Heaven (46 page)
Authors: Randy Alcorn
Wesley explained mankind's appointed role on Earth and how the animals benefited from mankind's faithfulness to God and suffered
in human rebellion: "Man was God's vicegerent upon earth, the prince and governor of this lower world; and all the blessings
of God flowed through him to the inferior creatures. Man was the channel of conveyance between his Creator and the whole brute
creation . . . so when man made himself incapable of transmitting those blessings, that communication was necessarily cut
off."
Wesley argued that animals originally had greater understanding, wills, passions, liberty, and choice. He said, "How beautiful
many of them were, we may conjecture from that which still remains.... It is probable they sustained much loss . . . their
vigour, strength, and swiftness. But undoubtedly they suffered far more in their understanding.... As man is deprived
of his
perfection, his loving obedience to God; so brutes are deprived of
their
perfection, their loving obedience to man."
After recounting mankind's sad record of cruelty to animals, Wesley asked,
But will "the creature," will even the brute creation, always remain in this deplorable condition? God forbid that we should
affirm this; yea, or even entertain such a thought! . . . The whole brute creation will then, undoubtedly, be restored, not
only to the vigour, strength, and swiftness which they had at their creation, but to a far higher degree of each than they
ever enjoyed. They will be restored, not only to that measure of understanding which they had in paradise, but to a degree
of it as much higher than that. . . . Whatever affections they had in the garden of God, will be restored with vast increase;
being exalted and refined in a manner which we ourselves are not now able to comprehend.
Wesley envisioned a magnificent restoration of the animal kingdom on the New Earth: "And with their beauty their happiness
will return. . . . In the new earth, as well as in the new heavens, there will be nothing to give pain, but everything that
the wisdom and goodness of God can create to give happiness. As a recompense for what they [animals] once suffered .. . they
shall enjoy happiness suited to their state, without alloy, without interruption, and without end."
Wesley then made an extraordinary speculation: "What, if it should then please the all-wise, the all-gracious Creator to raise
them higher in the scale of beings? What, if it should please him . . . to make them . . . capable of knowing and loving and
enjoying the Author of their being?"
MIGHT SOME ANIMALS TALK?
Most people who've enjoyed the children's stories of Beatrix Potter, C. S. Lewis, or others who wrote of talking animals have
probably never seriously considered the possibility that some animals might actually have talked in Eden or that they might
talk on the New Earth.
We're told that in Eden the serpent was "more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made" (Genesis 3:1).
More
crafty suggests that some of the other animals were also crafty. Animals were smart, probably smarter than we imagine; the
most intelligent animals we see around us are but fallen remnants of what once was. The serpent's intelligence was demonstrated
in reasoning and persuasive speech. People typically imagine that Satan possessed a dumb animal, the snake, but the text
doesn't say that. Today Satan can speak through a human being but not an animal because people can talk and animals can't.
But the fact that he spoke through an animal in Eden suggests the animal had the capacity to speak. There's no suggestion
Eve was surprised to hear an animal speak, indicating other animals also may have spoken.
When God spoke through Balaam's donkey, was he merely putting words into her mouth, or did he temporarily give the donkey
the ability to verbalize her instinct, perceptions, and feelings? On the New Earth, might God, as John Wesley surmised, restore
or increase both the intelligence and the communicative abilities of animals? Whales and dolphins communicate in highly specific
ways, as do many primates, in varying degrees. These are God-given abilities. We should assume they'll be enhanced on the
New Earth or at very least restored to the capabilities they had in Eden, where it's possible more than one animal talked.
In a universe teeming with God's creativity, should talking animals or intelligent non-human beings (such as angels and "living
creatures" that not only talk but worship) surprise us? If people will be smarter and more capable on the New Earth, should
it surprise us that animals might also be smarter and more capable? Remember, both in the Fall (sin) and the rise (resurrection),
as goes mankind, so goes creation.
When in John's vision of Heaven he says, "I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice" (Revelation
8:13), it may be figurative language. But when the serpent spoke to Eve and when the donkey spoke to Balaam, the stories are
recorded in historical narrative, not in apocalyptic literature. Nothing in the context of the Genesis account or the Balaam
story indicates these shouldn't be taken literally. Furthermore, as we've seen, living creatures—
animals
—verbalize praise to God. And "every creature" in the universe is said to sing and give praise to the Lamb (Revelation 5:13).
