BROOKLYN, N.Y., AUGUST, 1905
BROOKLYN, N.Y., AUGUST, 1905
Mr R.S. Sinclair.
Beloved Brother, — I thank you for sending Mr. Boyd’s criticism of my paper on Canaan. It is such as I might have looked for from him; at least in this sense, that if he undertook to say anything he would endeavour to support his remarks by Scripture, and not lean on the importance of his personal judgment, as was the case with Mr. Allen and Mr. Henderson.
Mr. Boyd is, of course, better acquainted with the scripture than I, and can write at length on the subject of heaven; and there is much of interest, and with which I quite agree, in what he says. I have endeavoured in my own measure (although, I am very sorry to say, I have not much time for study) to seize the idea of heaven as presented in Scripture, and according to my understanding of it I recognise the importance of it, I think, as much as anyone. In all that I have said publicly in regard to it I have had in my mind God’s purpose as seen in the epistle to the Ephesians; I have not been occupied with details. I do not, of course, despise these, but I have not felt it needful to go into them, nor had I the time. In Ephesians the church’s place in the divine scheme is clearly set forth, and there it is taught that its place is in the heavenlies. This is, in brief, my belief on the subject, and I am certain that no one can make out from what I have said that I hold anything else. I simply follow scriptures and say that the assembly goes into heaven; but to come out. It does come out, and is seen eternally in connection with the earth (Revelation 21), and no number of pages on the heavens (their number, location, etc.) can set this aside.
But although there is much in what Mr. Boyd says about heaven that I do not object to, yet there are some things which do not appear right to me. On page 2 he makes the paradise to which the thief went our distinctive place, and that had been there from the creation. That is, our place was always there hence the force of John 14: 2 “I go to prepare a place for you”
[p. 15] is lost. In keeping with this he identifies the place to which the Lord and the thief went with “heaven itself”. That is to say (Scripture says “paradise”) he makes the Lord go into heaven before resurrection. Is all this right? I think it is confusion. It is true that the thief went to paradise with Christ, and that Paul was caught up into paradise, which he identifies with the third heaven, but are we justified in assuming that the same place is referred to in both cases? In Revelation 2: 7 the “paradise of God” is spoken of; the tree of life was there. In Revelation 22 the tree of life is seen in the holy city. Will Mr. Boyd say that the city is not paradise, or that the tree of life is in some other sphere as in the city?
Then on page 3, he makes our eternal abode to be above even the new heavens! Revelation 21: 2, 3 reads: “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven ... Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men”. Is “the tabernacle of God” not the church? Surely it is. Where then, is our eternal abode? Is it above or below the new heaven? I think it is below. Mr. Boyd says ‘This new heaven, cannot I judge include more than the lower or created where God is, and which is His abode’. Scripture says: “new heavens”, why should any of them be omitted? It is true Mr. Boyd says ‘created heavens’, but where does Scripture speak of uncreated heavens? It is not scriptural to speak of God’s abode in this way. In His essential Being, God dwells in “light unapproachable; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see”, “the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him”. He inhabits eternity, surely then, it is not right to restrict Him in heaven. Further the Lord is said to have gone “above all the heavens” (Ephesians 4), how can we exempt from these ‘the heaven where God is, and which is His abode?’ It is a heaven; it may be the third, or highest, but it is nevertheless a heaven. To my mind all this is the outcome of the activity of Mr. Boyd’s mind! He is endeavouring to fix the abode of God in His infinite Being, as if it were a locality, and to make out that this locality is our abode also. This is not how Scripture presents things. The abode of God in His infinite Being is beyond our ken, and Scripture does not disclose it; but God reveals Himself in Christ — in Man — and consequent on redemption He dwells with man. From Exodus 15 onward this, I may say, is the leading feature of the Old Testament, and it is taken up in the reality of it in the New. Here it is the great end reached;
[p. 16] Scripture closes with it. In Revelation the dwelling place, or tabernacle of God, is not said to be the third or highest heaven (although this is there), it is the holy city — the church. This Scripture gives an account, and it does not, that I can discover define any abode of God.
Affectionately yours in Christ,
James Taylor.