Heaven

by Randy Alcorn

  Let's not "correct" our children and grandchildren when they pray that they'll be able to see their pets again. The answer to that prayer is up to God. But he loves to hear the prayers of his children, and there is scriptural reason to believe he may answer those prayers. Remember too that our children's instinc­tive grasp of Heaven—and what we should look forward to there—is some­times better than ours. (Christoplatonism hasn't gripped them yet.)

  WHAT FUTURE IS GOD PLANNING FOR ANIMALS?

  On November 30, 1781, John Wesley, who spent a large part of his life on horseback, preached a remarkable message. He began by addressing the many passages that speak of God's provision for cattle and birds, and not muzzling the ox that treads the corn. Wesley asked, "If the Creator and Father of every living thing is rich in mercy towards all . . . how is it that misery of all kinds overspreads the face of the earth? . . . All the beasts of the field, and all the fowls of the air, were with Adam in paradise. And there is no question but their state was suited to their place: It was paradisiacal; perfectly happy"300

  Wesley explained mankind's appointed role on Earth and how the animals benefited from mankind's faithfulness to God and suffered in human rebellion: "Man was God's vicegerent upon earth, the prince and governor of this lower world; and all the blessings of God flowed through him to the inferior creatures. Man was the channel of conveyance between his Creator and the whole brute creation . . . so when man made himself incapable of transmitting those bless­ings, that communication was necessarily cut off."

  Wesley argued that animals originally had greater understanding, wills, pas­sions, liberty, and choice. He said, "How beautiful many of them were, we may conjecture from that which still remains.... It is probable they sustained much loss . . . their vigour, strength, and swiftness. But undoubtedly they suffered far more in their understanding.... As man is deprived of his perfection, his loving obedience to God; so brutes are deprived of theirperfection, their loving obedi­ence to man."

  After recounting mankind's sad record of cruelty to animals, Wesley asked,

  But will "the creature," will even the brute creation, always remain in this deplorable condition? God forbid that we should affirm this; yea, or even entertain such a thought! . . . The whole brute creation will then, undoubtedly, be restored, not only to the vigour, strength, and swiftness which they had at their creation, but to a far higher degree of each than they ever enjoyed. They will be restored, not only to that measure of understanding which they had in paradise, but to a degree of it as much higher than that. . . . Whatever affections they had in the garden of God, will be restored with vast increase; being exalted and refined in a manner which we ourselves are not now able to comprehend.

  Wesley envisioned a magnificent restoration of the animal kingdom on the New Earth: "And with their beauty their happiness will return. . . . In the new earth, as well as in the new heavens, there will be nothing to give pain, but every­thing that the wisdom and goodness of God can create to give happiness. As a recompense for what they [animals] once suffered .. . they shall enjoy happiness suited to their state, without alloy, without interruption, and without end."

  Wesley then made an extraordinary speculation: "What, if it should then please the all-wise, the all-gracious Creator to raise them higher in the scale of beings? What, if it should please him . . . to make them . . . capable of knowing and loving and enjoying the Author of their being?"

  MIGHT SOME ANIMALS TALK?

  Most people who've enjoyed the children's stories of Beatrix Potter, C. S. Lewis, or others who wrote of talking animals have probably never seriously consid­ered the possibility that some animals might actually have talked in Eden or that they might talk on the New Earth.

  We're told that in Eden the serpent was "more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made" (Genesis 3:1). More crafty suggests that some of the other animals were also crafty. Animals were smart, probably smarter than we imagine; the most intelligent animals we see around us are but fallen remnants of what once was. The serpent's intelligence was demon­strated in reasoning and persuasive speech. People typically imagine that Sa­tan possessed a dumb animal, the snake, but the text doesn't say that. Today Satan can speak through a human being but not an animal because people can talk and animals can't. But the fact that he spoke through an animal in Eden suggests the animal had the capacity to speak. There's no suggestion Eve was surprised to hear an animal speak, indicating other animals also may have spoken.

  When God spoke through Balaam's donkey, was he merely putting words into her mouth, or did he temporarily give the donkey the ability to verbalize her instinct, perceptions, and feelings? On the New Earth, might God, as John Wesley surmised, restore or increase both the intelligence and the communica­tive abilities of animals? Whales and dolphins communicate in highly specific ways, as do many primates, in varying degrees. These are God-given abilities. We should assume they'll be enhanced on the New Earth or at very least re­stored to the capabilities they had in Eden, where it's possible more than one animal talked.

  In a universe teeming with God's creativity, should talking animals or intel­ligent non-human beings (such as angels and "living creatures" that not only talk but worship) surprise us? If people will be smarter and more capable on the New Earth, should it surprise us that animals might also be smarter and more capable? Remember, both in the Fall (sin) and the rise (resurrection), as goes mankind, so goes creation.

  When in John's vision of Heaven he says, "I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice" (Revelation 8:13), it may be figurative language. But when the serpent spoke to Eve and when the donkey spoke to Balaam, the stories are recorded in historical narrative, not in apocalyptic literature. Nothing in the context of the Genesis account or the Balaam story indicates these shouldn't be taken literally. Furthermore, as we've seen, living creatures—animals—verbalize praise to God. And "every creature" in the universe is said to sing and give praise to the Lamb (Revelation 5:13). The word for creature in that verse is ktisma, which clearly means "animals" in its only other appearance in Revelation (8:9). Just because these passages are in the book of Revelation doesn't mean they cannot be literal.

