Part II--The Eternal Heaven
But Jesus made it clear that most people are not going to Heaven when he said the gateway to life is narrow and "only a few ever find it".
Jesus taught that in Hell the wicked suffer terribly, are fully conscious, retain their desires and memories and reasoning, long for relief, cannot be comforted, cannot leave their torment, and are bereft of hope.
When we hear that in Heaven we will have new bodies and live on a New Earth, this is how we should understand the word new--a restored and perfected version of our familiar bodies and our familiar Earth and our familiar relationships.
As our current bodies are the blueprints for our resurrection bodies, this present Earth is the blueprint for the New Earth.
Too see God's face is the loftiest of all aspirations--though sadly, for most of us, it's not at the top of our wish lists. (If we understood what it meant, it would be.) To be told we'll see God's face is shocking to anyone who understands God's transcendence and inapproachability.
Exodus 33:18-23....Moses responded, "Then show me your glorious presence." The Lord replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you....But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live." The Lord continued, "Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen."
Moses saw God, but not God's face. Too see God's face was utterly unthinkable. That's why, when we're told in Revelation 22:4 that we'll see God's face, it should astound us.
Seeing God would be like seeing everything else for the first time. Why? Because not only will we see God, he will be the lens through which we see everything else--people, ourselves, and the events of this life.
Part III--Life on the New Earth
Isaiah 11:6-9--In that day, the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all...The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm....For as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.
Some people may say, "To imagine God would populate worlds with new beings is just science fiction". We may have it backward. Science fiction is the result of mankind's God-given sense of adventure, wonder, creativity, and imagination. It emerges from being made in God's image. It's not our sinfulness that arouses that excitement. It's our God-given hunger for adventure, for new realms and new beings, for new beauties and new knowledge.
God has given us a longing for new worlds.
1 Corinthians 6:2-3--"Don't you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going o judge the world, can't you decide even these little things among yourselves? Don't you realize that we will judge angels?"
On the New Earth, human beings will govern angels. Perhaps the same angels who serve God now by watching out for us in this life will be under our leadership then. If so, imagine the stories they'll have to tell us!
Death is relocation of the same person from one place to another. The place changes, but the person remains the same.
We should expect the New Earth to be a place where we'll fulfill our calling to be faithful rulers and stewards of animals.
Today, Satan can speak through a human being but not an animal because people can talk and animals can't. But the fact that he spoke though an animal in Eden suggests the animals had the capacity to speak. There's no indication Eve was surprised to hear an animal speak, which suggests other animals also may have spoken. Even today whales, dolphins, elephants, and birds, as well as various primates, make sounds that communicate specific and sometimes detailed messages to their own kind. Might they originally have had even greater communicative abilities?
If people will be smarter and more capable on the New Earth, should it surprise us that animals might also be smarter and more capable? Might their restored or enhanced abilities include communication understandable to humans?
Psalm 56:8--"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book."
There are also other books in Heaven. The books spoken of in Revelation 20 contain detailed historical records of the lives of all of us on this earth. The book mentioned specifically is the Book of Life, in which the names of God's people are written. There's no indication that these books will be destroyed.
God is proud of his people for fearing him and honoring his name. He promises that one day all will plainly see the differences between those who serve him and those who don't.
Satan's most basic strategy, the same one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe that sin brings fulfillment. However, in reality, sin robs us of fulfillment.
When there's fulfillment, when there's beauty, when we see God as he truly is--an endless reservoir of fascination--boredom becomes impossible.
Imagine the ability to question and challenge without any malice and to be questioned and challenged without a hint of defensiveness. Wouldn't that be Heaven?
God placed just one restriction on Adam and Eve in Eden, and when they disregarded it, the universe unraveled. On the New Earth, God will no longer put that test before us. No rules will be needed, for our hearts will be given over to God. What we should do will at last be identical with what we want to do.
Revelation 21:4--"He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain."
This verse primarily addresses the tears coming from in justice and sorrow, not tears per se. Regardless we know there will be no more tears of grief because there will be no more reason for grief.
We should anticipate pure and accurately informed emotions guided by reality. Our present emotions are skewed by sin, but one day they'll be delivered from it.
We know that people in Heaven have lots of feelings--all good ones.
As music is a means of worship, so is dancing. Unfortunately, many popular forms of dancing have become associated with immorality and immodesty. But of course, those kinds of dancing won't exist on the New Earth.
Heaven won't be without families, but will be one big family, in which all family members are friends and all friends are family members. Many of us treasure our families. But many others have endured a lifetime of broken hearts stemming from twisted family relationships. In Heaven neither we nor our family members will cause pain. Our relationships will be harmonious--what we've always longed for.
Adam and Eve had a capacity for sin, just as we do now, but when we're with God, we'll no longer have that capacity. The inability to sin doesn't inherently violate free will. God cannot sin, yet no being has greater free choice than God. We will forever choose freely and rightly.
Our relationships were appointed by God, and there's every reason to believe they'll continue in Heaven. Friendships begun on Earth will continue in Heaven, becoming richer than ever.
Perhaps you're disappointed that you've never had the friendships you long for. In Heaven you'll have much closer relationships with some people you now know, but it's also true that you may never have met the closest friends you'll ever have. Just as someone may be fifty years old before meeting her best friend, you may live on the New Earth enjoying many friendships before meeting someone who will become your dearest friend. Or, maybe your best friend will be someone you've never met, sitting next to you at the first great feast.
