I've just finished reading a really good book by David Lawrence called 'Heaven: it's not the end of the world', which is all about what happens when we die, and what will happen when Christ returns, and what will happen after that. Here are some reasons to read it, in no particular order:
1 - It's pretty short - only 141 pages
2 - It's very thought-provoking; it really helped me to think seriously about what exactly the Bible means by the New Creation, and why it matters to the way I think and act now
3 - It's biblical and imaginative; Lawrence goes through the Bible and clearly and convincingly maps out what it has to say, and then at the end of the book he allows himself to 'speculate biblically', in other words imagine what things will be like based on what the Bible says. The great thing is that he clearly divides the two, which is helpful for readers
4 - The last chapter is a concise summary of several ways our understanding of what is to come should affect our behaviour and thinking of what is now. The only drawback of this last chapter is it could have a bit more in it, but that's just me being picky.
I've thought for a while now that in general, in churches and on summer camps, we don't talk enough about the New Creation and what eternal life will be like for Christians. This means that some Christians are stuck with the 'children's talk' version - 'It's got all your favourite toys and sweets in it', others see it as the 'cloud model' - 'We'll all have harps and sit on clouds around God, a big old man with a grey beard'. And lots of Christians are completely unsure about what heaven is, and what the New Creation is, and their relationship to one another. I have to say that in my youth work at Highgate I didn't do enough to deal with this, with the result that I'm not sure I communicated the excitement with which we should be looking forward to the New Creation. And if we don't communicate this we can end up with Christians who are simply relieved they won't go to hell when they die, but are not particularly enamoured by where they will be.
Anyway, enough...this book goes some way towards helping deal with all this, I recommend reading it with a big dose of Revelation 21-22 each week, and then soon enough you'll find yourself saying with John at the end of Rev 22 - 'Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.'
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This book is on my in pile and has been since the somewhat disappointing ‘Northern Evangelists Conference.
Your warm recommendation may persuade me to move it closes to the top, though that would mean displacing Burks's supposedly superb book on Paul's theology of adoption... tough call.
I agree with you that many Christians have not really thought through the bibles teaching on the New Creation, assuming they even realise that such a thing exists!
As for its place in evangelism, I give it two cheers so to speak. Tough this may change)
Certainly the return of Jesus is a major future of Paul's evangelistic message. The Thessalonians were clearly very aware of the imminent reality of the Lord's return, even though Paul had only been with them 2-3 weeks.
But Paul's teaching seems to be connected more with escaping the coming wrath and being found righteous on that day, than with the hope living in a new creation.
I look to1 Thessalonians here because it is written to a very young church which Paul was only with for a very short time. I take it then that the doctrines with he reminds them of in the letter are the essential ones for the evangelistic context of Thessalonica.
Scanning through he letter I detect 7 or 8 references to the return of the lord. Only one of which is connected with the New Creation (5:10), and in that case the application seems to be used as an exhortation to believers build one another up and keep going rather than for sinners to repent.
I am however fully convinced of the important role that a biblical understanding of the New creation has in the formation and growth of Christians of any age and perceive the desperate need for clear teaching on this subject in our churches.
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