Authors: Randy Alcorn
Heaven (10 page)
Abraham and Lazarus saw the rich man in Hell (Luke 16:23-26). If it is possible, at least in some cases, to see Hell from
Heaven, why would people be unable to see Earth from Heaven?
Christ said, "There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons
who do not need to repent" (Luke 15:7). Similarly, "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinnerwho
repents" (Luke 15:10). Notice it does not speak of rejoicing
by
the angels but
in the presence
of angels. Who is doing this rejoicing in Heaven? I believe it logically includes not only God but also the saints in Heaven,
who would so deeply appreciate the wonder of human conversion—especially the conversion of those they knew and loved on Earth.
If they rejoice over conversions happening on Earth, then obviously
they must be aware of what is happening on Earth
—and not just generally, but specifically, down to the details of individuals coming to faith in Christ.
DO PEOPLE IN HEAVEN PRAY FOR THOSE ON EARTH?
Based on the scriptural evidence, I believe that departed saints currently in the present Heaven do intercede in prayer—at
least sometimes—for those of us still on Earth.
Christ, the God-man, is in Heaven, at the right hand of God, interceding for people on Earth (Romans 8:34), which tells us
there is at least one person who has died and gone to Heaven and is now praying for those on Earth. The martyrs in Heaven
also pray to God (Revelation 6:10), asking him to take specific action on Earth. They are praying for God's justice on the
earth, which has intercessory implications for Christians now suffering here. The sense of connection and loyalty to the
body of Christ—and concern for the saints on Earth—would likely be enhanced, not diminished, by being in Heaven (Ephesians
3:15). In any case, Revelation 6 makes it clear that some who have died and are now in Heaven are praying concerning what's
happening on Earth.
If prayer is simply talking to God, presumably we will pray more in Heaven than we do now—not less. And given our righteous
state in Heaven, our prayers will be more effective than ever (James 5:16). Revelation 5:8 speaks of the "prayers of the saints"
in a context that may include saints in Heaven, not just on Earth. We are never told to pray
to
the saints, but only to God. Yet the saints may well be praying for us.
If people in Heaven are allowed to see at least some of what transpires on Earth (and clearly they are, as we've seen), then
it would seem strange for them
not
to intercede in prayer.
If we believe that Heaven is a place of ignorance or disinterest about Earth, we will naturally assume that people in Heaven
don't pray for people on Earth. However, if we believe that people in Heaven are aware of events on Earth, and that they talk
to God about his plan, his purpose, and his people, we will naturally assume they
do
pray for people on Earth. In my opinion, Scripture argues for the second assumption, not the first. I believe the burden of
proof falls on those who would argue that people in Heaven don't pray for those on Earth. Where is this idea taught in Scripture?
Often this deduction is based on a faulty premise—that for people in Heaven to be happy, they can't know what's happening
on Earth. Let's take a closer look at that argument.
CAN IT BE HEAVEN IF PEOPLE ARE AWARE OF ANYTHING BAD ON EARTH?
Many books on Heaven maintain that those in Heaven cannot be aware of people and events on Earth because they would be made
unhappy by all the suffering and evil; thus, Heaven would not truly be Heaven.
I believe this argument is invalid. After all, God knows exactly what's happening on Earth, yet it doesn't diminish Heaven
for him. Likewise, it's Heaven for the angels, even though they also know what's happening on Earth. In fact, angels in Heaven
see the torment of Hell, but it doesn't negate their joy in God's presence (Revelation 14:10). Abraham and Lazarus saw the
rich man's agonies in Hell, but it didn't cause Paradise to cease to be Paradise (Luke 16:23-26). Surely then, nothing they
could see on Earth could ruin Heaven for them. (Again, the parable does not suggest that people in Heaven normally gaze into
Hell.)
It's also possible that even though joy would predominate in the present Heaven, there could be periodic sadness because there's
still so much evil and pain on Earth. Christ grieved for people when he was on Earth (Matthew 23:37-39; John 11:33-36). Does
he no longer grieve just because he's in Heaven? Or does he still hurt for his people when they suffer? Acts 9:4-5 gives a
clear answer. Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" When Saul asked who he was, he replied, "I am Jesus, whom
you are persecuting." Doesn't Christ's identification with those being persecuted on Earth suggest he's currently hurting
for his people, even as he's in Heaven?
