All Dogs DO Go to Heaven

What people believe about the end of the story has direct impact on how they live now. Some people believe that the end is death – eternal nothingness when the universe will implode in upon itself. Others, like myself, believe that the end is life – an eternal existence of harmony when all of creation will be redeemed. And although all Christians side with the latter, they disagree drastically on what that end will look like. At the risk of oversimplificaiton, I will divide these Christians into two groups:

1)The first group believes that the end will go something like this: Christ will call his people away from the earth and will invite those people into his other-worldly kingdom in the sky. The earth will then be consumed by fire and be destroyed. A new creation will exist in which we will all be non-material “spirit,” free floating in the air with a disembodied existence. The evil of matter will be eliminated for good.
2)The second group, also Christian, sees the end like this: Christ will return to earth and establish his kingdom on the earth. The resurrection will consist of physical bodies which have been reconstituted and “redeemed” as something incorruptible. The earth itself will not be destroyed by fire, but will instead be the seat of the new heaven. In this view, matter is not seen as evil, but as good and simply in need of redemption. (Incidentally, since all of creation will be redeemed, this means that yes, all dogs DO go to heaven).

Without going into too much detail, the first view is deeply indebted to the Greek philosopher Plato who taught that matter is evil and that spirit is good. Heaven then, Christians concluded, must be a non-material reality. Hence, we have a whole spirituality which teaches the denial of the flesh, an “other-worldly” piety, and which devalues the present creation. After all, why be an environmentalist if it is all going to burn? Furthermore, it creates a sharp separation between a person's “soul” and “body.” The soul will live on and is, therefore, much more important. The body will be destroyed and is unimportant.

This has implications on how we live today. If the body doesn't matter, then why care for the physical needs of others? If the only thing that lasts is a non-material, disembodied soul, then all Christians ought to care about is “saving souls.” Feeding physical bodies, clothing physical bodies, sheltering physical bodies, and caring for a material creation is unimportant since they will all pass away.

However, if the second view is accepted (as I do), then care for the physical aspects of creation, both human and non-human, has eternal consequences. In this view, humans do not HAVE a soul; humans ARE a soul. Care for the physical needs of a person is just as important as caring for spiritual needs since they are interconnected. Care for the ecosystem has eternal worth since we are participating in the ultimate redemption of the planet which God will eventually accomplish. Even matters of exercise and eating properly take on great importance since Greg Coates is going to live in Greg Coates' body forever. Whereas the former view devalues this present life, the latter view emphasizes the sanctity of this life and the continuity between our lives now and our lives then.

This has implications for the entire Christian life and the mission of the church in the world today. The reason that the church has been so opposed to the “green” movement over the 20th century is because they have bought into the theology of Plato rather than the theology of the Bible. The same goes for the social justice movement. I write this note to encourage my Christian friends to think seriously about what they believe about the end of the story and to embrace the goodness of this present life and this present creation. Christians from the beginning have believed in the resurrection of the body. Let's carry on that tradition.