Good Like a Medicine

These are some of the topics we discussed at our home with our church small group last night in regards to eternity in heaven. We are almost finished reading through Alcorn’s Heaven. Wow! This book just gets me excited.I really wish I would have taken the time to share from our past discussions here; maybe I will find a chance to share some insights, quotes, and questions from the last few months of our readings. Here are some brief excerpts (there is so much more than this in the book) that prompted our conversations last night. I would love to read your responses on them as well.Regarding marriage

“The one-flesh maritial union we know on Earth is a signpost pointing to our relationship with Christ as our bridegroom. Once we reach the destination, the signpost becomes unnecessary. That one marriage - our marriage to Christ - will be so completely satisfying that even the most wonderful earthly marriage couldn’t be as fulfilling…Jesus said the institution of human marriage would end, having fulfilled its purpose. But he never hinted that deep relationships between married people would end…The notion that relationships with family and friends will be lost in Heaven, though common, is unbiblical. It denies the clear doctrine of continuity between this life and the next and suggests our earthly lives and relationships have no eternal consequence.” (337). 

Sex?

“Because sex was designed to be part of a marriage relationship, marriage and sex logically belong together. Because we’re told that humans won’t be married to each other, and sex is intended for marriage, then logically we won’t be engaging in sex. This appears to be, then, an exception to the principle of continuity. However, since there’s a different sort of continuity between earthly marriage and the marriage of Christ to his church, there may also be some way in which the intimacy and pleasure we now know as sex will also be fulfilled in some higher form. I don’t know what that would be, but I do know that sex was designed by God, and I don’t expect him to discard it without replacing it with something better” (338). 

Addressing our questions about children who die

“Scripture makes no reference to an ‘age of accountability,’ and it certainly doesn’t teach the moral innocence of children… If infants be saved, it is not because of any natural innocence. They enter heaven by the very same way we do: they are received in the name of Christ…How could a child be born again without consciously choosing Christ? Scripture opens the door to the answer to this question through its teaching that God has a special love for children (Matthew 18, 19, Ezekiel 16:21, Psalm 8:2, Matthew 21:16, Luke 1:15, Jeremiah 1:5, 2 Samuel 12:23)…more” (340-341). 

A sobering reflection

“Everyone deserves Hell. No one deserves Heaven. Jesus went to the cross to offer salvation to all (1 John 2:2)…We’ll embrace God’s holiness and justice. We’ll praise him for his goodness and grace…Although it will inevitably sound harsh, I offer this further thought: in a sense, none of our loved ones will be in Hell –only some whom we once loved. Our love for our companions in Heaven will be directly linked to God, the central object of our love. We will see him in them. We will not love those in Hell because when we see Jesus as he is, we will love only - and will only want to love- whoever and whatever pleases and glorifies him. 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 they’ll no longer bear his image and no longer reflect his beauty. Although they will be the same people, without God they’ll be stripped of all the qualities we loved. Therefore, paridoxically, in a sense they will not be the people we loved” (348). 

Will we ever disagree in heaven?

Some of us will have insights others don’t. Some will have a better understanding in one area, others in a different area. Our beliefs can be accurate but incomplete, since we’ll not be omniscient…The companionship of other finite beings involves discussion and dialogue, which creates progress through synergy. That synergy involves differences and even disagreements…Even though Christ’s insights would be absolutely accurate, that doesn’t mean we’ll always fully understand them. God made us learners. That’s part of being finite” (349). 

And finally, pondering the discovery of New Earth

“Wouldn’t it be great to travel to Heaven together simultaneously? Wouldn’t it be great to be like Lewis and Clark, discovering together the wonders of the new world? In fact, that’s precisely what Scripture tells us will happen. Though we go to the intermediate heaven [this term is one Alcorn uses frequently to describe the place Christians live until God redeems the earth and resurrects all of his children] one at a time as we die, all of us will be charter citizens of New Earth. We’ll be resurrected together and set foot on the New Earth together. We’ll discover what no one else has ever seen. We’ll share our discoveries together, grabbing each other by the hand and saying, ‘You can’t believe what Jesus made - an animal I’ve never dreamed of. You’ve got to come see it!’” (350). 

Some of the other questions in this section were ones I enjoyed:

Will we want anyone besides Christ? What will we remember? Will all people be equal? Will we have privacy? Will we witness together God’s new creation? Who will our friends be in heaven? Will we recognize each other? Will there be private ownership? Will we regain lost relational opportunities? What will our reunions be like? 

(I was happy to see that you can click here to read Alcorn’s online answers to some of these questions.)(audio: will heaven be boring?)(audio: we will learn in heaven)(audio: it is not selfish to want the rewards of heaven)No matter what you have believed or been told in the past, the fact is the Bible has much to say that may shock us about heaven. Yes, to the buddhist it seems irrelevant to ask these questions, and asking them leads to self-seeking dead-ends. But for Christians there is an entirely different perspective. God loves us as individuals. He made us each in his own image, and we are of value to him. These are important, relevant, and exciting topics to mill through our brains. We need to think about these things, and it is good and right to be excited about all God has in store for each of us. These questions stir our hearts as we walk here on this earth, knowing that in Christ God’s children will one day dwell in eternity with him through his blood!

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