Do you ever stop to think about what Heaven is like?

Question

What about living forever?

Answer 1

An elderly gentleman I led to Christ asked a question of a Christian employee in his care center: “Will we have fun in Heaven?”

“Oh, no,” the woman replied, appearing dismayed that he’d even asked.

When he told me this story, I shook my head, because I’ve heard it so often. Why did this Christian woman respond as she did? Because, in accordance with faulty
assumptions, she instinctively linked fun with sin and boredom with holiness. But she couldn’t be more wrong. God promises that we’ll laugh, rejoice, and experience endless pleasures in Heaven.

Someone told me nobody will enjoy playing golf in Heaven because it would get boring always hitting holes in one. But why assume everyone’s skills will be equal and incapable of further development? Just as our minds will grow in knowledge, our resurrection bodies can develop greater skills.

Another reason people assume Heaven is boring is that their Christian lives are boring. That’s not God’s fault; it’s their own. God calls us to follow him in an adventure that should put us on life’s edge. He’s infinite in creativity, goodness, beauty, and power. If we’re experiencing the invigorating stirrings of God’s Spirit, trusting him to fill our lives with divine appointments, experiencing the childlike delights of his gracious daily kindnesses, then we’ll know that God is exciting and Heaven is exhilarating. People who love God crave his companionship. To be in his presence will be the very opposite of boredom.

We think of ourselves as fun-loving, and of God as a humorless killjoy. But we’ve got it backward. It’s not God who’s boring; it’s us. Did we invent wit, humor, and laughter? No. God did. We’ll never begin to exhaust God’s sense of humor and his love for adventure. The real question is this: How could God not be bored with us?

Most of us can envision ourselves being happy for a few days or a week, if that. But a year of complete and sustained happiness? Impossible, we think, because we’ve never experienced it. We think of life under the Curse as normal because that’s all we’ve ever known. A hundred or a million years of happiness is inconceivable to us. Just as creatures who live in a flat land can’t conceive of three-dimensional space, we can’t conceive of unending happiness. Because that level of happiness is not possible here on the fallen Earth, we assume it won’t be possible on the New Earth. But we’re wrong. To properly envision Heaven, we must remove from our eyes the distorted lenses of death and the Curse.

Answer 2

Allah receives man's souls at the time of their death. Their souls do not die when they are sleeping. During people's sleep He withholds those souls which He has decreed to die and releases the others for an appointed time. In this, in fact, there is an evidence (of truth) for the thoughtful people." (Surah az Zumar, 39 : 42)

This verse describes the similarity of sleep and death, and inter alia the similarity of waking and resurrection. Sleep is a slight and weak form of death and death is an intense and strong form of sleep. In both these cases the human soul shifts from one state of life to another. The difference is that in the case of sleep man usually does not notice the change and when he wakes up he does not realize that he has actually returned from some journey. In contrast in the case of death everything becomes clear to him.

It may be gathered from all these three verses put together that from the Qur'anic point of view, the nature of death is not annihilation, termination and non-existence. It is only shifting from one state of life to another.

Incidentally the last verse throws light on the viewpoint of the Qur'an about the nature of sleep also. Although physically sleep is the suspension of certain natural faculties, from spiritual point of view it is an escape to the kingdom of heaven. Like the question of death, the question of sleep is also one of those things the true nature of which is not fully known. All that is known in this connection is merely a part of the physical developments that take place in the physical domain.

Now the position is that this world and everything in it is unstable and liable to a change. Any final shape of anything which we may take into consideration is not final, and is liable to a change in its turn. In other words, everything is temporary, transient and will come to an end. All stages of nature are halting places on the way and none of them is the final destination.

From here some people have got the idea that the creation has no definite purpose or plan. The world is a caravan which is always on the move, going from one stage to another. Obviously a journey can be meaningful only if it has some destination in view. A journey can have no meaning if all destinations are no more than halting places and there is no possibility of finally reaching anywhere. As every existence in the world is followed by its non-existence and every construction is followed by its destruction, the whole system governing the world is nothing but a bewilderment and a repetition of what has already been repeated. Thus the whole system of life and existence is based on frivolity.

The Qur'an's reply is that this specious argument would have been correct if there had been this world alone, all births had ended in death and the fate of all that grew and bloomed had been to dry up and vanish. But such a view is short sighted and based on the presumption that life is confined to this world, while the fact is that life is not so confined. This world is the First Day. It will be followed by the Last Day. As Imam Ali has put it, this world is the abode of passing and the next world will be the abode of staying. It is the next world which gives a meaning to the present world. It is the next world which is the destination and which gives a meaning to the motion and the hustle and bustle of this world.

Had not there been the next world, which is eternal, there would have been no final destination, this world would have been a sort of labyrinth, and the creation, in the words of the Qur'an, would have been in vain, futile and a mere pastime. But the Prophets have come to remove any doubts in this respect and to acquaint us with the truth, the ignorance of which would have made the entire world meaningless in our eyes. With the fixation of this idea of frivolity in our minds, our own existence becomes meaningless and to no purpose. One effect of the belief in the next world is that it delivers us from thinking that our existence has no purpose and gives a meaning to our selves, our thinking and our life.

Answer 3

Yes, and no. I think heaven (or where ever we go when we die) will be great and exhilarating. But I do stop thinking about it. As for living forever, I sometimes stop, but its just so fun to think about!

Answer 4

Jesus said while nailed to the cross, to the other man next to him on the other cross when he said he had sinned that he was sorry, that he would join him in paradise.

So, to me Heaven is paradise. Define a heavenly paradise? Is is a tropical island with birds and beautiful sand and warm water? I don't know! But it sounds like a great place to me. Rather than the dungon Satan is in. Dark, evil and meaningless!

Answer 5

I do not give it a lot of thought because the Bible tells us that it will be beyond our imagination.

I had a pastor tell me that we will spend 100% of our time praising God, and nothing else...Now I like to worship as much as the next guy, but I do not see an eternity of that. I see an eternity of glorious time fun, laughter, excitement, beauty, fulfillment, joy...as for what it looks like? I am anxious to find out.

Answer 6

I always think heaven must be the most beautiful place.

Answer 7

All the time.

Answer 8

I think it is a nice but boring myth. Honestly, worry about the afterlife isn't a concern of mine. I am here, in the present, doing my thing the best way I know how because this is the only chance I get.

Answer 9

i am looking forward to our banquet i think we will all be gathered about the table laughing and having fun with Jesus at the head encased by a glowing about Him havent figured out yet what i will be having to eat but i know it will be heavenly along with the company,see you there

Answer 10

Oh I think about it all the time. What a glorious day it will be when i do find out.