Back to: Heaven: Alcorn
“I pity the man who never thinks about heaven”
jC Ryle.
We could also say, “I pity the man who never thinks accurately about Heaven.” It’s our inaccurate thinking, I believe, that causes us to choose to think so little about Heaven.
Alcorn, Heaven
Combating Erroneous Thinking.
Just Guessing
Intellectual Laziness
“An overwhelming majority of Americans continue to believe that there is life after death and that heaven and hell exist .But what people actually believe about Heaven and Hell varies widely. They’re cutting and pasting religious views from a variety of different sources—television, movies, conversations with their friends. The result is a highly subjective theology of the afterlife, disconnected from the biblical doctrine of Heaven.”
-2003 Barna Research Group poll
Just Settling
“God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”
Trying to develop an appetite for a disembodied existence in a non-physical Heaven is like trying to develop an appetite for gravel. No matter how sincere we are, and no matter how hard we try, it’s not going to work. Nor should it.
Alcorn, Heaven
Just Deceived. (Did God really say…?).
Satan Lies.
John 8:42-47 NIV Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. [43] Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. [44] You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. [45] Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! [46] Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? [47] Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
Revelation 13:4-6 NIV People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?" [5] The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. [6] It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
- SIDENOTE: do a personal study on ‘His tabernacle – those who dwell in Heaven‘ by cross-referencing…
- Revelation 11:1 ESV – Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,
- Ezekiel 40:2-3 NASBS – In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was a structure like a city. [3] So He brought me there; and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand; and he was standing in the gateway.
But Why?
Satan need not convince us that Heaven doesn’t exist. He need only convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existence. If we believe that lie, we’ll be robbed of our joy and anticipation, we’ll set our minds on this life and not the next, and we won’t be motivated to share our faith. Why should we share the “good news” that people can spend eternity in a boring, ghostly place that even we’re not looking forward to?
-Alcorn, Heaven
Naturalism/Scientism:
Only the material and tangible – that which can be explained by science – is real. Abstracts are merely a result of the electrical impulses in our brains.
Heaven isn’t an extrapolation of earthly thinking; Earth is an extension of Heaven, made by the Creator King.
-Alcorn, Heaven.
Living in the Matrix, or reality?
Ephesians 6:12 ESV - For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Colossians 1:13-16 ESV - He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [15] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.
Developing An Appetite For Heaven
Our desires correspond precisely to God’s plans. It’s not that we want something, so we engage in wishful thinking that what we want exists. It’s the opposite- the reason we want it is precisely because God has planned for it to exist.
What God made us to desire, and therefore what we do desire if we admit it, is exactly what He promises to those who follow Jesus Christ:
Alcorn, heaven
…a resurrected life in a resurrected body, with the resurrected Christ on a resurrected Earth.
Chasing Desires
Colossians 3:1-4 ESV If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Matthew 6:33 NASBS But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Grk – zeteo: constantly search, crave, think about, meditate. There is a sense that it requires active effort.
‘Screwtape Letters’:
to render the Christian ineffective, distract him with the mundane worries of life as mentioned in Matt 6:25-32
I Can Only Imagine.
“While reason is the natural organ of truth, imagination is the organ of meaning.”
CS Lewis.
As we prepare to go through scripture and see what it says about Heaven and eternity, let’s keep our minds ‘scripturally open’ to what we will find.
“The Christian is the really free man—he is free to have imagination. This too is our heritage. The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.”
– Francis Schaeffer
Randy Alcorn’s Closing Thoughts
“Everything pleasurable we know about life on Earth we have experienced through our senses. So, when Heaven is portrayed as beyond the reach of our senses, it doesn’t invite us; instead, it alienates and even frightens us. Our misguided attempts to make Heaven “sound spiritual” (i.e., non-physical) merely succeed in making Heaven sound unappealing.”
By the time you finish reading this book, you will have a biblical basis for envisioning the eternal Heaven. You will understand that in order to get a picture of Heaven—which will one day be centered on the New Earth—you don’t need to look up at the clouds; you simply need to look around you and imagine what all this would be like without sin and death and suffering and corruption…So look out a window. Take a walk. Talk with your friend. Use your God-given skills to paint or draw or build a shed or write a book.
But imagine it—all of it—in its original condition.
At last, you’re with the person you were made for, in the place you were made to be.
Since you’ll spend the next lifetime living in Heaven, why not spend this lifetime seeking Heaven, so you can eagerly anticipate and prepare for it?