Heaven All Around Us?

I'm still working my way through Randy Alcorn's book Heaven, slowly but surely. It's not that it's a difficult or boring read, quite the contrary!  There are so many intriguing and exciting truths and possibilities to consider about our eternal home.  The book is changing my whole heavenly paradigm. 


For example, in chapter 18, Alcorn discusses what it will mean for God and mankind to dwell together, and I'd like to share these thoughts:

Genesis 3:8 states, "And [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden."  God visited with Adam and Eve in the garden whenever he pleased, but on the new earth, God and his redeemed children will live together; there will be no "visiting" from one realm to another (2 Corinthian 6:16).  There will no longer be one primary dwelling of God and a different primary dwelling of mankind.  According to Alcorn, "Once God and mankind dwell together, there will be no difference between Heaven and Earth.  Earth will become Heaven--and it will truly be Heaven on Earth.  The New Earth will be God's locus, his dwelling place.  This is why I do not hesitate to call the new Earth 'Heaven,' for where God makes his home is Heaven. The purpose of God will at last be achieved:  'To bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ' (Ephesians 1:10)." (pp. 183-184) 

And now for the intriguing part:

Alcorn continues:  "In fact, there may not be two universes even now. . .It might be better. . .if we think of the location of the present Heaven as not in another universe but simply as part of ours that we are unable to see, due to our spiritual blindness.  If that's true, when we die we don't go to a different universe but to a place within our universe that we're currently unable to see.  Just as blind people cannot see the world, even though it exists all around them, we are unable to see heaven in our fallen condition.  Is it possible that before sin and the Curse, Adam and Eve saw clearly what is now invisible to us?  Is it possible that Heaven itself is but inches away from us?  Does death restore a visual acuity we once had?" (p. 184)

"When we pass through what we call death, we do not lose the world.  Indeed, we see it for the first time as it really is."  ~ Dallas Willard

Thoughts Heavenward

"What is the essence of eternal life?  'That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent' (John 17:3).  Our primary joy in Heaven will be knowing and seeing God. Every other joy will be derivative, flowing from the fountain of our relationship with God.  Jonathan Edwards said, 'God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption.  He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. . .The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things. . .but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.'" ~ Randy Alcorn, Heaven, pp. 175-176.

Death Transformed by Grace

Last night I finished reading Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas. . .what a powerful read!  There are few people who are completely sold out to the cause of Christ as was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Like the Apostle Paul, he counted all things as rubbish (his wealth, education, prestige) so that he could know Christ, share in his sufferings for the sake of the gospel, and experience the power of his resurrection.  And for Bonhoeffer that meant dying a martyr's death in Nazi Germany.

In the last chapter, Metaxas writes about Bonhoeffer's execution and his belief that death is the last station on the road to freedom, as described in the following quote taken from a sermon Bonhoeffer preached in London:

No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence.

Whether we are young or old makes no difference.  What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God?  And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal?  That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up -- that is for young and old alike to think about.  Why are we so afraid when we think about death?. . .Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it.  Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God's Word.  Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves.  Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him.  Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.  

How do we know that dying is so dreadful?  Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world?

 Death is hell and night and cold if it is not transformed by our faith.  But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Today is my brother Doug's birthday, the first one for our family since his death in December.  The words that Bonhoeffer penned decades ago remind us that Doug is having the best birthday ever as he celebrates in the "homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace."  Thank you, Jesus, for transforming Doug's death into something so marvelous.  

Do Saints in Heaven Know About Earthly Events?

We who have gone through the day of sadness, shall enjoy together that day of gladness.  Richard Baxter

Many people often wonder if their loved ones who have passed on (and who are in the present Heaven) are aware of what's happening here on earth, at least to some extent.  It's comforting to think that, although we can't communicate with them, our loved ones continue to be part of our lives in that sense.  Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven, shares his belief that "saints in Heaven blissfully unaware of what is transpiring on Earth seems insubstantial. . .Those on Earth may be ignorant of Heaven, but those in Heaven are not ignorant of Earth (p. 69)."

