The Orthodox Faith – The Symbol of Faith (6)

We all want to go to heaven. Heaven is the good place. We certainly don’t want to go to the other place. There are probably as many conceptions of heaven as there are human beings. We all have our individual idea of heaven. However, there is sometimes the idea that heaven is a little bit boring. People talk about heaven as a place where angels strum harps and swing censers. The fullest description of heaven is to be found in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. Let us look at some verses from this book.
“At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne! And he who sat there appeared like jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald. Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads. From the throne issue flashes of lightning, and voices and peals of thunder, and before the throne burn seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God; and before the throne there is as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to sing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (Rev 4:2-8)
When we read this passage, it reminds us of the Divine Liturgy. There is a throne (the altar), white robes (vestments), lamps of fire (candles), and the hymn “Holy, holy, holy” which we sing at Liturgy. Finally in Revelation 5:8,
“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints;”
We have bowls of incense. This really does seem like the heavenly version of our Liturgy.
​However, this does not necessarily appeal to everyone. At one time an Orthodox priest was teaching a class of bright teenagers about heaven. To describe the glories of heaven the priest compared heaven to a never-ending Liturgy. For him, this was the height of beauty. However, the teenagers in the class reacted with horror. For them the Liturgy was a rather boring event their parents took them to. For them, the idea of a never-ending Liturgy was a nightmare.
​The problem here arises out of our conception of eternity. We are tempted to think of eternity as a never-ending succession of minutes and hours. This is not the case. Eternity is a condition of no time. Time only began to exist when the universe was created. Time is the opposite of eternity. Eternity is the eternal now. This being the case, there is no possibility of being bored in heaven because it is the eternal now, not a succession of minutes and hours. This notion of eternity also tells us something about Jesus Christ. The Creed says “…. And one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages.” Naturally, we think of God the Father as being eternal. But the Creed says, that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father. This sounds like the Father was first and the Son second. Obviously when human parents beget a child, they existed before the child came into being. As a matter of fact, heretics such as Arius thought the Father was first and the Son second. [Arius was infamous for saying that “There was a time when He (Jesus) was not. In other words, because the Son is begotten by the Father He is the second. However, Arius is forgetting about the difference between eternity and time. This is a false teaching and Arius was condemned and the Creed written.] However, the begetting of the Son takes place in eternity, the eternal now. As the Creed says “before all ages”. In other words, Christ was begotten in the eternal now before time so Jesus Christ is just as eternal as the Father. Of course, as human beings we cannot really conceive of the eternal now. We can only think of a succession of minutes and hours. Nevertheless, we can be sure that the eternal now of heaven will be anything but boring.

Fr. John

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