Saturday, June 10, 2006
# 150: For Heaven's Sakes! Life at its Best
The New Testament does not give many details as to what heaven will be like; although, it does tell who and what will not be in the Kingdom of God. Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 1st Corinthians 6:9-10. “Do you know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanders nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Also, the lazy will never make it. Matthew 25:26. “His master replied, ‘You wicked lazy servant’ ” Hebrews 6:12. “We do not want you to become lazy. . .” Check post # 29: the results of being lazy. It would have been helpful, if we had a few more details of what heaven’s recipients would be experiencing; which would make it a little more realistic. For that reason, this post, for the most part, will consist of inspired speculation of what heaven will be like.
Before getting started on what heaven will consist of, I want to bring up a topic that is extremely controversial. Most Christians believe when a person dies, their spirit goes straight to heaven or hell. That is totally unbiblical. At death everyone’s spirit goes into a sleeping state. Since spirits don’t occupy physical space, they may be with God or elsewhere–innocent until proven guilty-- waiting for the resurrection and the final Judgment day. I have already written extensively on this topic, therefore, I will refer you to the Table of Contents # 131, “Evidence of Faith at the Final Judgment” There are a dozen New Testament verses to substantiate ‘asleep at death,’ and none that tell of going straight to hell or heaven. The only section of Scripture that falsely supports organized church’s belief is a parable in Luke 16:19-26, where Jesus makes known that it is not the rich that are blessed by God, but the poor. This section tells of a beggar named Lazarus and a rich man dressed in purple.
The main reason for our presence in heaven, is for a very specific purpose: to share and enjoy the life of God, and for God to enjoy our company. Anywhere and everywhere anyone goes, they will continually be in the presence of God; He is never out of sight; we become like the one we gaze at. We will eternally be growing into the likeness of Almighty God (clones). He is still one, even though He will/does consist of an infinite number of like-minded entities–hopefully a few of us. Repeating this new concept: God’s purpose is to duplicate himself in the lives of all heaven’s inhabitants. The Apostle John wrote in 1st John 3:2, “. . . But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:40. “. . . , but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.”
As to our appearance, we will be recognized by our friends and family, though we will all look about the same age. If we died when we were 10 years old or 110, according to earthly standards, we will, for the sake of equality, look about 30 earth years old, or so. Our faces will be smooth, without signs of stress, etc. ; our bodies will be slim and trim. We will remain in that condition for all eternity. We will still remember the positive things that we experienced on earth, at least for awhile, but all negative memories will be blotted from our memories, so we won’t have to grieve or cry over those who didn’t make it. Revelation 7:17. “God will wipe ever tear form their eyes.” Which implies, we won’t remember the bad conditions we were exposed to on earth, thus shed tears and have continual sorrow in our hearts.
We will have spiritual bodies (visible and tangible but not physical). Although for traveling purposes, we can become invisible at the blink of an eye. There will be no genders, therefore, no sensual desires or marriage–I can hear some saying, “Oh shucks.” There is no need for sleep or darkness. Our main source of food will be spiritual: continually feasting on the life of God (a continual growing experience).
We live in a very, very gigantic universe, all of which belongs to God. In His universe there are/will be an infinite number of planets/worlds that will have or do have a congenial and hospitable environment, which is or will be occupied by different forms of life. As the inhabitants of these worlds continue to evolve, by God’s evolution process, eventually some will acquire intelligence. When that occurs, these occupants will be given the faith based ability and opportunity to come in contact, through belief, with their planet’s own personal God.
Again, there is only one Almighty God, which includes all the residents in the Kingdom of God. No small task. It will be a never ending experience as eternity rolls on. In other words, Almighty God will be present in some of those worlds through the Godly lives of those who once were humans on planet earth. They, hopefully some of us, are the ones who were/will be accepted into heaven because of there/our belief which was displayed by a holy life of love and obedience.
