Heaven – Snapshots

Worthy Is the Lamb!

If there’s a climax in the Bible, it might be the moment Jesus Christ looks Father God in the eyes and takes the seven-sealed book out of His hand. (Re 5:6-7) This may be the moment when the glory of divine redemption in Christ, and the ultimate glory of Christ Himself, is finally put on full display in chronological time.

Just before this revelation, there was an intensive, exhaustive search for someone, anyone worthy to open the book in God’s hand (Re 5:2), and no one was able to do so. (3); perhaps some dared to approach the holiness of God on their own merit, but all were turned away.

And this is no small thing to casually overlook; the Apostle John himself is so dismayed by the outcome he weeps uncontrollably, as if God’s eternal plan has failed, such that He will be unable to judge the world in righteousness by that one Person in Whom He invested everything in: Christ Jesus. (Ac 17:31) John should have known better, but he is evidently convinced of absolute, ultimate disaster, and he is undone, inconsolable. Perhaps he was not alone, and all of Heaven was weeping as well.

At this instant, when all seemed lost just moment before, all of Heaven erupts in ecstatic praise to Jesus Christ, beginning with the four beasts and twenty-four elders (8-10), followed by one-hundred million plus angels joining in exuberant praise, as if Christ were God Himself (11-12), and finally every creature in the universe joins in (13) – we all explode in triumphant praise.

The four beasts, who to our knowledge have never worshipped anyone but Father God, lead us in unreservedly worshipping the Lamb. We are all so taken with Christ at this moment, so overwhelmed with His majesty and supreme excellency and worthiness, we can do nothing but praise Him.

We can be sure, in that great day, no one else in Heaven will be saying, “Look at me!”

So, why not worship Jesus Christ in this manner even now, before He takes the book? We might reason the eternal redemption plan is not quite complete; He has not actually overcome and taken the book yet; He does not have it in hand, not quite. But knowing by faith that He will do so, as God has revealed it to us, we can call those things which be not as though they were (Ro 4:17), and rejoice in Christ Jesus. (Php 3:3)

What is the alternative to glorifying Christ in this spectacular way? As we fail to honor the Son, we fail to honor the Father; honor them both in the same way or miss Him altogether. (Jn 5:23)

Perhaps this is what makes the appearance of the victorious Lamb so satisfying: God did not cheat. There was no Plan B. If Jesus Christ is not absolutely, flawlessly perfect in every detail, every motive, every thought word and deed, for His entire eternal and earthly existence, there is no victory in the end … and Satan wins!

But Jesus Christ is PERFECT!!

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. (12) Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” (13b)

Let us be moved to worship the Lamb, to the glory of God the Father, even now as we will then, with all intensity and abandon, casting down every high thing that exalts itself against knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ! (2Co 10:5)

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Behold, a Throne

When we think about Heaven, we may find comfort in being reunited with departed loved ones, freedom from pain and sorrow, mansions overlooking streets of gold, pearly white gates, etc. Though we do have some hints from scripture (Jn 14:2), we don’t have many reliable testimonies of those who have actually visited Heaven and returned to tell us all about it, so we tend to use our imagination to fill in the blanks.

Yet we do have one very reliable first-hand account of what Heaven is like: the Apostle John was actually invited up into Heaven by Christ Himself and instructed to record for us what he saw. (Re 1:19) This is evidently our most reliable witness of what to expect in eternity.

The first thing John sees is God Himself seated on His throne. (Re 4:1-3) Thrones are where kings give royal decrees and execute judgment; upon entering Heaven John immediately finds himself in the presence of the King of Kings, and this is very likely no coincidence.

John then notices twenty-four kings seated round about God’s throne (4), and four mysterious looking winged beasts, full of eyes inside and out, hovering around God, continuously praising and worshipping Him, with no breaks, no rest. (8) And the worship pouring forth from these beasts is repeatedly moving the twenty-four kings to fall down before God, casting their crowns before Him and exclaiming how absolutely amazing and worthy God is. (9-11)

Evidently, this is Heaven in steady state: everyone beholding God; like the four beasts, all eyes are trained on Him, so fully and totally occupied with Him that everything else is a blur, out of focus, not even on the radar.

Suppose for a moment that this is indeed the essence of Heaven: seen through the eyes of the four beasts beholding and worshipping God, nothing more and nothing less, as if we’re unaware of anything else, as if we’re alone with Him. If we find this a bit anti-climactic, if we’ve been expecting Heaven to be more about us and less about God, what does this tell us? If we’re having difficulty focusing on and delighting in God now, if we find Him boring or unsatisfying without some entertaining music, if in this life we don’t enjoy simply beholding Him as He is, what makes us think we’ll feel at home in Heaven?

