
- Where/what is 'my Father's house'? (Answer is less clear than we assume)
- The place is prepared in heaven now to be revealed here later
The pastoral point: We are not abandoned (and neither is any of God's good creation)