If Jesus, who is in Heaven, feels sorrow for his followers, might not others in Heaven grieve as well? It's one thing to no
longer cry because there's nothing left to cry about, which will be true on the New Earth. But it's something else to no longer
cry when there's still suffering on Earth. Going into the presence of Christ surely does not make us
less
compassionate.
We must also keep in mind that Revelation 21:4, the verse most often quoted on the subject of sorrow in Heaven, refers specifically
to the eternal Heaven, the New Earth. "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." Christ's promise of no more tears or pain comes
after
the end of the old Earth, after the Great White Throne Judgment, after "the old order of things has passed away" and there's
no more suffering on Earth.
The present Heaven and the eternal Heaven are not the same. We can be assured there will be no sorrow on the New Earth, our
eternal home. But though the present Heaven is a far happier place than Earth under the Curse, Scripture doesn't state there
can be no sorrow there. At the same time, people in Heaven are not frail beings whose joy can only be preserved by shielding
them from what's really going on in the universe. Happiness in Heaven is not based on ignorance but on perspective. Those
who live in the presence of Christ find great joy in worshiping God and living as righteous beings in rich fellowship in a
sinless environment. And because God is continuously at work on Earth, the saints watching from Heaven have a great deal
to praise him for, including God's drawing people on Earth to himself (Luke 15:7, 10). But those in the present Heaven are
also looking forward to Christ's return, their bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the fashioning of the New Earth
from the ruins of the old. Only then and there, in our eternal home, will all evil and suffering and sorrow be washed away
by the hand of God. Only then and there will we experience the fullness of joy intended by God and purchased for us by Christ
at an unfathomable cost.
Meanwhile, we on this dying Earth can relax and rejoice for our loved ones who are in the presence of Christ. As the apostle
Paul tells us, though we naturally grieve at losing loved ones, we are not "to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope"
(1 Thessalonians 4:13). Our parting is not the end of our relationship, only an interruption. We have not "lost" them, because
we know where they are. They are experiencing the joy of Christ's presence in a place so wonderful that Christ called it Paradise.
And one day, we're told, in a magnificent reunion, they and we "will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other
with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18).
THIS WORLD IS NOT OUR HOME . . . OR IS IT?
God will make the new earth his dwelling place. . . . Heaven and earth will then no longer be separated as they are now:,
but they will be one. But to leave the new earth out of consideration when we think of the final state of believers is greatly
to impoverish biblical teaching about the life to come.
Anthony Hoekema
M
any books on Heaven say nothing about the New Earth. Sometimes a few paragraphs, vaguely worded, are tacked on at the end.
Other books address the New Earth but undercut its true nature: "Is this new earth like our present earth? Probably not."
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But if it isn't, why does God call it a New
EartB
One author says, "The eternal phase of Heaven will be so unlike what we are familiar with that our present language can't
even describe it."
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Certainly our present language can't/w//y describe it, but it
does
in fact describe it (e.g., Revelation 21-22).
Many religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, characterize the afterlife as vague and intangible. Christianity specifically
refutes this notion. Biblical Christianity doesn't give up on humanity
or
the earth.
Paul Marshall writes, "Our destiny is an earthly one: a new earth, an earth redeemed and transfigured. An earth reunited with
heaven, but an earth, nevertheless."
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OUR LONGING FOR EDEN
We are homesick for Eden.
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We're nostalgic for what is implanted in our hearts. It's built into us, perhaps even at a genetic level. We long for what
the first man and woman once enjoyed—a perfect and beautiful Earth with free and untainted relationships with God, each other,
animals, and our environment. Every attempt at human progress has been an attempt to overcome what was lost in the Fall.
John Eldredge, in
The Journey of Desire,
tells a parable of a sea lion who had lost the sea and lived in a desert where it was dry and dusty. But something inside
him longed for what he'd been made for: "How the sea lion came to the barren lands, no one could remember. It all seemed so
very long ago. So long, in fact, it appeared as though he had always been there. Not that he belonged in such an arid place.
How could that be? He was, after all, a sea lion. But as you know, once you have lived so long in a certain spot, no matter
how odd, you come to think of it as home."