The word for creature in that verse is
ktisma,
which clearly means "animals" in its only other appearance in Revelation (8:9). Just because these passages are in the book
of Revelation doesn't mean they cannot be literal.
C. S. Lewis gives us a creative glimpse of what the resurrected Earth might be like. In
The Magicians Nephew,
King Asian declares the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, now in Narnia on its first day, to be his kings and queens. The
talking animals make crowns for the first king and queen and express their delight in being ruled by these humans.
One of the animals who watches this scene is a horse named Strawberry, who drew a London carriage on Earth. He toiled, and
sometimes his master Frank, a cabbie and a good man, whipped him to make him move faster. Strawberry, whom Asian renamed
Fledge, marvels at the new King Frank in the New Narnia: "My old master's been changed nearly as much as I have! Why, he's
a real master now."
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Asian later says to King Frank and Queen Helen, "Be just and merciful and brave. The blessing is upon you."
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All the people celebrate.
All the animals rejoice.
Asian, Lord of all, is pleased.
WILL HEAVEN EVER BE BORING?
A
common misconception about eternity surfaced in an episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A member of the undying "Q_continuum" longs for an end to his existence. Why? Because, he complains, everything that could
be said and done has
already
been said and done, and now there's only repetition and utter boredom. He says, "For us, the disease is immortality." Finally
he's allowed to end his existence.
Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes, "I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing
hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse."
Sadly, even among Christians, it's a prevalent myth that Heaven will be boring. Sometimes we can't envision anything beyond
strumming a harp and polishing the streets of gold. We've succumbed to Satan's strategies "to blaspheme God, and to slander
his name and his dwelling place" (Revelation 13:6).
WHAT WILL WE DO TO AVOID BOREDOM?
People sometimes say, "I'd rather be having a good time in Hell than be bored in Heaven." Many people imagine Hell as a place
where they'll hang around, shoot pool, and joke with friends. That could happen on the New Earth, but not in Hell.
Hell is a place of torment and isolation, where friendship and good times don't exist. Hell will be deadly boring. Everything
good, enjoyable, refreshing, fascinating, and interesting is derived from God. Without God there's nothing interesting to
do. King David wrote, "In Your presence is fullness ofjoy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11, NKJV).
In the presence of God, there's nothing but joy.
In his book
Things Unseen,
pastor Mark Buchanan asks, Why won't we be bored in heaven? Because it's the one place where both impulses—to go beyond, to
go home—are perfectly joined and totally satisfied. It's the one place where we're constantly discovering—where everything
is always fresh and the possessing of a thing is as good as the pursuing of it—and yet where we are fully at home—where everything
is as it ought to be and where we find, undiminished, that mysterious something we never found down here. . . . And this lifelong
melancholy that hangs on us, this wishing we were someone else somewhere else, vanishes too. Our craving to go beyond is
always and fully realized. Our yearning for home is once and for all fulfilled. The
ahh!
of deep satisfaction and the
aha!
of delighted surprise meet, and they kiss.
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Our belief that Heaven will be boring betrays a heresy—that God is boring.There's no greater nonsense. Our desire for pleasure
and the experience of joy come directly from God's hand. He made our taste buds, adrenaline, sex drives, and the nerve endings
that convey pleasure to our brains. Likewise, our imaginations and our capacity for joy and exhilaration were made by the
very God we accuse of being boring. Are we so arrogant as to imagine that human beings came up with the idea of having fun?
"Won't it be boring to be good all the time?" someone asked. Note the assumption: sin is exciting and righteousness is boring.
We've fallen for the devil's lie. His most basic strategy, the same one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe
that sin brings fulfillment. However, in reality, sin robs us of fulfillment. Sin doesn't make life interesting; it makes
life empty. Sin doesn't create adventure; it blunts it. Sin doesn't expand life; it shrinks it. Sin's emptiness inevitably
leads to boredom. When there's fulfillment, when there's beauty, when we see God as he truly is—an endless reservoir of fascination—boredom
becomes impossible.
