What makes Heaven so Great?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TarkanAttila
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

TarkanAttila

Guest
I can understand following God for fear of punishment in Hell, and even for the sake of obedience because you love God and wish to please Him.

But what makes Heaven desirable? I find it being “great” and “wonderful” and the place where we will be with God to be rather vague. I mean, we are with God here on Earth, too, aren’t we? He’s all around us, right?

Can anyone give me an inkling of what Heaven might look like? Or what being in His presence in Heaven feels like compared to Earth? I… I got nothing, right now.🤷
 
“I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us.” [Romans 8:18]

"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ 1 John 3:2

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12

“Yes, the troubles which are soon over…train us for a weight of eternal glory which is out of all proportion to them.” [1Corinthians 4:17]

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone to prepare you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too…I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment, you know Him and have seen Him. To have seen me is to have seen the Father.” [John 14:1-4, 6-7]
 
“If you aspire to serve the Lord,
prepare yourself for an ordeal.
Be sincere of heart, be steadfast,
and do not be alarmed when disaster comes.

Cling to Him and do not leave him,
so that you may be honoured at the end of your days.
Whatever happens to you, accept it,
and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient,
since gold is tested in the fire,
and chosen persons in the furnace of humiliation.

Trust Him and He will uphold you,
follow a straight path and hope in Him.
You, who fear the Lord, wait for His mercy;
do not turn aside in case you fall.

You who fear the Lord, trust Him,
and you will not be baulked of your reward.
You who fear the Lord hope for good things,
for everlasting happiness and mercy…

For the Lord is compassionate and merciful…
Those who fear the Lord do not distain His words,
and those who love Him keep His ways…
Those who fear the Lord keep their hearts prepared
and humble themselves in His presence…
for as His majesty is, so too is His mercy.” [Ecclesiasticus.2, 1-9, 11, 15, 17-18]

“All the works of the Lord are good
and He will supply every want in due time.
You must not say, ‘This is worse than that’,
For everything will prove its value in due time.
So now, sing with all your heart and voice
And bless the name of the Lord.” [Ecclesiasticus 39:12-35]
 
The church is God’s kingdom on earth, so therefore heaven is like church on earth.
 
Nobody on earth knows what Heaven is like, because nobody living has seen it. We can only imagine things from what we have already experienced on earth, so it’s impossible to really imagine what Heaven is like.

We do know a few things about it, however.

First, we will be able to see God and be fully with Him. Here, we are fallen, and we cannot see God, or be really close to Him.

Second, earth is called the Valley of Tears, because of the hardships and sorrows that we all experience every day (some small, some large). We have to work hard, endure troubles, feel sad for people etc. In Heaven, all tears are gone and we will be filled with peace, joy, love.

Heaven is not subject to the rules of earth, so boredom doesn’t come in to play.

Imagine the absolute happiest moment of your life, when you were bursting with pleasure for whatever reason. Imagine that tenfold, forever. Imagine the closest you’ve ever felt to someone. Multiply it by ten and apply it to all the Holy Souls, forever. That’s how I think of Heaven. Imagine feeling God’s love for you, greater than any earthly love, knowing that He calls you His son or daughter.

We can’t imagine it in our earthly state, but we must believe it’s infinitely better than our lot right now.
 
admonsta said:
Nobody on earth knows what Heaven is like, because nobody living has seen it.
Click to expand...
I had a really strange experience about 15 years ago. I seldom tell anyone about it because if somebody told me this I would think they were freakin’ nuts. But the OP asked a direct and what I consider unavoidable question, so here goes. I went on a ski trip to a resort near here with three guys I worked with. We were supposed to leave after 3 days, but when I woke up I saw two feet of new powder. The other guys were flying so they had to leave but I was driving so I went to the hill for a fantastic morning of powder skiing. At lunch I was feeling pretty good (but nothing unusual) eating a sandwich in the main lodge when the roof suddenly dissolved above me and I had the sensation of hurtling upward towards the sun. I hit what I can only describe as the outer sphere of some huge spatial onion, i.e. I had the clear impression that I was on the outer shell of some kind of gigantic multi layer ball. After about 15 secs I fell back into the lodge. Of course nobody noticed anything unusual, I was still holding the sandwich and everyone was just walking around. But that 15 secs filled me with such a tremendous joy and peace that I was effectively paralyzed for about six hours. Couldn’t ski, couldn’t communicate, couldn’t drive - or at least shouldn’t have tried to drive, which I somehow did in the end. Was it a brief visit to the edge of heaven? I can’t think of anything else other than temporary insanity, which I don’t think is possible in this context. Anyway, if it was heaven, I can say that although I cannot report any sensory details (because there were none) it was undoubtedly the most fantastic few seconds of my life so far. And that is probably just the weakest part of heaven. Don’t worry about getting bored, instead try to imagine what it must be like at level 50!
 
Simply put, Heaven is great because you get to experience God fully. We are created beings, created for the glory and pleasure of God, so we are really not what we are intended to be apart from Him.

I don’t see Heaven as a place where all of our wants and desires are fulfilled, I see it as a place where we don’t have any, because we see and behold Him and everything finally makes sense.
 
