What is Heaven Actually Like? | Heaven Series, Part 4

(Photo Credit - Beliefnet)

So what is Heaven really like according to the Bible?

This may not be the most important question to ask about the afterlife (for example - if Heaven is at all better than Hell, than a more important question is, "How does one get into Heaven?") but none the less, this is an important question.  Here are a few opening thoughts on this topic.

1. This question will help to shape our anticipation of Heaven.  If you tell me I am going on a surprise trip and you don't tell me anything else, I might not be sure if you are taking me to the next town over (which, while nice, I wouldn't vacation in Stratham, New Hampshire) or if you were taking me to the Bahamas.  If you tell me it's a tropical paradise, that all expenses are paid, and that my wife and kids and closest friends will be there, now you have started to build the anticipation.  And so if we have sense of what Heaven will be like, it will shape our minds and hearts to look forward to it.  Paul says we are to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2) and doing so will help us long for Heaven.

2. Heaven is not sitting on the clouds playing a harp in a white robe.  When you ask most people about Heaven, this is one of the first ideas that comes to people's minds.  Many people say that this idea came from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress where he paints this image.  Nonetheless, this is not the image given of Heaven when we read the Bible.  Needless to say, I will build my arguments for Heaven based on the Bible, even if Pilgrim's Progress is a classic and one of the best-sellers of all time.  Which leads to my third point...

3. We should never build our understanding of Heaven based on pop-culture or pop-literature.  Whether it is from the 90's television classics "Touched By An Angel" or perhaps "Highway to Heaven", or from such books as Heaven is for Real, we should be very cautious about building a theology from a non-authoritative source.  While I do think we can glean some insight from anecdotes, we must always view them through the grid of Scripture.  The truth of God's Word will not be usurped by someone's story.  To be candid this is how cults begin - the Bible becomes secondary to someone's experience of God or the spiritual.

All this said, here are 4 truths about what Heaven is like.

1. First, Heaven is physical.  If Heaven were just a non-marterial reality, then the Resurrection would be quite strange.  How much easier would it have been to have Jesus raised spiritually but not physically?  But He was raised physically and even in His post-resurrection body, He was experienced by others as physical (able to be touched - John 20:24-29, able to watch him eat - Luke 24:42-43).  This is not only true for Jesus but it is true for His followers as well (see 2 Corinthians 5:1-10).  This and many other passages should lead us to the clear conclusion that we will not be floating around as disembodied beings in when in Heaven.

2. Heaven will be a restoration of what was lost in the Fall.  Read Genesis 1-2 and then contrast it with Revelation 22 and you will see an 'Eden 2.0' theme emerge.  The tree, the rivers, the presence of God without sin, all things healed.  If you long to see the world whole again, as God intended at the creation of all things, then just wait - it will all be made right again.

3. Heaven will offer experiences, real-life experiences.  Many fear that Heaven will be just about singing all day long.  Ask some people what Heaven is and you may hear, "It's just like an eternal worship service."  Yes, in way that is true.  But if worship means only music (though there will certainly be music in Heaven - see Revelation 4), then I would say we have too small a view of what worship truly is.  Romans 12:1-2 paints the picture of all of life being worship.  Colossians 3:17 reminds us that all of life should be lived unto God.  With pictures from Scripture as our guide we see that Heaven will be multi-faceted and we will have a wide array of experiences, from learning to building relationships to feasting (see this blog post for more on this topic - LINK HERE).        

4. Heaven will be better than anything we can imagine on Earth.  I often challenge people by asking what they think would be the most exhilarating experience they think they could have in life.  I then tell them to multiply that expense by infinity to get a sense of what Heaven will be like.  There is nothing we can imagine that will ever compare to all that we will experience in Heaven.  All of this life - no matter how wonderful the experience is - is tainted by sin.  We always have the sub-conscious specter of death looming over us, the pain and hurt that we have had in the past and that we fear in the future, as well as the knowledge that every good experience here on earth will, eventually, end.  And yet in Heaven we read that there will be no more tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain (Revelation 21), and we no longer have to fear those things creeping into our existence.

We cannot fathom Heaven fully, but we do ourselves a great service if we will learn to daydream biblically about what Heaven will be like.  This type of thinking will prepare us for our true home.

- tC

Where Do Christians Go When They Die? | Heaven Series, Part 3

More than any other question about Heaven that I have been asked, this one is the most common:

Where do Christians go when they die?

The question is certainly a reasonable one.  If we are all due to one day breathe our last breath and depart from the land of the living, most of us would like to know about the next location of our existence.  And so let's answer this question on a few different levels.

