Heaven. We talked about it in class briefly on Mon., and, talking about "grey areas," here is a whopper of one that we Christians surely don't know everything about! Prof. mentioned something along the lines of what if we lose our personalities and interests and become totally new beings in that sense in heaven? A thought that popped up in my mind: I had a conversation with an "athiest/agnostic/not-sure-what-to-classify" and he said he was not interested in heaven because a place where everything and everyone was happy did not interest him. Perfect happiness and perfect joy was not appealing. Why would he want to go to heaven for that? What are your thoughts on this? How would you reply to such a statement?
posted by bemily at 1:43 PM
3 Comments:
Wow...we could go on for a long time on this topic! I am one who thinks that we will still have a lot of what/who we are in heaven--it will just be perfected and without sin. We only have the example of the resurrected Jesus Christ as to what our glorified bodies will be like after the second coming. He was recognized by the disciples, he ate, etc. but also passed through matter (the locked door). But, this is not the main question you asked, so I will not give my other thoughts on this topic.
I am not surprised that an unbeliever would not be interested in heaven if they have not experienced the joy of the Lord or the peace that passes understanding even though these two things are a pale reflection tainted by the human fallen state in our present condition when compared to what they will be like in Heaven. Happiness is an emotion and heaven will have other emotions than just happiness (just not the tears of sorrow, fear, etc.). So emotions are not the things to live for. Love and joy are volitional. But again, that is another topic for another time. The heavenly joy that we will experience is something that cannot even be fathomed by our limited, fallen states so how do we know that we would not enjoy it? Adam and Eve experienced it before the fall in my opinion. On the other hand, our limited mind cannot also fathom how bad hell will be--the facing of the full force of God's holiness where the fire is not quenched, the worm does not die, and there is weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. And to think it is worse for those who hear but reject Jesus Christ than for those who reject Him without hearing about Him! I shudder and will pray for your friend that he will be open to the saving salvation of our Lord and Savior.
I will stop for now...
My first question was why would he not want to go to a place with perfect joy and happiness? What could possibly be wrong with always being joyful? I have a friend that's even a Christian and hates thinking about Heaven because he can't imagine it as anything but boring and repetive. If it lasts for eternity, then how can anything be new or exciting? I guess my answer, which probably won't appeal to non-Christians, is that God created us in His image and gave us limited bits of His complete understanding, but we definitely don't know, or can even begin to understand, everything. So even if I can't picture Heaven, or think of it as perfect and amazing and not boring or whatever, I have to just trust in God and in what He says. He says in Heaven there will be no more sorrow or pain or death, He says it will be the perfect world. And because He says it, I believe it.
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