Will Heaven be Boring?

Do you remember your first real job?

For me, it was right out of college. My fiancée helped me pick out some dress shirts, slacks, and a few ties. I bought my first briefcase. I agonized over selecting the right one, even though my dad had warned me that it would simply become an expensive lunch box. I bought one anyway and eagerly welcomed the start of my new life.

I had accepted a job at a publishing services company that rented space from Tyndale House Publishers. On my first day I arrived at the office early—with my lunch in my briefcase—and collected my first assignments. Although the initial few days were exciting, the days began to drag on. Because I had been hired right out of college, I was not used to sitting at a desk from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. I loved the job, but I quickly learned that nine hours a day is a character-building commitment.

One of my biggest growing-up moments during that first month of employment occurred on the sidewalk, right outside Tyndale’s building. The structure itself is impressive with a tall entryway and beautiful glass doors. In the morning light, the doors serve as a full-length mirror that captures your attention as you walk up the sidewalk.

It was on an early morning in May that a glimpse of my own reflection stopped me. There I was in my shirt, tie, and shiny, professional shoes. In my hand was a black, leather briefcase. And as I looked at my reflection, an overwhelming thought crushed me: I’m going to be doing this the rest of my life.

No, I wouldn’t be working in that building or at that company the rest of my life, but I would be working. The fun life of being a kid and college student was over. The new life of slogging through the workday was all mine. The professional life that I had looked forward to for years was not as exciting as what I had expected.

Don’t get me wrong. I love what I do. I enjoy working on Christian books, teaching the Bible, and serving the church. But it is effort. And, as the case may be for most people, some days it’s just tough getting out of bed.

The memory of that morning in 1994 came back to mind recently as I was reading about what life will be like with God in heaven. Psalm16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (ESV)

Did you catch that? Life with God—life in heaven—is not boring, mundane, or exhausting. When we find ourselves in the physical presence of God, we’ll discover it is filled with joy, wonder, and “pleasures forevermore.”

Sometimes we worry about what we could possibly do to keep ourselves entertained in heaven. After all, eternity is a long time. And while we don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing all day, day after day, we have a promise that we can look forward to: heaven will be an exciting place that we’ll never grow tired of.

I discuss these themes more in Heaven & Hell: Are They Real?. This book was created to answer the 60 most asked questions people have about Heaven and Hell.

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Will We Have Physical Bodies in Heaven?

Do you like your physical body? Unfortunately, many of us would say, “No, thank you,” and we would be happy to ditch them in heaven. But is that likely to happen? Will we have physical bodies in the new heaven and new earth? Or will we leave our bodies in the grave and become merely spirits? Two-thirds of Americans polled on this topic say "No", but what does the Bible say? 

  

A reading of 1 Corinthians 15:12-13 would indicate that we are raised along with our bodies.  "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised."

Could it be that we are raised with real, physical bodies that have been translated into heavenly ones? 1 Corinthians continues in 15:35-40: "But someone will ask, 'How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?'  How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another."

Paul seems to be saying, that YES, we will indeed have physical bodies but they will be somewhat different than our earthly ones. Just as a seed takes different form when it becomes a tree, so our spiritual bodies will take a different form. (In a sense, it’s as if our earthly bodies become a sort of “seed” for them.)

Christ  himself may be an example of what our resurrected bodies might be like. He was able to eat (Luke 22:42-43), able to have his nail prints touched (John 20:27) and his feet were grabbed by worshippers  (Matt 28:9).

This goes along with Jesus' teaching when he promised earlier that if his body was killed/destroyed, it would be rebuilt in 3 days (John 2:19-21). And while Jesus' body was clearly physical, he was also able to pass through walls. (John 20:19)

Christian author Randy Alcorn adds, "A non-physical resurrection is like a sunless sunrise. There’s no such thing. Resurrection means that we will have bodies. If we didn’t have bodies, we wouldn’t be resurrected! "

From the beginning of creation, one of the aspects that makes humanity distinct from other creatures is that we are both physical and spiritual. Adam was created from the dust of the ground, yet also came to life when God breathed the breath of life into his body. We are a hybrid. We cannot be considered alive or identifiable without our spirits—or our bodies!

On earth, sin has damaged our bodies and broken the connection our spirits have had with God. It makes sense that both our bodies and spirits will be perfected in heaven.

We need both our spirits and our bodies to become the beautiful creations that God intended us to be. Without one or the other, we would not be fully human. So we can look forward to the “reunion” of our bodies, in their perfected states, with our souls in heaven. If that’s difficult to imagine, it’s because we haven’t lived with perfect bodies or perfect souls, nor have we experienced perfect unity between the two. It will come, though. And when it does, it will be amazing.

(If you wish to read all of today's verses in the translation of your choice, you can find them all collected here. Source: Today’s reading is adapted from pages 44-47 of Heaven & Hell: Are They Real?)

Navigating the Bible (the book)

Navigating the Bible is a book that was a long time in the making. This title really flowed from my heart to help people read, understand, and apply the Bible.

There are many things I love about this book. First, the 5-minute approach helps make the Bible accessible to everyone. The hope is that any reader can read the background information and an accompanying Bible in just a few minutes and better understand God's word.

Also, the running timeline that appears on every page helps put the Bible in context. With a quick glance readers will be able to put Bible events in order and understand what else occured in world history as the Bible's events took place.

Finally, I love the people profiles. These 40 illustrations offer a short, but helpful biography to many key Bible characters you'll meet as you read.

You can find the book at Amazon for under $12. Check it out here: www.bit.ly/NavTheBible

Heaven: What is it? (Video devotional)

What is Heaven?

     What will be there?

          What won't be there?

Heaven is impossible to imagine because it is outside our experience. Because we've never seen anything like it, we have a tough time describing what it might be like.

One thing I have found helpful is to take a few minutes to imagine what heaven is not. That may sound like a strange approach, but I've found it quite helpful. Watch this four minute devotional video I created for our Facebook Bible study on Heaven and Hell.





The above video is part of our Facebook Bible study, which you can learn more about here. This study began February 2014 and will end in March 2014:

The video above and this study were inspired by my new book published by Thomas Nelson called Heaven and Hell: Are They Real?
This book tackles 60 of the most popular questions people have on the afterlife.