There is that famous Angel Song, performed, high in the sky, in the outskirts of Bethlehem at the moment when Jesus was born.
Their words were simple: “”Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Yes, the words are simple, but their meaning is profound: In one sentence the entire future message of the Christ child, just born, is outlined: He is to give glory to God in his life, and bring peace on earth to God’s children there.
Yes, you read it correctly: The angel-message, straight from heaven, dictated by God to relay to us, haughty humans, is that Jesus, God’s Son, has been born, came to earth, lived some 33 years there, and died a cruel death. His task? “To bring Peace on Earth.
How and why?
The Answer: John 3: 16 unambiguously says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Observation: If Christ lived and died to bring ‘Peace on Earth’, should our aim in life not be the same? Shouldn’t our primary task also be to ‘love the cosmos’ as Jesus did? Live in peace with the earth? Curiously, the angels did not mention that Christ died to atone for our sins. Curiously, there is no mention of heaven, but the only emphasis is “Peace on Earth”.
Peace of Earth?
Look at our world! Now. Today. Look, how wars in many variations rage: Shooting Wars in Europe, in the Middle East, Africa and Asia; Environmental War world wide; Human Mind War through AI; Religious Wars in the Church. If there ever was a need for comprehensive Peace, it is today.
So, what does the Bible say? What does Jesus tell us?
Here is what Jesus says.
Jesus saw as his core message, as recorded in John 10:10: “I have come to bring you LIFE and that to the full.” Life means total life: body, soul, spirit. On earth. “The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to mankind” Psalm 115: 16 tells us.
“The highest Heaven” phrase, reminds me of Paul, the apostle summoned on the Road to Damascus. In order to bring him up-to-date, Paul, as related in 2 Corinthians 12, was ‘caught up in the third heaven’. People then saw heaven as pictured in three phases – the air below the ozone layer is ‘one’; the air where the heaven bodies dwell is ‘two’, and where God dwells as ‘three’, beyond the observable. The, highest heaven belongs to God: nobody else.
Where do we go, when we die?
Writes Daniel 12: 13: “”As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.” Jesus always calls death ‘sleep’.
Another biblical given is John 3:13, where Jesus tells Nicodemus: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man” (NIV).
Another example: “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” John 13:33.
So why this heaven heresy?
The heaven heresy has become a ‘meme’, a piece of media, that has spread rapidly, without any direct biblical proof.
The generally accepted notion that, upon death, we go to heaven, is wrong. It is based on Greek – Platonic – thinking. Socrates, as recorded by Plato, drank the poison, because he believed that death is the fulfillment of life. We now too have adopted the Heaven Heresy, the widespread notion that we can never know the absolute meaning of life while we live, only finding fulfillment in heaven.
The “‘heaven’ heresy” usually refers to the widely held modern misconception that the ultimate, eternal destination for Christians is a disembodied existence in a faraway place called heaven, a pure Gnostic notion, where matter is seen as evil and spirit as divine. Socrates believed that. Many Christians do, too.
Why do we prefer Gnosticism? It gives us both the cake – an easy, fossil-fuel fed life – and the prospect of God’s heavenly nearness forever, be it somewhat uniform and unexciting – “robed in white apparel “– as a well-known song has it.
Peace on earth.
The angels sang the song of songs: “Peace on Earth”, a prelude to Jesus’ mission, a message deeply rooted in the biblical narrative, and utterly relevant to the state of the world 2026.
The bible relates how God created and, upon completion, called it good seven times. That ‘good’ creation is now in danger. Man-made danger, I should add. But God, in his goodness, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, will renew the universe, as the last Bible book relates.
Rejoice. Christ will totally correct our mistreatment of his world: He will bring PEACE ON EARTH.