IN FEBRUARY 2015, the Internet news site Salon posted an article called “Ten Reasons the Christian Heaven Would Actually Be Hell.” Isn’t that amazing? There’s so much hate on the Internet that even heaven gets a bad review!
“The closer you look,” said the author, “the more the Bible’s version of paradise seems like another version of eternal torture.” Here are some of the reasons this writer gives for saying that heaven would be hell:
First, everyone in heaven would be perfect, so we would all be the same. “Perfect means finished and complete,” the writer explained. “It means there’s no room for improvement—for change and growth. Perfection is sterile, in every sense of the word.” Who wants to live forever with a bunch of perfect people? Who wants to live in a world where no one would ever lie to you, steal from you, or murder you?
But where does this writer get the idea that perfection means sameness? God made each of us as unique human beings, with a unique set of personality traits. The fact that we will be morally and spiritually perfect in heaven doesn’t mean that we will all be cookie-cutter creations. We will still be the unique, one-of-a-kind individuals God created us to be, yet gloriously and wonderfully perfected.
Second, this writer says that heaven will be boring because “most exhilarating experiences require risk: flying down a ski slope almost out of control, jumping out of airplanes, racing cars, surfing, performing.” If it’s excitement you want, I truly believe that heaven will be a place of unimaginable exhilaration, where we will be able to visit the far reaches of our vast universe, experience emotions we can’t even imagine right now, and engage our resurrection minds and resurrection bodies in adventures that are infinitely beyond anything we have ever known in this life.
Third, this writer claims that “free will ceases to exist” in heaven. The writer explains, “In heaven there is no sin, no option to sin, and so, by Christianity’s own definition, no free will.”1 No free will in heaven? I’ve never seen that verse in the Bible. Where do the Scriptures tell us that God takes away our free will once we get to heaven?
We will be free in heaven—more free than we have ever been during our earthly lives. But in heaven we will have our resurrection minds and resurrection bodies, and we will understand all things so clearly and completely that it would make no rational sense to choose sin instead of choosing God.
Toddlers, who have limited knowledge and limited understanding, will drink poison and play in the street simply because they don’t know any better. If you take away their poison and yank them out of the street, they think you’re being mean for taking away their free will. But when that child becomes an adult, he no longer wants to drink poison or play in the street, because his knowledge is more complete. In the same way, we will have free will in heaven, but we will no longer want to do the sinful, foolish, self-destructive things that once seemed so appealing to us.
The writer goes on—offering reason after reason that no person in his or her right mind should ever want to go to heaven. And the rest of those reasons are just as specious as the ones I discussed here.
Now consider this: Doesn’t this sound like exactly the kind of propaganda you would expect from Satan? Doesn’t this sound just like our adversary’s voice: “Why would anybody want to go to a miserable place like heaven? All the really cool people are going to hell. Heaven is for losers and squares. Take it from me—hell is the place to be!”
So if you think heaven is going to be a miserable, boring experience—I want you to know that you’ve been duped. Satan has sold you a bill of goods. It’s time you learned what the Bible really teaches about heaven.
Randy Alcorn, founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries, recalls a conversation he had with a pastor. This pastor told him, “Whenever I think about heaven, it makes me depressed. I’d rather just cease to exist when I die.”
Alcorn was shocked. “Why?”
“I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium,” the pastor said. “To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp—it’s all so terribly boring. Heaven doesn’t sound much better than hell. I’d rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that.”
Alcorn had to shake his head and wonder, “Where did this Bible-believing, seminary-educated pastor get such a view of heaven? Certainly not from Scripture.”2
It’s shocking how many Bible-believing Christians are afraid of the life to come. If you are concerned about being bored in heaven, then I have good news: You are about to discover how exciting and wonderful heaven will be.
In the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus gives John a vision of heaven. It’s a vision of comfort and encouragement for everyone who is burdened by the sufferings of this life. You won’t be floating on the clouds, strumming a harp. You won’t be a robot. You won’t be bored for all eternity. You won’t be a disembodied spirit floating around in some strange dimension. Heaven will be filled with all the excitement you could ever want.
Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Not a cloud. Not a dimension. A place. Heaven is a real place, and we will live there in our glorified resurrection bodies.
The place Jesus is preparing for us is the new heaven and the new earth, the domain of God, the dwelling place of His people. And the capital city of the new heaven is the New Jerusalem. John’s vision describes in breathtaking detail the place where we will live forever. The vision of heaven we find in Revelation is designed to fill us with anticipation for the life to come and to comfort us in our trials. The promise of heaven should motivate us to live each day for the Lord. Peter reminds us that we ought to live lives of holiness and godliness because “we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis explains why the future hope of heaven motivates us to live boldly for Christ in the here and now:
A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth “thrown in:” Aim at earth and you will get neither.3
One of the great tragedies of the church today is that there is so little preaching on heaven. Most of the preaching we hear in the American church is focused on the problems of this life, the blessings of this life, on how to get the most out of this life. Heaven gets very little mention from our pulpits today.
How different are the priorities of today’s churches from the priorities of God’s Word. The Bible mentions heaven more than five hundred times. The book of Revelation mentions heaven more than fifty times. Yet many churches these days seem to avoid the subject of heaven almost entirely. They are caught up in society’s mad pursuit for instant gratification and narcissistic self-indulgence. Instead of rightly dividing the Word of Truth, all too many churches deliver motivational pep talks. Ministers are becoming audience pleasers instead of God pleasers.
The more we focus our attention on this life, the more meaningless this life becomes. But the more we focus on the wonders of heaven, the more wonderful this life becomes. When I hear someone talking excitedly about heaven, I know that person is truly saved. One of the surest indicators of genuine salvation is a sense of excitement and expectation about heaven. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). So if your treasure is in heaven, then your heart is in heaven as well.
A focus on heaven produces godly characteristics in our lives right here, right now. A focus on heaven brings us joy and comfort in the midst of trials. A focus on heaven places our earthly pain, suffering, and persecution into an eternal perspective. A focus on heaven helps us to persevere against temptation and sin.
Today, you may be carrying the weight of a Steinway piano on your back. It might be a load of guilt. It might be a load of suffering and pain. It might be a load of worry about the future or heartbreak over a painful loss. Whatever the weight that drags you down today, a vision of heaven will lift your burden.
If you have been avoiding all that the Bible teaches about heaven, then you have been missing out on one of the great blessings of the Christian faith. The hope of heaven is one of the great expectations of our faith, enabling us to soar above the problems and frustrations of this earthly life.
In Revelation 4, God graciously opens a door into heaven and gives John the extraordinary privilege of seeing what heaven will be like. Why does God give John this vision of heaven? I believe it’s so that you and I will lose any fear we might have about the afterlife. God wants us to be filled with joy and excitement about our future home in heaven. John writes:
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. (vv. 1–2)
This is John’s first impression of heaven. I’m reminded of the story of an elderly couple who died at the same time and entered heaven together. As they were walking around heaven and looking at all the beautiful sights, the husband turned to his wife and said, “Honey, if I had known how beautiful heaven would be, I wouldn’t have eaten all that oatmeal you gave me.”
And though the story is not true, it makes a valid statement: if we only realized how wonderful heaven will be, we wouldn’t cling to our earthly lives so tightly. We might stop eating healthy oatmeal and start eating more artery-clogging bacon and sausage if doing so would get us to heaven any sooner. (But eat your oatmeal anyway.)
John describes his first glimpse of heaven—he sees a throne with Someone seated on it. We should not interpret this image to mean that God is a man sitting on a piece of furniture, like an earthly monarch. The image of the throne is symbolic, not literal. It symbolizes the power and authority of our God. He is the Creator and Ruler of this vast universe of time and space, galaxies and stars, planets and moons, atoms and quarks.
