Dr. David Jeremiah's Heaven Academy

FAQs About Heaven

FAQs About Heaven

By David Jeremiah

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Purchasing a new home is one of the biggest decisions many of us will make in our lifetime—one that is best made with layers of due diligence. After selecting a house, we typically hire a series of professionals to inspect the plumbing, roofing, electrical system, and structural integrity of the building. Realtors carefully negotiate the terms of the deal. We pore over color swatches and fabric samples. Plans are made for our children’s schooling. The list goes on and on. Due to the costs and complexities involved, most home buyers enter a purchase agreement with the intention to live in their new home for many years.

But what if your decision was final? Imagine how your process might change if you knew you couldn’t relocate after choosing your home. The list of inspections would grow exponentially! Rather than relying on your realtor’s recommendations, you’d probably solicit references from as many reliable sources as possible. You’d agonize over neighborhood statistics, school data, and traffic patterns. Chances are that you would lose sleep over such a binding decision.

Before you can say, Thank goodness that’s not how it works, allow me to point out that we choose our eternal home sight unseen. We do not have the luxury of changing our mind once we die. Whatever time God gives us on this earth is all the time we have to make a decision about our eternal home.

With that in mind, let’s take a close look at the new life God’s people will enjoy in heaven along with a glimpse of the alternative.

Will We Know Each Other in Heaven?

The best information available is the Bible’s account of a conversation between Jesus and His disciples after the Resurrection (Luke 24:36–43). After seeing Him and speaking with Him, the disciples recognized the glorified Jesus as the very same One they had known before His death. They were so convinced of the identity of the risen Christ that they all went to their death proclaiming the reality of the message of everlasting life.

When we get to heaven, we’re going to know all of the people we met down here, and they will know us. It would be unthinkable for us to know less in heaven than we do here. The Bible says, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

What Will We Do There?

What is God going to say to us when we get to heaven? I don’t think He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you can have the rest of eternity off.” He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21). Now, that doesn’t sound like we’re going to be sitting around forever and ever—it sounds like there will be “many things” to do!

And Revelation says, “His servants shall serve Him” (22:3). God has a great plan for each one of us to be wonderfully, happily, excitedly employed as we serve the Lord in Paradise. Free from earthly limitations, we will be serving in the fullest expression of the capacity God has given us and using the giftedness He has placed within us.

What we won’t experience are the difficulties, pressures, stresses, and heartaches that accompany work down here. We cannot possibly comprehend all the glorious work with which we’ll be occupied throughout eternity, but we know that our service will result in deep joy and fulfillment.

Taken from David Jeremiah’s book Answers to Questions About Heaven

Will We Pray in Heaven?

In heaven, there will be no need to pray as we do now. We will live in the very presence of Almighty God. We will commune with Him and have a much more intimate relationship with Him than we do now. Our prayer requests will all have been answered. There will be no need to pray for others, no need to confess our sins, no need to ask for healing, no reason to bring our needs to God. Every need will be fulfilled instantly. Our conversations with the Lord will be immediate, intimate, and in person.

Will We Go to Church in Heaven?

John tells us in the book of Revelation: “I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God’” (21:3). Speaking of the holy city, John goes on to say, “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple…. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads” (21:22; 22:4).

It is an interesting and strange thing to fathom, but there won’t be a need for preaching or church buildings or sanctuaries in heaven. The Bible says we will know our Lord even as we are known. We will have a complete grasp of the things of God. And frankly, that’s what makes heaven a reality. It’s not the streets of gold or the gates of pearl or the angels. Heaven is heaven because God is there. At last, all the barriers will be removed, and we will know God in a way that we cannot comprehend in this life.

Won’t Heaven Be Boring?

Can you imagine a boring day with the Savior who raised the dead, healed the lepers, overturned the tables of the temple, walked across the sea, raised dead people to life, fed five thousand people with a few fish and loaves, rose from the grave, and ascended into the heavens?

There is no reason to worry about boredom in heaven because that’s where God is—the omnipotent, breathtaking, electrifying, exhilarating, and inspiring Creator. Almighty God is the dynamic that sustains the universe. We were made by Him, through Him, and for Him. Heaven will be just as intriguing as God Himself.

Will We Sing in a Choir?

In an age of declining church attendance, we’re in danger of becoming individualistic worshipers. People sometimes say, “I don’t have to come to church to worship. I can walk along the beach, or hike in the mountains.” Some have even claimed, “I worship on the golf course.” But worship is not about one—it’s about many.

The worship John sees in heaven is united, corporate worship. In the entire book of Revelation, the only instances of independent worship happen when John falls down and worships God. All the other worship in Revelation involves vast groups with hearts bound together in praise, such as:

  • Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11–12)

  • And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty–four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. (Revelation 14:2–3)

  • And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” (Revelation 19:6)

If choirs and orchestras can elevate our hearts and thoughts here on this earth, what will it be like when we hear the celestial choirs, accompanied by heaven–trained orchestras, lifting praise to Almighty God around the throne?

For those of us who are heading to heaven, we need to start rehearsing immediately. There’s no guarantee we’ll have time to get ready later. It’s altogether possible that you or I will be part of the heavenly chorus by the end of this day. By singing praise to the Lord today, we prepare ourselves to resume our worship in heaven.

What Is the Alternative to Heaven?

Heaven’s alternative is not something you want to consider.

The Bible indicates that hell exists as a place of conscious, eternal punishment. In two parables concerning judgment at the end of the age, Jesus uses words like “outer darkness,” “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” “everlasting fire,” and “everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:30, 41, 46). That last phrase—“everlasting punishment”—contrasts with “eternal life,” indicating that both destinies are eternal. Punishment apart from God is just as everlasting as life in the presence of God….

Perhaps the most graphic portrayal of perpetual torment is the description of the fate of those who receive the mark of the beast (the Antichrist) during the Tribulation. Those who then agree to worship and serve the Antichrist will be “tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image” (Rev. 14:10, 11; italics added). This description is similar to that of the punishment awaiting the devil, the Antichrist, and the false prophet: in “the lake of fire and brimstone… they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). This appears to be the “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” to which Jesus refers in Matthew 25:41—the destination of those human beings sent to hell at the judgment. (Taken from The Jeremiah Study Bible)

Although the reality of hell is sobering, God has provided a way of escape through Jesus Christ. If you would like to know more about how you can be sure you will spend eternity in heaven, please read “Am I Going to Heaven?” or contact Turning Point today.

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