The sky is up - is not it?

Shortly after you have died, you find yourself in a queue in front of the gate of heaven, where St. Peter is already waiting for you with a few questions. If you are then found worthy, you will be allowed in and, equipped with a white robe and an obbligato harp, you will strive to the cloud that has been assigned to you. And then by the time you pick up the strings, you may recognize some of your friends (though not quite as many as you hoped); but probably also many that you preferred to avoid during your lifetime. So this is how your eternal life begins.

You don't think so seriously. Fortunately, you don't have to believe it either, because it is not true. But how do you actually imagine heaven? Most of us who believe in God also believe in some kind of afterlife in which we are rewarded for our faithfulness or punished for our sins. That much is certain - this is exactly why Jesus came to us; therefore he died for us and therefore he lives for us. The so-called golden rule reminds us: "... God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that all who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life" (John 3,16).

But what does that mean? If the reward of the righteous even approximates the well-known images, we should take a closer look at the other place - well, we may not admit it.

Thinking about the sky

The aim of this article is to encourage you to think about heaven in new ways. It is important to us not to come across as dogmatic; that would be stupid and arrogant. Our only reliable source of information is the Bible, and it is astonishingly vague as to how it will represent what awaits us in heaven. Scripture, however, promises us that our trust in God will work for the best both in this life (with all its temptations) and in the world to come. Jesus made this very clear. However, he was less communicative about what that future world will look like 10,29-30).

The apostle Paul wrote: "Now we only see an unclear picture like in a cloudy mirror ..." (1. Corinthians 13,12, Good News Bible). Paul was one of the few people who was given some sort of “visitor visa” to heaven and found it difficult to describe what was happening to him (2. Corinthians 12,2-4). Whatever it was, it was impressive enough to move him to reorient his life so far. Death didn't scare him. He had seen enough of the world to come and even looked forward to it with joy. Most of us, however, are not like Paul.

Always on?

When we think of heaven, we can only picture it as our current state of knowledge allows us. For example, the painters of the Middle Ages drew a thoroughly earthly picture of paradise, which they designed with attributes of physical beauty and perfection that corresponded to their zeitgeist. (Though one has to wonder where in the world the stimulus for putti, which resembled naked, aerodynamically highly improbably shaped babies came from.) Styles, like technology and taste, are subject to constant change, and so the medieval ideas of the Paradise no further today if we want to form a picture of that world to come.

Modern writers use more contemporary images. CS Lewis' fanciful classic The Great Divorce describes an imaginary bus journey from hell (which he sees as a vast, desolate suburb) to heaven. The aim of this journey is to give those in "Hell" the opportunity to change their minds. Lewis' heaven takes in some, although many of the sinners do not like it there after initial acclimatization and they prefer the known hell. Lewis stresses that he has not made any particular insight into the essence and nature of eternal life; his book is to be understood purely allegorically.

Mitch Alborn's fascinating work The Five People You Meet in Heaven also makes no claim to theological correctness. With him, the sky is in an amusement park by the sea, where the main character worked all his life. But Alborn, Lewis, and other writers like them may have seen the bottom line. It is possible that the sky is not that different from the surroundings that we know here in this world. When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, he often used comparisons in his descriptions with life as we know it. It does not resemble him completely, but shows enough resemblance to him to be able to draw corresponding parallels.

Then and now

For most of human history, there has been little scientific understanding of the nature of the cosmos. If one ever thought about such things, it was believed that the earth was a disk encircled by the sun and moon in perfect concentric circles. Heaven, it was said, was up there somewhere, while hell was in the underworld. The traditional notions of heavenly doors, harps, white robes, wings of angels, and endless praises correspond to the horizon of expectation we attribute to louder biblical exegesis, who interpreted the little that the Bible says about heaven according to their understanding of the world.

Today we have so much more astronomical knowledge about the cosmos. So we know that the earth is but a tiny speck in the vastness of the seemingly more and more expanding universe. We know that what appears to us to be a tangible reality is basically nothing more than a delicately interwoven energy network held together by forces so strong that most of human history has not even been suspected of existence. We know that perhaps about 90% of the universe consists of "dark matter" - which we can theorize about with mathematicians, but we can neither see nor measure.

We know that even phenomena as indisputable as the "passage of time" are relative. Even the dimensions that define our spatial conceptions (length, width, height and depth) are only visually and intellectually comprehensible aspects of a much more complex reality. Some astrophysicists tell us that there may be at least seven other dimensions, but the way they work is inconceivable to us. These scientists speculate that those additional dimensions are as real as height, length, latitude, and time. You are thus at a level that goes beyond the measurable limits of our most sensitive instruments; and also from our intellect we can even begin to deal with it without being hopelessly overwhelmed.

The pioneering scientific achievements of the last decades have revolutionized the current state of knowledge in almost all areas. So what about the sky? Do we have to rethink our ideas about life in the hereafter?

The Hereafter

An interesting word - beyond. Not this side, not from this world. But wouldn't it be possible to spend eternal life in a more familiar environment and to do exactly what we always liked to do - with the people we know in the bodies we can recognize? Could it not be that the afterlife is an extension of the best time of our well-known life in this world without its burdens, fears and sufferings? Well, at this point you should read carefully - the Bible does not promise that it will not be so. (I'd rather repeat that again - the Bible doesn't promise it won't).