Alcorn looks at the following Bible passages to support his view:

• Revelation 6:9-11:  The martyrs in Heaven know that God hasn't yet brought judgment on their persecutors.
• Revelation 19:1-5:  The multitude in Heaven praise God for events of judgment that have taken place on Earth.  
• Revelation 19:11-14:  "Because Heaven's saints return with Christ to set up his millennial kingdom, it seems unthinkable to imagine they would have remained ignorant of the culmination of human history taking place on Earth (p. 69)."  They are waiting to return to Earth with God and his angels for the ultimate battle, whereby Christ will be crowned King.
• I Samuel 28:  King Saul appealed to the witch of Endor to call the Samuel back from the afterlife.  Samuel remembered the events that happened before he died, as well as events that had happened since his death.  
• Luke 9:28-36:  During the Transfiguration,  Moses and Elijah "appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.  They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem (v. 31)."  The passage seems to indicate that they were fully aware of the redemptive drama unfolding on Earth.
• Revelation 2 - 3:  The risen Christ watches closely what is happening on Earth, particularly in the lives of people.  "If the Sovereign God's attention is on Earth, why wouldn't the attention of his heavenly subjects be focused here as well (p. 70)?"  
• Luke 15:10: Jesus said, "Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."  Alcorn believes "[the joy] logically includes not only God but also the saints in Heaven, who would so deeply appreciate the wonder of human conversion -- especially the conversion of those they knew and loved on Earth (p.71)."  

It's up for discussion whether or not Alcorn has come to the correct deductions regarding all the above passages.  I do believe he is correct, though, that our loved ones do have some understanding of the ongoing events of redemptive history.  Any thoughts or comments? 

The Garden of Eden

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Garden of Eden?  The Word of God tells us that, to keep Adam and Eve from eating the fruit from the tree of life, which would cause [them] to live forever in their cursed condition, "the Lord God sent [Adam] out from of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.  He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life" (Gen. 3:23-24).  I used to believe that this barrier to the garden of Eden continued until God caused the flood that covered the earth.  End of story for the garden of Eden.  Or was it?


We know from Revelation 2:7 that the same tree of life that was in the garden of Eden will one day be in the new Jerusalem: "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Rather than having been destroyed, it appears that the garden of Eden remained a real place, just no longer accessible to mankind.  

So what did happen to the garden of Eden?


Randy Alcorn writes of the garden in his book Heaven:


"Eden was not destroyed.  What was destroyed was mankind's ability to live in Eden.  There's no indication that Eden was stripped of its physicality and transformed into a 'spiritual' entity. It appears to have remained just as it was, a physical paradise removed to a realm we can't gain access to -- most likely the present Heaven, because we know for certain that's where the tree of life now is (Revelation 2:7).


God is not done with Eden.  He preserved it not as a museum piece but as a place that mankind will one day occupy again -- and to a certain extent many now occupy in the present Heaven. . .Though the rest of the earth fell under human sin, Eden was for some reason treated differently.  Perhaps it had come from Heaven, God's dwelling place, and was transplanted to Earth.  We don't know.  But we do know this:  God came to Eden to visit with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8), which he would no longer do after Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden after the Fall.  Whether or not Eden was created along with the rest of the earth, clearly it was special to God, and it remains special to him (pp. 56 - 57).  


What a wonderful thought to know that one day we Christians will live in the restored Garden, eat from the tree of life as those who are no longer under the curse of sin, and fellowship with the One who made it all possible.  Doxology!

Handling Money as Heaven's Citizens

Suppose you had the opportunity to visit Heaven for a while; how do you think that experience would affect how you live here on earth?  And how do you think that visit would change the way you handle your money?  Charles Spurgeon pondered these questions and wrote these thoughts in a sermon entitled, "A Heavenly Pattern for Our Earthly Life" - April 30, 1884:

I do not think this man coming fresh from Heaven would say, "I must have this luxury; I must have this nice outfit; I must have this grand house."  But he would say, "How much can I save for the God of Heaven?  How much can I invest in the country I came from?"

I am sure he would be pinching pennies to save money to serve God with.  And as he went about the streets and mingled with ungodly men and women, he would be sure to find ways of getting at their consciences and hearts; he would always be trying to bring others to the bliss he enjoyed.