The beatific vision. It’s supposed to far exceed anything present on this earth, even the most potent narcotics, and result in an absolute peace, happiness, euphoria, calm, blessedness , and remove all negative states of mind, disordered attachments, and fleshly and earthly desires for all eternity, with no negative effects whatsoever, and absolute security in knowing it will never end, and there will be no rebound effect or withdrawal, or attempt to re-capture a moment that can not be re-captured, as the perfection of each moment is equal to all others, eternally.
 
Heaven is for those who love to love (look at the saints, for example). Since God is Love, then heaven is an enjoyable experience for such people. If you consider Jesus’ commandment to “love one another” a chore instead of an opportunity to love your neighbor, you are probably not in heaven. You may have to learn the value of love in purgatory. Virtue is its own reward; conversely, sin is its own punishment. Does this make any sense?

Also, Moontown_Rabbit, I have heard of similar experiences resulting from intense meditation, sensory deprivation, near death experiences and the use of powerful psychoactives like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, so I’m not sure about what constitutes spiritual experiences as opposed to neuro/physiological experiences. I think DMT is produced naturally in the brain, so it seems possible that some sort of DMT surge caused this experience. I’ve never heard of anything like that ever happening before, though, so it seems highly improbable, whereas there are numerous accounts of other non-drug-induced visions and spiritual experiences. Or maybe it was just a really good sandwich. I just don’t know that I can describe heaven as some sort of out-of-body/planar-transcendance/ego-death/euphoric experience when there are non-religious things that cause similar feelings.
 
Moontown_Rabbit said:
I had a really strange experience about 15 years ago. I seldom tell anyone about it because if somebody told me this I would think they were freakin’ nuts. But the OP asked a direct and what I consider unavoidable question, so here goes. I went on a ski trip to a resort near here with three guys I worked with. We were supposed to leave after 3 days, but when I woke up I saw two feet of new powder. The other guys were flying so they had to leave but I was driving so I went to the hill for a fantastic morning of powder skiing. At lunch I was feeling pretty good (but nothing unusual) eating a sandwich in the main lodge when the roof suddenly dissolved above me and I had the sensation of hurtling upward towards the sun. I hit what I can only describe as the outer sphere of some huge spatial onion, i.e. I had the clear impression that I was on the outer shell of some kind of gigantic multi layer ball. After about 15 secs I fell back into the lodge. Of course nobody noticed anything unusual, I was still holding the sandwich and everyone was just walking around. But that 15 secs filled me with such a tremendous joy and peace that I was effectively paralyzed for about six hours. Couldn’t ski, couldn’t communicate, couldn’t drive - or at least shouldn’t have tried to drive, which I somehow did in the end. Was it a brief visit to the edge of heaven? I can’t think of anything else other than temporary insanity, which I don’t think is possible in this context. Anyway, if it was heaven, I can say that although I cannot report any sensory details (because there were none) it was undoubtedly the most fantastic few seconds of my life so far. And that is probably just the weakest part of heaven. Don’t worry about getting bored, instead try to imagine what it must be like at level 50!
Click to expand...
Mystical experiences are far more common than those weighed down by material possessions suppose! They have occurred in every age, culture and country since the dawn of history… 🙂
 
tonyrey said:
Mystical experiences are far more common than those weighed down by material possessions suppose! They have occurred in every age, culture and country since the dawn of history… 🙂
Click to expand...
I know my father went to Heaven once in a NDE, when he was 6. One summer afternoon he fell into and had drowned in a lake, and, literally, in the blink of an eye, he was taken to Heaven. No tunnels. No hurtling throuhg space. Just -bam-.

He never really described it as anything except, like, the happiest moment in your life, stretched out forever. He was happier than he’d ever been, and had not a care in the world.Not about his father, nor his mother, nor anything else.

A voice (or was it a figure, i.e. like a person, but not a human?) told my father if he crossed a certain point, he would not be able to turn back. And how Dad wanted to cross that point.

But something, I dunno what, started pulling him back. And the voice (or “person”) told Dad he was going back to Earth. Dad got angry. When he woke up, it was night time. His father, my grandfather, had pulled him up from the lake. He had been under (or at least out of it) for hours. And he was completely OK.

Dad passed on to the next life, for real this time, in April of 2010. :bighanky: Hopefully, he is with my grandparents (all four have passed on) and his friends in Heaven. I hope to God he’s in Heaven. It would be tragic if he were not.

Thanks especially to the guy with the Scripture verses. I often forget the glory of Heaven.
Most of the time I do what is right because it is right. Not out of emotionalism. Not out of desire for Heaven or fear of Hell (although I don’t want Hell, and Heaven is hopefully good). And not out of love either except, perhaps, for God’s will.
 
The experience of heaven is nothing like anything you experience now; other than dim tastes we may receive via our faith, which itself is a supernatural gift, the knowledge of heaven is imaginable, ineffable-unimaginably good, ineffably good. Gods’ purpose for man is and always has been our complete and inexhaustible happiness. But we’ve never trusted that. Saints who’ve “come back” from direct, intuitive experiences of being in the presence of God, which He gave to them, report a peace, joy, and happiness beyond all human understanding. God is heaven as Pope Benedict wrote in ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.
 
What makes it great?
actually who…who makes it great, for example

JESUS sorry for shouting
to see, walk, and converse with The King…how great is that. Yes we can
do some of that to an extent here, but not fully:

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1Co 13:12)
 
Jesus said that “We each get a mansion” which is more than enough for me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top