Heaven - what we can know

Well friends, it's been a mammoth few sessions: heaven, hell, judgement, the cross and all those heavy concepts. But we're done...not that we've mastered it and answered every question of course, but hopefully there are enough seeds there for the Holy Spirit to lead us into more life and also arm us against some of the perspectives that are promoted at times that actually don't fit what the Bible teaches.

The next few weeks will be a lot more easy going I promise...we'll cover less ground in easier ways and on some easier, more practical topics...but without these foundations of who Jesus is, what he saves us from and what he saves us to, we don't have the right gospel. So thanks for persevering. Here's the notes from this morning, and the key things we agreed we can know with some certainty:

• Christianity is a redemption story, not an evacuation story - God plans to heal and remake this world.
• Our destiny is here - we do not leave this world to go to him (apart from a temporary resting time in Paradise until Jesus returns). He is coming here - the New Jerusalem, and the New Heaven all come here and join the new fully-restored Earth
• Our future in eternity takes place here, with God's presence fully revealed among us - he no longer has a temple as the Earth becomes his temple.
• That also means our future in eternity is a very physical one - we are still here with rocks, plants, trees, animals, fish (yes Leonard...it's okay, there's still fish :)

Those are the key things. If we get that, we're doing awesome.
And remember that Revelation is not a literal book - so if you work through those scriptures look for the metaphors and symbols. We'll do that together sometime, but we'll do some easier things first.
Thanks everyone - well done!!