Heaven

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That off-putting perspective still imprisons many believers. Based on countless interactions I’ve had with readers of the book and others over the past sixteen years, here are eight persistent misconceptions about Heaven. 1. "We will spend eternity in the clouds." Christ’s resurrection is our prototype. He proclaimed, “It is I myself” (Luke 24:39). When Thomas said, “My Lord and my God,” he knew he was speaking to the same Jesus he’d lived with for years. Job said, “After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself” (Job 19:26–27).

The Eagle is right,” said the Lord Digory. “The Narnia you’re thinking of . . . was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.” . . . Death is a relocation of the same person from one place to another. The place changes, but the person remains the same. The same person who becomes absent from his or her body becomes present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). We won't be angels but we'll be with them. 3. We won't be tempted. The blood-bought promise of the gospel is this: we will live happily ever after — with God, the source of all happiness.” To illustrate, imagine you lived in a homeless shelter in Miami. One day you inherit a beautiful house overlooking Santa Barbara, California, and are given a wonderful job doing something you’ve always wanted to do. Many friends and family will live nearby.that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (v. 21). Not just any hope but a blood-bought certainty. The same creation that fell on humanity’s coattails shall rise on its coattails. “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (v. 22). This is the birth pangs of new life. Notice that Paul says “whole creation.” What else besides mankind is groaning? Figuratively, forests and meadows and mountains. Literally, suffering animals.

My ministry focus is communicating the strategic importance of using our earthly time, money, possessions and opportunities to invest in need-meeting ministries that count for eternity," Alcorn says. "I do that by trying to analyze, teach and apply the implications of Christian truth." Before starting EPM in 1990, Alcorn co-pastored for fourteen years Good Shepherd Community Church outside Gresham, Oregon. He has ministered in many countries, including China, and is a popular teacher and conference speaker.* Randy has taught on the part-time faculties of Western Seminary and Multnomah University, both in Portland, Oregon. When I came to Christ, I became a new person (2 Corinthians 5:17), but my dog didn’t bark at me, and my mother didn’t call the police and say, “My son has been taken over by aliens.” I was the same me made new. Transformation and continuity are not contradictions. New people are old people made new. New bodies are old bodies made new, and the new earth will be the old earth made new. Why the Silence?

2. We won't become angels.

Though I seemed okay on the outside, inside I felt a gnawing emptiness. Comic books and science fiction were my escape. I yearned for something bigger than myself. I’d study the stars and planets and every clear night gaze at them for hours through my telescope. One night I discovered the great galaxy of Andromeda, with its trillion stars, 2.5 million light-years away. I was filled with awe. I longed to go there and explore its wonders and lose myself in something greater than myself. Seeing God is what the ancients called the “beatific vision.” That literally means, “The happy-making sight.” To see God will be to experience undiminished happiness. When we feel like saying, “It doesn’t get any better than this,” it will.