Heaven
“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” -Hebrews 11:3
-I was sitting on my deck looking at the stars the other night, and I had one of those “desiring Heaven” moments. I just had that type of moment where I really desired Heaven, and all that comes along with it; no strife, no anxiety, no worry, pure rest, and out of this decadent shell of flesh of mine and to be in the presence of thee Holy God. Check, I’ll take one of them.
The simultaneously interesting and sad thing about Heaven is though, is peoples’ skewed and false interpretations of it. In most religions and schools of thought, Heaven has been reduced to almost hackneyed human standards and expectations. Visions of pearly white gates, golden streets, 77 virgins, sexual ecstasy, etc......how mundane! If God is going to go about all the trouble of creating a paradise worthy of Himself, you think he’s gonna bother about with our lame and utterly miniscule human pleasures and pursuits!?! Do people honestly believe Heaven is composed of merely “enhanced” or “exalted” forms of human existence?!? Gee, how trite, how insanely bromidic. If Heaven is just some realm of enlightened “humanness”, some super orgy of sexual experience, or even some spectacular geographic and architectural “heavenly” wonder...well count me out if that’s the case, and furthermore screw Christianity. Talk about major underachievement if that’s the best God can come up with for Infinity. I don’t want to be associated with a god that half-@$$es his greatest creation.
Also, a religion’s or school of thought’s outlook of what Heaven is exactly tells a lot of those religions’ or school of thoughts’ origin and validity. If visions of Heaven contain the aforementioned, very “human” descriptions, with its pearly gates and sexual pleasures, you can most definitely check that religion or school of thought off as a complete farce, developed to satisfy man’s selfish, own-glory vision of what paradise should be. Furthermore, any version of Heaven that contains anything directly associated with operating under the current laws of the universe is false too, based on Biblical descriptions of Heaven. Anything operating solely with our current dimensions (length, width, depth, time) is false also. You really think God is gonna bother around with thermodynamics and gravity and the such? You must be mistaken. How can you be so sure Keith? I’m glad you asked.
Folks, the Bible makes it pretty clear the nature of God. He’s all-loving, omnipotent, triune, a Philadelphia Flyers fan, etc. The Bible also makes it pretty clear God’s composition, or lack there-of, or incomprehensibility of. In short, God is not of this world or universe. Sure he created it, and sure he exists in it; heck he even walked in it, but that does not mean he’s completely defined by it. In fact, this existence we live in is hopelessly inadequate to describe perfectly the compositional and existential nature of God, and Heaven. Just look at perplexing descriptions like the Trinity and such. Of course we can’t adequately explain it! I think C.S. Lewis said it best:
“If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about." - C.S. Lewis
We only live in 3-space dimensions whereas God lives in 3 plus a possible infinite number of em. That’s like trying to explain to someone who lives in a 2-D universe what a Nintendo Gamecube looks like. They will be utterly befuddled when you tell them about a 3rd dimensional unit called depth; tis the nature of the Trinity. Hebrews 11:3 eludes to this “not of this world-ness” I was talking about earlier. More verses that describe God’s transcendent nature are:
Table 1: Some biblical statements of cosmological significance
1. God existed before the universe. God exists totally apart from the universe, and yet can be everywhere within it. (Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16-17)
2. Time has a beginning. God's existence precedes time. (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2)
3. Jesus Christ created the universe. He has no beginning and was not created. (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16-17)
4. God created the universe from that which cannot be detected with the five senses. (Hebrews 11:3)
5. After His resurrection Jesus could pass through walls in His physical body, an evidence of His extradimensionality. (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:26-28)
6. God is very near, yet we cannot see Him, a further evidence of His extradimensionality. (Exodus 33:20; Deuteronomy 30:11-14; John 6:46)
7. God designed the universe in such a way that it would support human beings. (Genesis 1, 2; Nehemiah 9:6; Job 38; Psalm 8:3; Isaiah 45:18)
Furthermore, some religions often attribute “sexual” characteristics to divine beings (i.e. God). This is an obvious contrivance of man to “humanize” God and only further manifests the utter fakeness to the whole thing. Come on people, common sense here. Again, God is most assuredly not going to bother about our inferiorly limited expressions of pleasure and/or desire. Why would he when he’s got an infinite number of dimensions and reality to bother about with at his disposal?!
So if the Bible is so clear about God’s extradimensionality, and being that you’ve proved Heaven is most assuredly not like anything we could think of or experience....well then what is it like Keith? And how come the Bible describes it in human terms many times. Glad you asked.
It should be noted that the vague descriptions of Heaven (gold streets, “treasure”, etc.) are purely figurative. It’d be pointless for God to try to explain what Heaven is really like to our little girly human brains. It’s like trying to explain to the 2-D person what 3-D and beyond are like. It’s a losing battle. They’d have to experience it themselves. The best God can do is gives us figurative descriptions based in our experiences with this current existence. Jesus talked about this ability for us to not understand Heavenly things.
“I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” -John 3:12
So what is Heaven like? Well to be honest, we have no idea. Like I said, Heaven will be a completely different and foreign reality and existence then we’re currently aware of.
“as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” -2 Peter 3:12-14
We have no freaking idea what Heaven will be like folks, and any attempt by any human to describe it or act as if they know what it’s like is pure frivolous speculation based in pride I guess. No description is adequate, no description is accurate, and no description is poignant. And not only can we not describe Heaven physically, we have no idea what’ll it be like relationally. Of course we’ll have some form of relations between each other and God, but to suggest it is on par with relationships we have now, whether it be family, marriage, etc. , is just pure balderdash and ignorant in light of God’s transcendent glory. No my friends, the reality of Heaven is beyond anything we could hope or imagine or contemplate. God doesn’t screw around with earthly standards when he’s dealing with Heavenly standards. All we can honestly expect is something better then our current situation...something much better. So don’t worry about what Heaven is like or what we’ll do. We’ll be in an inexplicable paradise in the presence of God himself. What more do you need? If that ambiguous and inadequate explanation doesn’t satisfy you...well you need to check yourself...and your relationship with your Creator...
“There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.” -1 Corinthians 15:40
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” -Colossians 3:1-3