Do Dogs and Animals go to Heaven? (Isaiah 11, 60 and 65)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, January 29, 2023

We have always had a love for animals, haven’t we?

I remember a Twilight Zone episode about a man and his dog.

Hyder Simpson is an elderly mountain man who lives with his wife Rachel and his hound dog Rip in the backwoods. Rachel does not like having the dog indoors, but Rip saved Hyder’s life once and Hyder refuses to part with him. Rachel has seen some bad omens recently and warns Hyder not to go raccoon hunting that night. When Rip dives into a pond after a raccoon, Hyder jumps in after him, but only the raccoon comes up out of the water. The next morning, Hyder and Rip wake up next to the pond. When they return home, Hyder finds that neither Rachel, the preacher, nor the neighbors can hear him or see him; they are under the impression that he has died.

Walking along the road, Hyder and Rip encounter an unfamiliar fence and begin to follow it. They come to a gate tended by a man, who Hyder initially believes to be Saint Peter. Explaining that he is only a gatekeeper, the man explains that Hyder can enter the Elysian Fields of the afterlife. Simpson is appreciative, but disheartened to hear that neither raccoon hunting nor any of his other usual pleasures can be found inside. Told that Rip cannot enter and will be taken elsewhere, Hyder angrily declines the offer of entry and decides to keep walking along the “Eternity Road,” saying, “Any place that’s too high-falutin’ for Rip is too fancy for me.”

Later, Hyder and Rip stop to rest and are met by a young man, who introduces himself as an angel dispatched to find them and bring them to Heaven. When Hyder explains his previous encounter, the angel tells him that the gate was actually the entrance to Hell. The gatekeeper had stopped Rip from entering because Rip would have smelled the brimstone inside and warned Hyder that something was wrong. The angel says, “You see, Mr. Simpson, a man, well, he’ll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the Devil can’t fool a dog!”

As the angel leads Hyder along the Eternity Road toward Heaven, the angel tells Hyder that a square dance and raccoon hunt are scheduled for that night. He also assures Hyder that Rachel, who will soon be coming along the road, will not be misled into entering Hell.

The closing narration is:

“Travelers to unknown regions would be well advised to take along the family dog. He could just save you from entering the wrong gate. At least, it happened that way once—in a mountainous area of the Twilight Zone.”

I wonder if our love for animals is because God created animals and He created animals as part of Eden.

Genesis 1:30 (ESV)

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

This passage references animals in the Garden of Eden and also references the “breath of life in them.” Animals were in paradise when God first created it prior to the fall of man. In the eternal Heaven, in Revelation 22 it seems that that Heaven reflects the first Garden of Eden. We will see a Tree of Life again in verse 2 as there was a tree of life in the first Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). We see a river in the eternal Heaven in Revelation 22:1. We see two rivers in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:10 and 13. It does seem that the eternal New Jerusalem Heaven is going to be like the Garden of Eden was meant to be, only much better. It would seem that since animals were in the first garden they will be with us in eternity. Let’s talk about this for a moment.

My Theme today:

Animals were created by God as part of paradise and that will continue into the new creation.

I hope this is encouraging for you.

1. Let’s start by talking about souls. Do animals have souls?
   1. Let me lay my cards on the table. I like animals, I really do. I really like pigs because they give us bacon. I like chicken because they give us eggs. I like a good steak as well. In seriousness, I love to hear the birds in the morning. I love to watch deer. I grew up with tropical fish and I have had aquariums as large as 135 gallons. While serving my last church I had a 55-gallon aquarium in my office with African Cichlids. Even with all of that, as I began this research I was reluctant to think that our pets are in heaven. On that note, let’s continue with this message.
   2. When God breathed a spirit into Adam’s body, made from the earth, Adam became nephesh, a “living being” or “soul” (Genesis 2:7).
   3. Randy Alcorn shares: Remarkably, the same Hebrew word, nephesh, is used for animals and for people. We are specifically told that not only people, but animals have “the breath of life” in them (Genesis 1:30; 2:7; 6:17; 7:15, 22). God hand-made animals, linking them both to the earth and humanity.
   4. Am I suggesting animals have souls? Certainly they do not have human souls. Animals aren’t created in God’s image, and they aren’t equal to humans in any sense. Nonetheless, there’s a strong biblical case for animals having non-human souls. I didn’t take this seriously until I studied the usage of the Hebrew and Greek words nephesh and psyche, often translated “soul” when referring to humans. (Nephesh is translated psyche in the Septuagint.) The fact that these words are often used of animals is compelling evidence that they have non-human souls. That’s what most Christians in the past believed. In their book Beyond Death, Gary Habermas and J. P. Moreland point out, “It wasn’t until the advent of seventeenth-century Enlightenment . . . that the existence of animal souls was even questioned in Western civilization. Throughout the history of the church, the classic understanding of living things has included the doctrine that animals, as well as humans, have souls.”^[1]
   5. So, it seems that they do have some sort of a soul.
2. How will people and animals relate?
   1. It seems that we will relate similarly to the way we were to relate in the Garden of Eden.
   2. Randy Alcorn shares: God created us to be stewards of animals. He holds us accountable for how we treat them. “The godly are concerned for the welfare of their animals” (Proverbs 12: 10, NLT). We are caretakers for the animals, but they belong to God, not us: “For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. Every bird of the mountains and all the animals of the field belong to me” (Psalm 50: 10-11, NLT). Some people regard emotional attachment to animals as a modern development. But many cultures’ historical records demonstrate otherwise. The prophet Nathan spoke to King David of the poor man who had a little lamb “who shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him” (2   Samuel 12: 3). There’s no suggestion this man’s affection for his pet was inappropriate. David, unaware the story was told to expose his own sin, angrily responded that the man who stole the precious pet deserved to die. We needn’t speculate how God might populate a perfect Earth. He populated Eden with animals, under the rule of people. God doesn’t make mistakes.

