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LEARNING ABOUT HEAVEN

ROBERT A. PETERSON

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But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.—1 Corinthians 2:9–10

Paul’s words are ironic. On one hand, he says that “what God has prepared for those who love him,” what Paul calls “our glory” (in 1 Cor. 2:7), is beyond human knowing (v. 9). It is inaccessible to human senses; we cannot find it out. Moreover, “the heart of man” cannot even imagine its greatness. On the other hand, in the very next verse, the apostle affirms, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (v. 10).

So which is it, Paul? Is heaven beyond human imagining? Or is it revealed through the apostles in Scripture? The answer is yes!—it is both. On our own, we have no access to the divine. But God has stooped to reveal himself supremely in the apostles’ preaching and writing of Scripture. Thus we can know what God has told us ahead of time about heaven.1

The problem is that we human beings show an incorrigible tendency not to be satisfied with Holy Scripture. As a result we seek knowledge of “the other side” in the wrong places. This has been true throughout church history, as well as in our own day. We will briefly explore:

Tondal: A Visit to Heaven in a Dream in 1150

This is the story of Tondal, an Irish knight who visited hell and heaven in a dream in 1150. The tale, originating in an Irish Benedictine monastery, influenced medieval literature and art. Tondal’s guardian angel sought to sanctify the knight by leading his soul through hell’s punishments. He suffers the terrible, physical pains of hell, including gross torments.2

Tondal’s soul also experiences sensual delights when he is taken to an earthly paradise with three exquisite walls made of silver, gold, and precious stones, respectively. Passing through the first wall of gleaming silver, he sees godly laypeople in shining white clothes singing praises to God as they long for Christ’s return. The knight is overwhelmed by the delicious scents, sights, and sounds of heaven on earth. All pain and suffering are banished.3

Next, the angel leads our knight through a second wall—of glimmering gold—where resplendent people sing sweet praises. Dressed in silk, they sit in golden chairs and are adorned with gleaming crowns. A hint of the tale’s purpose is revealed: these people had sexual experience but were later purified through martyrdom or asceticism.4 The story extols monastic virginity.

Going deeper into the same beautiful land, Tondal sees people playing charming music amidst glorious surroundings. Who are they? They are the most obedient monks and nuns.

Tondal cannot enter, because the Holy Trinity is present and also because once a person has gone inside, he can no longer be separated from the communion of saints. Tondal is not dead and so must return to life and die in sanctity before he can enjoy the beatific vision. But the angel gives him a second reason: he cannot enter because he is not a virgin. Here in the inner monastic precincts of the golden land only perpetual virgins are allowed. . . . He must stay outside, but even so he rejoices with all of his senses.5

Tondal comes to a huge tree with singing birds in its branches and sweet fruit dangling from its limbs. “Here are the cloistered virgins of both sexes who have never ceased praising and blessing the Lord. Each wears a golden crown and bears a golden scepter.”6 The tree is the church; the virgins are its builders and defenders.

The angel leads the knight to the third and most glorious wall. This one is not made of silver or gold but is composed of gems, with gold for mortar! The precious stones are those of Revelation 21, including jasper, sapphire, emerald, onyx, beryl, and topaz (vv. 19–21). The tale’s glorification of monastic virginity reaches its apex when Tondal climbs the wall and beholds the perpetual virgins among the nine orders of angels. The knight hears ineffable words before waking up from his dream. As a result of his journey, Tondal is full of wisdom and is converted.7

Jeffrey Burton Russell is accurate: “In this vision of ascetic hierarchy, virgin monastic superiors are at the summit.”8 This tale of a knight’s journey to heaven on earth is propaganda for the monastic life in general and for monastic virginity in particular.

Sadly, our next specimen does not occur in a dream but in history. And its version of heaven on earth ends up being hellish, as we shall see.

The Adamites: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth in the 1420s and 1430s

Jan Hus (c. 1372–1415) was one of several Czech preachers who stirred up the people against the Bohemian higher clergy, which was largely German, very wealthy, and corrupt. Hus, a Roman Catholic priest and professor at the University of Prague, helped create a reform movement. He preached the Bible as the means to produce spiritual and moral change. He revised a Czech translation of the Scriptures to encourage the people to read the Word of God.9

Hus challenged the pope’s power and threatened the status quo in Bohemia. When Hus was ordered by the archbishop of Prague to stop preaching, he refused and left the city in 1412. Although he was given a promise of safe conduct to the Council of Constance in 1414, when he arrived he was arrested, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake.