The American theologian Randy Alcorn has dealt with the subject of heaven for many years. In his book Heaven, he carefully examines every Bible quotation relating to the afterlife. The result is a fascinating portrait of what life after death may be like. He writes about it:

"We become tired of ourselves, we become tired of others, of sin, of suffering, of crime and of death. And yet we love the earthly life, right? I love the vastness of the night sky over the desert. I love to sit next to Nancy on the couch by the fireplace, spread a blanket over us, next to the dog nestled close to us. These experiences do not anticipate the heavens, but they offer a taste of what awaits us there. What we love about this life on earth are the things that tune us to the very life for which we are made. What we love here on this world is not only the best that this life has to offer, it is also a glimpse into the even greater future life. "So why should we limit our view of the kingdom of heaven to yesterday's worldviews? Based on our improved understanding of our environment, let us guess what life in heaven might look like.

Physicality in the sky

The Apostles' Creed, the most widespread testimony of personal faith among Christians, speaks of the "resurrection of the dead" (literally: of the flesh). You may have repeated it hundreds of times, but have you ever thought about what it means?

Commonly, one associates with the Resurrection a "spiritual" body, a tender, ethereal, unreal, something resembling a spirit. However, this does not correspond to the biblical idea. The Bible points out that a resurrected one will be a physical being. The body, however, will not be carnal in the sense in which we understand this concept.

Our idea of ​​fleshiness (or also thinginess) is tied to the four dimensions with which we perceive reality. But if there are indeed numerous other dimensions, our definition of thingliness is woefully wrong.

After his resurrection, Jesus had a fleshly body. He could eat and go and gave a fairly normal appearance. You could touch him. And yet he was able to deliberately blow up the dimensions of our reality, just like Harry Potter at the station, seemingly crossing walls. We interpret this as not real; but perhaps it is perfectly normal for a body that can experience the full spectrum of reality.

So we can look forward to eternal life as a recognizable I, equipped with a real body that is neither subject to death, disease and decay, nor is it dependent on air, food, water and blood circulation in order to be able to exist? Yes, it really does seem like that. “... it has not yet been revealed what we will be,” says the Bible. “We know that when it is revealed, we will be like him; because we will see him as he is "(2. John 3,2, Zurich Bible).

Imagine a life with your sense and intellect - it would still carry your very own features and would be free only of everything superfluous, would have rearranged the priorities and could plan so freely for ever and ever, dream and creatively. Imagine an eternity in which you are reunited with old friends and have the opportunity to gain more. Imagine relationships with others, as well as with God, free of fear, tension or disappointment. Imagine never having to say goodbye to loved ones.

Noch nicht

Far from being tied into a never-ending worship service for all eternity, eternal life seems to be a sublimation, unsurpassable in its magnificence, of what we here in this world know as the optimum. The hereafter holds far more in store for us than we can perceive with our limited senses. Occasionally, God gives us a glimpse of what that broader reality looks like. Saint Paul told the superstitious Athenians that God was "not far from everyone ..." (Acts 1 Cor7,24-27). The sky is definitely not close in a measurable way for us. But neither can it be just “a happy, far away country”. Could it not indeed be that He surrounds us in a way that we cannot put into words?

Let your imagination run wild for a while

When Jesus was born, angels suddenly appeared to the shepherds in the field (Luke 2,8-14). It was as if they came out of their realm into our world. The same thing happened as in 2. Book of Kings 6:17, not to the frightened servant Elisha when legions of angels suddenly appeared to him? Shortly before he was stoned by an angry crowd, Stephen also opened up fragmentary impressions and sounds that normally elude human perception (Acts of the Apostles 7,55-56). Was this how the visions of Revelation appeared to John?

Randy Alcorn points out that “just like blind people cannot see the world around them, although it does exist, we too, in our sinfulness, are unable to see heaven. Is it possible that before the Fall, Adam and Eve saw clearly what is invisible to us today? Is it possible that the kingdom of heaven itself is only a little distant from us? ”(Heaven, p. 178).

These are fascinating speculations. But they are not fantasies. Science has shown us that creation is far more than we can perceive in our current physical limitations. This earthbound human life is to an extremely limited extent an expression of who we will ultimately be. Jesus came to us humans as one of us and thus also submitted to the limitations of human existence up to the ultimate fate of all fleshly life - death! Shortly before his crucifixion he prayed: “Father, now give me again the glory that I had with you before the world was created!” And let's not forget that he continued in his prayer: “Father, you have it [ the people] given to me, and I want them to be with me where I am. They should see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the world was made. ”- John 17,5 and 24, Good News Bible).

The last enemy

One of the promises of the new heaven and the new earth is that "death will be conquered forever". In the developed world, we have succeeded in figuring out how to live a decade or two longer. (Unfortunately, however, we did not succeed in finding out how this extra time could be used as well). But even if it might be possible to escape the grave a little longer, death is still our inescapable enemy.

Alcorn explains in his fascinating study of heaven: “We should not glorify death - neither did Jesus. He wept over death (John 11,35). Just as there are beautiful stories about people who peacefully walked into eternity, there are also those who can tell of mentally and physically fading, confused, emaciated people, whose death in turn leaves exhausted, stunned, grieved people. Death is painful and an enemy. But for those who live in the knowledge of Jesus, it is the ultimate pain and the ultimate enemy ”(p. 451).

Are you waiting! It still goes on . , ,

We could shed light on a lot more aspects. Provided that the balance is maintained and we do not stray from the topic, exploring what to expect after death is an exciting area of ​​research. But the word count on my computer reminds me that this article is well within the limits of time and space is subject. Let us conclude with a final, truly joyful quote from Randy Alcorn: “With the Lord we love and the friends we cherish, we shall become the last together in a fantastic new universe to be explored and occupied seek great adventures. Jesus will be at the center of all of this, and the air we breathe will be filled with joy. And when we then think that there can actually be no further increase, we will notice - it will! ”(P. 457).

by John Halford


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