As I was reading your response, Andrew, one thing struck me about the shift in focus to the new heaven and the new earth. I’m interested by your comments that the defeat of Satan and the new creation are still to come, yet this means that your position holds, in a way, to three “lives” as such: that before Jesus, that after Jesus, and that of the new heaven and new earth. If true, it simplifies the rather awkward notion (to me) of living in the “now and not yet” but it also adds an ambiguity as to whether Christ, in speaking of the life to come, was referring to that following his death, or that following the new creation. If that is the case, then it doesn’t really challenge us to move our focus from heaven to the here and now, as we are at a certain amount of liberty to interpret each future prediction as we choose, as to whether it refers to life post-crucifixion or life post-new creation.

I think another thing that I struggle with is that I don’t quite see orthodox theology as focusing on heaven at the expense of the earth. People have focused on heaven to the exclusion of the here and now, but I see that as a failing of ours, rather than the theology (maybe I’m too much of a purist!). Certainly the seeker-sensitive movement has been at fault for, among other things, spending too much time and energy on justification over sanctification (hence books like McLaren’s and Eldridge’s), but I believe that we are still sanctified and redeemed in both our relationship with God and our relationship with God’s creation. That being the case, we have a responsibility and are empowered to live in a redeemed way with the rest of creation. Redemption was more than just about our souls - it was the whole of creation that was effected.