Heaven

by Randy Alcorn

  When we gather at meals and other times, we'll tell stories of past battles. We'll recite God's acts of grace in our lives. (Are we practicing this now?) Some of those acts of grace we didn't understand at the time; some we resented. But we'll see then with an eternal perspective.

  Just as we're now captivated by a person's story of heroism or rescue from dan­ger, we'll be enthralled by the stories we'll share in Heaven. I want to hear Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, Roger Youderian, and Nate Saint discuss their final day on the old Earth. I can't wait to hear John Newton's story and William Wilberforce's and Mary Magdalene's. Wouldn't you love to hear from the angel who strengthened Christ in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43)? Imagine sitting around campfires on the New Earth, wide-eyed at the adventures recounted. Yes, I mean telling real stories around real campfires. Why not? After all, friendship, camara­derie, laughter, stories, and cozy campfires are all good gifts from God.

  Consider the wonderful ending to John's Gospel: "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written" (John 21:25). The Gospels contain wonderful stories, but they record only a small fraction of what Jesus did. And that was only during the brief span of his life on the old Earth. How much more will there be to tell about his never-ending life with his people on the New Earth? We can look forward to endless adventures, encounters, profound sayings, and delightful experiences with Jesus. When he tells a story, we'll all be on the edge of our seats. On the New Earth, our resur­rected eyes and ears will see and hear God's glory as never before, and our resur­rected hearts will be moved to see his beauty everywhere. We will live in a land of fascinating observations, captivating insights, wondrous adventures, and spellbinding stories.

  The greatest novels, plays, and movies are stories of redemption. Think of Les Miserables or The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They draw their shape and power from the ultimate redemption story. The greatest story ever told—and it will be told and retold from thousands of different viewpoints, emphasizing different details—will be permanently engraved in the hands and feet of Jesus. That story, above all, will be in our hearts and on our tongues.

  WILL THERE BE ART, DRAMA, AND ENTERTAINMENT?

  God is an inventor and the director of the unfolding drama of redemption. He created the universe, then wrote, directed, and took the leading role in history's greatest story. We who have lived our own dramas and participated in God's, we whose lives were enriched through drama, should recognize its value in the new universe. The quality of drama will likely be vastly improved. Imagine how new minds and bodies on the New Earth will stir us to worship, dialogue, action, and creativity.

  Will we use the arts—including drama, painting, sculpture, music, and much more—to praise God? Will they provide enjoyment and entertainment for resurrected people? C. S. Lewis said, "When you painted on earth . . . it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape."317 Ultimately, the new earthly landscape will be Heaven's landscape. But that won't eliminate art, which is a God-given gift to his image-bearers. Art will rise to ever-higher levels in the new universe.

  Will we see movies in Heaven? Many current movies celebrate sin and therefore won't have a place there. But good movies, like good books, tell pow­erful stories. Movies on the New Earth might depict sin, as the Bible does, showing it to be wrong. But for any portrayal of sin, there would be a greater emphasis on God's redemptive work.

  Professor Arthur Roberts writes of drama and the arts in Heaven: "Some people may find it difficult to envision drama or literature without plots involv­ing villainy, deceit, violence, or adultery. . . . Such fears are understandable, because it is difficult to see beyond the horizon of our experience. These questions reflect an inadequate vision of resurrected life. . . . Do our aesthetic adventures depend upon sin for flavor? I think not. In heaven, as on earth, effective drama portrays a triumph of good over evil. I daresay the vastness and the openness of the renewed cosmos offers adventures adequate for epic tales, just at it provides raw material for the visual arts, for painting, for sculpture, for architecture."318

  Rather than forget about our lives on the old Earth, I think we'll depict them in drama and literature with perspective and gratitude to God. Will peo­ple really write new books on the New Earth? Why not? Reading and writing aren't the result of sin; they're the result of God's making us his image-bearers. Unless we believe the present Earth will be greater than the New Earth, then surely the greatest books, dramas, and poetry are yet to be written. Authors will have new insights, information, and perspectives. I look forward to reading nonfiction books that depict the character of God and the wonders of his uni­verse. I'm eager to read new biographies and fiction that tell powerful redemp­tive stories, moving our hearts to worship God.

