Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God
Michael E. Wittmer
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (May 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310253071
ISBN-13: 978-0310253075
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Buy Here: amazon.com

So far, we have looked over the first two parts of Heaven is a Place on Earth. In doing so, we have covered two questions that pertain to worldviews, and saw how Christianity answers them: The first is “What is this Place?” which looks at what the Bible says about creation; the second is “Why are We Here?” and looks at what our purpose in life is in regard to relationships between people and God, other people, and creation. These sections are much shorter at two chapters each. We now move on to part III, “What is Wrong with Me and My World? The Fall in Genesis 3-11

Part III: What is Wrong with Me and My World?

So if creation is as good as Genesis 1 says it is- what happened? This certainly isn’t the paradise we see in the creation narrative. Chapter 9, “Original Sin,” points us to the Bible’s answer- the Fall. This chapter opens with an observation- “every war that has ever been fought began without the benefit of a first shot… no one ever claims to have fired first… every shot of every battle is merely a response to some previous injustice” (pg 157). Of course, this isn’t true in the strictest sense- but where does this apparent infinite regression begin? It begins, of course, with the Fall and the doctrine of original sin. Wittmer laments, “Like graffiti spray-painted across the Mona Lisa, our fallen creation is now a horrid amalgam of breathtaking beauty and crass ugliness” (pg 159). Why Adam chose to sin is an “unsolvable riddle,” but this is a mystery we should expect- “If we could comprehend the presence of evil… then it wouldn’t be quite so evil… evil should never make sense” (160). Yet at the same time, we must try to understand the fall as much as we can, or we cannot make sense of the plot that follows (see first post). This chapter then follows the biblical narrative of Genesis 3, and then invites us to “enter the story and turn its light on ourselves.” “How often do we play the role of Eve?How many times do we reject God’s will and do just what we want, when we want, only because we want to do it? How many times do we listen to the serpent and cave in to our own autonomy?” (pg 169). In those moments, Wittmer says, “we are standing with Eve… we are reenacting the fall” (pg 170).

Chapter 10, “The Fallout from the Fall,” follows the narrative of sin from Genesis 3 to Genesis 11. These chapters show the downward spiral of sin, turning the world ugly “in ways that neither [Adam] nor Eve could have anticipated when they disobeyed God and picked the fruit from the tree” (pg 173). The rest of the chapter hits the lowpoints of human history- the immediate fallout in the garden, the slaying of a child by the first brothers, to the divine judgment in the flood. At this point, Wittmer pauses to consider the chart which shows our relationship to God, others, and creation and now adds on to it with consequences of the fall and sin. “From now on their relationship with God must run through a blood sacrifice, whether it be teh animals God slew to clothe them, the spotless cattle slaughtered on Israel’s Day of Atonement, or the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ for their sins and ours” (pg 181). Sin’s corruption has touched all that we see. It consumes us.

So, while the answer to this sections question is “sin,” it’s also “us.” We step into Adam and Eve’s story because we were present in it. We fall in line with the historical narrative, because it is in fact our story. “Like mosquitoes drawn to the scented light of a backyard bug zapper, there is something within me- what Paul calls the ‘flesh’ and what I am calling ‘autonomy’- that craves the noisy buzz and flashing thrill of death” (pg 182). But this leaves us with a question- are we abandoned to this destruction? Aboslutely not. “God is not content to stand idly by and allow evil to destroy his perfectly good creation, but will personally enter this world- becoming vulnerable himself to the suffering of sin- in order to take back what rightly belongs to him” (ibid.). This is incredible news! As Wittmer states in closing, “To paraphrase Al Wolter’s insightful comment: ‘God does not make junk,’ and though his beautiful creation is now frightfully deformed by the fall, he’s not about to ‘junk what he has made’” (pg 182). I’ve heard the first part parroted often [actually, more like "God don't make no junk." I know. They give an honest shot, however.], but never the second. God’s plan in not “junking what he has made” takes up the fourth and final part, to which we will turn in the next post.