“Hus was more dangerous dead than alive. A widespread movement named after him developed”10—the Hussites. Though all were more extreme than Hus himself, they had a radical wing, the Taborites. The latter took their name from Mount Tabor, where Christ predicted his second coming, they taught. When the millennium did not come in February 1420, as they had predicted, they became revolutionary, viewing themselves as God’s holy warriors. They gained many Bohemian adherents and fought their opponents with some success until suffering a devastating defeat in 1434.11

But even the Taborites were not the most extreme Hussite group. That distinction belongs to the Adamites, also known as the Pikarts. This group taught many heresies.

The Pikarts vaguely embraced a pantheistic concept of God. Denying original sin and the existence of Satan, they believed that they were fully redeemed and good. The Adamites lived as if all prophecies had been fulfilled and the millennium had already begun. In the belief that they were like Christ, and as innocent as Adam and Eve in Paradise, they wore no clothes, even in cold weather. They engaged in sexual promiscuity, prohibiting marriage and holding that all men possessed all women in common. Owning no property themselves, they believed that they had the right to seize other people’s possessions. Thus they attacked neighboring villages, taking whatever they wanted and ruthlessly killing the inhabitants. The Adamites’ savage and lewd behavior proved so shocking that a Hussite army exterminated them.12

If Tondal in a dream visited an earthly heaven especially for monastic virgins, and the Adamites believed they themselves had brought heaven down to earth, our next figure maintains she went to heaven and came back with astounding revelations from Jesus.

Betty J. Eadie: To Heaven and Back in 1973

“To The Light, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom I owe all that I have. He is the ‘staff’ that I lean on; without him I would fall.”13 So reads the dedication to Betty Eadie’s New York Times number-one best seller, Embraced by the Light, her first-person account of an extraordinary near-death experience. She has shared her message with countless people through television appearances and hundreds of talks.

So what was Betty’s remarkable experience? She had gone to the hospital on November 18, 1973, for a partial hysterectomy at her doctor’s advice. She had successful surgery in the morning and, as she tells the story, that night died and left her body for over four hours before returning to it. Wonderful things happened to her in the spirit world. Although she was prohibited from remembering all that happened in her out-of-the-body experience, she remembers it was so great she did not want to return to her body or beloved family.14

At death her spirit was pulled up and out of her body as if by a magnet. Her immediate feeling was one of great freedom, as her new body was weightless. She traveled great distances instantly and at will. She passed through a tunnel of dense blackness, aware that other people and animals were there. Though some lingered there, she went quickly until she saw a pinpoint of light in the distance. Racing toward the light, she saw the figure of a man standing in it, bathed in light more brilliant than any she had ever seen. She was literally embraced by the light, who was Jesus, “the Son of God, though he himself was also a God.”15 His presence overwhelmed her with unconditional love. Unlike what her childhood training by Roman Catholic nuns and Protestant Sunday school teachers had led her to believe, Jesus had no judgment for her but only great love, even as the purpose of his mission in coming into the world was to teach love.

While outside her body in heaven, Jesus taught her many things through direct impartation of knowledge. The result? She learned the equivalent of volumes instantly. She learned that all human beings had existed long before their births as spirit beings in heaven. She learned that all religions of the world are necessary so the preexistent souls who have been born into bodies might grow spiritually. She openly shares her conclusions:

Having received this knowledge, I knew that we have no right to criticize any church or religion in any way. They are all precious and important in his [God’s] sight. Very special people with important missions have been placed in all countries, in all religions, in every station of life, that they might touch others. There is a fullness of the gospel, but most people will not attain it here.16

She learned that all human beings have been endowed with free will by God, who would never override that freedom. She learned that God loves every human being with unconditional love and uses our experiences in life and after death to take away our fear. As a result, we will live with him forever as spirit beings with godlike qualities. All human beings are good and finally will be saved, though those who are too earthbound will have to linger in purgatory while they are healed by the light. “But eventually, they learn to move on to accept the greater warmth and security of God.”17

Though much of her heavenly knowledge was lost when she returned to her body, she distinctly remembered this:

I traveled to many other worlds—earths like our own but more glorious, and always filled with loving, intelligent people. We are all God’s children and he has filled the immensity of space for us. . . . I saw galaxies and traveled to them with ease and almost instantaneous speed, visiting their worlds and meeting more children of our God, all of them our spiritual brothers and sisters. And all this was a remembering, a reawakening. I knew that I had been to these places before.18

How was visiting these planets in other galaxies “a remembering, a reawakening”? And when had she “been to these places before”? The answer is, in her life as a preexistent soul, ages before she was born with a body. All of this, she claims, was directly communicated to her by Jesus in heaven. Who is Jesus, according to Betty Eadie’s revelations? He is “the Son of God, though he himself was also a God.”19 Contrary to her Protestant upbringing, God the Father and Jesus were not “one being,” but “Jesus was a separate being from God.”20 She learned Jesus was “a perfect man.”21

The ultimate hope of Christians is based on Christ’s death and resurrection and centers on the resurrection of the body and life with the Trinity and all other believers on a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). Contrary to this, Betty sees no need for Christ to make atonement, regards “the earth . . . [as] only a temporary place for our schooling,” and regards returning to her body as “abhorrent.”22 Her hope centers on being released from the prison house of the body at death and returning to the spiritual state she had as a preexistent spirit being in a spirit world.