  We'll be resurrected people with minds, hands, and eyes. As we've seen, there will be books and buildings in Heaven. Put enough books in a building, and you have a library. Imagine great rows of books, hundreds of thousands, millions of them. Imagine oak desks and ladders reaching to great shelves heavy with books. (If you like the sound of that, you may spend a lot of time in such a library or serve the King by helping others find the right books.) Will you be one who writes new books? Perhaps.

  I want to be part of a group that explores the vast reaches of the new cosmos. When my fellow explorers and I return home to Earth, the capital planet, and enter the gates of the capital city, we'll gather for food and drinks, and catch up on our stories. I'll listen to your stories; maybe you'll listen to mine. Perhaps I'll write about great planets of star systems far away. I'll tell how my explorations deepened my love for Jesus. And you'll play or sing for me the music of praise you composed while I was gone. I'll marvel at its beauty, and I'll see Jesus in it and in you. Maybe I'll write a book about the Omega galaxy, while you'll write one about the music of the heart. We'll exchange manuscripts, stimulate new insights, and draw each other closer to God.

  WILL WE LAUGH?

  "If you're not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there." It wasn't Mark Twain who said that. It was Martin Luther.

  Where did humor originate? Not with people, angels, or Satan. God created all good things, including good humor. If God didn't have a sense of hu­mor, we as his image-bearers wouldn't. That he has a sense of humor is evident in his creation. Consider aardvarks and baboons. Take a good look at a giraffe. You have to smile, don't you?

  When laughter is prompted by what's appropriate, God always takes plea­sure in it. I think Christ will laugh with us, and his wit and fun-loving nature will be our greatest source of endless laughter.

  There's nothing like the laughter of dear friends. The Bible often portrays us around the dinner table in God's coming Kingdom. What sound do you hear when friends gather to eat and talk? The sound of laughter. My wife, Nanci, loves football. She opens our home to family and friends for Monday night football. If you came to our house, you'd hear cheers and groans, but the domi­nant sound in the room, week after week, is laughter. God made us to laugh and to love to laugh. It's therapeutic. The new universe will ring with laughter.

  Am I just speculating about laughter? No. I can point to Scripture passages worth memorizing. For example, Jesus says, "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh" (Luke 6:21). You will laugh.

  When will we be satisfied? In Heaven. When will we laugh? In Heaven. Can we be certain of that? Yes. Jesus tells us precisely when this promise will be fulfilled: "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven" (Luke 6:23).

  Just as Jesus promises satisfaction as a reward in Heaven, he also promises laughter as a reward. Anticipating the laughter to come, Jesus says we should "leap for joy" now. Can you imagine someone leaping with joy in utter silence, without laughter? Take any group of rejoicing people, and what do you hear? Laughter. There m
ay be hugging, backslapping, playful wrestling, singing, and storytelling. But always there is laughter. It is God's gift to humanity, a gift that will be raised to new levels after our bodily resurrection.

  The reward of those who mourn now will be laughter later. Passages such as Luke 6 gave the early Christians strength to endure persecution in "an under­standing of heaven as the compensation for lost earthly privileges."319 In early Christian Greek tradition, Easter Monday was a "day of joy and laughter," called Bright Monday320 Only the followers of Christ can laugh in the face of persecution and death because they know that their present trouble isn't all there is. They know that someday all will be right and joyful.

  By God's grace, we can laugh on Earth now, even under death's shadow. Jesus doesn't say, "If you weep, soon things on Earth will take a better turn, and then you'll laugh." Things won't always take a better turn on Earth. Sickness, loss, grief, and death will find us. Just as our reward will come in Heaven, laugh­ter (itself one of our rewards) will come in Heaven, compensating for our pres­ent sorrow. God won't only wipe away all our tears, he'll fill our hearts with joy and our mouths with laughter.