Even now, the heavenly heart longs above all else to dwell and abide in the house of God, beholding the beauty of God all the days of our earthly existence (Ps 27:4); we’re constantly orienting ourselves so we’re always focusing on God (Ps 16:8), continually aware of His presence. (He 13:5)

But hearts that focus on the comforts, pleasures and concerns of this life are going to continue focusing on themselves in eternity, and Heaven is simply not the place for that. Self-absorbed, self-interested, self-centered souls are headed for destruction. (Php 3:18-19) There isn’t anything about dying that magically changes our hearts. (Re 22:11)

The primary way we identify the real condition of our heart is by observing our love for Torah (Ps 119:97), by how we are cherishing and obeying the laws of God’s Kingdom. (Mt 5:19) No one will be comfortable before the throne of Heaven who is neglecting God’s laws. (Ro 8:7)

We may also observe how we generally spend our time and energy, and find out in real time where our true priorities and affections lie. Where are we turning when we have free time? What is most readily capturing our attention and interest? (Php 3:20)

If we find ourselves lacking in heavenly affections, preoccupied our own agenda and with the affairs of this life (2Ti 2:4), what can we do about it?

We can start by admitting our carnality (Ro 7:24) and deliberately begin seeking after heavenly things. (Co 3:1-2)

We can ask God to incline our heart unto His testimonies (Ps 119:36), and for a vision of a more godly, holy, heavenly-minded version of ourselves that God is calling us toward. (2Pe 1:3) We can confess our need for sanctification to others who are pursing holiness so they can pray for us (Ja 5:16), we can memorize and meditate on the promises of God to sanctify us and make us more like Himself. (4) Then we can begin meditating on and pursuing this heavenly vision (He 12:14) step by precious step. (2Pe 1:5-8)

We evidently tend to become what we focus on (2Co 3:18), so we should begin putting on Christ (Co 3:12), emulating Him and pretending to be like Him. (Ro 13:14) He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power at work in us. (Ep 3:20)

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Whom Have I In Heaven?

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How important would going to Heaven be if there were no Hell?

Suppose God were to offer each of us our own unique version of Paradise, whatever we wanted, where we may do as we please any time we wish, enjoying lovers, friends and family at will, living in eternal happiness and pleasure … away from God.

And suppose Heaven is only God, each of us alone with Jehovah God forever, focused entirely on beholding and worshipping and serving Him. Nothing and no one else even on the radar.

If it were indeed so, who then would strive to enter God’s kingdom? (Lk 13:24) Would it then be more evident who’s seeking God Himself, to know Him and walk with Him? (Jn 17:3)

When we think of Heaven, is God distant and far off, the way we perceive Him now? And are we OK with that? primarily interested in being reunited with loved ones? (Mt 10:37) Or freedom from pain and suffering? (38)

Meanwhile, are we consumed with earthly cares? (Mk 4:18-19) Only turning to God when we’re in need? (Jn 6:26)

Many of us, by the way we’re living, appear to be like Adam and Eve after the Fall: seeking Paradise without God. (Ge 3:8)

If the earthly-minded are bound for eternal destruction (Php 3:18-19), how much more those who would focus Heaven itself on themselves?

Those pursuing their own benefit will forfeit it (Jn 12:25) and miss the ultimate Treasure. (Mt 13:44)

Can a soul who isn’t longing for God Himself be fit for the kingdom? (He 12:14) Can one who doesn’t value God above all rightly claim to know Him? (Mt 13:45-46)

Is God Himself enough for us? (Ps 72:26) Is Jehovah God our eternal portion? (Ps 119:57) If not, we don’t yet know Him as we should. (Php 3:8)

Asking God to search our hearts (Ps 139:23-24) helps us understand ourselves, to know who we are and where we are with God. (2Co 13:5) We can lie to ourselves about our love for God all day long, but He won’t fall for it. (1Co 16:22)

If we love God supremely, with a new heart created by Him and for Him (2Co 5:17), being with Him eternally is the Paradise we long for (Ps 27:4), and nothing less is acceptable. (Ps 73:25)

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Anathema Maranatha

Eternal hellfire and brimstone is seldom mentioned anymore, and the little we do hear about it is often tearless (Ph 3:18), yet Christ warns us all to avoid Hell at any cost. (Mt 5:29-30) Who among us still races headlong into this dreadful end? (Is 33:14)

How many souls are actually going to make it to Heaven? One in a thousand? (Ec 7:28) One in ten thousand? If the antediluvian proportion of His elect is any indication (one in a billion — 1Pe 3:20) it’s only a remnant (Ro 11:5); very, very few. (Mt 7:14)

The reality is all who don’t love Jesus Christ will be anathema maranatha: cursed when Christ returns (1Co 16:22); this is very nearly everyone. (Mt 7:13)

By inference, all who aren’t keeping and obeying the words of Christ are headed to Hell. (Jn 14:23) Those who don’t obey Him don’t love Him. (24a)

Similarly, all who mind earthly things, who focus more on temporal concerns than on God’s kingdom, these folk are also headed to Hell. (Php 3:19) The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches distract them (Mt 13:22), because these also do not love Him.

