Lots of people believe in some a heaven or after life of some kind. Not usually in a very thought through way - or with much evidence to back it up - but its easy to see how folks could derive some kind of comfort from a vague conviction that death isn’t the end.
A lot of folks go further than that and suggest what comes after death is an improvement on now. They’re thinking of more than an eternal supply of cream cheese. Hence comments like “He’s gone to a better place”... “She’s gone to meet her maker” “He’ll be smiling as he looks down on us”…
In fact – without knowing it - a lot of people hope for part of the Bible’s description of heaven – a place where there is “no more death or mourning, or crying or pain” (Rev 21v4).
a) This imagined heaven fails to recognise what people are like!
I wonder about this secular, God-free, ‘analgesic’ heaven - the “better place” that wishful thinking invents. Stop and think about it for too long and this heaven falls apart. It disappoints, not only because its promises are without foundation, but because this view fails to recognise what people are like. It suffers from a massive dollop of wishful thinking!
Don’t get me wrong, I want a heaven where there is “no more death or mourning, or crying or pain”. (I don’t think that’s coincidence, I think that’s written on all our hearts by the God who made us. It’s written on our souls, and consequently its what we yearn for when death strips away the distractions and trappings of day-to-day life). But here’s the thing: If this imagined heaven goes on forever then there will be all of those things! Crying, pain and the rest! At least there will be if I am there! In my selfishness I cause people pain. Give me long enough, and I’ll make people cry. Give me forever, and sooner or later I’ll kill people.
If I’m allowed into heaven unchanged, then it won’t be heaven any more! I would spoil it. And so would you, and your nice kind Grandpa Joe, sweet old Aunt Lucy and anyone else you care to think of.
b) This imagined heaven is no heaven at all!
If you think of this your idea of heaven – God-free & without any mechanism for personal change, then let me say: it’s rubbish! All you’ve done is daydream death away. And you’re left with something which is pretty unappealing. At best it’s just life now, but it goes on forever.
But “wait!” you say, “the really bad people won’t be there, so it will be better than life now!” Without getting side-tracked clarifying God’s true entry criteria, I think that fails to recognise what I’m like underneath, and equally what you are like. Given long enough we’ll spoil your made-up heaven for each other. I’ll cause you pain. You’ll make me cry. As eternity unfolds, feuds will develop. I’ll get more and more stuck in my ways. And so will you. (That’s generally what old people do! Why will we be different in eternity).
There is nothing in human history which gives me any grounds for hoping that if you get rid of death, that people will relate to each other any better – even the “nice” ones. It’ll end up being just as messy and painful, and hopeless and unresolvable as life is now, but there will be no end and no escape!
We need heart change. The question is who would we trust to perform that operation? And who has the power to do it?
c) We don’t just need God to forgive us, we need him to change our hearts
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean... I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you, and move you to follow my decrees and keep my laws… you will be my people and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36v26-28)
The Bible’s promises for the future are far more glorious than most people realise! Christians talk lots about Jesus’ death on the cross absorbing God’s justice, and for good reason. Without forgiveness, heaven would be empty. The way we treat God and one another, no one can approach God with any confidence. If God is just and takes wrong-doing seriously, then – absent forgiveness - heaven would have a population of one: Jesus.
But the Christian faith provides for more than just an “entry ticket” to heaven. That wouldn’t be enough. The Bible promises God’s power to transform lives made possible because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee of what’s to come. It’s the guarantee that those who trust him, will be made like him – that is: perfect! Morally… Physically… Spiritually…
Not that Christians already are. Far from it. But we will be. Not because of our deserving it, but because God chooses to showcase his generosity and mercy by transforming the lives of people who had previously hated him. He brings them to love him perfectly and to love what he loves, to be faithful as he is faithful, to hate evil as he hates it, to seek justice and show mercy just as he does. He undoes the effects of our sin, and restores them so that they can live with him forever.
The Bible’s promise of heaven is realistic and comprehensive. Its better than we dare admit, because it recognises what we are like.
Here’s what God said after he promised a world with no more crying, mourning, death or pain:
“These words are trustworthy and true…”
That sounds a lot better and more certain than a made-up heaven, with or without Philadelphia.
