Friday, July 26, 2024

Ideological Family In New Jerusalem

Details about the true nature of the Biblical heaven are scattered about.  John 14:2-3 says that there are "many rooms" in the Father's dwelling place, which will be unveiled to the listening disciples upon the return of Jesus.  Revelation 21-22 goes into the most detail of all the relevant passages, describing it as a city in a universe purified of evil that nations go to and from in a broader land.  In Mark 10:29-30, Jesus touches upon how in this age, whoever gives up family and belongings for him will receive far more of the same things that they lost than they had before, and in the age to come (the days after the resurrection, as clarified by the texts that say the dead are nonexistent or unconscious until then, such as Ecclesiastes 9:5-10), eternal life will be added to these blessings.

The context is the immediate aftermath of the conversation between Jesus and the rich young ruler who left saddened by Christ's instructions to sell what he had and give to the poor.  After Jesus has emphasized how difficult it can be for a person committed to their riches to enter God's kingdom, the disciples ask how anyone can be saved.  Jesus says that though it is harder for a rich person to enter God's kingdom than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, this is possible with God, with whom all logically possible things can be done; the being who controls the laws of nature--not at all the intrinsic necessary truths of logic--could certainly alter or suspend them at whim.

The disciples, hearing how difficult it can be to commit to God, assert that they have left everything to follow Jesus, but he says that anyone who has left family and belongings for his sake will fail to have a hundred times this many siblings, parents, and belongings--and in the age to come, after the resurrection of the righteous (Daniel 12:2, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation 20:4-6), eternal life as well.  Though Jesus says that even in this life, one will have a multitude of family and friends, since they would enjoy the grander kind of "family" relationship that all devoted to the truth share, this would also be true after the resurrection to eternal life.

Thus, the righteous will be left to enjoy unblemished interpersonal relationships with all people in existence, communing in their awareness of reality (including logical necessities that transcend all else and the scientific behaviors of the restored universe) and in their peaceful status before God and others.  New Jerusalem on Earth will be their home.  Among brothers and sisters of a biological and non-biological kind, they will be free to bask in friendships without end.  How ironic it is that so many Christians have shunned these kinds of relationships on Earth, discouraging women and men from pursuing deep friendship together and prioritizing wicked biological family members over superior relationships between ideological family members who are rationalists.

Whether they embraced this kind of relationship on Earth, all of the righteous and repentant will live forever in bliss without evil or evildoers after their resurrection.  Only the logical possibility of evil exists apart from evildoers, as there are no actual evil thoughts, intentions, or deeds apart from those who practice such things.  Since the wicked are to be banished from existence itself (Ezekiel 18:4, 2 Peter 2:6, Romans 6:23, and many more verses affirm this overtly) rather than suffer the injustices of eternal torment, there will come a time if Christianity is true at which there will be no more evil.  As far as beings go, there will be only the righteous, angelic servants of God, and God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit (who are not the same beings at all) according to what the Bible.

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