My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
TWO WORLDS: THE HEAVENLY AND THE EARTHLY
Orthodox Christian theology teaches that man is a mediating creature–a microcosm and a priest of creation–who stands between the heavenly and the earthly realms TO UNITE THEM IN COMMUNION WITH GOD. "Lord, You are God, Who made heaven and earth…" (Acts 4:24). Also, psalm 121:2. "My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth".
According to Orthodox theology heaven is not merely a distant physical location, but the uncreated, radiant presence and glory of God. It is Eternal Communion and divine life. The material creation is good, willed and fashioned by God from the dust. It is meant to be a Living Temple reflecting divine beauty. Furthermore, sin introduced a fracture, blinding humanity to the spiritual depth of creation and treating the material as disconnected from its Creator. The Holy Fathers of the Church hold that human beings bridge both worlds. Man possessed a physical body linked to the arthly realm and a spiritual soul/nous capable of knowing God. Man was designed to offer the material world back to God in thanksgiving, acting as a link that infuses creation with divine grace.
The priestly role of man was designed to offer the material world back to God in thanksgiving, acting as a link that infuses creation with Divine grace. Caught between dust and divinity, a person who lives according to selfish passions becomes trapped in mere earthliness. They experience an internal hell of separation. Our Lord and Savior Christ, the God-Man is the Second Adam–fully God from heaven and fully man from earth. He permanently bridges the chasm. However, through a life of repentance, prayer, and the sacraments, humanity can experience heaven as a present reality and attain theosis (deification) becoming by grace what God is by nature.
Before His departure to the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ said to the Holy Apostles: "In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2-3). The Apostles express the desire to depart and to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23), knowing that they have "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven" (2 Corinthians 5:1). The bright mansions of the Heavenly Home Holy Scripture calls "the city of the Living God," "Mount Zion," the "Heavenly Jerusalem," "the Church of the first-born written in heaven."
And thus, the Great Kingdom of Christ has been opened in heaven. Into it have entered the souls of all the righteous and pious people of the Old Testament, those of whom the Holy Apostle has said, "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise" (until the coming to earth of the Son of God and the General Salvation), "that they without us should not be made perfect," that is, attained the hoy and blessedness of the Heavenly Church of Christ (Hebrews 11:39-40). Into this Kingdom in the New Testament there entered the first ones who believed in Christ, the Apostles, first martyrs, confessors; and thus, until the end of the world the heavenly Home will be filled–the Jerusalem on high, the granary of God–until it shall come to its perfect fullness.
The Orthodox Church teaches that the NEW HEAVEN and NEW EARTH represents the cosmic renewal, transfiguration, and physical restoration of creation rather than its total destruction or replacement. The physical universe will NOT be thrown away or completely destroyed , it will be purified, renewed and filled with the Uncreated Divine Light of God. At Christ’s Second Coming and the Final or Last Judgment, God will dwell directly with humanity. His presence will be so bright and radiant that physical lights like the sun and stars will no longer be needed. Pain, crying, mourning, and physical death will be permanently abolished. Evil and unrighteousness will be consumed by God’s Holy Agape (Love) and justice.
Believers will experience a universal bodily resurrection, receiving incorruptible, glorified spiritual bodies that are suited for eternity. Our Holy Church teaches that believers should focus on repentance, love in action, and communion with God in the present. Saint Symeon wrote, "The heaven will become incomparably more brilliant, and bright than it appears now; it will become completely new. The earth will receive a new, unutterable beauty, being clothed in many formed unfading flowers, bright and spiritual…The whole world will become more perfect than any word can describe…" [Resources: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology and Orthodox Study Bible]
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in Christ’s Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
