How the bible talks about the end of the world and how we feel about it are often miles apart. The bible says things like, ‘look forward to that day,’ and to ‘be of good cheer,’ and to ‘encourage one another with words’ about being with Christ when our life is over,’ yet when we think of the end, it’s often not with a whole lot of ‘good cheer’
Imagine that you just found out that you have one week to live. Most people would either feel fear or loss. Yet, the bible commands anticipation and longing. Fear and loss seem logical and rational. People with little kids want to see their kids grow up, engaged couples want to get married. The thought of history ending feels like we’re losing something. We think that to die is loss, but Paul says to die is gain. Why the disconnect?
I believe one of the main reasons is that we haven’t studied heaven enough. We haven’t dwelled on it nor allowed the Holy Spirit to comfort us with thoughts of it. We haven’t pondered it enough to long for it. Instead, we’ve accepted this vague notion of some faraway afterlife filled with harps and wings and marshmallow clouds. No wonder we don’t long for heaven, I can’t imagine wanting those things. I don’t even like marshmallows or harp music. We have a lot of misunderstandings. So, our little house on earth looks more appealing than the mansion that’s been promised to us because we didn’t take the time to learn what that mansion was all about.
I want to try to bring some clarity to what heaven is like. So that we can better dwell on it and long for it and anticipate our time there. To do that I want to explore the 5 most common myths about heaven.
5 Most Common Myths About Heaven
1. Heaven will be boring
Let’s be honest. Most of us when we think of heaven, think it sounds like an endless tedium of singing, kneeling, and bowing, like a big church service that goes on and on and on forever. That might be great for worship leaders, but everyone else is checking out after a song and a half. We’ve got the wrong idea. Heaven won’t be boring!
Think of the last time you saw something in this world that took your breath away? A sunset, a giant redwood, an incredible animal creation, the Grand Canyon, the vast ocean. Can we just agree that God doesn’t do boring?
How can heaven be boring if the one who created this earth, the one who made every animal and every mountain, the one who makes rainbows and giraffes and platypuses, that creative God also dreamed up your dwelling place for eternity. And he’s been anticipating your arrival. Heaven will be exhilarating and refreshing and fulfilling and thrilling. Everything good in this life will be perfect in heaven. It will be better than you can ever imagine. Niagara Falls, the Great Barrier Reef, the Northern Lights, these are just a sneak preview of what awaits us.
Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 2:6-7 God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The word ‘show’ is very important. It means a progressive, ongoing discovery as we learn more and more about His immeasurable riches while we’re in heaven. Heaven is going to be a place where there is intellectual discovery going on. It will be endlessly fascinating.
Now a quick word about the harps and singing. Yes we will worship God for all eternity. However, our mistake is when we equate “worship” only with “singing” We are showing our grossly underdeveloped view of worship. Worship is not the same as singing. It’s much bigger. When God created Adam and Eve, they worshiped God in the Garden. But what did that look like? They weren’t on their faces all day singing songs; no, they worshipped by tending to their place. They worshiped God by creating, by walking with him, by being in relationship with one another. We wilI worship God in heaven by working productively and making important decisions for the glory of God. By creating and relating. I’m sure we will sing because we are a singing people, but we will do so many other things. You will not be bored in heaven!
Myth #1 busted! Heaven will not be boring; it will be an eternally fascinating existence.
2. We’ll lose our identities or become angels
Heaven seems unattractive to some because life as a disembodied sprit is not something most of us sit around longing for. We don’t become angels in heaven. The Bible is clear that there is still a distinction between people and angels in eternity. In fact, the promise of the resurrection means we will retain our identities and be forever reestablished as individuals.
There will be a period of time when we die that we exist as spirits in the presence of Christ awaiting our resurrected bodies, but the day will come before we know it that we will be both physical and spiritual beings again. And on the day that we receive our resurrected bodies – we’ll be most fully ourselves. Our identities will be intact. We’ll eat and drink and talk and sing and work and love and laugh.
