On Wednesday, May 23, 2007 the Mille Lacs Messenger published the following
letter.
Heaven on Earth
Guest columnist Brett Larson quoted Rev. Jerry Falwell in his May 9th Mille Lacs
Messenger article - A conservative approach to
global warming. In the article he wrote that he once heard Rev. Jerry Falwell say:
"The Sierra Club can have the earth, because
Jesus is going to come back and take all the Christians to heaven."
The Roman Catholic Church teaches just the opposite of what Jerry Falwell teaches
about this subject. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church (CCC) says: "Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins." The
CCC also says: "The visible universe, then,
is itself destined to be transformed, so that the world itself, restored to its original
state, facing no further obstacles, should
be at the service of the just, sharing their glorification with the risen Jesus
Christ."
In a statement about the Lord's Prayer, the CCC presents more information about
Jesus' mission to restore creation to its original
state. In the Lord's Prayer Jesus said: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven". In reference to these words, the CCC says,
"For he did not say "thy will be done in me or in us, but on earth, the whole
earth, so that error may be banished from it, truth
take root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, and the earth no
longer differ from heaven."
In II Peter 3:13 it says that "We look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells
justice". In reference to this scripture the
CCC says, "the universe will be renewed" and that "Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious
renewal, new heavens and a new earth". So
it is this earth, the earth that we are now living on, that will become known as the "new
earth", and this will occur after error
has been banished from it, truth has taken root in it, all vice has been destroyed on it,
and virtue flourishes on it.
In the CCC it says this "renewal of the world is irrevocably under way" and that it will
be "fulfilled with power and great glory
by the King's return to earth".
According to the Catholic Church, when Jesus returns the fullness of heaven will be
coming to earth and Christians will not be
going anywhere. The Bible says: "The meek shall inherit the earth."
Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
Wahkon
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