Think that over, and live so -- so as he did who really did come down from Heaven.  For after all, the best rule of life is, What would Jesus do if he were here today and the world were lying in the grip of the wicked one?  If Jesus were in your businesses, if he had your money, how would he spend it?  For that is how you ought to spend it.  

Now think, my brother, you will be in Heaven very soon. . .Sitting up in those celestial seats, how shall we wish that we had lived below?  It would not give any man in Heaven even a moment's joy to think that he gratified himself while here.  It will give him no reflections suitable to the place to remember how much he amassed, how much he left behind to be quarreled over after was gone.  He will say to himself, "I wish I had saved more of my capital by sending it on before me, for what I saved on Earth was lost, but what I spent for God was really laid up where thieves do not break through and steal."

Oh, brothers, let us live as we shall wish we had lived when life is over; let us fashion a life which will bear the light eternal.  Is it life to live otherwise?

Quotable

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.  ~ C. S. Lewis

Storing Up Treasures

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and were thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"  (Matthew 6:19-21).   


Now that the crazy Christmas consumer season is over, I think it's safe to do this blog post.  I certainly didn't want to rain on someone's "joy of giving" parade.  We Christians know we are suppose to lay up treasures in Heaven as good stewards of the money and resources entrusted to us by our Heavenly Father.  If you're like me, the concept of laying up treasures in Heaven might seem rather nebulous.  Sure, we give to our church and a few other select charities, but do we understand that our gifts to the eternal purposes of God  are transformed into eternal rewards for obedience and faithfulness?  Jesus taught us that "no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24).  

I appreciate what Randy Alcorn has to say about these verses:  

"There is truth in the old maxim 'You can't take it with you.'  But when Jesus tells us to store up treasures in Heaven, he adds a new corollary.  Essentially he is saying, 'You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.'  Material things on this fallen Earth just won't stand the test of time.  Even if they escape moths and vermin and thieves, they cannot escape the coming fire of God that will consume the material world (2 Peter 3:7).  Christ's primary argument against amassing material wealth isn't that it's morally wrong.  It's that in light of the short time we spend here and the eternity we will spend in Heaven, storing up treasure here instead of there is simply a poor investment. 

Every day is one day closer to the day we will die.  Therefore, those who store up treasures on Earth spend every day moving away from their treasures; they have reason to despair.  Those who store up treasures in Heaven spend every day moving toward their treasures; they have every reason to rejoice."  (taken from We Shall See God, p. 136)

Thoughts Heavenward

We are homesick for Eden.  We're nostalgic for what is implanted in our hearts.  It's built into us, perhaps at a genetic level.  We long for what the first man and woman once enjoyed -- a perfect and beautiful Earth and free and unstained relationships with God, one another, animals, and the environment.  Every attempt at human progress has been an attempt to overcome what was lost in the Fall.  If God's plan were merely to take mankind to the present Heaven or to a Heaven that is the dwelling place of spirit beings, there would be no need for new heavens and a New Earth. . .[God] isn't going to abandon his creation; he's going to restore it. We won't go to Heaven and leave Earth behind.  Rather, God will bring Heaven and Earth together into the same dimension, with no wall of separation, no armed angels to guard Heaven's perfection from sinful mankind (Genesis 3:24).  God's perfect plan is "to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ" (Ephesians 1:10, NIV). . .If the present Earth, so diminished by the Curse, is at times so beautiful and wonderful and if our bodies, so diminished by the Curse, are at times overcome with a sense of the Earth's beauty and wonder, then how magnificent will the New Earth be?  Spurgeon speaks eloquently of what awaits this Earth:  'Her curse shall be removed, her stains taken away, and this world shall be as fair as when God first formed her from his mind.'  Earth cannot be delivered from the Curse by being destroyed.  It can be delivered only by being resurrected.  Christ's resurrection is the forerunner of our own, and our resurrection will be the forerunner of the Earth's. 

~Randy Alcorn, We Shall See God, pp. 180 - 181

Heaven: Tears Replaced with Laughter

During my reading times, I have been bouncing back and forth between Randy Alcorn's two books on Heaven - what a spiritual feast!  A friend who has read Heaven told me that by the time I'm done with the book, I'll be longing to go!  

