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Transcript 188A — What Is Heaven Like?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. I wanted to talk about a thirteen year-old child asking, "What is Heaven like?"
HC: The question is raised, "What is Heaven like?" The Bible gives us word pictures of Heaven. Actually, it's talking about the New Heaven and the New Earth, which is Heaven after we have received our resurrected bodies. But the principle is the same, because we are in the presence of Christ. And if you read Revelation 21, we read there in verse 3: "Behold the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. And God Himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore. For the former things have passed away.
And then again it says in verse 22 of Revelation 21: "And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it.
CALLER: I teach Sunday School, and that's why I'm asking. It's sometimes kind of hard to get their attention. And they're more interested in the earthly material things. So it's kind of hard. One would ask if there are bowling alleys, or if there is an age that you can choose to be. Is there somewhere you can read about these things in the Bible? Doesn't it say somewhere that we'll never grow old? Would you explain that to me?
HC: Actually, our problem is that we, on this side of the grave, think in terms of bowling alleys and tennis rackets and roller skates and buildings and dresses, and chocolate pudding and apple pie. All of these things are what our minds think of as being real, tangible, wonderful to hold onto. But in Heaven our focal point is not on these things. The Bible says God is Spirit, "and they who worship Him worship Him in spirit and in truth." In Heaven our focal point is on His Eternal Majesty, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're beyond time, and we're outside of all of these physical things. We're not going to be thinking of physical food and physical pleasure and all of this. It's something that is infinitely more glorious and wonderful than anything that this earth can provide.
We can only read the Biblical language and know that it's just a word picture. The Bible can't really give us the truth about Heaven, because our minds are not conditioned to know about Heaven. It's too glorious for us. For example, when Christ comes again, He comes from Heaven. And when He comes again, He's going to take us to Himself, to be with Him forever.
And notice the language of Matthew 24. This will get a youngster's mind really to open up to this. Matthew 24:27: "For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." In other words, His presence will be felt all over the world. Now a youngster will say, "Well, how can that be, if the earth is a globe, if the earth is a sphere? How can everyone see Him?" Because it says in verse 30, "Then will appear the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and with great glory."
Well, this is because God is the Creator of the laws of the way the light travels, and so on. The fact is, when He comes everyone will see Him. He is all glorious, and everyone on the whole earth, whether you're on the other side or this side, will see him, so glorious it's going to be. And He's coming as King of kings and Lord of lords. It will be a majestic sight, but only for the born again believers. For the unsaved it will be a terrible coming, because it will be the time of God's wrath, of course, and that's another subject.
CALLER: Well, I guess my students are really just at that age.
HC: Yes. Let me give you one other figure to maybe help you. In I Corinthians 15 it speaks about the kind of bodies that are raised from the grave. Now you can tell your youngsters, "If one of you would die, your body that you have now will be put in the grave. On the Last Day, if you belong to Christ, you're going to receive your resurrected body. What kind of a body will it be? Will it be like your present body? Maybe you died of disease. Maybe you had certain disfigurements in your body. Is that the kind of a body it will be?"
The Bible says it's like when you put a grain of wheat into the ground. It's just a little dry pebble that you put into the ground. It's a grain of wheat. And it dies. But then what happens after a little while? A plant comes forth. And that plant is beautiful. It's green and alive, and it looks nothing at all like that pebble that was put into the ground. It's just far more wonderful.
Well, that's what it's going to be with our resurrected bodies. Our resurrected bodies will be spiritual bodies, whatever that means. The Bible doesn't tell us. It just uses the phrase "spiritual bodies." And our resurrected bodies will be far, far, far more glorious than the bodies that we now have. And time will be no more. So we don't think in terms of a person being 60 years old, or 30 years old, or 20 years old. We'll simply be with Christ, to live and reign with Him forever.
Now we can only use the language of the Bible. We can't go beyond that. I hope this helps a tiny bit.
CALLER: Thank you.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.