  The happiness of heaven is not like the steady, placid state of a mountain lake where barely a ripple disturbs the tranquility of its water. Heaven is more akin to the surging, swelling waves of the Mississippi at flood stage.

  SAM STORMS

  The fact that we could wonder whether there's laughter in Heaven shows how skewed our perspective is. C. S. Lewis said, "But in this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likeliest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of Heaven."321

  Even those who are poor, diseased, or grieving may experience therapeutic laughter. People at memorial services often laugh, even in the face of death. And if we can laugh hard now—in a world full of poverty, disease, and disas­ters—then surely we will laugh more in Heaven.

  The only laughter that won't have a place in Heaven is the sort that late-night comedians often engage in—laughter that mocks troubled people, makes light of human suffering, or glorifies immorality. Jesus makes a sobering com­ment in Luke 6:25. He addresses not only Heaven but also Hell, saying, "Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep." When will those who laugh now mourn and weep? In the afterlife. All those who have not surrendered their lives to God, who have exploited and ignored the needy, who laugh at and ridicule the unfor­tunate, and who flout God's standards of purity will have all eternity to mourn and weep. They will never laugh again.

  One of Satan's great lies is that God—and goodness—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 you cannot picture him teasing them and laughing with them, you need to reevaluate your understanding of the Incarnation. We need a biblical theology of humor that prepares us for an eter­nity of celebration and spontaneous laughter.

  C. S. Lewis depicts the laughter in Heaven when his characters attend the great reunion on the New Narnia: "And there was greeting and kissing and handshaking and old jokes revived (you've no idea how good an old joke sounds after you take it out again after a rest of five or six hundred years)."322

  Who is the most intelligent, creative, witty, and joyful human being in the universe? Jesus Christ. Whose laughter will be loudest and most contagious on the New Earth? Jesus Christ's.

  When we face difficulty and discouragement in this world, we must keep our eyes on the source of our joy. Remember, "Blessed are you who weep now, ioxyou will laugh" (Luke 6:21, emphasis added).

  WILL WE PLAY?

  When we were children, we played—with each other and with dogs and cats and frogs. We enjoyed hiding, climbing trees, sledding, and throwing snowballs and baseballs. We played nonstop, never having to go earn a living. We played just because it was fun. Is God pleased by that? Yes, because he created and val­ues a childlike spirit (Mark 10:14-15).

  If it's fun for children to play in the mud and if we'll be childlike on the New Earth, is it a stretch to think we might play in the mud? If something in you says there won't be mud on the New Earth, that something is Christoplatonism. When Revelation 22 speaks of a flowing river, with the tree of life growing on both sides of it, what do you suppose will be at the edge of the river, where it meets the dirt of the bank? Mud!

  A mother sent me her son's question: "Will there be toys in Heaven?" I believe the answer is yes. After all, we'll still be human, so why wouldn't we still have the human inclination and capacity to enjoy things? And we'll still have the capacity to craft and create objects, so why not toys? Are toys sinful? No. Could they have ex­isted in an unfallen world, as the product of human creativity? Of course.

  WILL THERE BE SPORTS?

  Just as we can look forward to cultural endeavors such as art, drama, and mu­sic on the New Earth, we can assume that we'll also enjoy sports there. Ac­cording to the principle of continuity, we should expect the New Earth to be characterized by familiar, earthly (though uncorrupted) things. Scripture compares the Christian life to athletic competitions (1 Corinthians 9:24,27; 2 Timothy 2:5). Because sports aren't inherently sinful, we have every reason to believe that the same activities, games, skills, and interests we en­joy here will be available on the New Earth, with many new ones we haven't thought of. (Your favorite sport in Heaven maybe one you've never heard of or one that hasn't yet been invented.) Sports and our enjoyment of them aren't a result of the Fall. I have no doubt that sinless people would have in vented athletics, with probably more variations than we have today. Sports suit our minds and our bodies. They're an expression of our God-designed humanity.

