A Questioning Faith:

Life After Death: will our loved ones recognize us?

Question about heaven

ABC News poll- over 90% of Americans believe in heaven

• 1990’s- 18 million people who believed that they had a near-death experience in which they caught a glimpse of heaven

• TV shows about heaven, books about heaven• Inquiring minds want to know!!

Quick Answer

• We do not know, the scripture is silent

• What does the scripture say about heaven?

The Heavens: A Brief and Concise History

• God begins creation amidst a “formless void”

• Second day of creation:“And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the

waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome…And God said, ‘Let thewaters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas.” (Genesis 1:6-9)

Hebrew Cosmology

“Hebrew cosmology pictured a flat earth,

over which was a dome-shaped firmament,

supported above the earth by mountains and surrounded by waters.

Holes or windows allowed the water to fall as rain.

The firmament was the heaven in which God set the sun and the stars on the fourth day of creation.”

W. Browning

Statements about the heavens

• Always in the plural- not because of belief in many heavens but to emphasize heaven’s vastness

• The abode of God (1 Kings 8:30)“It designated God’s unique home, a sanctuary, the throne of divine majesty, remoteness, and transcendence.”

Adella Collins

• Can be a divine witness-covenant

(Deuteronomy 32:1)• Can be visited by select

few (apocalyptic literature)

• Little to do with afterlife in Old Testament

“Israelite culture contrasts with the great cultures of the ancient Near East in that there is little description of an afterlife.”

Alan Segal

Old Testament Understanding

No belief in life after death

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:19

Sheol or the Pit

Shadowy place of darkness and silence

“Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort before I go to the land of gloom and deep darkness, the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness.”

Job 10:20-22

A place of sleep but we will never awaken

“But mortals die and are laid low…so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep.”

Job 14:10,12

Greek Cosmology

5th century BC- souls ascend to heaven after deathSouls are purified as they ascendSouls return to their original state

Gospel Views of Heaven

• Connection to “Kingdom of God”• People are rewarded in heaven (Matthew

5:12)- A reversal of fortune

• Heaven is a place of many dwelling places (John 14:2)“A permanent place of abiding with God.”

Gerard Sloyan

• Jesus ascends to heaven (Luke 24:51)

Paul’s View

“Paul and his churches believe that righteous Christians would enjoy a heavenly afterlife. These texts provide, however, no details about what the righteous do in heaven, whether it is unending contemplation of the divine or joyous reunion with family and friends.”

J. Edward Wright

Paul’s unique experience

• Paul ascends into heaven “I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know: God knows…was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.”

2 Corinthians 12:2,4

John’s Revelation

• Called up to heaven to see the future

• His vision: people do not ascend, but the new heaven descends in the form of the New Jerusalem

“the righteous have achieved heavenly existence with God, but it has been achieved by transforming earth and by bringing heaven down to earth.”

J. Edward Wright

Summary

• Heavens are that part of God’s creation that are above the earth

• Heavens are the abode of God• Heavens are God’s reality, God’s kingdom• Heavens are a place where we will be with

God

Conclusion

• While heaven may be a mystery, we do know that this earthly life becomes eternal life with God

• Ted Peters- Four images

1. Ecstasy of worship

“There is no need to have a temple in heaven because the worship of the almighty explodes spontaneously from every quarter of creation (Revelation 21:22).”

2. The Vision of God

“In the Beatitudes, Jesus says that the pure in heart will ‘see God’ (Matthew 5:8). Paul contrasts present and future by saying, ‘For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face’ (1 Corinthians 13:12).”

3. Return to Paradise

“In the New Testament we find the word paradise, coming from an old Persian term meaning ‘park’ or ‘garden.’ When used to designate heaven, it frequently connotes a return to the garden of Eden prior to the fall, to a state of pristine innocence.”

4. The New Jerusalem

“The social nature of humanity finds its historical fulfillment in the mystery of the church, and its final fulfillment in the sharing of life with all others who together share the life of God.”

Zachary Hayes

Two Final Thoughts

“The everlasting life of God is inexhaustibly rich. We will never be sated or bored by it, never feel we have gotten to the bottom of it. In the praise and service of the triune God there will be ever new surprises and adventures as God’s gift of life and love goes on unfolding boundlessly.”

Daniel Migliorie

Heaven is life as God intended

“Not a place located somewhere in outer space where we will escape from our humanity to become angels or disembodied spirits. Heaven is an eternal life of genuine, completely free realization of our humanity in a new heaven and a new earth. It is the life originally willed for us by God the Creator of heaven and earth, lived for us by Jesus Christ,

and promised and worked in us by God’s life-renewing Holy Spirit. It is the eternal life of the self-fulfillment that comes in loving, praising, and serving God, and in living in peace with fellow human beings. Life in heaven can be described as entering into ‘rest’ (Hebrews 4:1), but that does not mean lying down and doing nothing forever. It means rest from

all the frustration, conflict, and self-contradiction that result from our self-destructive attempts to live without or against God and other people. It means coming to rest or peace with our true selves as we live in free and open community with them.”

Shirley Gutherie