Those who believe that excitement can't exist without sin are thinking with sin-poisoned minds. Drug addicts are convinced
that without their drugs they can't live happy lives. In fact—as everyone else can see—drugs make them miserable. Freedom
from sin will mean freedom to be what God intended, freedom to find far greater joy in everything. In Heaven we'll
be filled
—as Psalm 16:11 describes it—with joy and eternal pleasures.
WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK WE'D BE BORED?
An elderly gentleman I led to Christ asked a question of a Christian employee in his care center: "Will we have fun in Heaven?"
"Oh,
no"
the woman replied, appearing dismayed that he'd even asked.
When he told me this story, I shook my head, because I've heard it so often. Why did this Christian woman respond as she did?
Because, in accordance with the faulty assumptions of Christoplatonism, she instinctively linked fun with sin and boredom
with holiness. But she couldn't be more wrong. God promises that we'll laugh, rejoice, and experience endless pleasures in
Heaven.
Someone told me nobody will enjoy playing golf in Heaven because it would get boring always hitting holes in one. But why
assume everyone's skills will be equal and incapable of further development? Just as our minds will grow in knowledge, our
resurrection bodies can develop greater skills.
Another reason people assume Heaven is boring is that their Christian lives are boring. That's not God's fault; it's their
own. God calls us to follow him in an adventure that should put us on life's edge. He's infinite in creativity, goodness,
beauty, and power. If we're experiencing the invigorating stirrings of God's Spirit, trusting him to fill our lives with divine
appointments, experiencing the childlike delights of his gracious daily kindnesses, then we'll know that God is exciting and
Heaven is exhilarating. People who love God crave his companionship. To be in his presence will be the very opposite of boredom.
We think of ourselves as fun-loving, and of God as a humorless killjoy. But we've got it backward. It's not God who's boring;
it's us. Did we invent wit, humor, and laughter? No. God did. We'll never begin to exhaust God's sense of humor and his love
for adventure. The real question is this: How could God not be bored with
us}
Most of us can envision ourselves being happy for a few days or a week, if that. But a year of complete and sustained happiness?
Impossible, we think, because we've never experienced it. We think of life under the Curse as normal because that's all we've
ever known. A hundred or a million years of happiness is inconceivable to us. Just as creatures who live in a flat land can't
conceive of three-dimensional space, we can't conceive of unending happiness. Because that level of happiness is not possible
here on the fallen Earth, we assume it won't be possible on the New Earth. But we're wrong. To properly envision Heaven,
we must remove from our eyes the distorted lenses of death and the Curse.
WILL OUR WORK BE ENGAGING?
On the New Earth, God will give us renewed minds and marvelously constructed bodies. We'll be whole people, full of energy
and vision. James Campbell says, "The work on the other side, whatever be its character, will be adapted to each one's special
aptitude and powers. It will be the work he can do best; the work that will give the fullest play to all that is within him."
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Even under the Curse, we catch glimpses of how work can be enriching, how it can build relationships, and how it can help
us to improve. Work stretches us in ways that make us smarter, wiser, and more fulfilled. The God who created us to do good
works (Ephesians 2:10) will not cancel this purpose when he resurrects us to inhabit the new universe. The Bible's picture
of resurrected people at work in a vibrant society on a resurrected Earth couldn't be more compelling: We're going to help
God run the universe (Luke 19:11-27).
We're told that we will serve God in Heaven (Revelation 7:15; 22:3). Service is active, not passive. It involves fulfilling
responsibilities in which we expend energy. Work in Heaven won't be frustrating or fruitless; instead, it will involve lasting
accomplishment, unhindered by decay and fatigue, enhanced by unlimited resources. We'rell approach our work with the enthusiasm
we bring to our favorite sport or hobby.
Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good
is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
SIMONE WEIL
In Heaven, we'll reign with Christ, exercise leadership and authority, and make important decisions. This implies we'll be
given specific responsibilities to those under our leadership ( Luke 19:17-19, We'll set goals, devise plans, and share ideas.
Our best work days on the present Earth—those days when everything turns out better than we planned, when we get everything
done on time, and when everyone on the team pulls together and enjoys each other—are just a small foretaste of the joy our
work will bring us on the New Earth.
A disembodied existence would be boring, but the reality of our bodily resurrection puts boredom to death. Imagine the animals
that zoologists will research and play with or the flowers that botanists will study. Gifted astronomers and explorers may
go from star system to star system, galaxy to galaxy, studying the wonders of God's creation. If we think life on the New
Earth will be boring, we just aren't getting it. Take a closer look at God and his Word, and all thoughts that we'll be bored
in his presence will vanish.
