Heaven: Where Is It?
The Coming of God in Glory and the World’s Transformation and Transfiguration as the Consummation of Creation’s Predestination
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55935/thilo.v5i2.281Keywords:
predestination, theatrum gloria Dei, adventus, heaven, transformation and transfiguration of the worldAbstract
The intention of this paper is to reconstruct two concepts in the discourse of Christian soteriology and eschatology, namely predestination which only includes human being and heaven which is believed to be outside of this world. I argue that the realization of the kingdom of God in the world as a part of divine predestination provides a theological construction basis for soteriological and eschatological conversations that embrace the entire creation in God's glory. To defend my claim, I arrange three strands of argument. I start by reconstructing the concept of predestination, that from the beginning God had a purpose for creation that included all of His creatures. The purpose of creation is to make the world theatrum gloria Dei, the arena for the revelation of God's glory over His creation. Afterwards, I argue that the fulfillment of predestination was due to God's movement in the future that came to the present in His glory. Creation is not in the process of moving towards the future, but rather preparing itself for the coming/adventus of God. This leads to my next argument that the adventus of God in His glory causes the whole world to be transformed and transfigured into heaven, the dwelling place of God in the midst of all of His creation. For this reason, in several passages, I reject the concept of predestination which only includes humans, the rapture of believers at the end of time, and the total annihilation of the world at the coming of God in His glory.
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