  C. S. Lewis gives us a creative glimpse of what the resurrected Earth might be like. In The Magicians Nephew, King Asian declares the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, now in Narnia on its first day, to be his kings and queens. The talking animals make crowns for the first king and queen and express their delight in being ruled by these humans.

  One of the animals who watches this scene is a horse named Strawberry, who drew a London carriage on Earth. He toiled, and sometimes his master Frank, a cabbie and a good man, whipped him to make him move faster. Straw­berry, whom Asian renamed Fledge, marvels at the new King Frank in the New Narnia: "My old master's been changed nearly as much as I have! Why, he's a real master now."301

  Asian later says to King Frank and Queen Helen, "Be just and merciful and brave. The blessing is upon you."302

  All the people celebrate.

  All the animals rejoice.

  Asian, Lord of all, is pleased.

  SECTION TWELVE

  WHAT WILL WE DO IN HEAVEN?

  CHAPTER 41

  WILL HEAVEN EVER BE BORING?

  Acommon misconception about eternity surfaced in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A member of the undying "Q_continuum" longs for an end to his existence. Why? Because, he complains, everything that could be said and done has already been said and done, and now there's only rep­etition and utter boredom. He says, "For us, the disease is immortality." Finally he's allowed to end his existence.

  Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes, "I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse."

  Sadly, even among Christians, it's a prevalent myth that Heaven will be boring. Sometimes we can't envisio
n anything beyond strumming a harp and polishing the streets of gold. We've succumbed to Satan's strategies "to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place" (Revelation 13:6).

  WHAT WILL WE DO TO AVOID BOREDOM?

  People sometimes say, "I'd rather be having a good time in Hell than be bored in Heaven." Many people imagine Hell as a place where they'll hang around, shoot pool, and joke with friends. That could happen on the New Earth, but not in Hell.

  Hell is a place of torment and isolation, where friendship and good times don't exist. Hell will be deadly boring. Everything good, enjoyable, refreshing, fascinating, and interesting is derived from God. Without God there's nothing interesting to do. King David wrote, "In Your presence is fullness ofjoy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11, NKJV). In the presence of God, there's nothing but joy.

  In his book Things Unseen, pastor Mark Buchanan asks, Why won't we be bored in heaven? Because it's the one place where both impulses—to go beyond, to go home—are perfectly joined and totally satisfied. It's the one place where we're constantly discovering—where everything is always fresh and the possessing of a thing is as good as the pursuing of it—and yet where we are fully at home—where everything is as it ought to be and where we find, undiminished, that mysterious something we never found down here. . . . And this lifelong melancholy that hangs on us, this wishing we were someone else some­where else, vanishes too. Our craving to go beyond is always and fully realized. Our yearning for home is once and for all fulfilled. The ahh! of deep satisfaction and the aha! of delighted surprise meet, and they kiss.303

  Our belief that Heaven will be boring betrays a heresy—that God is boring.There's no greater nonsense. Our desire for pleasure and the experience of joy come directly from God's hand. He made our taste buds, adrenaline, sex drives, and the nerve endings that convey pleasure to our brains. Likewise, our imagi­nations and our capacity for joy and exhilaration were made by the very God we accuse of being boring. Are we so arrogant as to imagine that human beings came up with the idea of having fun?

  "Won't it be boring to be good all the time?" someone asked. Note the as­sumption: sin is exciting and righteousness is boring. We've fallen for the devil's lie. His most basic strategy, the same one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe that sin brings fulfillment. However, in reality, sin robs us of fulfillment. Sin doesn't make life interesting; it makes life empty. Sin doesn't create adventure; it blunts it. Sin doesn't expand life; it shrinks it. Sin's empti­ness inevitably leads to boredom. When there's fulfillment, when there's beauty, when we see God as he truly is—an endless reservoir of fascination—boredom becomes impossible.

  Those who believe that excitement can't exist without sin are thinking with sin-poisoned minds. Drug addicts are convinced that without their drugs they can't live happy lives. In fact—as everyone else can see—drugs make them mis­erable. Freedom from sin will mean freedom to be what God intended, freedom to find far greater joy in everything. In Heaven we'll be filled—as Psalm 16:11 describes it—with joy and eternal pleasures.

  WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK WE'D BE BORED?

  An elderly gentleman I led to Christ asked a question of a Christian employee in his care center: "Will we have fun in Heaven?"

  "Oh, no" the woman replied, appearing dismayed that he'd even asked.

  When he told me this story, I shook my head, because I've heard it so often. Why did this Christian woman respond as she did? Because, in accordance with the faulty assumptions of Christoplatonism, she instinctively linked fun with sin and boredom with holiness. But she couldn't be more wrong. God promises that we'll laugh, rejoice, and experience endless pleasures in Heaven.

