Exploring Heaven : What Great Christian Thinkers Tell Us about Our Afterlife with God

by Roberts, Arthur O.

• ISBN13: 9780060530686
• ISBN10: 0060530685
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Harpercollins

Summary

Drawing on a wealth of Christian thought though the ages, a noted theologian illuminates his personal vision of heaven--a world free of evil and suffering, where he believes humans will work and learn, continuing the process of discipleship started on earth.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	IX
FOREWORD by David Brandt	XI
INTRODUCTION by Richard J. Foster	XIII
ONE What Is Meant by "Heaven"?	1	(11)
TWO Where Is Heaven Located?	12	(23)
THREE What Does "Eternal Life" Mean?	35	(27)
F0UR Evidences for Heaven	62	(22)
FIVE The Inhabitants of Heaven	84	(16)
SIX What Sort of Persons Will We Be?	100	(12)
SEVEN Activity in Heaven	112	(17)
EIGHT Society in Heaven	129	(22)
NINE The Renewed Cosmos	151	(16)
CONCLUSION	167	(4)
EPILOGUE	171	(2)
APPENDIX A Biblical References to Resurrection and Eternal Life	173	(10)
APPENDIX B "General William Booth Enters into Heaven" by Vachel Lindsay	183	(4)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY	187	(26)
NOTES	213

Excerpts

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

I've kept my life as a scientist and as a believer

separate for years. But since my wife died last month

I've been trying to put the compartments together.

My head says Martha is just ashes strewn at sea.

But my heart tells me she lives, somewhere.

Help me sort it out, Lord.

- Prayers at Twilight

Heaven isn't something we think about regularly, but it does come to mind, doesn't it? Especially when life-destroying disasters occur, like earthquakes or the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks upon the United States. Whenever death casts its dark shadow over your life, do you wonder whether, in his delightful books, C. S. Lewis glimpsed a Light beyond the tunnel of death or was just whistling in the dark? Or do you wonder about heaven when you're simply in a thoughtful mood, as you may be now? If so, this may be a good time to join me in pondering what most of the world's people have believed in, or hoped for - a life after this life.

The word heaven conveys quite a few meanings. As a religious term, it has been used historically to denote where people go after death. But it has carried other, less religious, meanings, too. It's sometimes employed as jargon for top-of-the-line stuff, like "heavenly music" or "heavenly hash." The word may be selected to connote an idyllic vacation spot. It may be used as a merchandising gimmick, hyping the latest "RV heaven" or designating a place that peddles the ultimate in fashionable accessories. You can find hundreds of such "heavenly" spots on the Internet. Obviously, the word (and the notions it conveys) carries power, or it wouldn't be borrowed so much.

As a result of such borrowings, heaven has become such a part of everyday speech that its idiomatic use has obscured root meanings. We must clear away the verbiage of the word's cultural derivatives to understand its full significance. Like classic cars, some words need to be restored. Heaven is one such word. Machines made of metal embody excellence of form and function; they endure for a time. Words made of truth, as heaven is, embody excellence of form and function. They endure forever.

Contemporary use of the term, even in a narrow sense, also depends on whether (and how) one uses the singular or the plural. Is it heaven or heavens ? Exasperated at a minor annoyance, you might blurt out, "Oh, heavens!" Or, drenched in wonder on a star-studded night, you might murmur lines from a remembered psalm: "The heavens declare the glory of God." We tend to use the singular, heaven , to refer to the realm of the afterlife, and the plural, heavens , to refer to the sky and everything else out there - which covers scads of stuff and lots of territory, given the billions of galaxies, spiral nebulae, black holes, dark as well as ordinary matter and energy, quasars, WIMPS ("weakly interacting massive particles"), and who knows what else.

Bible language isn't that neatly divided, however. In the Old Testament the phrase "under heaven" more often denotes a cosmic totality. Consider this admonition from Deuteronomy (4:19):

And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.

It has been argued that because ancient peoples were unsophisticated, they located God in the panoply of space "above" them, sometimes picturing gradations, such as "third heaven" or "seventh heaven"; whereas we, with our greater knowledge of stars and planets, should use scientific descriptions instead of religious ones. Well, where would that locate God? Is God just a product of human thought? Of course not! However described, the cosmos is still God's creation. Biblical writers may not have been sophisticated, but they were wise, and they felt awe worshiping Almighty God, "maker of heaven and earth."

Fuller Seminary professor Paul K. Jewett interprets that historic creedal phrase to indicate an inclusiveness in the cosmos, a belief that there is "no qualitative difference between heaven and earth as there is between the Creator and creation," and he cites Psalm 113, in which God's glory is said to be "above the heavens." People in biblical times envisioned the heavens as God's throne, and earth as his footstool. The ancients understood that the whole creation is the Lord's, and, with metaphoric discernment, exulted that God had flung the stars into space. As the prophet Jeremiah expressed it (23:24): "'Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?' says the LORD. 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the LORD." So whether the ancients referred to rain or manna or commandments coming from heaven, they acknowledged a physical-spiritual unity under divine sovereignty that modern culture, to its detriment, has lost.

The New International Version of the Bible lists 422 entries for heaven or heavens , 737 for earth . Does this ratio suggest that we should give more priority to how and where we live now than how and where we will live later? Sure. But heaven is important, too! Among the various biblical terms translating heaven(s) into English, two are central. These are, in Hebrew, samayim , and in Greek, ouranos . The Hebrews, like other people living in the biblical era, used descriptions of the sky above them both to describe what they saw and to refer metaphorically to the divine order of things. A parallel word, paradise , is drawn from the ancient Iranian pairedaeza - literally, a garden with a wall. In the Old Testament that word describes both Eden's bliss and the messianic future. In the New Testament it depicts the glory of the resurrected life ...

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Excerpted from Exploring Heaven by Arthur Roberts Copyright © 2003 by Arthur Roberts
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.