1. Let us note that there is much that the Bible does speak to on this topic, and yet there are also unknowns.  Many people have had near-death experiences where they spoke about a white light or feeling like there were floating out of their bodies.  While these are - in some cases - what people truly experienced, we should be slow to let these experiences become the basis for our conclusions about the afterlife.  Even if a person did not want to consider a religious answer to the question of the afterlife, it only makes sense to be skeptical about the stories of near-death experiences.  Was it a real experience or just a psychological one because of the intensity of the moment?  How clearly was the individual thinking when he/she had this experience?  All this to say, let's move from what we do know to what we are less sure about.  And the Bible will be the basis for my conclusions stated below.

2. In the view of most Christians throughout history, the biblical conclusion is that when a person dies, he or she is immediately in the presence of God.  As noted in the last post, this does not mean that we are in the New Heavens and New Earth of Revelation 21 and 22., but the Bible does teach that a person who dies with faith in Christ is with God immediately after death.  This would be called unconditional immortality.  We will give more information on this in a moment.

3. I want to note that the other main perspective held by some Christians (though it seems to be the minority according to my research) is the notion of a person dying and entering 'soul sleep'.  This idea would be that when I die in Christ, I rest (as in "Rest In Peace") until the return of Christ when He will usher in the New Heavens and New Earth.  There are a variety of passages that people have interpreted this way, but I think the argument is less compelling.  This stance might be called the 'soul sleep' approach or more formally known as conditional immortality.

With these three statement as a foundation, I'd like to make the case for the idea that when a person who has put his/her faith in Christ dies, he/she goes directly into the presence of God.

1. Philippians 1:19-22

"...for I know through your prayer and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  If I am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me.   Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.  I am hard pressed between the two. 

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."  

In this passage , Paul is talking about living on this earth and serving God, or dying and being with God.  Notice that Paul's language is either/or language - either stay and serve or go and be with Christ.  He doesn't seem to give any hint about going to be with Christ after a time of soul sleep.  He speaks to immediately serving or immediately being with Christ.  And this theme of immediacy seems to flow through many passages about death and then being immediately in the presence of God.

2. Matthew 17:1-13

This passage is the Transfiguration of Christ as observed by Peter, James, and John.  Interestingly enough it is also experienced by two other people - Moses and Elijah.  The passage says that Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the top of a mountain, and there Jesus began to shine like the sun and His clothes glowed white.  And then we read, "And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with HIm."  At first one might argue that these are hallucinations.  But as is often noted about Jesus being seen after the Resurrection, hallucinations are very individualized, whereas this passage seems to communicate that the three apostles saw Moses and Elijah.  Another interesting fact is that Jesus was speaking with them, with Moses and Elijah.  One as mentally-well as Jesus does not speak with someone who is not there.  And so we conclude that it REALLY was Moses and Elijah who were there speaking with Jesus.

This presses us to ask, "Where then were Moses and Elijah from the time of their deaths to this moment on the mountain top?"  The Bible does not give a definitive answer but we can conclude that these two saints were not in a state of 'soul sleep'.  If they were, they wouldn't have been present since Jesus has not yet died, come back to life, ascended into Heaven, and then returned to usher in the New Heavens and New Earth.  That has not yet occurred when we read this story and so we most logically conclude that while Moses and Elijah are not yet fully restored people (as per the end of Revelation), they are still very much present and in a conscious state of existence.  And so it should be for all those who die in Christ.

3. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

This passage contains the well-known phrase, "Absent with the body, present wth the Lord."  While we never want to rip a verse out of context, this one line is very much just what it looks like when it is read in context.  Paul is contrasting life on earth in our broken bodies with life in the presence of God.  The key I find in this passage is that Paul again (as in Philippians 1) seems to be contrasting two immediate states of being - one is being in the immediate state of earthly living and other is being in the immediate presence of God.  I would agree if one were to argue that there is more ambiguity in this passage. I don't think this passage standing alone makes the case for entering immediately into the presence of God, but added to other passages I do think it adds to the already strong argument.

There are a few additional passages worth noting.

- John 3 speaks about eternal life, and John does so in a way to describes eternal life not as something that we get when we die, but that - for those in Christ - eternal life begins the moment a person comes to faith in Jesus.  Again, the continuing of life with Christ is emphasized.  And so if I come into eternal life at age 16 and then I die at age 99, it seems most reasonable that I continue on with my eternal life and that it is not in a 'paused' state until Jesus returns.

- John 11:17-27.  In this passage we see the death of Lazarus.  It's worth noting that Lazarus has died and when asked if she (Martha) believed that Lazarus would live again, she mentions the final resurrection of all believers.  Jesus could have just agreed with her, but He pressed the issue deeper when He said the whoever believes in Him, though they die they will live.  Then Jesus presses it even deeper again when he says that everyone who believes in Him will never die.  The emphasis appears to be on the continuity of life for the Christian.  When  person comes to faith in Christ, he or she is IN eternal life, and that eternal state will continue on without pause i.e. without soul sleep.

