The Pastorals, James and Jude add nothing of importance for the study of this particular con- ception.
5. Johannine literature. — The treatment of the Johannine literature as a whole is of course impossible. While it still remains a tenable posi- tion to regard the Apocalypse, the E])istles, and the Gospel as the work of the same author, repre- senting three diilerent stages of his spiritual development (Ramsay), the question is too com- plex to discuss here, and too undecided to assume any position as certain. It will be sufficient, therefore, to treat our subject as it appears in each of the three divisions of the Johannine litera- ture separately. On the surface, the diflerence between the Apocalypse and the Epistles seems to represent the extreme movement of Christian thought from the most material form of Jewish apocalyptic to the most deeply spiritual form of the Christian hope.
(a) The Apocalypse. — The following is a summary of the chief points regarding heaven as the writer of t lie Apocalypse uses the conception. (1) There is the current division into heavenly, earthly, and infernal {o^- '^). (2) The principal part of the vision implies a sharp contrast between heaven and earth as spheres of moral activity. In heaven is the throne of God ; His will is done in heaven ; Christ is tliere ; the angels, and the OT symbols of the power and presence of God in Creation, are seen in heaven. The redeemed are seen there. Heaven is the source of every action directed against the power of evil. On the other hand, earth is the scene of conflict between good and evil. Those who maintain the cause of God and Christ are a sufl'ering and persecuted minority. From the abyss comes the moving power of the enmity against God. In the writer's view, earth is ruled by the abyss rather than by heaven. Even heaven itself is invaded by the po\vers of evil, and we have the Avar in heaven (12^) and the victory of Michael and his hosts over the dragon and his hosts ; the heavens and all those that dwell therein are sum- moned to rejoice over the victory and the final de- liverance of heaven from the powers of evil (12^^). (3) The heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the dwelling of God, of Christ, and of the saved, comes down from heaven, after the earthly kingdom is over. It is only the new heaven and earth that the prophet's vision conceives of as fit for the coming of the holy city. Apparently during the millennial reign, the city, in so far as it is conceived of realistically, remains in heaven. We have, on the one hand, a description of the earthly blessing of the risen saints and martyrs during the mil- lennial kingdom (20''"'') ; on the other hand, the vision itself supposes that those who have attained are already in heaven. The elders probably re- present those who are ' perfected ' in the sense of Hebrews. There are the multitudes of the re- deemed (7^'") ; the souls of the martyrs are seen under the altar in heaven ; they are granted white robes, and rest until the appointed number of the martyrs is made up. Further, the description of the heavenly city supposes that there is built up of the apostles and saints a spiritual city whose place is heaven. The difficulty of distinguishing between symbol and the literal meaning of the vision makes it a hard task to sum up clearly the writer's position. He is obviously heir to all the visions of the prophets and the apocalyptists, and master of them all. The spiritual and the symbolic are so subtly blended that it is hard to think that the writer is the slave of his symbols. He seems rather to have brought all the symbols of the previous apocalyptic, from Babylonia and Egypt in the remote past down to the almost contem- porary visions of Ezra and Baruch, under the sway of the spiritual conception of the kingdom of God. If we may read him so, then his view of heaven must be so interpreted in terms of the ulti- mate and fundamental contrast between good and evil, progress and perfection, struggle and attainment.
(6) The Epistles. — These add practically nothing to our inquiry, although they are of importance for the study of the Parousia [q.v.). The only passage that calls for comment is 1 Jn 3^"^ where the ultimate hope of the believer consists in being like God (avrw really has Beod in v.^ as its ante- cedent, but it is characteristic of the writer's method of thought that lie often passes from God to Christ without apparently being aware of & change of subject; in 2'-**, e.g., the Parousia is naturally interpreted as Christ's, but ' born of liim ' in v.^ must refer to God ; cf. also 3^ with 4'^). We have alreadj' noticed the tendency in St. Paul and Hebrews to represent the ultimata
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goal of the Christian as conformity to God or Christ.
(c) The Gospel. — In the Gospel we have : (1) the passages which unequivocally represent heaven as the dwelling-place of the pre-existent Christ — V^ 3^^ (which retains the implication, even if we omit 6 Ssv ii> ry ovpavi^ with KBL 33 and good Western support) 3^' 6^- ^^. Unlike the Pauline passages, these examples are quite unequivocal evidence of the writer's belief on this point.