The other night I read the devotion from We Shall See God entitled "God Dries Our Tears."  Everyone is familiar with the verse in Revelation that says, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Rev. 7:17)."  What a beautiful promise!  No more tears over sin, pain, injustice, or mourning.  But will there be tears of joy in Heaven?  From pages 68 -69, "Spurgeon speaks of life under the Curse:  'We may forget to laugh, but we will always know how to weep.'  But when God stops the weeping, surely he will replace it with laughter.  Jesus said, 'Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. . .Rejoice in that day and weep for joy, because great is your reward in Heaven (Luke 6:21-23).  God, the Creator of all good things, created laughter and created us to love laughter.  It's good medicine for the soul.

Randy Alcorn ended that devotional with this paragraph on page 70:

"One of Satan's great lies is that God -- and everything good -- is joyless and humorless, while Satan -- and evil -- brings pleasure and satisfaction.  In fact, it's Satan who is humorless.  Sin didn't bring him joy; it forever stripped him of joy.  in contrast, envision Jesus with his disciples.  If we cannot picture him teasing them and laughing with them, we need to reevaluate our understanding of the Incarnation.  We need a biblical theology of humor that prepares us for an eternity of celebration and spontaneous laughter.  As Spurgeon says, we may sometimes forget to laugh here, but there will be no end to the laughter when we find our fulfillment in the presence and the promises of our God.  Cling to that blood-bought promise concerning our future in Heaven:  we will laugh." 

Heaven is Not the Default Destination

Have you ever noticed when attending a funeral that Heaven seems to be the default destination, whether or not the deceased was one of the redeemed in Christ?  It would be, I suppose, awkward to boldly proclaim that the one who just passed on is sentenced to an eternity in Hell because he, for example:

• despised and/or scoffed at God.
• thought that when God "balanced" his good and bad deeds, he'd be a shoe-in for Heaven.
• trusted in his baptism, church membership, family heritage, or charitable giving as a ticket to Heaven. 
• believed that all "roads" lead to eternal bliss.

But what should the message be in those situations?  A warning to those with ears to hear. Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).  It is Hell, not Heaven, that is the eternal default destination for all mankind, because we have all sinned against a holy God (Romans 3:23).   C. S. Lewis described it this way in The Screwtape Letters, "The safest road to hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." If we don't purpose to enter through the narrow gate, we will ease on down the road right into hell.  


In his book Heaven, Randy Alcorn reminds his readers that just as God and Satan are not equal opposites, "Hell is not Heaven's equal opposite.  Just as God has no equal as a person, Heaven has no equal as a place.  Hell will be agonizingly dull, small, and insignificant, without company, purpose, or accomplishment.  It will not have its own stories; it will merely be a footnote on history, a crack in the pavement.  As the new universe moves gloriously onward, Hell and its occupants will exist in utter inactivity and insignificance, an eternal non-life of regret and -- perhaps -- diminishing personhood (pp. 27 - 28)." Furthermore, Jesus said of Hell's inhabitants, "They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out form the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power" (2 Thess. 1:9).  Hell will be devoid of anything good; there will be no community or friendship, no beauty, no pleasure.  

The good news is that the narrow gate does exist; there is a way that leads to Heaven.  Christ bore the punishment for our sins on the cross, so those who trust in Christ wouldn't have to.  The most important part of this life is making sure we enter through the narrow gate.  Jesus said, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul (Mark 8:36)?"   The price for our redemption has been paid, but we must trust alone in the finished work of Christ to receive the gift of eternal life in Heaven.  

Heaven: Not Lost in Space

From Randy Alcorn:

"Spurgeon thinks of Heaven as a tangible place where our Savior desires to be with us. . .He refers to the present Heaven, where the spirits of God's people go upon dying, and to the future Heaven, where our bodies will be raised in eternal reunion with our spirits, so we will be whole and perfect people, united in giving God praise.  Spurgeon says, 'Only the poor body descends, and that descent is for a very little while. They rise to be forever with the Lord.'  