Who’s living as if they’re elect? Who is obeying Jesus Christ today (Mt 7:21), cherishing His Words (Col 3:16), the words of Torah (Ro 7:22), hiding them in their hearts and meditating on them day and night as a manner of life? dedicated to Him and to His glory? Almost no one. It shouldn’t surprise us, but it’s sobering.

The fact people aren’t aware of their dreadful, eternal fate is irrelevant; science and/or religion may give peace for the moment, but confidence without holiness is an illusion, deception. (He 12:14) They’re stumbling heedless over the fathomless depths of Hell itself every moment of their lives, and will fall into it suddenly, utterly consumed with terrors. (Ps 73:18-19)

How are we supposed to live in light of this? First, we diligently make our own election sure (2Pe 1:10), working out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12), examining ourselves in light of God’s revelation whether we truly are in the faith, and prove it out for ourselves. (2Co 13:5) Are the characteristics which accompany salvation evident in our own lives? (He 6:9)

Then we do what we can to encourage others to diligently seek God (He 11:6) and strive to enter the kingdom (Lk 13:24), bearing patiently with them (2Ti 2:24-25), knowing we ourselves also were lost (Ti 3:3), teaching and warning those who will listen (2Co 5:11) with all wisdom (Co 1:28), helping them as much as we can along the way. (He 12:24-25)

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As a Sparrow Alone

Terminal cancer is no joke. When we hear we have so little time left, what do we do? Re-calibrate? Re-orient? Get out our bucket list and try to live it up? It’s perfectly understandable, whatever we do when we face our fragile little selves for what we really are (Ga 6:3), feeling alone (Ps 102:7), afraid, uncertain. (He 10:31)

Truly, we’re all dying of a terminal condition: Life itself. But as long as death seems far away, not imminently close, we comfort ourselves however we can, asleep at the wheel.

Facing our mortality wakes us up, helping us realize what and who we are (Ja 4:14), what and who we have, or don’t have. (Ga 6:4-5) It’s clear we don’t take our stuff, our friends or family (1Co 6:29-31), or even our man-made religion (Mk 7:7); we leave it all behind. (1Ti 6:7) We will face God alone, and deal with Him one on one, for eternity. (Ro 14:11-12)

It isn’t so much a choice between Heaven and Hell, though that’s implied; it’s more about being a devoted lover of God, or His enemy: there’s no middle ground with Him. (Mt 12:33)

Think of it this way: no matter where we end up, it’s just going to be like each one of us as an individual is alone with God (2Co 5:8), as if no one else will be on our radar, distracting us from Him (Ps 27:4), part of our routine, conscious focus, except Him. (Ps 73:25)

What will that be like … if we love God? (1Co 8:3) or if we don’t? (16:22)

For sure, those in Heaven will be in community together, in a sense (He 12:22-23), as well as those in Hell, but as God unveils us into His immediate omnipresence (Jn 17:24), His infinitude will completely consume, occupy and overwhelm all our senses. (Re 20:11) From that moment on, out into eternity, we will see and experience God as All in All (1Co 15:58), drinking in the infinite majesty of Jehovah God. (Re 22:3-5)

If we love God, in that eternal moment, we’ll have all there is to have (Ro 8:17); and if we don’t love God, we’ll be forever face-to-face with the indignant fury of the Almighty (Re 6:16), Who repays all who hate Him to their face. (De 7:9-10)

We may think we don’t actually hate God, perhaps we’re just indifferent or lukewarm, but that’s all the same to Him; He might even detest indifference more intensely. (Re 3:15-16) God cannot be trifled with (Ga 6:7); He commands us to love Him with all our being; mind, heart, soul and strength. (Mk 12:30) Nothing less is acceptable.

False religion is how we deceive ourselves into thinking God will accept us on our merits, because we belong to a special club and follow certain rituals, and the more truth our religion contains the more deceptive it can be. (2Co 11:13-15) Any religion offering us hope by adhering to it is a counterfeit; religion can’t bring us to God. Shedding all formal religion, leaving only the divine relationship, may help us see whether we’re relying on emptiness here.

