When Christians throughout the centuries have thought about heaven, they have often been tempted to blend current popular notions about the afterlife into Scriptural teaching. This occurred already in the early centuries of the church, as many Christians mixed Greco-Roman ideas about the “immortality of the soul” into Biblical teachings about the “resurrection of the body”—which are actually two quite different concepts. The same tendency to “mix up” our ideas about heaven continues today. Our vision of the afterlife is easily influenced by movies and all sorts of notions that we hear through the diverse media of our time.

So it helps to look at what the Bible actually says about heaven! People are sometimes surprised to discover that many of the things that they have often heard about the afterlife are actually not what the Scripture teaches. The true Biblical message is coherent and powerful. It is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the way has been opened for us to be raised into new and everlasting life. Our promised destiny is to be more than a vaporous “spirit” wafting about someplace; it is to be raised into a “spiritual body” (I Corinthians 15), which will enable us to feel, to act, and to share in real fellowship with one another and with God. It is a marvelous destiny, to unfold in the glory of eternity. It is, of course, beyond our full comprehension, but we can rejoice in the sure promise that, as Paul says, “we will be with the Lord forever.” (I Thessalonians 4:17)

Sunday’s Scripture Readings:
Luke 23:39–43
I Thessalonians 4:13–17
John 6:54
I Corinthians 15:35–44, 51–52

Related posts:

How Do We Know? Is There an Afterlife? Is There an Afterlife? Who Enters Heaven?