Attitudes and Assumptions

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leifq

Back to: Heaven: Alcorn

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When people express worries about going to Heaven and living there eternally, what are they sometimes concerned about? What assumptions do they make about Heaven?

Early Believers

Cyprian of Carthage

Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us from this place and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to paradise and the kingdom. Anyone who has been in foreign lands longs to return to his own native land… We regard paradise as our native land.

Cyprian, 240 AD
  • HOME – his native land

The Apostle Paul

Philippians 1:19-23 NIV
or I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. [20] I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. [21] For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. [22] If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! [23] I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;

and

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 NIV
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. [2] Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, [3] because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. [4] For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. [5] Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. [6] Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. [7] For we live by faith, not by sight. [8] We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. [9] So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. [10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
  • Prefer to be away from the body and HOME with the Lord…

Modern Believers

  • What is a major difference between then and now that explains such a different perspective?
  • What do the longings we have now, reveal to us about what we might experience in Heaven?
  • How many of us had thoughts about Heaven this week, that we don’t normally have?

Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain:

it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

CS Lewis, Problem of Pain

God uses suffering and impending death to unfasten us from this earth and to set our minds on what lies beyond.

-Alcorn, Heaven
Hebrews 11:32-40 ESV
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets- [33] who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [34] quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. [35] Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. [36] Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. [37] They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated- [38] of whom the world was not worthy-wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. [39] And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, [40] since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Eschatology vs Eternity?

  • Why are some more fixated and enthralled by eschatology rather than eternity?
  • Should we have a stronger emphasis on one over the other? Which one? Why?