Most important of all, the Lord deserves to be enthroned in our hearts. This image of God on the throne of heaven is good news for you and me. If we will step down from the throne of our hearts and put the Lord Jesus Christ on the throne instead, He will come into our lives with strength and might. He will take over and rule, bringing us power and joy in the midst of our trials.
John’s first glimpse of heaven shows us that the throne of God is the fixed center of the universe. It is the immovable point of reference for all of time and space. It is much like the North Star that guides navigators on their ocean voyages. It is the hub around which the entire universe revolves.
We have a tendency to watch the news and think, Everything is out of control. But when God looks at the world, He doesn’t think, Oh my, what am I going to do? The world is in such a mess; I’ll never be able to fix it! No, God is patient, God is in control, and God has a plan for the entire universe. Everything—even our sin, even war and terrorism and all the sorrows of this world—are accounted for in His plan. And the book of Revelation shows us that these events are proceeding according to God’s timetable.
Most Christians seem to have a hazy notion of heaven as a place up in the sky, “way beyond the blue.”4 But that is not how the Bible describes heaven.
In fact, many Christians are surprised to discover that the Bible actually talks about three different heavens. And they are even more surprised to discover that the first heaven, as described in the Bible, is not the domain of God. The first heaven is where Satan dwells.
Paul talks about the first heaven in Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Paul also tells us (in Ephesians 3:10) that the church demonstrates God’s “manifold wisdom” (that is, His vast and varied wisdom) to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” In other words, our faithfulness demonstrates to Satan and the other demons of the first heaven that God’s judgment against them is righteous, wise, and just.
We usually think of “heavenly” as referring to things that are good, to things that are of God. But the first heavenly realm is really nothing more or less than the spiritual realm, the invisible domain that is all around us, but which we cannot see. It is the realm of angels and demons, the realm of spiritual powers such as the prince of Greece and the prince of Persia that are mentioned in Daniel 9—demonic “kings” who have authority over nations and kingdoms of the earth.
The second heaven is the universe, the celestial heaven. When you look up at the night sky or see photographs of deep space taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, you are looking at the second heaven.
The third heaven is sometimes referred to in Scripture as “paradise.” This is the heaven Jesus spoke of when he told the repentant thief on the cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). This is the heaven the apostle Paul spoke of when he says he was “caught up to paradise” where he “heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:4). It must have been hard for Paul, who was privileged to experience the indescribable wonders of paradise, to be forbidden to tell anyone what he saw.
But this third heaven, the paradise our spirits go to after we die, is not the final and future heaven, the eternal heaven that Jesus promised to prepare for us. When we as believers die, we go to this third heaven where Jesus is now. When the new heaven comes, the old heaven will be swept away. As John writes in Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”
Every so often, a new book comes out by someone who supposedly died, went to heaven, and came back. Some of these books are written by Christians; some are not. They frequently hit the bestseller list and have become a publishing subgenre known as “heavenly tourism.”
One such book was The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A True Story. Published in 2010, the book sold more than a million copies and was adapted as a TV movie. It tells the story of Alex Malarkey, who was severely injured in an automobile accident when he was six years old. The boy was in a coma for two months and his injuries left him paralyzed. Emerging from his coma, he told his parents that an angel had taken him through the gates of heaven.
Today, Alex Malarkey is a teenager, and he still struggles with the aftereffects of brain trauma, though an operation made it possible for him to breathe on his own without a ventilator. In a January 2015 open letter, Alex said:
I did not go to heaven. . . . I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.5
The boy’s parents are divorced, and Alex’s mother, Beth, is his primary caregiver. Yet the contract for the book was with the boy’s father—and Alex and his mother receive no money from the book, not even for his medical needs. Alex and his mother have been trying to tell the world that the so-called true story isn’t true at all—but for years, nobody would listen. So a six-year-old boy’s fib to get attention was blown up into a New York Times Best Seller and a TV movie.