  What kinds of new sports and activities might we engage in on the New Earth? The possibilities are limitless. Perhaps we'll participate in sports that were once too risky. And just as we might have stimulating conversations with theologians and writers in Heaven, we might also have the opportunity to play our favorite sports with some of our favorite sports heroes. How would you like to, in your resurrection body, play golf with Payne Stewart or play basketball with David Robinson? How would you like to play catch with Andy Pettitte or go for a run with Jesse Owens or Eric Liddell?

  Eric Liddell understood that glorifying God extends to every part of our lives. Explaining that God had called him not only to missions work in China but also to compete in the Olympics, Liddell said to his sister, "He made me fast, and when I run I feel God's pleasure. . . . To give up running would be to hold him in contempt."323

  In a tennis tournament, I once played a five-hour singles match in which each of the three sets went to a tiebreaker. I came away exhausted, lost two toenails, and limped for two weeks. But did I regret a single minute of that five-hour match? Not one. There's joy in testing the limits of our bodies. Fur­thermore, those exhilarating five hours created a permanent bond with my opponent, who became my friend.

  As we expend energy in our new bodies, it's possible we'll tire and need re­freshment. After playing for hours, we may eat and drink to replenish our bod­ies, laughing about what happened on the field, enjoying each other's company, and praising God for the sheer pleasure of it all.

  People have told me, "But there can't be athletics in Heaven because compe­tition brings out the worst in people." It's true that some people's sin spills over during athletic competition. But in Heaven, there will be no worst in us to bring out. People further object: "But in sports, someone has to lose. And in Heaven no one could lose." Who says so? I've thoroughly enjoyed many tennis matches and ten-kilometer races that I've lost. Losing a game isn't evil. It's not part of the Curse. To say that "everyone would have to win in Heaven" underestimates the nature of resurrected humanity.

  CAN THERE BE THRILLS WITHOUT RISK?

  A sincere young man told me that no matt
er what I might say, Heaven must be boring. Why? "Because you can't appreciate good without bad, light without darkness, or safety without danger. If Heaven is safe, if there's no risk, it has to be boring."

  His first mistake was assuming there's no good without bad. God said Earth was "very good" before there was sin or anything bad (Genesis 1:31). Adam and Eve enjoyed Eden's goodness before experiencing the badness of sin. This young man's next mistake was believing that a person has to currently see evil at work to appreciate good and to currently be in danger to appreciate safety.

  My father lived through the Great Depression. He told me stories of sleep­ing outside in the cold, covered only with newspaper. Dad first told me these stones fifty years after the fact. He'd been able to sleep inside for half a century, but he vividly remembered the hard times. Suppose someone had said to him, "You can't appreciate having a warm fire and a warm bed unless there's the threat of sleeping out in the cold tonight." He'd say, "You think I'll ever forget those days?" His memories didn't make him miserable; they made him grateful.

  After our bodily resurrection, we'll still remember the darkness and dangers of this life. We'll contrast our past experiences with the light and safety of the New Earth, and we'll be profoundly grateful.

  The same young man went on to say, "I like mountain climbing and extreme sports. I enjoy working hard and sweating. But there won't be any challenges in Heaven. If there's no risk of falling and dying, it can't be really fun."

  Where does Scripture say there won't be challenges or hard work in Heaven? Were there no challenges in Eden? The Bible says there will be no more evil or suffering—not that there won't be challenges.

  Did Adam and Eve work hard? Did they sweat and get sore? Everyone who enjoys sports knows that there's a "good tired" and a "good sore." It's satisfying. It's part of knowing you've stretched yourself. Why wouldn't our resurrection bodies sweat? God didn't create sweat glands after the Fall, did he?