There are additional passages that I believe make the case for the continuity of the Christian's life, but these 5 speak to it strongly.

I do want to bring up a point here.
Committed, Bible-believing Christians can, have, and do disagree on this issue.  But let's ask the question: how does determining who is right about this argument impact my view of the afterlife?  If the soul sleep perspective is correct, then I will one day die, be in a state on unconscious soul sleep, and then the next thing I know, I will be with Jesus.  On the other hand if it is true that when a Christian dies, he or she is immediately with God, then to a large degree the experience is very much the same.  Theology matters and so we should discuss and debate these questions, but it's worth noting that the real question is about process and not the ultimate end-state for all believers.

Since I have made the case that the Christian does go immediately into the presence of God, we will next address the question: where is this 'heaven' that Christians go to in the in-between state before Jesus returns in all His glory.

And that will be our next post.  Thank you for reading.

- tC

Reflections on the Passing of Nabeel Qureshi

(Credit: NabeelQuershi.com)

On Saturday, September 16th Nabeel Qureshi - author and Christian apologist - passed into the loving presence of Jesus Christ after a year-long battle with stomach cancer.  Qureshi was best known for his book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus which told his story of converting from Islam to Christianity.  

I have been following the YouTube updates (you can see them here) that Nabeel posted over the last year (43 video posts in total).  It was a long, tough, heart-rending journey that he shared with his viewers, and I am sure some will now go back to learn more about his life and this final journey.

My personal interest in Nabbel's ministry is rooted in the fact that he is part of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, a ministry that helped me grow immensely as a young Christian and throughout the years.  If you'd like to read Ravi Zacharias' final tribute to Nabeel in the Washington Post, click here. 

   

(Credit: Ravi Zacharias - Facebook)

I never knew Nabeel, and I am certainly no Ravi, but I'd like to offer a few personal reflections on the life and passing of Nabeel Quershi and why his passing has struck me deeply.

First, I am struck because I am 7 years older than Nabeel and yet he has already left this mortal life.  There is something about not just a young person dying, but someone who gives you that sense of 'that could have been me'.  Nabeel was a student of Ravi, an apologist, and someone who was passionate about bringing the Gospel to the world.  In some small way, I can resonate with all three of those characteristics, and so his passing seems to hit home for me in a different way than I had expected it to.

Secondly, Nabeel's passing reminds me of a message I gave years ago while I was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  The talk was entitled, "A Healthy Obsession With Death."  While no one likes to think about death, our Western world today has risen to an expert level of avoiding the topic.  Part of it is because of the 24-hour news cycle such that even when a famous movie star dies, we mourn for a few hours before we are often on to the next topic that is flashed across the screen.  Another part of it is that we have such excellent medicine compared to even just 100 years ago that we almost expect for every sickness to be cured with little fan fare.  These two realities (as well as other factors) shape us so that we avoid thinking much about the grave.  

Nabeel's passing reminds me that we should all be thinking about death a great deal - it is one of the few 'knowns' in our lives.  We will all die, and we do well to consider this fact on a regular basis.  The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that it is good to go to a house of mourning.  Why?  Because it puts all of life into perspective.  I find myself thinking about Nabeel's wife and his daughter now and what their life will be like without this man.  It forces me to think about my own wife and children, and not on the level of 'will they be o.k. without me if I die', but instead the eternal question: when I die, will I see them again?  That - in the end - is TRULY the only question that matters when it comes to my family.  Success, careers, future marriages, providing via a life insurance policy - all these are fine to consider, but they are passing realities.  Eternity with those who I love in the presence of my Savior - that last forever.  

Thirdly, Nabeel's passing forces me to think about how I am using my time.  Not everyone will invest his or her life in apologetics and writing, in speaking and lecturing.  But what I do know is that I want my life to matter and Paul reminds us in Galatians 5 that in the end the ONLY thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love.  And so Nabeel's death forces me to ask myself: because of my faith in Christ, am I loving others well?   

Lastly, the death of Nabeel Quershi forces me to face the hard reality that God is God and I am not.  Only by faith in the character of God can I trust that the passing of this young man, this passionate apologist - only by faith can I trust that this makes sense.  On a human level, on a ministry level, on an 'advancing the Gospel in the nations' level, this does not compute.  But I am forced to trust God's providential wisdom in this situation.  The alternative is to raise my fist to the heavens which is foolhardy.  God knows what He is doing even when it doesn't seem to add up in my paradigm.  

In closing, I celebrate the fact that because of the Resurrection of Jesus and my future resurrection, I will one day be able to speak with and celebrate the life of Nabeel Quershi with Nabeel Quershi himself.  Until that day, may my life be faith-filled like this man's life.

- tC