Beth Malarkey recalls how Alex repeatedly tried to tell people that the book was full of lies. When the boy told a pastor that the book was deceptive and needed to be pulled from bookstores, the pastor replied that the book was “blessing people.” Beth Malarkey responded that saying a deceptive book “blesses” other people is nothing but a way of justifying wrongdoing. In a blog post, she concluded:
The ones making money from the book are NOT the ones staying up through the night, struggling for their breath, nor were they the ones at six years old, waking up unable to move or breathe. . . . There are many who are scamming and using the Word of God. . . . Alex did not write the book and it is not blessing him.6
The next time you are tempted to read one of these “heavenly tourism” books, remember the words of the boy who supposedly came back from heaven—but didn’t: “Read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth.”
And consider this: even if this boy had gone into the presence of Jesus, then came back to tell us what he saw—what place would he be describing? We know for a fact that no one has ever died and gone to the eternal heaven that John writes about in the book of Revelation—let alone come back to tell about it. How do we know that? Because the new heaven and the new earth will not exist until the old heaven and the old earth pass away. That’s what John tells us in Revelation 21:1.
So if anyone tells you they have died and have seen our eternal home in heaven, don’t believe it. We know from Scripture that it can’t possibly be true.
What does John see when he peers through the doorway into heaven? He continues his description of the heavenly throne room:
And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. (Revelation 4:3–6)
John sees Jesus, our great High Priest—and he describes Jesus as having the appearance of gemstones: jasper and ruby. These stones should be interpreted symbolically, not literally. Jasper is a diamond-like white stone that symbolizes the glory and purity of Jesus. The ruby is a blood-red stone symbolizing the sacrificial blood of Jesus, which was shed on the cross. These two stones were worn by the high priest of Israel in Old Testament times, and they symbolized the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega.
Surrounding the throne is a rainbow, which reminds us of God’s faithfulness to His promises. In Genesis 9, after God destroyed the world with the Flood and saved Noah and his family in the ark, He promised, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. . . . I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:11, 13).
Rainbows are created when sunlight is reflected by millions of raindrops. A beam of white sunlight enters a raindrop, reflects off the back of the raindrop, and bounces back, bending slightly as it passes through the droplet. When white light is bent, it splits into different wavelengths, producing rainbow bands of color: red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet. If you fly over a waterfall in an airplane, you can look down and see rainbows in the shape of complete circles. The rainbows we usually see, however, are in the shape of a semicircle. This is because the ground gets in the way of the raindrops and blocks the bottom half of the rainbow.
Here in Revelation 4, the apostle John describes something that he had probably never seen with his earthly eyes—a rainbow in the shape of a full circle. John describes this rainbow as encircling the throne of God and shining brightly like an emerald. The circular shape of the rainbow symbolizes the eternal nature of God, who has no beginning and no end.
When we reach heaven, we will see Jesus, our great High Priest. As our High Priest, Jesus performs two ministries on our behalf. First, He makes sacrifices for us. He made the perfect sacrifice for our sins when He died in our place on the cross.
Second, he intercedes for us. Right now, Jesus is interceding on your behalf before the Father. Were you aware that the Lord Jesus is continually praying for you and advocating for you before the Father?
There are some people who pray to certain saints, such as the Virgin Mary. I have great respect for Mary, the mother of Jesus, because of her faithfulness and obedience when God selected her to give birth to the Messiah. But Mary is not our High Priest. She cannot intercede for us with the Father, and it does no good to ask her to pray for us. Only Jesus can intercede for us before the Father.
The Scriptures make it clear that no one can intercede for us except Jesus: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). And, “Therefore he [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
In John 17, we find the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, which He prayed just hours before He was crucified. In that prayer, He prayed not only for His disciples, but for all who would come after them, including you and me: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message” (John 17:20). Before Jesus gave His life for us, He was interceding for us. And after He ascended to the Father, He continued to intercede for us. He still intercedes for us today.
Next, notice that around the heavenly throne of God’s power and authority stand twenty-four elders. The twenty-four elders are symbolic, and in order to understand the symbolism, we need to compare scripture with scripture. The twenty-four elders are a parallel of the twenty-four priests whom King David ordained to serve in the temple (1 Chronicles 24:1–19). Why is the number twenty-four important?
In both 1 Chronicles and the book of Revelation, the number twenty-four symbolizes the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples of Jesus. This tells us that in heaven, the true church will be made up of saints from the Old and New Testaments. Many Christians mistakenly think that people in Old Testament times were saved by the Law and the animal sacrifices, whereas people in New Testament times are saved by faith. This is not true. Old Testament saints like Abraham looked forward by faith to the coming of Jesus the Messiah; New Testament saints look back in faith to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. But all are justified by faith, not by the works of the Law.
In the book of Revelation, God gives us the symbol of the twenty-four elders to show us that heaven will be populated by saints from both the Old and the New Testaments. We will all be one body of believers in heaven, and we will bow in praise and gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Next, John describes a scene of awesome power, a visible demonstration of God’s authority over the elemental forces of the universe. Lightning arcs across the scene, unleashing explosions of thunder.
John tells us that seven lamps blaze in front of the throne, and these, he says, “are the seven spirits of God.” In fact, he refers to the seven spirits of God four times: in Revelation 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; and 5:6. What are these seven spirits of God? Has John changed the number of Persons in the Trinity? No, John is using symbolism again.
These seven lamps of fire represent the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit, as found in Isaiah 11:2: the Spirit of the Lord (His comforting presence), the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. When we surrender to the Lord and yield to His Spirit, He will produce these seven qualities in our lives.
Next, John describes a sea of glass, as clear as crystal—a symbol of the pure, clear truth of the Word of God. Satan wants to keep us from reading, studying, memorizing, and obeying the Word of God, because the pure truth of the Word cleanses and sanctifies. Preachers and teachers who substitute motivational pep talks or pop psychology in place of God’s Word are robbing people of God’s truth.
Satan is a counterfeiter. He doesn’t have a creative bone in his body. He never invents anything himself, but he delights in taking God’s creations and twisting them for his purposes. Take, for example, institutions of higher learning.
The first universities in the world were founded by cathedrals and taught by religious clerics—Oxford University, founded in 1096; the University of Paris, around 1150; and Cambridge University, around 1209. In America, Harvard University was founded in 1636 by Puritans; it was named for clergyman John Harvard, and its original mission was to educate young men to be pastors. A Harvard alumnus, a Puritan minister named Cotton Mather, went on to found Yale University in 1701.
All of these institutions of higher learning were founded to teach the Christian faith. But Satan, the counterfeiter, wormed his way into these institutions and replaced godly teachers with ungodly propagandists for worldliness. Today, most universities are strongholds of secularism and atheism. Satan could never create a university, but he often takes the great achievements of Christians and subverts them to his own ends.
Satan even twists the crystal-clear truth of heaven into a lie from hell. The book of Revelation speaks symbolically of God’s truth like “a sea of glass, clear as crystal” (4:6). Satan has produced his own counterfeit of God’s truth, the New Age practices of “crystal energy” and “crystal healing.” Satan has convinced gullible people that crystals of quartz, amethyst, or topaz have power to heal, bring love and riches, or ward off evil. So, instead of seeking the crystal-clear truth of God’s Word, superstitious people chase after mythical powers that supposedly reside inside dead minerals.
Don’t be fooled by Satan’s counterfeits. Seek the crystal clarity of God’s truth.
Next, John gives us a glimpse of worship in heaven—and once again, his description is laden with symbolism. He writes:
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.” (Revelation 4:6–8)
The four angelic creatures with many eyes symbolize their involvement with the judgment of God. When Jesus spoke of God’s judgment in the Gospels, He often said that God would send His angels to harvest the wheat and separate the chaff. Angels will be involved in the final judgment, and that’s why they are depicted as having many eyes. The eyes symbolize the far-seeing wisdom and swift execution of God’s judgment.
The angels continually proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8). Please don’t get the idea that, when we get to heaven, we will do nothing but sing a thousand choruses of “How Great Thou Art.” One of the great misconceptions about heaven—a misconception Satan planted by twisting the meaning of God’s Word—involves the notion that, in heaven, we will do nothing but chant praises to God, hour after hour, millennium after millennium.
No wonder Jesus called Satan a liar and the father of lies. No wonder Satan is our adversary. He is constantly lying about God’s greatest gift—eternity with Him in heaven. Why does Satan lie about heaven? Why does he fill believers with a dread of heaven when the expectation of heaven should be our greatest hope?
The answer is obvious: Satan was thrown out of heaven. He will never be allowed to enter the new heaven. He not only hates God, but he hates us. Why? Because we are going to live forever in heaven—and he is going to be tortured forever in the lake of fire. We will inherit everything Satan lost when he rebelled against God and fell from heaven.
Do you understand what that means? Satan envies you and me. He hates us and he wants what we have—the hope of heaven. So he will do everything he can to kill that hope within us. He will lie to us. He will fill us with fear and doubt.
Don’t let Satan deceive you about heaven. Remember what Paul said:
However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love
him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
So when Satan comes after you, laugh at him, mock him, taunt him: “Get away from me, Satan! I’m going to heaven and you’re not!” It’s all right to taunt Satan. Rejoice that Satan envies you, because you are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ—and nothing will save Satan from the torments of hell.
When Jesus hung on the cross and His blood became a cleansing flood for you and me, Satan was excluded. All the angels and all the demons were excluded. Jesus did not die for angels. Jesus died for you and me, the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. It must drive Satan mad with envy to think that God would send His Son to die for these pitiful human creatures. So Satan continually tries to blind us to the hope of heaven.
That’s why it’s so important to follow Paul’s wise counsel: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2). Don’t let Satan set your agenda. Don’t let Satan control your thinking. Satan wants to keep you focused on earthly things. Don’t listen to him. Set your mind on the things of heaven.
If you are afraid that heaven is going to be boring or unpleasant, consider this: heaven comes from the mind of the same Creator who gave us Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls. Just think of all the amazing, beautiful, thrilling places God has created around the world for humanity to enjoy. If there is so much beauty and wonder in a world that is fallen and broken by sin, imagine what heaven will be like! Imagine eternity without sin and suffering! The most awe-inspiring waterfall will seem as impressive as a lawn sprinkler next to the wonders God has prepared for us in heaven.
Have you ever wondered why we live in a universe surrounded by billions of galaxies and stars? Have you ever wondered how many planets and moons there must be circling those distant stars? How would you like to explore the whole universe without any physical limitation? Truly, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for us.
Will we continually praise God in heaven? Yes, we will. Will we be standing in a big room around a throne, singing endless praise choruses? Hardly. The throne, remember, is symbolic. It speaks of God being the fixed center of the universe. But God does not sit in one chair in one limited locality. God is everywhere. And wherever we go in the universe, whatever we do as we explore the new heaven, we will be able to speak to Him, thank Him, and praise Him. With each new discovery, with each new wonder, our hearts will leap with praise.
Not only do the angels in heaven give God praise, but the twenty-four elders also give praise to God. The elders represent all of God’s saints, both the redeemed of Israel in Old Testament times and the redeemed of the church in New Testament times. John writes:
Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.” (Revelation 4:9–11)
That will be our hymn of praise when we finally see Jesus and hear His voice. We will be reunited with our loved ones. We’ll discover the answers to all the questions that troubled us in our earthly lives. We’ll explore the gleaming streets and many mansions of the New Jerusalem. We’ll thrill to the wonders of the new earth and the new heaven.
And with every new surprise and delight, we will praise Him again and again.
Words are inadequate to describe heaven. The mind is inadequate to imagine eternity with Jesus. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, all of eternity and infinity will be yours to explore. And the new heaven and the new earth will resound with the praises of His people.