Heaven

by Randy Alcorn

  In Heaven, Christ watches closely what transpires on Earth, especially in the lives of God's people (Revelation 2-3). If the Sovereign God's attention is on Earth, why wouldn't the attention of his heavenly subjects be focused here as well? When a great war is transpiring, are those in the home country un­informed and unaware of it? When a great drama is taking place, do those who know the writer, producer, and cast—and have great interest in the outcome—refrain from watching?

  Angels saw Christ on Earth (1 Timothy 3:16). There are clear indications that the angels know what is happening on Earth (1 Corinthians 4:9; 1 Timo­thy 5:21). If angels, why not saints? It seems the people of God in Heaven would have as much of a vested interest in the spiritual events happening on Earth as angels do. Wouldn't we expect that the body and bride of Christ in Heaven would be intensely interested in the rest of the body and bride of Christ still living on Earth?

  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).

  SECTION THREE

  GRASPING REDEMPTION'S FAR REACH

  CHAPTER 8

  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

  Many 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."57 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."58 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." 59

  OUR LONGING FOR EDEN

  We are homesick for Eden.60 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."61

  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."62 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."63 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."64 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." 65 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.