Is heaven real? How can we know?
Our age prefers empirical evidence when searching for truth, so people wondering about the afterlife are often especially intrigued by reports of “near-death experiences,” because these seem to offer eye-witness observations of a world beyond this one. There are a great many such reports! We may have some skepticism about them, but they are at least an indicator of heaven.
But there are other avenues to arrive at the knowledge that heaven is real. From the Biblical perspective, the greatest way to come to knowledge about heaven is to pay attention to what God reveals; and God’s revelation comes to us powerfully on several levels:
- There is the inner witness of the spirit – a “sense of eternity” or a “longing for heaven” that we find deep within ourselves. Why have human beings across the ages and across extremely divergent cultures had a consistent belief that there is some sort of life beyond the grave? It is because, as Ecclesiastes expresses it, “God has put eternity into the human heart.” (Eccl. 3:11) We have each been given a basic inkling of heaven. That inner witness is accented when we open ourselves to the presence of the Holy Spirit, who, as Jesus said, “will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:13)
- There is the clear testimony of Scripture – as God speaks to us through His Word in the Bible, come to supreme expression in Jesus. As Jesus said, “I give them eternal life.” (John 10:28)
- There is the resurrection of Jesus Christ! Easter is the ultimate declaration that heaven is now a reality. Christ has won the victory over death, opening the way for all of us into heaven. As the Scripture says, “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died . . . for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:20,22)
So we can know that heaven is real because God through Christ establishes this truth! Thus we can join with the apostle Paul and say, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (II Corinthians 5:1)
Sunday’s Scripture Readings:
I Corinthians 15:20–22
II Corinthians 5:1–10