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Our ancestors came from Eden. We are headed toward a New Earth. Meanwhile, we live out our lives on a sin-corrupted Earth,
between Eden and the New Earth, but we must never forget that this is not our natural state. Sin and death and suffering and
war and poverty are not natural—they are the devastating results of our rebellion against God.
We long for a return to Paradise—a perfect world, without the corruption of sin, where God walks with us and talks with us
in the cool of the day. Because we're human beings, we desire something tangible and physical, something that will not fade
away. And that is exactly what God promises us—a home that will not be destroyed, a kingdom that will not fade, a city with
unshakable foundations, an incorruptible inheritance.
Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, forever establishing our connection to the earth (Genesis 2:7). Just as we are
made
from
the earth, so too we are
ma.de for
the earth. But, you may object, Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for us and would take us there to live with him
forever (John 14:2-3). Yes. But
what is that placet
Revelation 21 makes it clear—it's the New Earth. That's where the New Jerusalem will reside when it comes down out of Heaven.
Only
then
will we be truly home.
CLUES TO THE NATURE OF THE ETERNAL HEAVEN
I heard a pastor say on the radio, "There's nothing in our present experience that can suggest to us what Heaven is like."
But if the eternal Heaven will be a New Earth, doesn't that suggest that the current Earth must be bursting with clues about
what Heaven will be like?
Scripture gives us images full of hints and implications about Heaven. Put them together, and these jigsaw pieces form a beautiful
picture. For example, we're told that Heaven is a city (Hebrews 11:10; 13:14). When we hear the word
city,
we shouldn't scratch our heads and think, "I wonder what that means?" We understand cities. Cities have buildings, culture,
art, music, athletics, goods and services, events of all kinds. And, of course, cities have
people
engaged in activities, gatherings, conversations, and work.
Heaven is also described as a country (Hebrews 11:16). We know about countries. They have territories, rulers, national interests,
pride in their identity, and citizens who are both diverse and unified.
If we can't imagine our present Earth without rivers, mountains, trees, and flowers, then why would we try to imagine the
New Earth without these features? We wouldn't expect a non-Earth to have mountains and rivers. But God doesn't promise us
a non-Earth. He promises us a
New
Earth. If the word
Earth
in this phrase means anything, it means that we can expect to find earthly things there—including atmosphere, mountains, water,
trees, people, houses—even cities, buildings, and streets. (These familiar features are specifically mentioned in Revelation
21-22.)
We're told we'll have resurrection bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-44). When God speaks of us having these bodies, do we shrug
our shoulders and say, "I can't imagine what a new body would be like"? No, of course we can imagine it. We know what a body
is—we've had one all our lives! (And we can remember when ours looked better, can't we?) So we
can
imagine a new body.
In Heaven, we'll rest (Revelation 14:13). We know what it means to rest. And to
want to
rest (Hebrews 4:10-11).
We're told we will serve Christ on the New Earth, working for his glory (Revelation 22:3). We know what it means to work.
And to
want
to work.
Scripture speaks of a New Jerusalem made of precious stones. Some of the jewels listed in Revelation 21:19-21 are among the
hardest substances known. They indicate the material solidity of the New Earth.
The problem is not that the Bible doesn't tell us much about Heaven. It's that we don't pay attention to what it tells us.
Some of the best portrayals I've seen or the eternal Heaven are in children's books. Why? Because they depict earthly scenes,
with animals and people playing, and joyful activities. The books for adults, on the other hand, often try to be philosophical,
profound, ethereal, and otherworldly. But that kind of Heaven is precisely what the Bible
doesn't
portray as the place where we'll live foreever.
God promises that the glory of his people will demand a glorious creation to live in. So the fallen creation will obtain the
very freedom from futility and evil and pain that the church is given. So when God makes all things new, he makes us new spiritually
and marally he makes us new physically, and then he makes the whole creation new so that our environment fits our perfected
spirits and bodies.
JOHN PIPER
John Eldredge says, We can only hope for what we desire."
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To JOHN PIPER this I would add a corollary:
We can only desire what we can imagine.
If you think you can't imagine Heaven—or if you imagine it as something drab and unappealing—you can't get excited about it.
You can't come with the childlike eagerness that God so highly values (Mark 10:15).
