WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE?
Heaven is where God is. He is the light of heaven, the joy of heaven, the healing of heaven. As you mature in your understanding of the Bible, you realize there is no material concept of heaven that will do it justice. The Bible talks about streets og gold as clear as crystal, walls made out of precious stones, and mansions with many rooms. All sorts of images immediately come to mind when we mention heaven. More than anything else, heaven is a spiritual situation where one spirtual being is in touch with another spiritual being.
Whatever we consider to be joy here on earth will be heightened millions of times beyond anything we can conceive when we get to heaven.....
In the Middle Ages, philosophers talked about the "ultimate good." The utlimate good to them was being in the presence of God. That will be the greatest aspect of heaven. Those who are there will be in his immediate presence, in a way no one can possible know this side of eternity.
Being in God's presence will bring an intensity of delight that will far exceed anything we could know here on earth. Furthermore, in heaven there will be neither death, nor sorrow, nor sickness, nor poverty.....
The Bible also talks about crowns and thrones in heaven, so we do know that heaven is not just a huge democracy where there is no differentation of function. There will be different functions and different levels of responsibility assigned to different people. There will still be levels of order and structure throughout God's universe.
The Bible says that those human beings who enter into heaven will actually judge the angels. The fallen angels - or demons - will come before us and we will decide their fates. Perhaps people will be assigned to watch over a planet or two. We do not know for certain what tasks we will be performing in heaven, but there will obviously be an ongoing, functioning universe. We will be God's messenger-agents in ordering and running it.
There are many things about heaven we do not really know. Will there be animals in heaven? The Bible says Jesus will be riding on a white horse when He returns to reign on the earth, but we do not know if this is a literal horse. A white horse represents purity and power, so this may be symbolic. We cannot say for sure if there will be animals of any kind in heaven.
Another question is whether or not infants go to heaven when they die. The answer to this question is yes. We do not know if they mature instantly upon entering God's presence, or if they go through a "growing-up" period in heaven.
We do know that we will be able to recognize our loved ones in heaven, and we will experience great joy over being reunited with them. You will live on in heaven, not some shadowy part of you. You will never feel so "alive" as when you enter into the heavenly city.
There is also going to be an extension of man's mind beyond anything we could begin to understand now. There will be an opening of understanding into the secrets and mysteries of the universe. Furthermore, in heaven there will be no fear of any kind of evil, and God will provide magnificently for His people.
What is heaven like? It is better than anything any human being could ever imagine when he tries to picture the best thing that could ever happen to him. Beyond that, there is not much else we could say!
IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH?
Yes! Emphatically, there is life aafter death!
........Not only is there life after death, but God is going to give us new bodies, better than the ones we have now. We are not going to be disembodied spirits.....
The Bible says that there will be a resurrection of the good and a resurrection of the evil. Some will rise to honor, and some to shame.
Those who have lived for God are going to have bodies like Jesus has - a glorious, wonderful body - and they will be with Him forever in glory. Those who have not lived for Him will be in a place of torment and punsihment. Yes, there is life after death, but the quality of that life depends upon how we spend our days in this "life before life."
WHERE DO PEOPLE GO WHEN THEY DIE?
Their bodies usually go into the ground and they go back to the dust from whence they came. The spirit of man, on the other hand, goes into an everlasting state, because spirits are immortal and cannot die. As I understand the Bible, at death those who are Christians go to be with the Lord, to a place of bliss called paradise. Those who are not Christians go to a place of suffering and torment called hell. They wait there for a final judgement, while those who are dead in Christ wait for their final rewards. This is a temporary waiting period before the resurrection, when there will be bodies assigned to these spirits.
The Bible does not teach soul sleep.
IS REINCARNATION TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE?
Definately not. Reincarnation is an Eastern concept that speaks of the transmigration of the human soul. In certain cultures it is believed that the souls of those who die come back as dung beetles, or as the rain or the dew. In Nepal they teach that evil men come back as dogs, and so they beat the dogs unmercifully. In India, cows, rats, and grasshoppers are viewed as people who have been reincarnated.
