Earthly thoughts on Heaven

Pastor Hans Voortman

When I said to a friend of mine recently "I've been thinking a lot about heaven lately," his retort was, "Why, do you think you are going there soon?"

Our culture thinks little of heaven, except near moments of death, so my friend's response was hardly surprising. Contemplation of heaven is left to the mystics and is all seen as a bit too serious for this generation that is into 'Living' with a capital 'L'.

As I've mentioned heaven to other friends, they have, in turn, looked at me rather puzzled and asked, "Why?" Perhaps even more concerning, some have said, "So?"

Heaven seems a long way from twentieth century living. The 'new' generation that asks, "What's in it for me?" sees little value in being heaven-conscious except perhaps as a safe 'each way bet' when you're getting old, or as an act of desperation when you're on your death-bed. Until then, heaven is left on the back-burner of our lives where we don't have to think about it or live life with its shadow of accountability cast over us.

In the compelling and compassionate song, "Tears in Heaven", Eric Clapton asks, "Would I know your name, if I saw you in heaven?" On the death of his son, Clapton's reflections also include heaven.

Heaven represents comfort and profound hope. Yet, why do we wait until the point of death before drawing it into focus? At funerals, people expect to talk of heaven - it seem appropriate. Yet in everyday life, it's something we believe in but never talk about.

Recently, 81% of respondents to a Time Magazine poll indicated that they believed in the notion of heaven. Yet most people have little idea of what to actually think about when considering heaven. In the same poll, 67% thought of heaven as a place "up there". Despite being a place that's given little thought, 61% figured they're going there, whereas only 1% felt they were going to hell! Heaven was also perceived as being full of the usual stereotypes: angels (93%), St Peter (79%), harps (43%) and halos (36%).

OUR AWARENESS OF HEAVEN

I guess there are two extremes we can go to in our attitude to heaven. One is to be "so heavenly minded that we're of no earthly good" and the other is to be "so earthly minded that we're of no heavenly good". The challenge to me is to live life here to the full, yet with the continual sense that our citizenship is in heaven.

Larry Norman, a contemporary Christian music pioneer, entitled one of his albums, "Only Visiting This Planet". That's the attitude we should have! Our real home is heaven and we're just passing through this earthly existence.

The Apostle Paul believed it to be so and lived his life mindful of the fact: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain . I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body" (Php. 1:21-24). Elsewhere he says, "For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we . wish . to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (2 Cor. 5:4). He understood what the Apostle John meant when he said, "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 Jn. 5:12).

HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP

To live with a sense of your heavenly citizenship makes the things of this world rather transient. What an understanding Paul had of this when he wrote of that which is mortal being swallowed up by life. We tend to think of life being swallowed up by death, but rather, the Bible challenges us to believe in mortality being overwhelmed by immortality. Having the son gives us access to eternal life, or better put, life eternal (Jn. 3:16; 1 Jn. 2:25). No wonder Paul could boldly declare: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15:55).

C.S. Lewis said of heaven, ". it is the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both." We "cannot tell" because we've never experienced it. Describing heaven is like trying to tell a blind person what a sunset looks like. Yet Lewis also said "we cannot hide", meaning we'd like to forget or dismiss the idea of heaven as fanciful, yet our experience is constantly suggesting the opposite.

Something deep in the heart of man calls out to be transcendent. Faced with imminent death, the spirit in every human cries out to live on. The soul is repulsed by the notion of a void, nothingness or annihilation. Subconsciously, it seems that we somehow instinctively know that we're meant to step out of this life and into the life to come. In that sense, death is a transition (Jn 5:24).

Of course the sobering message of the gospel is that our choices in this life determine the eternal destiny of what lies ahead. As much as the Bible gives us the hope of heaven, it also portrays the reality of hell (Rom. 6:23; Matt. 8:12).

CHANGING VIEWS OF HEAVEN

It's hard to put heaven into words. Paul says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9). The Bible writers simply accepted that heaven is way beyond the mind's capacity to either comprehend or conceive.

Early church fathers, such as Tertullian and Augustine, had a beatific vision of heaven, emphasising saints in rapturous and direct communion with God.

The more humanistic Renaissance period tended to emphasise the human to human celebration in heaven, presided over by the Virgin Mary.

Through the reformers and Puritans, the heavenly imagery again became more God-focused, emphasising a sense of the last judgement and a more Christ-centred vision of heaven.

In the Victorian England of last century, one writer described heaven this way: "We stopped before a house of exquisite carving and colouring . there were flowers - not too many; birds; and I noticed a fine dog sunning himself upon the steps." There was a dog, but there was very little of God! The vision, like the age itself, honoured human progress.

And so today heaven is non-descript. Caught in the demands of a scientific age which needs to feel, see, test and prove, how do you handle heaven except to disregard it? "Out of sight, out of mind" is the response of this age - even in the church. As David Wells, a theology professor from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, observed, "I don't think heaven is even a blip on the Christian screen, from one end of the denominational spectrum to the other."

THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF HEAVEN

And this is my lament, for even though the writers of the Scriptures may have had difficulty in using human concepts to describe heaven, they nonetheless frequently pointed to heaven and assumed it to be the measuring rod and reference point for all Christian living. Paul places a challenge before us: ". each one should be careful how he builds . his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light" (1 Cor. 3:10-15). We really don't have the luxury of disregarding heaven (or hell) as our age would numb us into doing.