At least eight times Mrs. Eadie appeals to the Word of God.23 Sadly, she does not interpret the Bible in context even one time! Her view of heaven, purportedly gained directly from the less-than-divine Christ, contradicts Scripture in numerous places and squares much better with Mormonism. I do not feel a need to be able to explain exactly what happened to her in her near-death experience. But I am confident we should appeal to the Word of God and no one’s experience, including Betty Eadie’s, in matters pertaining to God and heaven.

We have learned of Tondal’s dream visit to paradise on earth, the Adamites’ failed attempt to bring heaven down to earth, and Betty Eadie’s claim that Jesus taught her much in an out-of-the-body experience. Next we explore a modern cult that claims to have gone to heaven in a flying saucer.

The Heaven’s Gate Cult: To Heaven in a UFO in 1997

The world was shocked in March 1997 when thirty-nine members of the Heaven’s Gate cult committed mass suicide in Southern California by ingesting lethal drugs. But if people had known the history of the group’s leaders—Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles—they would not have been surprised at all.

Applewhite and Nettles went by various names: Bo and Peep, Pig and Sow, and Do and Ti. And the groups they founded over the years had various names too: the Human Individual Metamorphosis, the UFO People, and finally, Heaven’s Gate. Convinced they were the two witnesses of Revelation 12, Applewhite and Nettles proclaimed a flying-saucer gospel for many years. Although the details of their message changed over the years, one theme remained constant: the two leaders had come to earth in a spaceship on a mission with an important message: “Only escape from our planet, doomed by pollution and decay, [can] save the human race.”24

According to Bo and Peep, salvation involves moving outside the earth’s atmosphere to the kingdom of God, which they conceived of as a physical place. Those who are saved will be “beamed up by a flying saucer and transformed into a higher level, that of resurrected people.”25 In the 1970s and 1980s the two leaders traveled in the western United States, seeking converts who would abandon families, friends, and employment to prepare for their ascent to space.

By the 1990s the message of the UFO cult evidenced a more dramatic and apocalyptic tone. In 1985 Nettles had “left her human vehicle.” By 1987 the practice of castration had been introduced. In the early 1990s the group believed that the lift-off might take place in the next two years. They even took out an advertisement in USA Today stating that “the Earth’s present civilization is about to be recycled—spaded under.” They were making their final bid for recruits. As they awaited the end, along came the Hale-Bopp comet. For most people it was a celestial wonder. But to the Heaven’s Gate group it signaled the end. The tail of Hale-Bopp, they believed, concealed the UFO that would lift them up. But to be beamed up to the next level they had to leave their human containers. And this they did by swallowing a dose of lethal drugs.26

Conclusion

The knight Tondal explored an earthly monastic paradise in a dream; the Adamites tried unsuccessfully to create heaven on earth; Betty Eadie claimed to have died, been “embraced by the Light,” and returned back to tell about it; the Heaven’s Gate cult tried to go to heaven in a UFO.

What do these four very different stories have in common? Actually, a number of things. They testify to the fact that human beings are inherently religious and made to worship God but sadly have a tendency to put things in God’s place. Why do stories like these exist? What drives them is a deep inner longing for God. With Tondal the knight, humans long to dwell in bliss. The Adamites’ misguided hope for heaven on earth is a dim reflection of a true biblical hope for that very thing, though it will not come by human effort but divine. In spite of Betty Eadie’s very wrong theology, regarding Jesus as the focus of heaven is right. And although the Heaven’s Gate’s end was tragic folly, the desire to connect heaven and earth is God-given and will be realized in heaven’s coming down to earth (Rev. 21:10).

Sadly, humans also have a tendency to put things in God’s place. Curiously, though I did not see it at first, all four stories have a subtext of sexuality gone awry, whether Tondal’s tale’s putting monastic virginity above married life, the Adamites’ lewd behavior, Betty Eadie’s downplaying of the physical body, or Heaven’s Gate’s castration.

Most important for our purposes, however, is the fact that each of these stories involves the forsaking of the Word of God and clamoring for a substitute. The substitutes are church tradition (Tondal’s story), human reason (the Adamites), mystical experience (Betty Eadie), and wild speculation (Heaven’s Gate), respectively. Each story undervalues Scripture’s authority and overvalues human ability to find God. And ironically, without their knowledge, each one demonstrates—in bright lights—the noetic effects of sin, to which we now turn.

The Noetic Effects of Sin

If we pay attention to the main prophetic text Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 2:9, cited at the beginning of this essay, we discover these disconcerting words in the next two verses: “In our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isa. 64:5–6). Ever since Adam’s fall, all human beings have come into the world guilty and corrupted by sin. And that sin affects the way we think; there are powerful noetic effects of sin. Paul is the most emphatic New Testament writer on this theme:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Rom. 1:21–23)

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. (1 Cor. 1:20–21)

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (2:14)

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor. 4:3–4)

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. (Eph. 4:17–18)

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. (Col. 1:21–22)

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Tim. 6:3–5)

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Tim. 2:24–26)

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. (Titus 1:15–16)

There is no mistaking Paul’s evaluation of the unsaved mind—it is foolish, unable to accept spiritual truth, blinded by Satan, darkened, hostile, depraved, held in the Devil’s snare, and defiled. Consequently, we are in the dark spiritually and in desperate need of the Holy Spirit and Holy Scripture if we are to know God and do his will. Indeed, we must heed Peter’s advice concerning God’s Word, “to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet. 1:19), that is, until Christ returns. Why? Peter answers: “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (v. 21). For this reason the essays in this book on final salvation (heaven) do not appeal ultimately to human reason, experience, or tradition but to the written Word of God. And this is also the reason why we must seek to ask questions the Word actually answers.

Now, it is possible for even well-intentioned believers to ask questions Scripture does not answer. What are some of these? Examples include the following:

It is also possible (and desirable!) to ask questions for which Scripture provides answers. Many of these questions will be answered in the pages of this book. And perhaps it is a good idea to give brief answers here to some of these questions.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions concerning Heaven

Will Everyone Go to Heaven?29

Universalism holds that everyone will be saved. Its proponents use three biblical arguments. First, they appeal to passages that express God’s desire to save all. Their favorite verse is, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3–4; see also 4:10; 2 Pet. 3:9).

Paul wants prayers to be offered “for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions,” that Christians might enjoy “a peaceful and quiet life” (1 Tim. 2:1–2). Roman officials opposed believers, and wicked Emperor Nero was on the throne when Paul penned this verse. Paul, therefore, in verse 4 tells readers to pray even for ungodly rulers. He does not teach that all will be saved but that God intends for the gospel to reach all kinds of people.

Second, universalists also argue from passages that allegedly speak of the unlimited outcome of Christ’s crucifixion. They most frequently cite this verse: “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Rom. 5:18; see also John 12:32; Col. 1:20).

By “one act of righteousness” (in Rom. 5:18) Paul refers to Jesus’ death. But this verse does not support universalism, as the next verse shows: “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (v. 19). We cannot press the two occurrences of the word “all” in verse 18 (“condemnation for all . . . justification and life for all”) any more than we can press the two occurrences of the word “many” in verse 19. Rather, “many” and “all” here are relative terms contrasted with the “one” trespass of Adam and the “one” act of righteousness of Jesus Christ. These contrasts emphasize the great effects of Adam and Christ on the human race. In fact, Paul restricts salvation to “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness” (v. 17).

Third, universalism’s most popular argument is that Paul teaches the final salvation of all people. The favorite passage appealed to for this argument is, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. . . . Then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:22, 28). But this passage does not teach universalism. Verse 22 must be understood in light of verse 23, which explains “so also in Christ shall all be made alive”: “But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” Paul intends readers to understand “all” in verse 22 as equivalent to “those who belong to Christ” (v. 23). And only believers belong to Christ.

First Corinthians 15:28 speaks of God’s being “all in all.” This and similar passages (Eph. 1:10; Phil. 2:9–11), if taken by themselves, can be made to fit with universalism. But other verses in the books where these verses appear do not teach all will be saved. Universalists must shrink the biblical data to argue their case; they fail to take the whole Bible into account. As a result, universalism offers a false hope that inhibits Christian missions.

In addition to the fact that the universalist arguments are not convincing, Scripture in many passages teaches that not everyone goes to heaven. Here is a sample:

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Dan. 12:2)

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” . . . And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matt. 25:41, 46)

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43–48)

. . . when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. . . . (2 Thess. 1:7–9)

He also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night. (Rev. 14:10–11)

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. . . . And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:10, 15)

What Happens When Believers Die?

Scripture teaches that at death believers’ souls or spirits immediately go to be with Christ (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23). This is comforting, for we know that while death is often painful, God never leaves us nor forsakes us (Heb. 13:5). Our souls are made perfect in holiness (Heb. 12:23), and we enjoy being with Christ in perfect bliss. Believers who lose loved ones to death, therefore, grieve not “as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thess. 4:13–14).

However, if we view this interim existence in light of the Bible’s story, we must label it temporary and abnormal. God created us as holistic beings with body and soul united. Christians’ great hope therefore is not a disembodied existence in an intermediate state but a resurrected and holistic existence with the Trinity and all the saints on the new earth (John 5:28–29; 1 Cor. 15:20–23; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).

What about Purgatory?

The Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory does not offer a chance for salvation after death. Rather, it is a place where the sins of believers not atoned for in this life are purged. Purgatory is not a final destination, and all who go there will go to heaven. Though many hope to go to purgatory after death and eventually reach heaven, today many Catholics no longer believe in purgatory. Nevertheless, the documents of Vatican II affirm it.30

Three passages have been used to support the doctrine of purgatory: Matthew 12:32; 1 Corinthians 3:15; and 2 Maccabees 12:42–46 from the Apocrypha. But these are not a solid foundation for it. In Matthew 12:32 Jesus does not say some sins will be forgiven after death but, rather, those who commit the unpardonable sin will never be forgiven. In 1 Corinthians 3:15 “the Day” mentioned in verse 13 refers not to the time of death but to Christ’s return and the last judgment. And there is nothing here about sins being purged after death or of people moving from purgatory to heaven.

We reject Rome’s appeal to 2 Maccabees 12:42–46 from the Apocrypha as evidence for purgatory because we agree with the Jews, custodians of the Old Testament, who never accepted the Apocrypha as a part of Scripture. Actually, Roman Catholic scholars base their belief in purgatory on church tradition, but we do not put tradition on the same plane as the Bible. Instead, we subordinate all human teachings to Scripture and on that basis find purgatory lacking.

Furthermore, as the Reformers argued, purgatory is an insult to Christ’s once-for-all and sufficient atonement for sins. “Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (Heb. 13:12; cf. 10:10). Our sins are purged by Jesus’ suffering on the cross, not our suffering after death. There is no purgatory; when we enter Christ’s presence, he will immediately and entirely purify us, as Paul teaches: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:23–24). Purgatory offers a false hope; according to Scripture, there is no “third place,” but only two destinies for human beings: heaven and hell (Matt. 25:46; John 5:28–29; Rev. 21:7–8).31

Will We Recognize Others in Heaven?

While Christians will have ample time (!) to make many new friends in the new earth, Scripture leads us to anticipate recognizing those we have known in this life. This question often reveals confusion between what happens to believers at death and their eternal destiny. At death Christians’ bodies rest in the grave, and their souls go immediately into Christ’s presence. But this incorporeal, intermediate state is only temporary. When Christ returns, he will raise the dead and unite our resurrected bodies and spirits, and we will enjoy him and one another forever. Resurrection means physical bodies, which in turn means we will recognize others.

The Word of God teaches that the risen Christ was recognizable (Matt. 28:9–10, 16–17; Luke 24:31–43; John 20:28). An objection is sometimes made that at times his followers did not recognize him after his resurrection. But these are exceptions, not the rule. God prevented the disciples on the road to Emmaus from recognizing him (Luke 24:16). One reason Mary mistook Jesus for the gardener was that she was not expecting him to rise. But when he called her name, she immediately recognized him (John 20:16). Oliphint and Ferguson are on the mark: “Like Christ, we too will be recognizable after the resurrection. Indeed, who and what we really are will be clearer than ever.”32

Will We Be Married and Enjoy Sex in Heaven?

God created the family before the fall, and it was essential for the fulfillment of human beings’ task to fill the earth and care for it. Paul regards marriage as a picture of the greater, more intimate reality of our union with Christ (Eph. 5:31–32). In this way the earthly family is a picture of Christ and the church (our heavenly family).

Jesus affirms this: “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matt. 22:30). Jesus does not say we will become angels or be like them in every way—common misconceptions. The problem of humankind’s aloneness is finally resolved by the heavenly family in the New Jerusalem. This implies that our relationship with our spouse will be enhanced in the new earth.

The New Testament teaches that the marriage covenant dissolves upon death (Rom. 7:1–2; 1 Cor. 7:39). This was the understanding of marriage in the Old Testament as well. In ancient Israel, if a husband died, his brother was supposed to marry the woman to keep the children and property in the family (see Deut. 25:5–6).

With the marriage covenant dissolved, what will our relationships be like in the new earth? We are all united to Christ; we are his spiritual siblings (Luke 8:19–21; Heb. 2:11–12) and coheirs with him in God’s family. This does not mean our relationship with our spouse will be diminished. Rather, because of the absence of sin, we will know our spouse, friends, and loved ones better than we do now.

This question suggests another: Will there be sex in heaven? By now the obvious answer is no. More explanation is in order. First, God created us male and female, in his image, and both that image and our genders will continue in the world to come. Males will still be males; females will be females. Though we will not need sexual relations, we will enjoy gendered relations even as we do now, only enhanced because sin will be a thing of the past.

But will the lack of sex make us dissatisfied in the resurrection? No, because we will be fulfilled by our relationship with the living God and other believers, which will be better than our best relationships, including sexual ones, now. In fact, sex only approximates the kind of intimacy we will experience in the new creation. It will be far better.

In a nutshell, while the marriage bond and sexual relations are dissolved at death, in the world to come the most important aspects of marriage will be improved. Fellowship with God and one another and deep friendships will be better than we can even imagine at present. We will love our spouses more and enjoy their company forever.

Will There Be Sorrow in Heaven over Those in Hell?

Scripture presents the final state of believers as the new earth, where we will be so in love with God, who first loved us in Christ, that all other loves will fade away by comparison, even for loved ones and friends who did not know Christ.

First, God and his judgments are just, as the Scriptures affirm (Deut. 32:4; Rom. 2:2–5). But God also “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). And so in this life Christians ask God to save many people, especially those they love most.

Second, it is on the basis of this just judgment that God justly sends people to hell. The blood of the righteous, slain by those opposed to God, calls out to him for justice (Rev. 6:9–11). And justice is what God finally gives to all those who refuse his offer of salvation, consigning them to eternal punishment. In fact, for God to do otherwise would be for him to deny himself, which is impossible. This leads us to a third point.

Third, God’s Word affirms what is difficult for us to conceive at present: we will praise God for showing his justice on the last day. We all want justice, especially when we are victims. And justice is what God promises in the future. The angel calls the saints to praise God for the fall of Babylon: “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!” (18:20). God is both just and loving, and we will praise him for his justice toward the wicked and grace toward the righteous.

There will be no sorrow in heaven over those in hell, because God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (21:4).33

What Kind of Bodies Will We Have in Heaven?

Astonishingly, the Bible teaches that at his return the all-powerful Christ will change our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20–21).

How does Paul describe our resurrected bodies? First, they will not be perishable or mortal, as our current bodies are, but imperishable and immortal (1 Cor. 15:42, 53–54). They will not be subject to illness, decay, or other loss. Our bodies will be raised as they were created to be—without the effects of the fall.

Second, our new bodies will be glorious (v. 43). Our present bodies are “sown in dishonor,” ingloriously put into graves. Our resurrection bodies, however, will be “raised in glory” (v. 43) so as to be “like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20–21).

Third, they will be powerful (1 Cor. 15:43). The apostle says they are “sown in weakness” but “raised in power” (v. 43). Unlike our current situation, in the next life we will never get tired or lack strength to do God’s will. No longer will the spirit be willing but the flesh weak (Mark 14:38). Rather, body and spirit will be united and willing and able to serve God in the new earth.

Fourth, our resurrected bodies will be spiritual (1 Cor. 15:44). In the “resurrection chapter” Paul does not mean “nonphysical” when he describes our bodies as “spiritual.” Rather, he means that our new bodies will be dominated by the Holy Spirit so as always to be eager to do God’s will.

We have seen four ways our new bodies are not like our current ones. But this is only a part of the picture. It is important to underline the continuity between our present and future bodies! According to Romans 8:11, in the resurrection the God “who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to [our] mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in [us].” Paul stirs our imagination when he compares present and future bodies to seed and plant (1 Cor. 15:37). Though the seed bears little resemblance to the plant it becomes (and hence the four ways our bodies will be different from our current ones), there is continuity between seed and full-grown plant. Tulips come from tulip bulbs; roses from rosebushes. Similarly, our own bodies will be raised from the dead imperishable and immortal, glorious, powerful, and spiritual.

Will the Current Earth Be Completely Destroyed and a Brand-New Earth Created?

Isaiah foresees the new heavens and the new earth: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind” (Isa. 65:17; cf. 66:22–23). He predicts a future life that is new (65:17), joyous (v. 19), secure (vv. 20–23), peaceful (vv. 24–25), unending, universal, and worshipful (66:23). Many of these themes are picked up in the last two chapters of the Bible.

Jesus too promises a new world, the renewal of all things:

Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matt. 19:28–29)

Paul also longs for the new heaven and earth, the new creation:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom. 8:19–23)

The apostle presents the redemption of believers as a microcosm of the redemption of creation. By God’s grace we will be completely redeemed. We will have great glory (vv. 18, 21) and be freed from groaning over our struggles with sin (v. 23). We await our final adoption, “the redemption of our bodies” (v. 23), resurrection from the dead.

Thinking about our resurrection helps us to understand Paul’s words about the redemption of the cosmos. Our resurrection will involve a complete renewal of our present persons—body and soul. And just as we will not be destroyed but renewed, so it is with God’s creation. We are a microcosm of the macrocosm of creation. Even as we long for final salvation, the creation, personified as an expectant mother, does too. The creation is eager to “be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (v. 21). The creation longs for the curse’s removal (vv. 20–22). This is not destruction and re-creation but great renovation of the present world. Paul’s words help us to understand Peter’s.

Peter also looked for the new heavens and earth. He emphasizes the difference between the present creation and the new one (2 Pet. 3:10–12). On the basis of his words some have argued for the extinction of the present cosmos and the creation of a totally new one:

The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire. (v. 7)

The heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. (v. 10)

The heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! (v. 12)

Although those verses seem to teach destruction and re-creation, they do not. I say this for five reasons.

First, in the preceding verse Peter says: “The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (v. 6). “Perished” here does not speak of a literal destruction of the world but of its cleansing through the judgment of unbelievers in the flood. Similarly, when Peter speaks of heaven and earth being “burned up and dissolved,” the result is not their destruction but that “the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” under the glare of divine judgment (vv. 7, 10). The language of burning does not mean obliteration but is metaphorical of a deep cleansing of the earth, as in Noah’s day.

Second, Peter compares the fates of the earth and unbelievers: “The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (v. 7). The “destruction of the ungodly” does not include their extinction of being. Instead, it is figurative for the loss of all that is worthwhile in human life and signifies never-ending, conscious punishment (Matt. 25:41, 46; 2 Thess. 1:5–9; Rev. 20:10–15).

Third, all this fits Peter’s description of the new heaven and the new earth: “We are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). He envisions a cleansing of sinners from the creation, resulting in righteousness rather than in an obliteration of the earth. Heide is apt: “When he [Peter] describes the new heavens and new earth, it is not a place with new physical substances or new elements of creation. He describes it as a place where ‘righteousness dwells.’”34

Fourth, such a view brings Peter into contradiction with Paul in Romans 8:20–21 and John in Revelation 22:3, both of whom speak of the removal of the curse, not the extinction and re-creation of the world.

Fifth, Romans 8:22–23 presents human beings and the creation as microcosm and macrocosm. Even as God will not annihilate and re-create us but will cleanse and transform us, so he will do for his world.

In Peter’s mind the governing model for the new creation is the complete perfection of the world, for redemption must reach as far as the damage of sin and its curse.

John in Revelation also sees the new heaven and the new earth. The passages we have surveyed point to this: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. . . . And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (Rev. 21:1, 5).

In a vision John sees the new heaven and earth replace the first heaven and earth. Does the language here and in 20:11—which speaks of “earth and sky” fleeing away from the presence of the awesome judge, so that “no place was found for them”—indicate the destruction of the present world? It does not if we understand John’s apocalyptic vision.

Revelation 21:1 must be understood in light of 20:11. Placed alongside 6:15–16, where sinners try to hide from “the wrath of the Lamb,” 20:11 does not indicate the annihilation of the creation. In 20:11 the whole created order is personified as contaminated by human sin and fleeing God’s holy presence. This fleeing is symbolic of the comprehensiveness of the final judgment.

But what does 21:1 mean when it says, “the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more”? The words are not literal but rather descriptive of what John sees in his vision—the earth and the sea disappearing. The first heaven and death had departed from his sight. “He is using symbolic language familiar to his audience to emphasize the fact that the final judgment is over.”35 Similar to 2 Peter 3, John symbolically communicates that a comprehensive purging of sin has taken place. But what about the disappearance of the sea, which, like the heavens and earth, has disappeared in John’s vision? Dennis Johnson answers well:

The “sea” that no longer exists symbolizes the realm from which chaos and rebellion have emerged to ravage the first earth. . . . It was from the sea that John saw the beast emerge to receive the dragon’s devilish power and wage his devilish war against the saints (Rev. 13:1). The sea in heaven is calm and clear as glass (15:2), but the earthly sea that gave rise to the beast stormed with restless, threatening rebellion. Its absence from the new earth further dramatizes the new home’s peace and purity.36

Therefore, when God speaks in Revelation 21:5 he does not say, “I am making all things anew” but, “I am making all things new.” I conclude from this survey of the words of Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John in Revelation that God will not completely destroy the current earth and create a brand-new earth. Instead, he will subject the present earth to a deep cleansing so as to renew it and fit it for his presence and that of his holy people.