The overarching concept of reincarnation comes from the Hindu belief that life and death make up an eternal wheel. Each individual is attached to the wheel, and attached to each individual is a "karma" or fate. People supposedly purge their karma by successive incarnations. There is no end, only bad incarnations or possible good incarnations. There is no understanding, no rules, no reason; just mindless fate and hopeless attempts at cleansing guilt.
The Bible does not teach this at all..... The Bible teaches that when you are born you have the identity you will have for all eternity. You are never going to loose that identity. You are absolutely accountable for what you do in this life. There is no second chance, and no opportunity to come back and purge yourself of the sins and the wrongs you have done.....
There are those who claim that reincarnation is a Christian concept, but it is not..... When you have this concept of karma (the same thought is found in the Mohammdan concept of kismet) then you say, "Well, these people are the lower classes and that is their karma." You do not have to worry about feeding them, educating them, uplifting them, because they have that karma. They are where they belong. You will never find social justice and social progress in countries where the doctrine of reincarnation has a strong hold.
In comparison, the Bible says we are responsible for our brothers. We must be kind and good to the poor and the needy. The Bible teaches us that all people are beloved by God and they all have an equal chance, but the chance lasts only during this lifetime.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAVEN, PARADISE, AND PURGATORY?
.....paradise must be where Jesus is, because He was going to be there with the thief. It also must be a place that those who have faith in the Lord will enter immediately upon death. Paradise is a place of bliss and happiness. But it would seem to be an intermediate place, as opposed to the final establishment of a new heaven and a new earth.
In certain instances, heaven refers to the place where God rules. Heaven also refers to the final place where the spirits of the righteous dead will spend eternity after they have been joined with their resurrection bodies. Also, heaven can mean the space above the earth.
The wicked dead, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, go immediately to someplace called hades. They are waiting for a final judgement when they will be cast into the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. So in a sense there is an intermediate heaven and an intermediate hell.
The concept of purgatory is not biblical. Purgatory is supposed to be a transition period of indefinate duration intended for the perfecting of those people who die in Christ. .....The Bible teaches us that there are levels of heaven, but there is no mention of a place of purging and torment that would bring us to a point of being acceptable to God.
WHAT IS THE RESURRECTION, AND WHO WILL BE RESURRECTED FIRST?
The resurrection spoken of in the Bible is the reuniting of man's spirit, which is immortal and leaves his body at physical death, with a new spiritual body. The spiritual body will be immortal, and will have incredible powers, such as moving through physical objects like walls and doors, and traveling great distances instantaneously. These will be the bodies that Christians will have forever.
.....Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave, but this was a resuscitation, not a resurrection. Lazarus came back in his original body that was still subject to death. Some years later Lazarus died again, and stayed dead.
When Jesus Christ comes back again, He will resurrect those who have been born again. They will be joined with the spiritual bodies that have been prepared for their spirits.....
There also will be a second resurrection, which will come at the end of a 1,000-year reign of Christ. At that time, there will be a general resurrection of all people.
CAN I EVER FALL FROM HEAVEN?
Heaven is forever. In order for heaven to be heaven, there can never be the nagging possibility of a revolt which would cause us to lose it again. There will be no doubt, no confusion, and no fear in heaven. God will remove from the scene the cause of all rebellion, which is Satan.
WILL I HAVE MY FAMILY IN HEAVEN?
I see no reason why there could not be families in heaven. However, we are all part of God's family, and the bonds that draw us together in human families probably will not be necessary in heaven. There, we will all be a part of one enormous family and we will all feel a deep love for everyone else. There will not be the idea that "I am here with my wife and the two of us are seperate from everyone else." We will all be one in Christ.
We should understand that there will no longer be human procreation in heaven. The necessity of mating and child nuture will cease.
Pat Robertson
Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions
(c)1984 by Pat Robertson
Published in Virginia Beach, Va.
by The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc.