What could heaven possibly be like?

[johnnyjones]

The concept of heaven has always facinated me. Assuming there is one, what would the spiritual body be like? Is it tangable? What is the atmosphere like? The images of clouds and harps permeate our brains but would we walk or “fly”?

More importantly (to me), will our loved ones, friends actually see us as we were in life? I ask that because I think of all the aborted babies and children born outside the womb. Would they remain forever children? Will WE only know them as children or unborn? I know the answers would all be speculative but I’m curious as to how other minds interpret such things. Thanks.

 

[cheezey]

The concept of heaven has always facinated me. Assuming there is one, what would the spiritual body be like? Is it tangable? What is the atmosphere like? The images of clouds and harps permeate our brains but would we walk or “fly”?

More importantly (to me), will our loved ones, friends actually see us as we were in life? I ask that because I think of all the aborted babies and children born outside the womb. Would they remain forever children? Will WE only know them as children or unborn? I know the answers would all be speculative but I’m curious as to how other minds interpret such things. Thanks.

You know, of late, I’ve been thinking of the same thing…
I think, like giving human qualities to God because of our limited abilities in that regard, we do the same with Heaven. I for one do not imagine clouds and the like; I have had dreams of conjecture, though. Usually vague, but I do hope my mother really is an assistant for tending the animals. :yup:

 

[dshix]

The concept of heaven has always facinated me. Assuming there is one, what would the spiritual body be like? Is it tangable? What is the atmosphere like? The images of clouds and harps permeate our brains but would we walk or “fly”?

More importantly (to me), will our loved ones, friends actually see us as we were in life? I ask that because I think of all the aborted babies and children born outside the womb. Would they remain forever children? Will WE only know them as children or unborn? I know the answers would all be speculative but I’m curious as to how other minds interpret such things. Thanks.

First, I’ll just tell you what we don’t know.

We don’t know exactly what kind of place heaven will be.
We don’t know for sure what age we will be.
We don’t know (or rather can’t imagine) what kind of happiness we will experience.

What we DO know is that we will have a full tangible material body.
We know that the aforementioned body will be glorified, that is, perfect. There will be no defects, sickness, discomfort, pain, or any other negative thing you can imagine.

In general, we can’t comprehend Heaven. Our minds will be clear, not fallen, in Heaven, so we will experience things perfectly, and enjoy things perfectly.

There will be nothing lacking for happiness. In the presence of God, we will be eternally and entirely content.

 

[Pugsly]

One way to consider what heaven will be like…is the water image that God uses to explain it.

Have you ever noticed that the Bible begins with a sea of chaos and 2 Trees (the Tree of Life and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil? But…the Bible ends with this odd pronouncement…“and there was no more sea”…and only one Tree…the Tree of Life.

So the question arises…where did the sea of chaos and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil go? May I suggest…they went to the same fate because these are the same thing.
How? The Bible begins with the Spirit hovering over the dark, sea of chaos. It is dark because God is not actually there, He is Prudently considering a Path (Jesus) through this sea in order to rescue you (and His Bride the Church). The Bible tells us He knew you and loved you before ever a thing was made.

Therefore, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good/Evil…as well as this realm of Possibilities that spread out before God like a “sea”…were essentially the same…when God decided to ACT. “Let there be Light” began a process of actualizing certain things in the realm of possibilities (in other words God walked a particular Path through the sea which actualized certain good things).

I will not go into fuller detail on creation so as to present heaven: God shows you what heaven will be like when you read about how “there’s a river that flows from God’s throne that delights the city of God”…or when God goes to the trouble of showing you how big a river it will be…with the prophet measuring out line as he wades in a thousand cubits to his knees, a thousand cubits to his waist, a thousand cubits till the river becomes so wide he can only swim. (This entire section of scripture points to the fact that this fresh water–good possibilities–will be abundant and flow forever toward you).

Therefore, when you read in Scripture how there should not flow out of your mouth curses and blessings…because SALT WATER and FRESH do not flow from the same source…you are starting to get an idea that water in the Bible can represent good and evil possibilities or activity.

For example…the sea serpent spewed forth a torrent of (salt) water to wash the Child and His Mother away in the desert…but the earth swallowed it up to save them.

 

[St_Redemption]

People who have had NDE’s seem to describe Heaven, if thats what they really were seeing, in a way that is imaginable to us. Most of them describe a bright light that is so bright that in their life on Earth, it would blind them, but in Heaven the blinding light is only beautiful. They also feel and come to know that they are loved and cherished beyond all measure.

 

[Doxus]

If Heinlein’s right about it it sounds like a dreadful place. All that bureaucracy, and those snooty angels…

 

[Pugsly]

First, I’ll just tell you what we don’t know.

We know that the aforementioned body will be glorified, that is, perfect. There will be no defects, sickness, discomfort, pain, or any other negative thing you can imagine.

The Tree of Life will grow along the banks of the River and produce fruit…but why does it mention that its leaves are for the healing of the nations???

What needs to be healed…and if we are so “perfect”…why would we need or want to eat anything…especially at specific intervals???

 

[cheezey]

First, I’ll just tell you what we don’t know.

We don’t know exactly what kind of place heaven will be.
We don’t know for sure what age we will be.
We don’t know (or rather can’t imagine) what kind of happiness we will experience.

What we DO know is that we will have a full tangible material body.
We know that the aforementioned body will be glorified, that is, perfect. There will be no defects, sickness, discomfort, pain, or any other negative thing you can imagine.

In general, we can’t comprehend Heaven. Our minds will be clear, not fallen, in Heaven, so we will experience things perfectly, and enjoy things perfectly.

There will be nothing lacking for happiness. In the presence of God, we will be eternally and entirely content.

to that!!

Man, I cannot wait…

 

[Bezant]

The concept of heaven has always facinated me. Assuming there is one, what would the spiritual body be like? Is it tangable? What is the atmosphere like? The images of clouds and harps permeate our brains but would we walk or “fly”?

More importantly (to me), will our loved ones, friends actually see us as we were in life? I ask that because I think of all the aborted babies and children born outside the womb. Would they remain forever children? Will WE only know them as children or unborn? I know the answers would all be speculative but I’m curious as to how other minds interpret such things. Thanks.

The idea of standing before God forever sounds like a really dull activity, from my very limited perspective on earth. Yes, there’s no greater happiness than being in God’s presence for eternity, but most people imagine there’s more to it than that. I’ve always thought that in heaven we’ll have access to ultimate wisdom and knowledge, where there are no barriers to learning, and no secrets.

 

[Sair]

If Heinlein’s right about it it sounds like a dreadful place. All that bureaucracy, and those snooty angels…

I’m rather impressed with Christopher Hitchens’ take on it, that it would be rather like North Korea - with the constant demand for ecstatic yet abject worship of the ‘dear leader’ - except you couldn’t die and escape it.

 

[Sair]

The Tree of Life will grow along the banks of the River and produce fruit…but why does it mention that its leaves are for the healing of the nations???

What needs to be healed…and if we are so “perfect”…why would we need or want to eat anything…especially at specific intervals???

That’s another interesting, though rarely stated, aspect to most conceptions of heaven - it seems like a remarkably static condition, which would require a considerable alteration of our consciousness if we were to tolerate the monotony, no matter how pleasant it might be. Of course, other notions of eternal afterlife, such as the Buddhist nirvana, are basically unchanging states of ultimate tranquility and contentment. Might not be such a bad thing - after all, genuine contentment doesn’t really allow for boredom.

But that’s also symptomatic of our inability to imagine any other state of consciousness than what we experience in our everyday lives. It’s perhaps a mistake to imagine that any post-death condition will involve anything like living consciousness. That goes for the straightforward notion of death as well, of course - many people are inclined to think of death without heaven or some other congenial afterlife as an eternal ‘experience’ of darkness and nothingness. Except, of course, that if consciousness ceases with bodily death (as seems to be the case, in the absence of evidence to the contrary) we won’t have any experience after death, much as we had no experience before birth.

 

[Auntie_A]

In a near death experience, most people describe this “place outside” (heaven) in very human terms: a gate, a light, a path, Aunt Dottie and her chihuahua…All of these human descriptions of heaven are made simply because we are human and that’s how we understand.

But I would like to believe, as a friend once explained Purgatory, that in our lives, we are outside of an incredibly beautiful mansion, working in a very messy, muddy garden with lots of dirt, crud, and you-know-what on our face, hands, clothes and shoes. The owner of the mansion suddenly invites us in but we need to go somewhere to clean up first. So we go somewhere for a clean-up first, then we are led into an unbelievably beautiful place to live forever.

If we can get over all of these earthly “mansion” meanings, I imagine that when we die, there is a physical/earthly transition time (maybe our questions get answered-“Where are the babies?” or we see the upside view of life’s tapestry-and how we cooperated with our threads), followed by an entrance through an amazing new frame of reference to a heaven that no one can ever describe sufficiently to us poor planetary creatures. We have cleaned the crud off and we are now ready for a newer, larger, lighter, type of beautiful, eternal matter in the Presence of our Creator.

Angels boring? Are you guys nuts or something? You haven’t an inkling. “Eye has not seen nor ear heard what is in store for us.”

That’s the best I can explain tonight.

 

[dshix]

The idea of standing before God forever sounds like a really dull activity, from my very limited perspective on earth. Yes, there’s no greater happiness than being in God’s presence for eternity, but most people imagine there’s more to it than that. I’ve always thought that in heaven we’ll have access to ultimate wisdom and knowledge, where there are no barriers to learning, and no secrets.

I’m rather impressed with Christopher Hitchens’ take on it, that it would be rather like North Korea - with the constant demand for ecstatic yet abject worship of the ‘dear leader’ - except you couldn’t die and escape it.

You don’t understand. We can’t even comprehend what KIND of joy Heaven is. It is like trying to imagine living in a 4 or 5 dimensional world.

We will not be bored, for God is so infinite and the joy of Heaven is so infinite that boredom cannot exist.

We will not experience monotony because we will experience time in a different way (if there is time at all, this subject is still in dispute) and because of how Heaven is made, we will not be able to be unhappy.

The best way to misunderstand Heaven is to try to put human and temporal limitations to it. As soon as you do that, Heaven is no longer the most happy place in existence.

 

[johnnyjones]

You don’t understand. We can’t even comprehend what KIND of joy Heaven is. It is like trying to imagine living in a 4 or 5 dimensional world.

We will not be bored, for God is so infinite and the joy of Heaven is so infinite that boredom cannot exist.

We will not experience monotony because we will experience time in a different way (if there is time at all, this subject is still in dispute) and because of how Heaven is made, we will not be able to be unhappy.

The best way to misunderstand Heaven is to try to put human and temporal limitations to it. As soon as you do that, Heaven is no longer the most happy place in existence.

Yes but using the minds God gave us we can enjoy what may be out eternal life. My question to you is do you have any images in your earthly mind of what heaven will look like and how relationships between our loved ones, friends and “strangers” will play out.

 

[dshix]

Yes but using the minds God gave us we can enjoy what may be out eternal life. My question to you is do you have any images in your earthly mind of what heaven will look like and how relationships between our loved ones, friends and “strangers” will play out.

Oh of course we can try to imagine heaven, and we can get a very good idea of happiness with the images in our minds. However, what I’m saying is that whatever extreme state of joy and happiness we can imagine, the real Heaven will be infinitely more joyful and glorious.

 

[Doxus]

Actually, from what I can tell the Bible says nothing about there being eternal bliss or happiness in heaven. Only that you will worship your god there and be reunited with family. Nothing about paradise or unending joy. It seems everyone just assumes that heaven must be a place of perfection and peace, because hell is described as a place of unending torment. However I see no justification for that assumption.

As far as the Bible is concerned, heaven is just about worshiping god, and if you don’t like it, tough *****.

 

[dshix]

Actually, from what I can tell the Bible says nothing about there being eternal bliss or happiness in heaven. Only that you will worship your god there and be reunited with family. Nothing about paradise or unending joy. It seems everyone just assumes that heaven must be a place of perfection and peace, because hell is described as a place of unending torment. However I see no justification for that assumption.

As far as the Bible is concerned, heaven is just about worshiping god, and if you don’t like it, tough *****.

The bible is not the Church’s only source of information. Sola scriptura is not our practice. We use other types of revelation and tradition in our teachings.

 

[Giants]

Oh of course we can try to imagine heaven, and we can get a very good idea of happiness with the images in our minds. However, what I’m saying is that whatever extreme state of joy and happiness we can imagine, the real Heaven will be infinitely more joyful and glorious.

Be that as it may, johnnyjones question is a good one. If you experience eternal and infinite bliss in heaven despite being eternally separated from your loved ones who may not have had sufficient faith, and with the knowledge that they’re experiencing equally great, eternal suffering for it, then it prompts uncomfortable questions. What are these relationships worth to you? Moreover, what is this state of bliss worth to you?

 

[dshix]

Be that as it may, johnnyjones question is a good one. If you experience eternal and infinite bliss in heaven despite being eternally separated from your loved ones who may not have had sufficient faith, and with the knowledge that they’re experiencing equally great, eternal suffering for it, then it prompts uncomfortable questions. What are these relationships worth to you? Moreover, what is this state of bliss worth to you?

This is a very good question.

I’ll have to ask you to do a kind of out-of-mind idea. We do indeed have love for our loved ones here on earth. Also, I do indeed think it possible that we may have a certain type of sadness for them in Heaven if they are in Hell. I do not know that for sure, however, no having read deeply on the subject.

What I do know is that the Beatific Vision of God will be so absolutely, incomparably, entirely, fantastically, beautifully, incredibly great. It would kill us if we were to see it now. As perfect men and women in Heaven, we will find joy in the glory of God in a way that we can’t even comprehend now.

Therefore, even if there is a degree of sadness as to the loss of other loved ones, the Beatific Vision will absolutely overshadow it.

 

[atheistgirl]

It’s a really good question.

I’ve never been able to imagine an image of heaven that would be appealing in the long term, which is a problem considering heaven is eternal.

I guess I can’t figure out what I would be actually doing for this time without end

Sarah x