Many people can't resist spiritualizing what the Bible teaches about Heaven.  Some people assume that Heaven is not so much an actual place as a state of being or spiritual condition.  But that's not what Jesus said about it.  He spoke of a house with many rooms in which he would prepare a place for us (John 14:2).  Jesus told the disciples, 'I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am' (John 14:3). He used tangible, earthly, spatial terms to describe heaven.  The phrase, 'come back and take you' indicates movement and a physical destination.

If we reduce Heaven to something less than or other than a place, we strip Christ's words of their meaning.

The Bible promises us that one day, after the Resurrection, Heaven will be centered on the New Earth -- the place where God's people will live forever.  What are the implications of living forever on a transformed Earth?  It means we don't need to look up to the clouds to imagine Heaven; we simply need to look around us and imagine what all we see would be like without sin and death and suffering and corruption."     


~ We Shall See God, pp. 10 -11.

We Shall See God

Earlier this week, I was discussing my new book Heaven by Randy Alcorn with a co-worker, and he also gave it rave review.  Then he told me about Alcorn's recent release We Shall See God, devotional thoughts on Heaven based on the sermons of Charles Spurgeon.  Well, I knew I would have to get that book as well!  You know, you just never know what you'll find at Sam's Club. I wasn't even looking for this particular book last night, but I sure was pleasantly surprised to find it there among the diversity of other Christian books (and for some I use the term loosely).

Why Spurgeon?  In the book's introduction, Alcorn explains that while Spurgeon never wrote a book on Heaven, he preached dozens of sermons on the Christian's eternal home.  Alcorn believes Spurgeon's writings on Heaven to be "some of the most poignant, moving, and biblically insightful [he] has ever read on the subject" (and he's read over 150 books on Heaven).  His goal is to provide Spurgeon's words in a form that people will be more likely to read.


One editorial liberty Alcorn uses is small yet significant in my opinion; he always capitalizes the word Heaven. I noticed that he also does that in his book Heaven.  And why not?  He chooses to do so "because it is the proper name of a real place, just as Saturn, Portland, or New England.  We need this reminder because Heaven has become so vague and ethereal in the modern mind that many don't think of it as a real place at all."  


I'm excited about having this book as a devotional companion to Heaven, and I'll be sharing Spurgeon's pearls of wisdom as I read along, desiring to direct our thoughts heavenward. 

Thoughts Heavenward

I haven't been so excited about a new book in quite some time!  A couple years ago, I heard that American theologian Jonathan Edwards meditated on heaven twenty minutes every day, and since then I've been convicted that I should become more heavenly-minded myself.  Not that I can compete with the superior mind of Jonathan Edwards, but maybe I can pull off a few minutes each day. Recently, friends of ours highly recommended Heaven by Randy Alcorn as a life-changing read.  I've decided that, over the next few months, I'm going to blog about Heaven as I read and meditate on each chapter and related scriptures.  Please feel free to comment as we go along; I would enjoy the feedback and dialogue. 

What are your thoughts about heaven?  Do you envision disembodied spirits playing harps while sitting on clouds?  Or do you think heaven will be one long sing-along in the sky (that's where I used to be in my thinking)?  Yesterday, a friend said she had always thought of heaven as being one continuous banquet where she could eat anything and everything she wanted.  (I like that! I'm much better suited for continual eating rather than continual singing!) Or do you see heaven as a boring place?  I once had someone tell me that he wasn't interested in going to heaven, because it didn't sound exciting to him.  If we are honest, we might have to confess to having similar sentiments.  But that shouldn't be so!  Randy Alcorn says of his book, "we'll see from Scripture an exciting yet strangely neglected truth -- that God never gave up on his original plan for human beings to dwell on Earth.  In fact, the climax of history will be the creation of new heavens and a new Earth, a resurrected universe inhabited by resurrected people living with the resurrected Jesus (Revelation 21:1-4)."  That sounds pretty exciting to me!


