Today Baker Academic uploaded my second weekly blog post in their series “Beyond the Book.” Each week during March I will be discussing something I learned about eschatology while working on A New Heaven and a New Earth; in each case, it will be a topic I haven’t explicitly blogged about before.

My first post, Preparation in Heaven for Revelation on Earth – The “Apocalyptic” Pattern, focused on the underlying pattern I came to discern in many “heaven” passages in the New Testament that seem to be associated with the Christian hope.

My second post, The Meaning of “Heaven” in the Bible, explains that “heaven” is not thought of in the Bible as an immaterial, uncreated realm; this is a later theological construct. I didn’t address this explicitly anywhere in my eschatology book, but it is implicit throughout, and requires some comment.

Due to the need to keep these “Beyond the Book” posts short, I’ve omitted much that needs to be said on this topic. Hopefully, the post will generate some questions, even challenges, to my claims, which will allow me to get into some of the important related questions that I had to omit.

Baker is giving away three copies of A New Heaven and a New Earth. The winners will be announced at the end of March and you can sign up for a copy here.