We often hear from people who claim that they visited heaven. I often wonder if what they saw was truly heaven or if it’s merely something that happened in their brains. My skepticism increases when even non-Christians report similar experiences.
For the annual 10-day early morning prayer meetings in January, I’ve chosen to go over “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. I’ll preach from it as usual and I’d like you read it before you come. Alcorn is a seminary professor who has published many books. In this book, he describes what heaven will look based solely on Scripture.
He believes that we won’t live ghostly lives after we die but fuller lives. We’ll experience the same pleasure and happiness we do on this earth, only more fully. This life will start when Jesus returns and dead saints are resurrected. The place where we will live is a “new heaven and earth,” (Rev. 21) our current earth miraculously transformed.
There, we will wear glorious resurrected bodies. We won’t get sick, age or die. All our physical deformities and weaknesses will disappear because our bodies will be renewed. Likewise, nature will be renewed. There will be no physical calamities and strong and weak animals will play together.
The “natural” laws of the new heaven and earth will be different from our present natural laws. Some scientists postulate that there is a world where everything is the exact opposite of our universe, where electrons have positive charges and protons have negative charges. Everything gets younger instead of getting old. If this is true, atoms and molecules in the new heaven and earth are so different from those on our earth that such a life might be possible.
The new heaven and earth is not created, but renewed, as the name indicates. So when we go there it won’t seem strange or foreign but familiar and comfortable. We’ll find all the good things we enjoy here on earth, only in fuller form. We will see mountains we climbed, beaches where we swam, villages and cities we visited. We’ll find poetry, music, and books we enjoyed. There will be intellectual pursuits and physical exploits. We will meet relatives and friends we loved who died before us.
Some portions of the book made me wonder, “Is that truly what heaven will be like?” But the author’s exegesis of Scripture is so sound that it’s hard to refute him. Heaven may not be exactly how he describes. It may probably turn out better and more wonderful. But even if heaven is only half as good as depicted in the book, it’s worth hoping for and looking forward to.
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