Where do we get our misconceptions about heaven?  Besides the lack of solid teaching on Heaven, Dr. Alcorn suggests that some of Satan's favorite lies are about the Christian's eternal home.  "Satan need not convince us that Heaven doesn't exist.  He need only convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existence.  If we believe that lie, we'll be robbed of our joy and anticipation, we'll set our minds on this life and not the next, and we won't be motivated to share our faith. (p. 11)  Though Satan wants to rob us of the joy we have about the magnificent place God is preparing for us, discovering what the Bible says about heaven will cause us to glory in God's eternal Kingdom.  I'll end with this quote from J. C. Ryle:


The man who is about to sail for Australia or New Zealand as a settler, is naturally anxious to know something about his future home, its climate, its employments, its inhabitants, its ways, its customs.  All these are subjects of deep interest to him.  You are leaving the land of your nativity, you are going to spend the rest of your life in a new hemisphere.  It would be strange indeed if you did not desire information about your new abode.  Now surely, if we hope to dwell for ever in that "better country, even a heavenly one," we ought to seek all the knowledge we can get about it.  Before we go to our eternal home we should try to become acquainted with it.

Anticipation

Consider a bride anticipating her wedding day, the happiest day of her life. Her friends would think it very odd if, as the day approaches, her eagerness is only expressed with comments such as, "I can't wait to see the beautiful flowers!". . .and "It will be great to see all my friends and family there!". . .and "I just know all the guests will be so happy!"  Then when asked about her bridegroom, she responds nonchalantly, "Oh yeah. . .he'll be there, too."  Odd indeed.  

But that's how many Christians describe their anticipation for heaven.  We look forward to seeing the beautiful streets of gold, being reunited with loved ones, and enjoying an existence free from pain and suffering, but our precious Savior and Lord is relegated to an afterthought. Very odd indeed.

(The credit for this analogy goes to Alistair Begg.)

Thoughts Heavenward

I remembered that we have a copy of The Glory of Heaven by John MacArthur, so I pulled it off the bookshelf the other day. I know we've had the book for almost fifteen years, and I've never taken the time to read it before now. MacArthur's purpose is to help his readers have a biblical understanding of heaven and to fix their affections there. He explains:

"This means earnestly purging worldliness from our hearts. It means learning to wean ourselves from the preoccupations of this life. It means looking ahead to eternity and living in the expectation of a sure and certain hope. It means looking away from the mundane and temporal, and fixing our eyes steadfastly on Him who is the glory of heaven. Those who live with this heavenly perspective discover abundant life as God intended it here on earth." (p. 63)

And, in contrast, he writes:

"Unfamiliarity with heaven makes a dull and worldly Christian. God has graciously bid us sample the delights of the world to come, and it is only a rebellious and perverse mindset that keeps us mired in the mundane and worldly." (p.64)

Since our citizenship is in heaven, our hearts should be set on the things of heaven, not on the things of this world that so often rob our joy.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20

The Eternal Glory

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Revelation 21:1

At the PCRT conference last month, Ligon Duncan walked us through Revelation chapters 21 and 22, a look at the eternal glory of heaven, with many allusions to the Garden of Eden. If you haven't read through those chapters recently, I would encourage you to do so.

In Revelation 21, John tells us what he doesn't see as the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, representing the church adorned as a bride for her Husband:

• No more sea - representing fear and danger (v.1)
  
• No death, no mourning, no crying, no pain (v. 4)
• No temple (v. 22) - the blessed omission because there is no longer any need for a mediation between God and man. The Lord God and the Lamb are now the "temple."
  

• The church doesn't need the sun or the moon for light, because God and the Lamb are the light (v. 23). There is no night. The gates are closed, so there is no threat against this church. We will have perfect safety.
• The wicked are not here, only the pure church (v. 8). It is a reminder of the ongoing reality of hell as the only other destination.

John also tells us what he sees:

• God, the One who sits on the throne and the Lamb. We will finally see our Lord and Savior! Our long-awaited glorification will come to every believer simultaneously.
  
• Jesus - We will have unspeakable joy when we see Jesus. He is more beautiful than we can ever imagine.
• The church in all its glory as it transcends to the new heaven and the new earth.
• Worship - The church is doing what is was made to do, worship God.
• Communion - The people of God are enjoying close communion and fellowship with God . The Tree of Life is a reference to Genesis 2 & 3 and represents a healing of the nations. God welcomes us back into fellowship and invites us to freely eat.
  

Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith - the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:9