In the first part of this article, we have seen how the Biblical verses, particularly those from Isaiah and Revelation, announce a new heaven and a new earth in a manner very similar to the theoretical framework of simulation creationism. As a vital part of this theory envisioned by Nir Ziso, worlds/simulations come and go, old worlds disappear while new worlds emerge. In the new world, we will not remember anything from the old one, and our matter will be different. Still, our personalities/souls will be preserved, as heaven is the community of individuals. Namely, consciousness is the fundamental reality and it cannot be destroyed and consciousness will continue to exist beyond all phases of creation.
God/Creator promises us also eternity, as he implanted it into our hearts (Ecclesiastes, 3:11). We will live with Him forever. What does it mean? Some philosophers point to the idea of a new body as a material body, albeit with a completely different kind of matter. We also know that we will be resurrected in body and soul, not just in spiritual content. To decay is one of the major principles of matter. Does it mean that in a new heaven and a new earth we will exist forever or is forever just a manner of preservation of our souls that go from simulation to simulation, from one world to another?
We might turn to the revelation of the Bible and the laws of nature to try to envision an answer to this question. The new creation, which is eternity, is the goodness, the fullness, the best possible experience anyone can achieve. We can understand it from the boundaries that exist around us at this very moment. Being in time, we have memories from the past and hopes of the future. Such a temporality must have an enduring effect in eternity as well. Not every temporality in eternity is wanted. Past events are full of tragedies and future events pose danger. The fullness of being temporal, the best way of being temporal, is to live it without such costs. This would mean we could be God-like, seeing the past, the present, and the future at the same time, but being aware of these temporal stages.
Eternal has two meanings: it may be out of time, or it may be everlasting in time. The Holy Tradition has been pretty unanimous that eternal life for humans means everlasting life after this life, while eternity out of time is reserved for God. In such a life, we would be happy and blessed, as St. Thomas Aquinas mentions. The Book of Revelation gives us a picture of what it means. Here is the worship of God through dances and hymns, which would be the ways of knowing an infinitely big number of aspects of God.
The new body shall not be limited like our physical body now. However, it is still physical, made of a new kind of matter that doesn’t decay in a way we know. When we die, our imperfect body will transform into a glorious body, just like Jesus had. Such a body will be able to command the matter, just like Jesus was an archetype of our future body. Jesus was able to command the weather, perform miracles, change the matter. This shall be possible for our heavenly body too. It is a process of learning, upgrading our souls, making it God-like, in a manner of Christian Orthodox tradition that explains the eternal yearning of a soul to God. We will never reach this goal, but we will play, learn, make, and there will be always new things to do in order to perfect ourselves. It is a metacosmic change or metamorphosis where a kind of merging with divine exists but where our individuality stays intact. Meister Eckhart called it fusion without confusion.
The New Heaven is a physical place but not yet. It is real but not a special location we can see in this world. It exists in a different mode, as a backup program which is loading and preparing for us. When we receive the resurrected bodies, there is going to be a new earth. We will be at the same place, but in completely new circumstances, enriched by new matter and new experiences. This new world will give us the opportunity to go beyond our current physical abilities. The universe might be as big as it is because it will give us the pleasure of exploring and learning. It will be a heaven of an essence in which every single concept and idea of a limited existence is transcended.
The new world may possibly not be the final world. After a period of upgrading within a new simulation, there may be another step of destroying that simulation and moving to another one, which would be even more perfected. This may go on forever.