This also means that we will recognize each other after we die. In Matthew 17:4 at the Transfiguration. Peter James and John were with Jesus when they received a visitation from two saints who were already dead. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Peter had no problem recognizing Moses and Elijah.
We will recognize people in heaven, and we’ll be reunited with friends and family members. Being with Christ will be the absolute greatest joy of Heaven. But the next greatest joy will be reuniting with our loved ones who have gone before us. The certainty of the ultimate reunion is so powerful that it makes Christian funerals bearable. Heaven is going to be a place of unbelievable reunions for families and friends, loved ones and spouses, and we will recognize each other.
Myth #2 busted! We won’t lose our identities in heaven; we will be most fully ourselves.
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3. Heaven is not a place, it’s just a spiritual existence
In some people’s worldview heaven will just be some spiritual oneness with God and the universe. That it will be a state of being and not an actual physical existence. This is not what the bible says.
Eternity will be spent in the new heaven and new earth. Not some ethereal misty floating around reality. It’s described with trees, and houses, and roads, and vegetation. In fact, at the end of history, the Bible doesn’t talk about us going somewhere else to heaven, it talks about Jesus returning to earth and remaking it. Read Romans 8 and you’ll see that all of creation is groaning and waiting for its redemption. We think of everything being destroyed. And yes, there will be destruction, but there will also be restoration. It’s a bit mysterious. Certainly, everything that is evil will be destroyed. But when you restore a car or a house, you don’t destroy the whole thing, just remove the bad parts. Jesus is going to restore earth and us to our previous glory. And we will have a continuation of the things we love and are dear to us.
Dallas Willard says “the life you now live goes on.” A lot of people thing, “heaven can’t be as good as Pebble Beach, or Turks and Caicos, so I better enjoy all that stuff now.” But remember, you don’t have a ticking clock that ends when you die. You have eternity to keep going. Didn’t make it to the Grand Canyon? It’s OK. Didn’t make it to Australia? Don’t worry, you’ll have all eternity to explore the best of God’s handiwork.
Myth #3 busted! Heaven is a place filled with both spiritual and physical wonders.
4. Everyone will be equal in heaven
When some people picture heaven, they see a bunch of robots who are all the same. Marching around, equal in standing and rank with everybody else. But, in addition to retaining our individual identities, there is another related truth. Heaven will be a place of individual rewards.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:11-12, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven if you read the next few chapters of Matthew, you will see this theme again and again. The one who sees you will reward you. The one who sees you giving, and praying and fasting will reward you. One of the clear teachings of the bible is that Heaven will be a place of reward.
Why don’t we talk about this more? I think we feel more spiritual if we don’t think about rewards and somehow avoid letting rewards motivate us. But reward is such a part of our motivation. To desire reward and congratulations is not inherently a bad thing. We all have a desire for praise, for recognition, to be valued. But just like anything else it can become marred by sin and selfishness. So, when we look for that praise and recognition from people instead of God, when it leads to pride or jealousy it can get all messed up.
But imagine that desire for reward and recognition without the sin. Just an unadulterated drive to please God, to stand before Him and have Him be delighted. In heaven, God will reward you for your good works, and in that moment, you will be the object of the delight of God. The biblical teaching on rewards clearly indicates that what we do on this earth has eternal consequences. Acts of servanthood, obedience, and faith that we thought went unobserved or unnoticed on this earth will never be lost. They will never be forgotten. They will be woven somehow into the fabric of eternity and be a source of joy to us, to God, and to the entire community of heaven forever.
- Do you ever get discouraged?
- Have you ever led a small group and wonder if it’s worth the effort?
- Have you ever tried to share your faith with someone at work and it fell flat?
- Have you ever done small acts of kindness to just remain faithful to your very difficult spouse?
- Have you ever devoted yourself to pray and for a significant stretch of time you hear nothing from heaven and you feel nothing? Do you ever wonder if anyone notices?
- Somebody does.
