Chapter One - Introduction
What is Heaven going to be like? For years, I casually assumed that we could not know the answer to such a question. I had both said myself and heard statements like:“The Bible doesn’t say much about Heaven.”
“Heaven is a place of departed spirits.”
“We will no longer have bodies in Heaven.”
“It’s impossible to imagine what Heaven will be like.”
To be honest, I never really gave it much thought. I just assumed these statements were true. After all, they sounded accurate, and they sounded so “spiritual.” Additionally, I had many other assumptions about Heaven that came naturally as a result of believing statements like those above. In fact, one day in our local church I took a survey during a Sunday morning service. I asked the people to tell me what they thought about Heaven. What did they think it was going to be like; what are its attributes? The answers they gave were essentially identical to y own. There were a few new statements, but everybody essentially had the same assumptions. Furthermore, nobody had any Biblical reason for making these assumptions, they just all casually adopted these ideas. Some of the beliefs are listed here:
• Heaven is a place of disembodied spirits.
• In Heaven we will be “floating spirits.”
• There won’t be animals in Heaven.
• Time will cease to exist in Heaven.
• We will not have physical bodies, so we will not eat, drink, or sleep.
• There will no longer be genders in Heaven (no men or women, just spirits).
• In Heaven, we will continually praise God—like an eternal worship service. We will continually sing “holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” unto God forever.
• In Heaven, we will not remember our lives on Earth.
• There will be nothing physical in Heaven.
This is just a sample of some of the assumptions we all had. In fact, most of these were statements that I probably would have agreed with or casually assumed to be true. The reality is that I never really thought about it much. That morning I filled up an entire 4’x6’ white board with our beliefs about Heaven.
Then, I asked our church members two questions that proved to be both highly revealing and somewhat troublesome. I first asked them to be brutally honest and raise their hand if, with these beliefs about Heaven, any of them had ever thought that Heaven would be boring. Hands went up all over the building. One man shook his head repeatedly, lifted his hand half way up, and then put it back down. So, I asked him specifically if he had ever had this thought? He answered by stating that he had thought that Heaven would be boring, but he only believed that because he was in his carnal body, so he couldn’t get excited about the reality of Heaven while he was still in this “carnal flesh.” But, he believed that once he was freed from his natural body, then he could enjoy the fullness of Heaven. Wow! What a statement. I looked around the congregation and asked if anybody else felt that way. Heads nodded everywhere.
Finally, I asked, with these beliefs about Heaven, how many of our church members could honestly say they have had a hard time looking forward to Heaven? Again, hands went up everywhere and people essentially reiterated the statement of the man just quoted. Essentially, the two questions are the same, just asked two different ways. Nobody looks forward to doing something that is boring. However, if something is wonderful and exciting, everybody looks forward to it with great anticipation! Unfortunately, our assumptions about Heaven have caused us to see our destiny with the Lord, our ultimate reward and inheritance as boring, dull, colorless, dreary, and mundane. Basically, in order for people to get excited about Heaven they had to go through all sorts of mental gymnastics.
I would imagine that in this sense, our church is not much unlike many others out there who have casually assumed many errors concerning Heaven. It is my sincere prayer that this book will help you to be freed from these errors. I believe that God has opened my eyes plainly to the truth about Heaven. What you are about to read in the pages of this book is nothing new. In fact, Job had insight into it, Jesus taught it to his followers, and the Apostles taught it everywhere they went. Additionally, I have found that a great number of theologians, authors, and believers have always taught and believed what you will read in this book.
I no longer believe the aforementioned statements about Heaven. In fact, I believe that the Bible has a lot to say about Heaven, we just don’t pay attention to the Bible when it says it. The reason for this will be discussed in the next chapter.
This book is written for believers and it is about our eternal destiny. While there is some information about Hell and the future destiny of sinners, this book has been written with the mindset that the church is the intended audience. It is written to edify the Body of Christ and to help turn our hearts back to eternity. In short, this book is all about Heaven—its past, present, and most importantly, its future.