If we’re honest with ourselves (1Co 3:18), we can tell what and who we truly love. Is it truth? (2Th 2:10) Is it God? Above everything and everyone else? (Jn 12:25) Is this reflected in our lives, day to day? (Pr 20:11) Are we obeying Him the best we know how, submitting our entire lives to Him? (Jn 14:23)

There’s only one Way to God: the Person of Jesus Christ. (Jn 14:6) He is all we need, but to have Him we must give up everything else (Mt 13:44-46); He tolerates no rivals in our affections or loyalties. (Lk 14:26)

If me and Christ forever sounds like Heaven (Ps 84:4), we’re likely one of the chosen few to find the narrow gate and we’re well on our way (Mt 7:14); otherwise, we’re likely still on the broad road with the mass of Mankind, the walking dead (Ep 2:1), headed to eternal death and destruction. (Mt 7:13) Look for that tiny little gate, find it and strive to enter (Lk 13:24); it’s only One Person wide, and His name is Yeshua: Jesus.

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Far Better

Strange as it may seem, I’ve been struggling with regret that I will die and go to Heaven. It’s irrational, of course, and it’s unrelated to anything temporal; it isn’t because I’ll miss some physical or relational aspect of my life here on Earth.

The dilemma is that I haven’t been able to imagine how I could possibly have more access to God than I already have. Now, I can be as close to Him as I like, closer than my own breath. I can talk to Him any time, commune with Him whenever I like, as much as I want. (2Co 13:14) No one else can separate me from Him (Ro 8:39), or have any claim on Him that might constrain my access to Him; nothing ever interferes or limits His availability to me.

Yet, as Christ was in an earthly body, bound by time and space, He could only personally converse with one person at a time; only one disciple at a time could lean on Jesus’ bosom (Jn 13:23); He could only hold one or two children in His arms at a time. There’s something about the physicality of Heaven that seems intrinsically to break down the omnipresence of God to me: once I see Him, I will then also see the millions of others who clamor for His attention, and I cannot understand how I could possibly have the same unfiltered, unbroken, unrestrained access to Him there that I have here and now.

This uncertainty has been causing me to hesitate about Heaven; my fellowship with Him is the most precious thing to me, and I cannot let the smallest particle of it go without feeling a sense of immense loss. As the disciples could not possibly understand why it was expedient for Christ to depart from this world so the Comforter would come (Jn 16:5-7), I’ve been feeling similarly. How could it possibly be good for me to die and go to Heaven, where both Father and Son will appear so very far away, surrounded by millions of saints, from whom I’m essentially indistinguishable?

How it could be better I cannot actually fathom yet, but God says it is not just better, but far better to depart this world to be with Christ. (Php 1:23) To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2Co 5:8), and it is, in fact, evidently the kind of presence that makes what I have now much more like absence (2Co 5:6), more like blindness than sight. (2Co 5:7)

If from the vantage of Heaven I will consider what I had on Earth an absence from Jesus Christ, a blindness compared to how I am finally seeing, then this heavenly state must indeed be infinitely and indescribably precious. Now, I can align with Paul, and know a passion to depart this life to be so much more with God than I am now!

Meanwhile, it’s like I’m straining to see Him through darkly colored windows, but soon it will be face to face. (1Co 13:12) This hope I have as an anchor of my soul, both sure and steadfast, entering within the veil, the holiest place in the universe, where Jesus Christ abides (He 6:19-20), and I in Him.

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Few Find It

Christian Universalism is the teaching that all people will eventually be saved and enter Heaven. It sounds nice, the typical fairy tale happy ending, that we all live happily ever after, but is it true?

All people certainly would be saved if everyone earnestly and diligently sought salvation from God (1Ti 2:3-4), but even though all are invited to do so (Re 22:17), very few are willing to come, and none on their own initiative, apart from the drawing of God. (Jn 6:44)

Christ tells us to strive to enter Heaven, that many will seek to enter their own way but won’t be able to (Lk 13:24), that the way to Heaven is narrow, obscure, hidden, and that very few will find it. (Mt 7:14)

Further, Christ teaches that there are certain types and degrees of sin that are never forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. (Mt 12:32)

Since God is eternally merciful to those who repent and yield to Him (Is 55:7), it would appear that the problem with universalism isn’t that God is unloving or holds grudges, but that Man refuses to repent, even from the flames of Hell. If God waited for men to repent on their own accord, He’d wait forever. (Ps 81:15)

Man is incapable of transforming himself (Je 13:23); not even infernal torments convince the wicked that it’s reasonable to repent and seek God. (Pr 27:22) The only hope any of us have is the irresistible grace of God; God is able to work in the human heart according to His own will (Php 2:13), moving in us to seek Him and obey Him when this will glorify Himself.

It is perhaps a mystery why God does not choose us all; one must look to God’s purpose in Creation to find the answer. (Ro 9:22-23) Evidently, God will be the most glorified in the way He chooses (Ps 46:10), and this is enough for me.

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