While eons of timelessness continually rolls along, after everyone have been equipped with God’s power, knowledge, wisdom, love, secrets, etc., we will be ready to go to the places where we will use our expertise: other planets in the universe that have evolved to the extent where their inhabitants (creatures that have the ability to believe in the abstract) can be introduced to their God. Although equality will be the theme, earthly Christians who were promised rewards on earth will be give more responsibility and more challenging planets to work with.
Even though those creatures in other worlds may not look anything like we did as humans on earth--physical makeup is not of importance--a few will have the ability to believe, love and obey Almighty God; repeating, which may be you or I, after we have been transformed into Almighty God. [Singular].
One thing that will be difficult to describe in human words is the love there will be between every single heavenly person. The best way I can describe it, though it still doesn’t come close is the love a mother has for her new born baby or her young children, or the sensual love two, young love-birds have for each other when they first fall in love. Here is a better way to describe it: everyone feels as if all others are themselves. There is no separation. Still, here is a better way to say it: there is a unity between everyone as if they all are one heavenly person. Still the best description: you are in everyone and everyone is in you. That is the best I can do. That is the unity of Godly love. The most beautiful thing about it is everyone will have a freewill. There will be no coercion or spiritual robots, whatsoever. Just remember, everyone who got there wanted more than anything to be in the presence of God for eternity. Their earnest desire through their belief was turned into reality by God.
Since heaven’s inhabitants are not physical, nothing else will be physical, be it their homes, the surface they walk on, or the white robes they wear. Everything in God’s Kingdom will be tangible and visible but not physical. The main occupation, if one can call it that, will be growing into the knowledge and likeness of God. By the way, this Almighty God I continually mention is none other than Jesus Christ, the God of planet earth.
One neat thing is we will be shown and taught, first hand, all the secret details (how God created the laws of physics) of how the universe came into existence; in fact we will participate in its continued construction, since the universe is infinite.
Communication between God and everyone else, and between each other, will be telepathic. All that will be necessary to start a conversation is to just think of the person–if we can still be called people–one wants to visit with. There will be no verbal communication. Even the angelic music will be telepathic. We will use our legs to walk unless the distance is great and as previous mentioned, we can become invisible and instantly arrive at our destination, if it is just a short walk or to another planet.
Even though the Old Testament mentioned the wolf will live with the lamb–I believe they are referring to the new physical Earth-- that does not mean there will be animals there, it only signifies the tranquility. If there will be real physical animals on the new earth, what is their purpose for being there? If the inhabitants of the new Earth were to be physical, I am baffled as to how they can have eternal live, since physical things are fragile. Therefore, I will not discuss life on the new Earth–because my lack of logical speculation. Check Isaiah Chapter 11, concerning animals.
The source of our overwhelming joy comes from knowing how important and loved we are in the sight of everyone including God. It’s a joy that never gets boring or dull. If anyone could experience that type of love on earth, they would, most likely, start levitating into thin air. That is what life in heaven is all about. Several other things that will be missing in God’s Kingdom is competition. We will not want to be better than the others, we will want others to be better than ourselves, if that were possible. That is the way it should be on earth at this time. Sure. Also, no one will ever be in a hurry, since time does not exist in eternity.
If heaven is as wonderful as this post portrays, although it is even better and Christians believed it, they should be jumping with joy and anxious to die; I don’t mean suicide of any sort, so as to get there, but as I mentioned in the previous post # 149, heaven is not real to most Christians, at least not real enough to have a desire to die to get there. In fact, if heaven was real, death of a loved-one who was a Christian should be a time to celebrate and have a happy, going-home party. And like-wise, when a non-believing loved-one dies, that should be a time of mourning, wailing and great sadness.
If the spiritual speculation in this post could somehow become realistic to Christians, and if Christianity per-se would devote prime time to the things of God, that would give us a more honorable reputation, instead than being looked upon by many as a bunch of hypocritical scum-bags.
The most helpful way to make heaven really real is to meditate on it as much as possible. Of course if one doesn’t have any immediate needs in their life, because things are going great on earth (the good life) there is little incentive to leave the temporal joys of earth, to get to heaven. Luke 6:20. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” For heaven’s sake.
