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Surprises About Heaven
9 Facts About Heaven that Will Surprise You
by Randy Alcorn
I saw countless fish of every shape,
size and color. Just when I thought I'd seen the most beautiful fish,
along came one even more striking.
Etched in my memory is the sound of a gasp
going through my snorkel as my eyes were opened to a breathtaking underwater
world.
As believers, I imagine our first glimpse
of heaven will cause us to gasp in a similar way — with amazement and
delight.
That first gasp will likely be followed by
many more as we continually encounter new sights in that endlessly wonderful
place.
Though most of us are in no hurry to get to
our final destination, we all have questions about it.
After in-depth study of the
Scriptures, here are some of the most frequently asked questions.
1. We won't miss our
old lives.
Have you ever bought an economy ticket for a
flight, but because of overbooking, been upgraded to first class?
Did you regret the upgrade? Did you spend your
time wondering, What am I missing by not being in the back of the
plane?
The upgrade from Earth to heaven will be
vastly superior to that from economy to first class. If we would miss something
from our old lives, it would be available to us in heaven.
Why? Because we will experience all God
intends for us. He fashions us to want precisely what He will give us so what
He gives us will be exactly what we want.
2. We won't become
angels.
I'm often asked if people, particularly
children, become angels when they die.
The answer is no.
Death is a relocation of the same person from
one place to another. The place changes, but the person remains the same.
The same person who becomes absent from his or
her body becomes present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).
We won't be angels but we'll be with them.
3. We won't be
tempted.
Once I was asked if we will ever be tempted to
turn our backs on Christ.
The answer is no.
What would tempt us? Innocence is the absence
of something (sin), while righteousness is the presence of something (God's
holiness).
God will never withdraw His holiness from us;
therefore, in heaven we cannot sin.
We'll never forget the ugliness of sin,
however. Having known death and life, we who experience life will never want to
go back to death.
We'll never be deceived into thinking God is
withholding something good from us or that sin is in our best interests.
We'll always know sin's costs.
Every time we see the scarred hands of
Jesus, we'll
remember. We'll see sin as God does. It will be stripped of its illusions and
will be utterly unappealing.
4. We will have work
to do.
The idea of working in heaven is foreign to
many people.
Yet Scripture clearly teaches it. When God
created Adam, he "took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15).
Work was part of the original Eden. It was
part of a perfect human life.
God Himself is a worker. He didn't create
the world and then retire.
Jesus said, "My Father is always at
His work to this very day, and I, too, am working" (John 5:17).
Jesus found great satisfaction in His work. "‘My
food,' Jesus said, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish
His work'" (John
4:34).
We'll also have work to do, satisfying and
enriching work that we can't wait to get back to, work that'll never be
drudgery.
God is the primary worker, and as His
image-bearers, we're made to work. We create, accomplish, set goals and
fulfill them — to God's glory.
5. We will still
experience emotions.
In Scripture, God is said to enjoy, love,
laugh, take delight and rejoice, as well as be angry, happy,
jealous and glad.
To be like God means to
have and express emotions. Hence, we should expect that in heaven emotions will exist for
God's glory and our good.
We know that people in heaven have lots of
feelings — all good ones.
We're told of banquets, feasts and singing.
People will laugh there (Luke
6:21).
Will we cry in heaven?
The Bible says, "He will wipe away
every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there
will no longer be any mourning, or crying or pain" (Revelation 21:4).
These are the tears of suffering over sin and
death, the tears of oppressed people, the cries of the poor, the widow, the
orphaned, the unborn and the persecuted.
Such crying will be no more.
We might, though, shed tears of joy. Can you
imagine joy flooding your eyes as you meet Christ, for example, and as you're
reunited with loved ones? I can.
6. We
still won't know everything.
God alone is omniscient. When we die, we'll
see things far more clearly, and we'll know much more than we know now. But
we'll never know everything.
In heaven we'll be flawless, but not
knowing everything isn't a flaw. It's part of being finite.
Righteous angels don't know everything, and
they long to know more (1
Peter 1:12).
They're flawless but finite. We should expect
to long for greater knowledge, as angels do. And we'll spend eternity gaining
the greater knowledge we'll seek.
7. We will recognize
one another.
Scripture gives no indication of a memory wipe
causing us not to recognize family and friends. Paul anticipated being with the
Thessalonians in heaven, and it never occurred to him he wouldn't know them.
In fact, if we wouldn't know our loved ones,
the comfort of an afterlife reunion, taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, would
be no comfort at all.
In heaven we probably won't fail to
recognize an acquaintance in a crowd or forget people's names.
8. 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."
Note the assumption: sin is exciting and
righteousness is boring.
Believing in this assumption means you've
fallen for the devil's lie. In reality, sin robs us of fulfillment.
Sin doesn't make life interesting; it makes
life empty. When there's fulfillment, when there's beauty, when we see God as
He truly is — an endless reservoir of fascination — boredom becomes impossible.
In heaven we'll be filled — as Psalm 16:11
describes it — with joy and eternal pleasures.
9. If our loved ones
are in hell, won't that spoil heaven?
In heaven we'll see clearly that God revealed Himself
to each person and that He gave opportunity for each heart or
conscience to seek and respond to Him (Romans 1:18-2:16).
Everyone deserves hell; no one deserves heaven. Jesus went to
the cross to offer salvation to all (1 John 2:2).
God is absolutely sovereign and doesn't desire any to perish (1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9).
Yet many will perish in their unbelief (Matthew 7:13).
In heaven, we'll embrace God's holiness and
justice. God will be our source of
joy.
Hell's small and distant shadow will not
interfere with God's greatness or our joy in Him.
All of this should motivate us to share the gospel of
Christ with family, friends, neighbors and the whole world.
Article excerpted and adapted from Heaven by
Randy Alcorn, Tyndale House Publishers. Used with permission.
Randy Alcorn is the author of more than 40 books and the founder of
Eternal Perspective Ministries (EPM). He served as a pastor for fourteen years,
holding degrees in theology and biblical studies, and has taught on the adjunct
faculties of Multnomah University and Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon.
Randy resides in Gresham, Oregon,
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