Abraham "was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10). If he was
looking forward to it, don't you think he was imagining what it would be like? Abraham's descendants "were longing for a better
country—a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11:16). And, as Christ's followers, "we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking
for the city that is to come" (Hebrews 13:14); "we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised"
(2 Peter 3:13, NLT).
Are we looking forward to, longing for, and looking for an unearthly realm? No—we're longing for new heavens and a New Earth
. . . a new
universe.
IS THE ETERNAL HEAVEN AN ACTUAL
PLACE?
Many people can't resist spiritualizing what the Bible teaches about Heaven. According to an evangelical theologian, "While
heaven is both a place and a state, it is primarily a state."
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But what does this mean? Is any other place primarily a state?
Another theologian writes, "Paul does not think of heaven as a place, but thinks of it in terms of the presence of God."
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But when a person is "present," doesn't that suggest there's a place?
One book
puts place
in quotation marks whenever it uses the word to describe Heaven or Hell. It says Paradise is "a spiritual condition more than
a spatial location."
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But Jesus didn't say that Heaven was "primarily a state" or a "spiritual condition." He spoke of a
house
with many
rooms
in which he would prepare a
place
for us (John 14:2). In Revelation 21-22, the New Earth and New Jerusalem are portrayed as actual places, with detailed physical
descriptions.
Jesus told the disciples, "I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am" (John 14:3). He uses
ordinary, earthly, spatial terms to describe Heaven. The word
where
refers to a place, a location. Likewise, the phrase
come back and take you
indicates movement and a physical destination.
If Heaven isn't a place, would Jesus have said it was? If we reduce Heaven to something less than or other than a place, we
strip Christ's words of their meaning.
ARE WE JUST A-PASSING THROUGH?
The old gospel song, "This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through," is a half-truth. We may pass from the earth
through death, but eventually we'll be back to live on the restored Earth.
Earth has been damaged by our sin (Genesis 3:17). Therefore, the earth as it is now (under the Curse) is not our home. The
world as it was, and as it will be,
is
our home. We have never known a world without sin, suffering, and death. Yet we yearn for such a life and such a world. When
we see a roaring waterfall, beautiful flowers, a wild animal in its native habitat, or the joy in the eyes of our pets when
they see us, we sense that this world is—or at least was
meant to be
—our home.
We are pilgrims in this life, not because our home will never be on Earth, but because our eternal home is not
currently
on Earth. It was and it will be, but it's not now.
Will the Eden we long for return? Will it be occupied by familiar, tangible, physical features and fully embodied people?
The Bible clearly answers
yes.
The biblical doctrine of the New Earth implies something startling: that if we want to know what the ultimate Heaven, our
eternal home, will be like, the best place to start is by looking around us. We shouldn't close our eyes and try to imagine
the unimaginable. We should open our eyes, because the present Earth is as much a valid reference point for envisioning the
New Earth as our present bodies are a valid reference point for envisioning our new bodies. After all, we're living on the
remnants of a perfect world, as the remnants of a perfect humanity. We shouldn't read into the New Earth anything that's wrong
with this one, but can we not imagine what it would be like to be unhindered by disease and death? Can we not envision natural
beauty untainted by destruction?
The idea of the New Earth as a physical place isn't an invention of shortsighted human imagination. Rather, it's the invention
of a transcendent God, who made physical human beings to live on a physical Earth,
and
who chose to become a man himself on that same Earth. He did this that he might redeem mankind
and
Earth. Why? In order to glorify himself and enjoy forever the company of men and women in a world he's made for us.
THE THREE PHASES OF EARTH'S HISTORY
In order to have a biblicalworldview, we must have a sense of our past, present, and future, and how they relate to each other.
Without understanding God's original plan for mankind and the earth, we cannot understand his future plan. Without the bookends
of past and future in place, the book itself—our present lives—won't stand up.
The following chart shows the three phases of Earth's history: humanity's past on the original Earth; our present experience
on the fallen Earth; and our promised future on the New Earth.
†
The chart portrays human history and human destiny. It demonstrates the continuity of past, present, and future, and the continuity
between life on the old Earth and life on the New Earth. By comparing each series of statements, you'll see the distinct differences
between these three periods. I encourage you to study this chart and contemplate the significance of each phase of Earth's
history.
THREE ERAS OF MANKIND AND EARTH