A Roadmap to This Book

Our families have benefited from AAA’s TripTik Travel Planner many times. A road map is a big help when exploring unfamiliar territory by car. It is the same for readers of a book, and for that reason we provide a road map. The foundation of each book in the Theology in Community series is Holy Scripture. Accordingly, this volume begins with Ray Ortlund’s treatment, “Heaven in the Old Testament.” Because final salvation receives more attention in the New Testament than in the Old, four chapters are allotted to it. Jonathan Pennington explores “Heaven in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts.” Stephen Wellum tackles the difficult subject “Heaven in Paul’s Letters.” Jon Laansma takes up a neglected topic, “Heaven in the General Epistles,” with some surprising results. Andreas Köstenberger, an expert in the Johannine literature, pens “Heaven in John’s Gospel and Revelation.”

Those five chapters provide a solid base upon which the rest of the volume stands. Robert Peterson, coauthor of a book on heaven,37 in “Pictures of Heaven” traces five biblical images through the historical stages of creation, rebellion, redemption, and restoration: heaven and earth, Sabbath rest, the kingdom of God, God’s presence, and God’s glory. Our study would be lacking without attention to the history of the church’s understanding of heaven, the very thing Gerald Bray provides in “The History of Heaven.” Stephen F. Noll, who wrote an important book on angels,38 here brings his expertise to bear with “Angels and Heaven.” Ajith Fernando, director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka, is better qualified to write his essay, “Heaven for Persecuted Saints,” than any other contributor to this book. David B. Calhoun, who has far outlived medical predictions of his death by cancer and who knows his subject, writes “The Hope of Heaven.”

We invite readers to accompany us on a tour of heaven, all the while respecting the fact that although the human heart cannot imagine “what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9), God himself has graciously revealed some of this in his Holy Word.

 

1 Ciampa and Rosner sum up matters well: “God prepares things beyond human comprehension for those who are his. . . . The reason Paul and other Christian teachers can declare God’s wisdom, ‘the things he has prepared’ for all believers to receive, even though these things are inaccessible to humans, is that they have been revealed to them. The word for connects this verse [10] with vv. 6, 7, and 9 and introduces the necessary explanation. . . . The ‘revelation’ to which Paul here refers is not the illumination given to all believers, but the disclosure of God’s full purposes in the cross and Christ Jesus to the apostolic preachers, which they in turn pass on to those who love him, with the goal that they might become ‘mature.’” Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 128–29, emphasis added.

2 Jeffrey Burton Russell, A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), 108.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid., 109.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid., 110.

9 Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 582.

10 Richard Kyle, The Last Days Are Here Again: A History of the End Times (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998), 51.

11 Ibid., 52.

12 Ibid.

13 Betty J. Eadie, Embraced by the Light: The Most Profound and Complete Near-Death Experience Ever (New York: Bantam, 1992), dedication.

14 Ibid., 1, 117–19, 125, 133–34.

15 Ibid., 44.

16 Ibid., 46, emphasis original.

17 Ibid., 85.

18 Ibid., 88, emphasis original.

19 Ibid., 44.

20 Ibid., 47.

21 Ibid., 61, 73.

22 Ibid., 124.

23 Ibid., 39, 63, 69, 80, 85, 100, 114, 147.

24 Kyle, The Last Days Are Here Again, 158–59.

25 Ibid., 159.

26 Ibid.

27 Dan C. Barber and Robert A. Peterson, Life Everlasting: The Unfolding Story of Heaven (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2012), 198.

28 For fuller answers to these and other questions, see ibid., 197–212.

29 For more detail, see Robert A. Peterson, Hell on Trial (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1995), 139–59; and Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, Hell under Fire (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 169–94.

30 “The doctrine of purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away, punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be expiated or cleansed. They often are. In fact, in purgatory the souls of those who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt.” Austin P. Flannery, ed., Documents of Vatican II (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1975), 64.

31 For more on purgatory, see Peterson, Hell on Trial, 225–28.

32 K. Scott Oliphint and Sinclair B. Ferguson, If I Should Die Before I Wake: What Is beyond This Life? (Fearn, UK: Christian Focus, 2005), 84.

33 For more on this subject, see Morgan and Peterson, Hell under Fire, 142–51.

34 Gale Z. Heide, “What Is New about the New Heaven and the New Earth? A Theology of Creation from Revelation 21 and 2 Peter 3,” JETS 40 (March 1997): 54.

35 Ibid., 43.

36 Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2001), 303–4.

37 Barber and Peterson, Life Everlasting.

38 Stephen Noll, Angels of Light, Powers of Darkness (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998).