WILL OUR LIFE'S WORK CONTINUE?
Because there will be continuity from the old Earth to the new, it's possible we'll continue some of the work we started on
the old Earth. I believe we'll pursue some of the same things we were doing, or dreamed of doing, before our death. Of course,
people whose jobs depend on aspects of our fallen world that will no longer exist on the New Earth—such as dentists (decay),
police officers (crime), funeral directors (death), insurance salespeople (disability), and many others—will change their
work in Heaven, but that doesn't mean they'll be unemployed. What's now an interest or hobby may become their main vocation.
Others, however, may continue with work similar to what they do now, whether as gardeners, engineers, builders, artists,
animal trainers, musicians, scientists, craftspeople, or hundreds of other vocations. A significant difference will be that
they'll work without the hindrances of toil, pain, corruption, and sin.
Author Victor Hugo, in reflecting on his life's work, spoke profoundly of anticipating his work in Heaven: .
I feel within me that future life. I am like a forest that has been razed; the new shoots are stronger and brighter. I shall
most certainly rise toward the heavens the nearer my approach to the end, the plainer is the sound of immortal symphonies
of worlds which invite me. For half a century I have been translating my thoughts into prose and verse: history, drama, philosophy,
romance, tradition, satire, ode, and song; all of these I have tried. But I feel I haven't given utterance to the thousandth
part of what lies within me. When I go to the grave I can say, as others have said, "My day's work is done." But I cannot
say, "My life is done." My work will recommence the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It
closes upon the twilight, but opens upon the dawn.
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.
I'm convinced that Hugo was right in saying that every Christian's life's work, though not always his or her vocation, will
continue on the New Earth. After all, our calling to glorify God will never end. It applies as much here and now as it will
then and there, and it will likely be fulfilled in many old ways as well as new ones.
In
The Biblical Doctrine of Heaven,
Wilbur Smith suggests, "In heaven we will be permitted to finish many of those worthy tasks which we had dreamed to do while
on earth but which neither time nor strength nor ability allowed us to achieve."
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This is an encouraging thought. It saves us from frantically thinking that we have to do it all now, or from giving up in
despair because of the limits of time, money, and strength, and the duties that keep us from certain things we'd love to do.
James Campbell took comfort in this same idea: .
This throws some measure of relieving light upon the painful mystery of a life brought to a sudden close in the fullness of
its power. In the presence of such a tragedy we instinctively ask, Why this waste? Is all the training, discipline, and culture
of this choice spirit to be lost? It cannot be; for in God's universe nothing is ever lost. No preparation is ever in vain.
There is need up there for clear heads, warm hearts, and skilled hands. . . . If some kinds of work are over, others will
begin; if some duties are laid down, others will be taken up. And any regret for labour missed down here, will be swallowed
up in the joyful anticipation of the higher service that awaits every prepared and willing worker in the upper kingdom of
the Father. . . . He will allow no heaven-born hope to be put to shame, but will bring to realization life's brightest visions.
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.
What will it be like to perform a task, to build and create, knowing that what we're doing will last? What will it be like
to be always gaining skill, so that our best work will always be ahead of us? Because our minds and bodies will never fade
and because we will never lack resources or opportunity, our work won't degenerate. Buildings won't last for only fifty years,
and books won't be in print for only twenty years. They'll last forever.
WILL THERE BE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS?
Anthony Hoekema says, "In the beginning man was given the so-called cultural mandate—the command to rule over the earth and
to develop a God-glorifying culture. Because of man's fall into sin, that cultural mandate has never been carried out in
the way God intended. Only on the new earth will it be perfectly and sinlessly fulfilled. Only then shall we be able to rule
the earth properly."
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Would there have been human culture without the Fall? Of course. Culture is the natural, God-intended product of his gifting,
equipping, and calling for mankind to rule over creation. Scripture describes developments in farming, metallurgy, and the
crafting of musical instruments (Genesis 4:20-22) shortly after the Fall. If God had no interest in those cultural improvements,
he wouldn't make note of them. God created his image-bearers to glorify him in creative accomplishments, and he's pleased
by them.