Bob Russell describes it this way. He says it will be like, “A ball team that has an awards banquet at the end of the year to acknowledge the outstanding players” and each player’s outstanding plays. God’s going to honor people like the apostle Paul, who contributed and who suffered so much more than a pastor like me in the twenty-first century in America who has it so easy in comparison. The godly husband who tenderly cares for a decade for his wife who has Alzheimer’s is going to be rewarded more than the husband whose wife is healthy and whom he takes for granted. Those who all their lives have generously and sacrificially given away 10, 15, 20% of their resources are going to have more treasures laid up in heaven than those who have just given God their leftovers” We don’t fully understand it, but the bible is clear that there will be levels of reward in heaven
Myth #4 busted! People will not be equal but will be rewarded for their good works in Heaven.
5. Everyone will get to heaven
This is one of the most common myths and one of the hardest to deal with in our time. According to the Bible, there is no such thing as universal salvation. Some will go to heaven, and some will go to hell. Jesus was crystal clear about this.
You and I, right now in this lifetime, are choosing between these two eternities. One eternity holds more horror than we can imagine, and one holds more joy than we can imagine. Matthew 25:31, Jesus says, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another… 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Related Read: Are there Many Paths to God?
These are Jesus’ own words describing what’s going to happen. There’s not a lot of interpretive wiggle room here. All of humanity will either receive eternal punishment or eternal life. You and I will either be on Jesus’ right or his left on that day. And the bible is clear that the only way to receive eternal life is to make the appropriate decisions about Jesus Christ during this lifetime.
So many people answer the question, “how do you know you’re going to heaven” by saying, “well I’m trying to be a good person.” I want to remind you that our best efforts will never be good enough. God’s standard is perfection and none of us can achieve that. We’ve all fallen far short.
At the judgment seat of Christ, when my life is on display and all my sin, and I must give an account of why I should enter heaven. My only hope on that day is Jesus. My hope is in the fact that I’ve placed my whole life, my will, my desires, my family, my career, my hopes and dreams, my decisions, under the Lordship of Jesus and how he made a way for me on the cross. My hope is Jesus.
Gene Apple included an amazing section in a talk on Heaven called “Unseen.” He said, Sometimes the writers of the Bible would run out of words to describe what would be in heaven, they would move to words about what won’t be in heaven. The apostle John was given a glimpse of heaven when he wrote: … God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes (this is an amazing picture of God’s tenderness). There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:3-4). Heaven will be entirely different than this world in this way. It is a place of pure joy and delight, it is a place created for us and a place we were created for.
Some of you live right now with physical pain in your body every day. Heaven will be pain-free, Advil-free, arthritis-free. No dentures. No counting fat grams. No Ensure. People we love who are in wheelchairs are going to be able to run and walk and skip. Some of you have kids with special needs, they will be healthy and whole and have able bodies and able minds.
Some of you who live with emotional scars and nightmares and memories and flashbacks and heartbreaks and disappointments from your past that are simply overwhelming right now … you’ll have none of that. There will be no anxious waiting rooms, no bloated starving stomachs on TV, no empty tissue boxes, no tear-stained divorce papers, no motionless ultrasounds, no tiny caskets.
And did you notice who the Bible says is going to wipe away your tears when you get to heaven? The same hands that carved the mountains. The same hands that reached out and made sick people well. The same hands that were nail-pierced for our transgressions will wipe the tears from your cheeks.
One day will be our last day on planet Earth. There is one of the little boxes on the calendar of your life that’s the last one. You cannot escape death. And even though it is hard for us right now to see what life is like on the other side of the glass, to see what’s going on in the unseen world right now, there is something so much more extraordinary on the other side, so much better. When it comes to the bucket list – you have all eternity to do all that stuff. Don’t act like you have to cram it all in before you die. And you don’t have to fear it if you’ve been redeemed by Jesus Christ.
Death is the gateway to true life. Because Heaven….Heaven is beyond our wildest imagination. And with our most creative moments and our deepest thoughts and even when our minds are in full throttle, we cannot paint a picture of the world that God has prepared for us. It’s indescribable. Let us long for the day.
