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

We have looked at the first three parts of Heaven is a Place on Earth, which explain “where we are,” “who we are,” “why are we here,” and “what’s wrong with the world?” This brings us to the fourth and final section of the book, “What is God’s Plan for This World?”

Part IV:What is God’s Plan for This World? Redemption in Genesis 12-Revelation 22

We’ve really messed things up. That’s an understatement. As we saw in the last section, sin has a cosmic result, not only affecting our lives, but creation itself. All is not lost, however, as God has promised to set things right- to fix what we’ve destroyed. Chapter 11, “The Cosmic Reach of the Gospel,” starts us off with just how God intends to do just that. “Just as sin began with individuals and rippled out to contaminate the entire world,” Wittmer explains, “so grace begins with individuals and ripples out to redeem the rest of creation” (pg 188). The story of how this is going to happen launches out in Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham. At this point, I have to nit-pick, because Wittmer says that this is the inauguration of the plan of redemption (189). I agree with everything that follows this statement- but I wouldn’t say that the plan of redemption is inaugurated here, but in the clothing of Adam and Eve after the fall. Technically, we can even go back before that, but in dealing with the Genesis text, we can’t move forward past Genesis 3 to see redemption inaugurated tangibly.

We see another step forward in the story of redemption at Mount Sinai. It is here that God declares his people to be a kingdom of priests. By declaring them as such, God intended for two things to happen: 1) that his people would be set apart, special, and holy to himself (pg 190), and 2) that Israel would be “a living witness… intercessors” of God to the other peoples. Israel failed at both of these often, and so it was that scenario that the prophets stepped into to call God’s people back to the covenant. The prophets pointed the people to a time of judgment, but beyond that to a period of the restoration of God’s people, which would be followed by the time of shalom, the peace and harmony that was intended for creation. This is inaugurated and fulfilled in Jesus. His ministry speaks to the individual and the cosmos- “So when Jesus announced the arrival of his kingdom- the kingdom that would restore flourishing shalom to his entire creation- he ordered his audience to repent” (pg 193, cf. Mark 1:15). And so, “the grace offered in the gospel retraces the path of sin, restoring each of our three created relationships that sin broke. Just as sin alienated us from God, others, and the world, so grace reconciles us to our father, our neighbors, and the earth itself” (195).

But what does this mean for culture? The last half of this chapter is where we see a blending of Andy Crouch’s “Culture Making” with N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope,” a comparison I made in the introduction of the first post in this series. In Genesis we are commanded to cultivate the earth. This command doesn’t vanish in the fall, but the fall certainly affects our work. The movement of redemption reflects this cultural mandate, as we move from a garden to a picture of a city in the new creation. As a footnote explains, whether the new creation is actually a city or not isn’t the issue, but that “God will preserve the works of our hands… thus the New Jerusalem reassures us that, rather than obliterate our efforts, God will incorporate our cultural accomplishments into his final redemption” (note 36, pg 235). Of course, if all things need to be redeemed, then so must culture. Not everything will have a shiny counterpart in the new creation. The rest of this chapter seeks to look at the continuity and discontinuity of the new creation, particularly through the lens of creation, fall, redemption.

The final chapter, chapter 12, “But What About…?” seeks to answer specific questions that may arise. Wittmer delivers answers to the questions, “Isn’t this book an excuse for materialism?” “Isn’t this book Irrelevant to the Desperately Poor?” and “Isn’t this book a distraction from Evangelism?” I’ll leave it to you to read through his answers.

Conclusion

Wittmer’s book is a great look at what Christianity says to the other 95% of our life- what we do when we aren’t praying or reading our bibles. One of the biggest issues I see time and time again is that Christians have a hard time seeing how their day-to-day life fits into the scheme of what God is doing. Heaven is a Place on Earth is an extremely thought-provoking, theological, and easy to read answer to just those issues. He labors to show us, in Kuyperian fashion, that Jesus does indeed declare “mine!” over our whole lives.

You can purchase Michael Wittmer’s book, Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything you Do Matters to God at Amazon.com