  Someone told me nobody will enjoy playing golf in Heaven because it would get boring always hitting holes in one. But why assume everyone's skills will be equal and incapable of further development? Just as our minds will grow in knowledge, our resurrection bodies can develop greater skills.

  Another reason people assume Heaven is boring is that their Christian lives are boring. That's not God's fault; it's their own. God calls us to follow him in an adventure that should put us on life's edge. He's infinite in creativity, good­ness, beauty, and power. If we're experiencing the invigorating stirrings of God's Spirit, trusting him to fill our lives with divine appointments, experiencing the childlike delights of his gracious daily kindnesses, then we'll know that God is exciting and Heaven is exhilarating. People who love God crave his compan­ionship. To be in his presence will be the very opposite of boredom.

  We think of ourselves as fun-loving, and of God as a humorless killjoy. But we've got it backward. It's not God who's boring; it's us. Did we invent wit, hu­mor, and laughter? No. God did. We'll never begin to exhaust God's sense of humor and his love for adventure. The real question is this: How could God not be bored with us}

  Most of us can envision ourselves being happy for a few days or a week, if that. But a year of complete and sustained happiness? Impossible, we think, because we've never experienced it. We think of life under the Curse as nor­mal because that's all we've ever known. A hundred or a million years of hap­piness is inconceivable to us. Just as creatures who live in a flat land can't conceive of three-dimensional space, we can't conceive of unending happi­ness. Because that level of happiness is not possible here on the fallen Earth, we assume it won't be possible on the New Earth. But we're wrong. To prop­erly envision Heaven, we must remove from our eyes the distorted lenses of death and the Curse.

  WILL OUR WORK BE ENGAGING?

  On the New Earth, God will give us renewed minds and marvelously con­structed bodies. We'll be whole people, full of energy and vision. James Camp­bell says, "The work on the other side, whatever be its character, will be adapted to each one's special aptitude and powers. It will be the work he can do best; the work that will give the fullest play to all that is within him."304

  Even under the Curse, we catch glimpses of how work can be enriching, how it can build relationships, and how it can help us to improve. Work stretches us in ways that make us smarter, wiser, and more fulfilled. The God who created us to do good works (Ephesians 2:10) will not cancel this purpose when he resurrects us to inhabit the new universe. The Bible's picture of resur­rected people at work in a vibrant society on a resurrected Earth couldn't be more compelling: We're going to help God run the universe (Luke 19:11-27).

  We're told that we will serve God in Heaven (Revelation 7:15; 22:3). Service is active, not passive. It involves fulfilling responsibilities in which we expend en­ergy. Work in Heaven won't be frustrating or fruitless; instead, it will involve lasting accomplishment, unhindered by decay and fatigue, enhanced by unlimited resources. We'rell approach our work with the enthusiasm we bring to our favorite sport or hobby.

  Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.

  SIMONE WEIL

  In Heaven, we'll reign with Christ, exercise leadership and authority, and make important decisions. This implies we'll be given specific responsibilities to those under our leadership ( Luke 19:17-19, We'll set goals, devise plans, and share ideas. Our best work days on the present Earth—those days when everything turns out better than we planned, when we get everything done on time, and when everyone on the team pulls together and enjoys each other—are just a small foretaste of the joy our work will bring us on the New Earth.

  A disembodied existence would be boring, but the reality of our bodily res­urrection puts boredom to death. Imagine the animals that zoologists will re­search and play with or the flowers that botanists will study. Gifted astronomers and explorers may go from star system to star system, galaxy to galaxy, studying the wonders of God's creation. If we think life on the New Earth will be boring, we just aren't getting it. Take a closer look at God and his Word, and all thoughts that we'll be bored in his presence will vanish.

  WILL OUR LIFE'S WO
RK CONTINUE?

  Because there will be continuity from the old Earth to the new, it's possible we'll continue some of the work we started on the old Earth. I believe we'll pursue some of the same things we were doing, or dreamed of doing, before our death. Of course, people whose jobs depend on aspects of our fallen world that will no longer exist on the New Earth—such as dentists (decay), police officers (crime), funeral directors (death), insurance salespeople (disability), and many others—will change their work in Heaven, but that doesn't mean they'll be unemployed. What's now an interest or hobby may become their main vocation. Others, how­ever, may continue with work similar to what they do now, whether as gardeners, engineers, builders, artists, animal trainers, musicians, scientists, craftspeople, or hundreds of other vocations. A significant difference will be that they'll work without the hindrances of toil, pain, corruption, and sin.

  Author Victor Hugo, in reflecting on his life's work, spoke profoundly of anticipating his work in Heaven: .

  I feel within me that future life. I am like a forest that has been razed; the new shoots are stronger and brighter. I shall most certainly rise toward the heavens the nearer my approach to the end, the plainer is the sound of immortal symphonies of worlds which invite me. For half a century I have been translating my thoughts into prose and verse: history, drama, philos­ophy, romance, tradition, satire, ode, and song; all of these I have tried. But I feel I haven't given utterance to the thousandth part of what lies within me. When I go to the grave I can say, as others have said, "My day's work is done." But I cannot say, "My life is done." My work will recommence the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes upon the twilight, but opens upon the dawn.305 .