Jesus went to the cross to offer salvation to all because God doesn't desire any to perish in their unbelief. So even if God offered mercy, what consolation will that be to us if our loved ones refused to receive it?
What we loved in those who died without Christ was God's beauty we once saw in them. When God forever withdraws from them, I think it's likely they'll no longer bear his image and no longer reflect his beauty. Without God, they'll be stripped of all the qualities we loved. Therefore, paradoxically, they will not truly be the people we loved. I can't prove biblically what I've just stated, but it rings true to me, even if the thought now seems horrifying.
If we weren't ourselves in the afterlife, then we couldn't be held accountable for what we did in this life. Our own personal history and identity will endure from one Earth to the next.
If you know Jesus, you'll be in Heaven--without the bad parts--forever.
The point of comparing our knowing to God's knowing is that we'll know fully, in the sense of accurately but not exhaustively. When we die, we'll see things far more clearly and we'll know much more than we do now, but we'll never know everything. And we'll spend eternity gaining the greater knowledge we'll seek.
Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature. Jesus learned obedience. Growing and learning cannot be bad; the sinless Son of God experienced them.
When we enter Heaven, we'll presumably begin with the knowledge we had at the time of our death. God may enhance our knowledge and will likely correct countless wrong perceptions. I imagine he'll reveal many new things to us, then set us on a course of continual learning, paralleling Adam and Eve's. We won't ever know everything, and even what we will know, we won't know all at once.
On the New Earth, no good thing will be destroyed. I believe all of the old Earth that matters will be drawn into Heaven, to be part of the New Earth.
Once mankind is made righteous and entrusted with stewarding the New Earth, God will likely restore a common language.
Luke 6:21--"God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh."
The reward of those who mourn now will be laughter later.
If resurrection had meant the creation of a new body, Christ's original body would have remained in the tomb. When we receive our resurrected bodies, we'll no doubt have some welcome surprises, maybe even some new features (though no glitches).
Your body does not merely house the real you--it is as much a part of who you are as your spirit is.
But if we understand that we'll actually live in a new heavens and New Earth, a new universe full of new opportunities, then we can forgo certain pleasures and experiences now, knowing we can enjoy them later.
Because our hearts will be pure and we'll see people as they truly are, every relationship in Heaven will be pure. We'll all be faithful to love of our lives: King Jesus. We couldn't do anything behind his back even if we wanted to. But we'll never want to.
Troubled sleep and sleeplessness are products of sin and the Curse, but sleep itself is God's gift.
Technology is a God-given aspect of human capability that enables us to fulfill his command to exercise dominion.
The passing of time will no longer threaten us. It will bring new adventures without a sense of loss for what must end. We'll live with time, no longer under its pressure.
But in Heaven, God may permit us to see what happened in the spiritual realm when he answered our prayers.
God is certainly capable of bending time and opening doors in time's fabric for us. Because God is not limited by time, he may choose to show us past events as if they were presently happening. We may be able to study history from a front-row seat. Perhaps we'll have opportunity to see the lives of our spiritual and physical ancestors lived out on Earth.
This planet is the setting for God's ultimate comfort, for his reversal of life's injustices and tragedies. God promises to make up for the heartbreaks of this life.
Are you living with the disappointment of unfulfilled dreams? In Heaven you'll find their fulfillment. Did poverty, poor health, war, or lack of time prevent you from pursuing an adventure or dream? Did you never get to finish building that boat or painting that picture or writing that book--or reading that pile of books? Good news. One the New Earth you may well have a second chance, or an eternity of renewed opportunities, to do what you dreamed of doing--and far more besides.
Work wasn't part of the Curse. The Curse, rather, made work menial, tedious, and frustrating. We'll have satisfying and enriching work that we can't wait to get back to, work that'll never be drudgery.
Jesus found great satisfaction in his work. We create, accomplish, set goals, and fulfill them--to God's glory.
Even under the Curse, we catch glimpses of how work can be enriching, how it can build relationships, and how it can help us to improve. Work stretches us in ways that make us smarter, wiser, and more fulfilled.
Because there will be continuity from the Old Earth to the new, it's possible we'll continue some of the work we started on the old Earth. Of course, some people's jobs won't exist on the New Earth, among them dentists, police officers, funeral directors, and insurance salespeople. What are now their interests or hobbies may become their main vocations. Others might continue working as they do now, as gardeners, engineers, builders, artists, animal trainers, musicians, scientists, craftspeople, or hundreds of other vocations. A significant difference will be that they'll work without the hindrances of toil, pain, corruption, sin, and exhaustion.
The first person Scripture describes as filled with the Spirit of God wasn't a prophet or priest; he was a craftsman. God gifted and called Bezalel to be a skilled laborer, a master craftsman, a God-glorifying artist. When we die, we won't leave behind our creativity but only what hinders our ability to honor God through what we create.
I believe we will see trade and business, although not for all the same reasons we engage in them now. Business is not the result of sin but of human interdependence, creativity and variety. There's much more to business and trade than putting food on the table or repairing the roof, though those are good reasons. Whether you work in a bookstore, bakery, or school, don't you experience joy in using your knowledge, skills, services, and products to help an please others? Sure, it's good and often necessary to earn money, too, but that isn't the ultimate source of joy.
Part IV--Can You Know You're Going to Heaven?
Make the conscious decision to repent of your sins and accept Christ's sacrificial death on your behalf. When you choose to place your faith in Christ and surrender control of your life to him, you can be certain that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Part V--God's Promises About Heaven
Ecclesiastes 3:11--"God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."
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