>> Tim:: So, in the bible the ideas of Heaven
and Earth are ways of talking about God’s space and our space. >> Jon: So I understand our space really well. We live here. There are trees, rivers, mountains. But my understanding of God’s space gets
a little fuzzy. >> Tim:: And what we do get in the bible are
images, trying to help us grasp God’s space, which is basically inconceivable to us. >> Jon: So these are two very different types
of spaces. >> Tim: Yes, they’re different in their
nature, but here’s what is really interesting. It’s that in the Bible these are not always
separate spaces. So think of Heaven and Earth as different
dimensions that can overlap in the same exact space. >> Jon: So we talk a lot about going to heaven
after we die, but this idea of Heaven and Earth overlapping,
we don’t talk a lot about that. >> Tim: Which is kinda crazy because the union
of Heaven and Earth is what the story of the Bible is all about,
how they were once fully united, and then driven apart, and about how God is bringing
them back together again. >> Jon: So let’s go back to the beginning. Where Heaven and Earth there completely overlapping? >> Tim: Yeah, this is what the Bible’s description
of the Garden of Eden is all about. It’s a place where God and Humanity dwelt
together perfectly, no separation, and humans then partner with God in building a flourishing
beautiful world and so on. >> Jon: But as humans we wanted to do things
a different way. We wanted God out and we wanted to create
a world apart from Him >> Tim: Yeah so we have these two spaces now
and the Bible actually uses lots of different kinds of words and phrases to refer to these
two spaces to make a clear distinction. >> Jon: So you’ve said that these spaces
can overlap though, so explain how that works. >> Tim: This is where we have to start talking
about temples, because in the biblical world you experience God’s presence by going to
a temple. That’s where Heaven and Earth overlap. >> Jon: Now there’s two types of temples
described in the Bible. One is a tabernacle, basically a tent that
was built by Moses. And the other was this massive building made
by Solomon. >> Tim: And these temples were decorated with
fruit trees and flowers and images of angels and all kinds of gold and jewels and so on. And these are designed to make you feel like
you’re going back to the garden. And at the center of the temple was a place
called the holy of holies, which was like the hotspot of God’s presence. >> Jon: Now we can go and be with God again. >> Tim: But not so fast, because the temple
also creates a problem. So God’s space is full of His presence and
goodness and justice and beauty, but human’s space is full of sin and injustice
and ugliness that results. >> Jon: So how do these spaces overlap if
they’re so different and they’re in conflict with each other? >> Tim: This was resolved through animal sacrifice. >> Jon: Yeah that’s kinda weird. What do animal sacrifices have to do with
this? >> Tim: Yeah the idea is this: animal sacrifices,
somehow they absorb the sin when the animal dies in your place and it creates a clean
space, so to speak, where you are now free to enter into the temple and be in God’s
presence. >> Jon: Ok so if I’m an Israelite and I
live in Jerusalem, I might be able to be in God’s presence, but you said the story of
the Bible is all of Heaven and Earth reuniting? >> Tim: Right, so we have to keep going in
the story where we come to Jesus in the New Testament. And in the Gospel of John, we hear this claim
that God became human in Jesus and made his dwelling among us. The word “dwelling” is really curious. It literally means he set up a tabernacle
among us. So what John is claiming right here is that
Jesus is a temple. He is now the place where Heaven and Earth
overlap. >> Jon: What’s interesting about Jesus is
that He isn’t staying this safe, clean space. He’s running around hanging out with sinners. He’s healing people of their sicknesses,
and forgiving people of their sins. >> Tim: He’s basically creating little pockets
of Heaven where people can be in God’s presence, but He’s doing it out there in the middle
of the world of sin and death. >> Jon: And He keeps telling everyone that
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. >> Tim: And He even told his followers to
pray regularly that God’s kingdom come and His will be done here on Earth just as it
is in Heaven. >> Jon: But a lot of people are threatened
by Jesus and they kill Him, which seems to spoil this whole plan to reunite Heaven and
Earth. >> Tim: But, we have to go back to a scene
earlier in Jesus’ story where John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Behold this is the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” >> Jon: So Jesus isn’t just talked about
as being a temple, He’s also talked about as being the temple sacrifice. >> Tim: Yeah so the cross is now the place
where Jesus absorbs sin to create a clean space that is not limited like animal sacrifices. Jesus’ sacrifice has the power to keep spreading
and spreading and reuniting more and more of Heaven and Earth. >> Jon: This is all really great but it leaves
one big question in my mind, which is what happens when I die? Don’t I just fly over to God’s space and
be with Jesus? >> Tim: Yeah so a few times in the New Testament
we learn that Christians will be with Jesus in Heaven after they die, but that is not
the focus of the Bible’s story. The focus is on how Heaven and Earth are being
reunited through Jesus and will be completely brought together one day when He returns. In the book of Revelation we get this beautiful
image of the garden of Eden, now in the form of a city, coming to end the age of sin and
death by redeeming all of human history in a renewed creation and God’s space and Human’s
space completely overlap once again.
That was a fun video. I especially liked the statement, “The union of heaven and earth is what the Bible is all about.”
So too, I appreciated the video’s focus on the Tabernacle/Temple being that overlapping union of heaven and earth. Especially as we come to realize how we (the Body of Christ) are that Temple, wherein God dwells (1 Cor 3:16).
This Union with the Divine is what every Christian saint and mystic ultimately points to as our spiritual purpose. This idea often gets referred to as the beatific vision in the west and apotheosis in the east.
That was great...thanks!
Oh wow. Thanks for sharing this. New to this sub and most of the ideas here, and that vid was really... I left conservative evangelicalism over a decade ago and I'm slowly warming up to the faith from a very different place than my parents taught. This video was a great perspective and one I hadn't heard. Thank you for sharing.
Love Bible Project
Strong recommendations for The Bible Project. They really do a great job explaining the individual pieces of the narrative and how they fit into the larger whole, and it's a lot of fun watching the drawings play out on the original original overview videos.
These guys understand why, aside from everything else, the biblical narrative is an awesome story. Not like literally inspiring awe, though it's that too. I mean Awesome the way The Matrix or Avatar the Last Airbender is awesome. And they do a great job making it easy to understand that. But you're not gonna get it out of one video, it's gonna take lots of videos until a person can see how the pieces start to come together.
...is the matrix still considered awesome? A lot of adults now weren't born when the matrix was awesome. What's awesome now?