The Apostle John does his best to describe the "New Jerusalem" (Rev. 19:1-10; 21:1-5, 15-27). Heaven is seen as huge, overwhelming in grandeur, and awesome in its atmosphere of devotion and praise. Superlatives such as "streets paved with gold" (21:21) and praise ". like the roar of rushing waters and like peals of thunder" (19:6) paint pictures beyond our imagining.

The Apostle Paul was caught up into heaven. As he said, whether he was in the body or out of it, he couldn't tell, but he ". heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell" (2 Cor. 12:2-4). No words, no thoughts, no pictures could describe the indescribable!

In the Great Divorce , C.S Lewis describes a bus load of tourists who go on a package deal to heaven and when they get there they can't stand the place - everything is too intense! The water tastes strong, the babbling brook is deafening, the sunshine too bright! Even the blades of grass protrude through their shoes, cutting their feet. Lewis' view of heaven was of everything the earth was, only made more real.

LIBERATION

Barry McGuire once quoted a friend of his who loved tending roses. One day, as the friend was observing the magnificence of a bloom, he heard God say to him, "Son, if you think this rose is beautiful, wait to you see one in my celestial rose garden. Then you will have seen a rose!" Perhaps this is what Paul is hinting at when he says that "the creation waits in eager expectation . subjected to frustration" and that it now waits ". in hope that it will be liberated from its bondage to decay" (Rom. 9:19-23).

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews suggests that all we see now serves merely as a "copy and shadow of what is in heaven" (Heb. 8:5). The best is yet to come! So heaven isn't to be feared as a great step into the unknown, but rather embraced as a fulfilment of all God intended His creation to be before 'the fall' and its debasement brought on by sin's corruption.

Perhaps too, when we're "changed in the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor 15:51-52), the 80-90% of our mind they say is now dormant and unused will be opened so that we can "understand all things" (1 Cor. 13:12). Infinity and timelessness which confound us now will in fact become the realm we live in. Star Trek, eat you heart out!

We'll be boldly going where no man has gone before because it will be all part of our celestial playground made by a loving God for His children to enjoy. Where sin limits us to the "things of this world", then we will truly no longer be "of this world" (Jn. 15:19, 2 Cor. 10:3). We will understand all mysteries. As Paul states, "the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints" (Col. 1:26).

Wow! Heaven is going to be a blast. If you think being a Christian is great now, just wait till you become all God intends you to be! No wonder the apostle Paul was torn between the two - wanting to be here, and wanting to be there at the same time! (Phil. 1:23)

KEEPING A HEAVENLY PERSPECTIVE

Finally, let me share a few positive results of keeping heaven in the forefront of our consciousness:

1. It maintains the urgency of our task.

It's easy to be dulled into slumber, losing sight of the life and death struggle that exists for the souls of people. We in the West have become too comfortable with and, in the short term, too gratified by, the "things of this world". Talk of heaven barely raises more than a yawn now-a-days. Yet heaven-consciousness is coupled to hell-consciousness! People's choice concerning Jesus determines their eternal destiny. So we should be compelled to move forward in evangelical zeal to save as many as possible "whilst there is yet time" (1 Cor. 7:29). Richard Baxter, the Puritan writer, was spurred on by the reality of heaven and wrote: "With a deep sense of time's great preciousness, I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men."

2. It affects our priorities.

In the words of the old hymn, when heaven is your destiny, ". the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." Values, priorities and attitudes to possessions and career can't help but be altered when heaven's shadow is cast across your life. How different our next two weeks would be if we knew they were to be our last! Jesus' challenge was, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul" (Mt. 16:26). In the light of heaven's rewards, Satan's worldly seductions are immaterial!

3. It gives lives a focus.

Everything comes into focus because you've got your ultimate bearing. Instead of drifting aimlessly on the sea of life, you now know your port of call, and everything gains perspective because of it. Whether it's career, friendship, service for God, material 'stuff' or whatever, all is to be measured in the light of the final reference point of heaven. As Job discovered, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart" (Job 1:21). Stripped of everything, the things of this world became rather transient in value.

4. It gives us inner calm and poise.

Heaven-consciousness settles your spirit. Your outer world may be in chaos, but when you know your life is ultimately secure, an all-pervading, deep-down peace rests on you. It was said of Richard Baxter that "when he spoke of weighty soul concerns, you might find his Spirit drenched therein". Like the apostle Paul and so many great saints of old, Baxter had learnt to soldier on without discouragement, buoyed up by a hope within him, carried along by the Spirit that joined him to the eternal presence of Christ within: "To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me" (Col 1:29).

Conclusion

The Christian hope of heaven is inspiring: the joy of reunion with those we love forever (1 Thess. 4:13-18); the wondrous and blissful romping through God's endless creation, discovering and uncovering, in the infinite pursuit of knowing all God has prepared for us (1 Cor. 2:9). We will live in a paradise of no pain, sickness, death or rancour. We will be surrounded by choirs of angels joining saints of all ages in wondrous worship at the throne of God. It's beyond our capacity to comprehend. It takes our breath away. It transforms us completely as we enter in.

I read recently that once the journey to God is finished, the infinite journey with God begins. Christianity is about eternal life. How critical it is for us to maintain heaven as a central axiom in all that we do.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope . an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you" 1 Peter 1:3-4.

 

References:

• "Does Heaven Exist?", Time Magazine , March 24, 1997, p 47.

• J.I. Packer (Ed.), Loren Wilkinson (Ed.), Alive to God: Studies in Spirituality , Downers Grove, IVP, 1992