• Will animals praise God:
  1. This is new to me. I never thought of animals praising God.
  2. Consider the psalms. Psalm 148 commands all of creation to praise the Lord, including the animals: Psalm 148:10–12 (ESV)

¹⁰Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!

¹¹Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!

¹²Young men and maidens together, old men and children!

1. If in some sense fallen animals, shadows of what they once were, can praise God on this fallen Earth, how much more should we expect them to do so on the New Earth? “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6)
2. We’re told eight times in Revelation of “living creatures” in the present Heaven: “Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’.  .  . The living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne” (Revelation 4: 8-9).
3. Randy Alcorn writes about this: The word translated “living creatures” is zoon. Throughout most of the New Testament the word is translated “animal” and is used to indicate animals sacrificed in the Temple and wild, irrational animals (Hebrews 13:11; 2 Peter 2:12; Jude 1:10). In the Old Testament, the Septuagint used zoon to translate the Hebrew words for animals, including the “living creatures” of the sea (Genesis 1:21; Ezekiel 47:9). In extrabiblical writings, zoon commonly referred to ordinary animals and was used of the Egyptians’ divine animals and the mythological bird called the Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2-3). In virtually every case inside and outside of Scripture, this word means not a person, not an angel, but an animal.^[2]
4. In the book “Heaven” Alcorn gets into greater detail. It is amazing to think that animals will praise God alongside us.
5. It could even be possible that in a restored creation animals can talk.

• Will animals be resurrected?
  1. I can get into greater detail about animals and pets, but we will stop with this part.
  2. Psalm 104 is all about animals and then we get to verse 30 and it references renewing them. This seems to mean that they are resurrected in Heaven.
  3. It seems that it glorified God more by restoring than recreating. When God makes things right in eternity it is as if God is saying, “I can show you things can be redeemed.” God will redeem all things.
  4. If animals are resurrected this means your pet may be in Heaven as well.
  5. However, this is the part of today’s message I am least confident in.
  6. I am confident that animals will be in heaven, that is clear from Scripture, but I am not as confident that they are resurrected animals.
• A few thoughts:
  1. Heaven will be awesome with or without your pet.
  2. Heaven will be with God in paradise.
  3. Secondly: DON’T discourage people from grieving the loss of an animal. That is appropriate. God created animals for us, and we are sad when they leave us.
  4. I believe the Bible teaches us not to abuse animals. We are to take care of them.
  5. Romans 8 teaches us that all creation is waiting redemption, and this includes animals.
  6. In many of his writings, C. S. Lewis commented on the future of animals. He said, “It seems to me possible that certain animals may have an immortality, not in   themselves, but in the immortality of their masters.  .  .  . Very few animals indeed, in their wild state, attain to a ‘self’ or ego. But if any do, and if it is agreeable to the goodness of God that they should live again, their immortality would also be related to man— not, this time, to individual masters, but to humanity.” In The Great Divorce, Lewis portrayed Sarah Smith, a woman ordinary on Earth, as great in Heaven. On Earth she loved both people and animals. In Heaven she’s surrounded by the very animals she cared for on Earth.
  7. In her excellent book about Heaven, Joni Eareckson Tada says, “If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn’t surprise me. It would be just like Him. It would be totally in keeping with His generous character.  .  .  . Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing Scrappy would be pure whimsy— utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous.  .  .  . Heaven is going to be a place that will refract and reflect in as many ways as possible the goodness and joy of our great God, who delights in lavishing love on His children.”[3]
  8. Heaven will be more amazing than anything we can imagine. Look forward to Heaven.
  9. Now, the greatest of applications, this series is about heaven and heaven is possible for us because of Jesus’ shed blood on the cross.
  10. Whenever we talk about heaven, we must put this in the context of creation-fall-redemption-restoration. Currently, we live in a fallen world. We suffer because of the fall, because of depravity. Animals also suffer because of the fall. However, Jesus redeemed us and so we are looking forward for restoration. Someday God will make everything right. This does include animal life. It may or may not be your pets, but it will include animals without suffering. This is all because of God’s grace.
  11. God freely gifts us salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection. That separates Christianity from the other religions. Other religions are about our good works earning us heaven, or a better reincarnation, but Christianity is about what Jesus has done to gift us life in paradise.
  12. The question is will you be in heaven.
  13. 2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV)
  14. ⁵Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Do you know Christ?

Luke 9:23

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

^[1] Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2011).

^[2] Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2011).

[3] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 7430-7439). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

A cleric found himself wondering whether there were any golf courses in Heaven. He even began to ask the question in his prayers. One day, in answer to his prayers, he received a direct answer from on high. 

“Yes,” said the Heavenly messenger, “There are many excellent golf courses in Heaven. The greens are always in first class condition, the weather is always perfect and you always get to play with the very nicest people.”

“Oh, thank you,” said the cleric, “That really is marvellous news.”

“Yes, isn’t it?” replied the messenger, “And we’ve got you down for a foursome next Saturday.”[1]

 A few years I was running with Mercedes, and we had an interesting conversation. Actually, we have had many philosophical conversations as we run. So, a few years ago she asked me if we will have to go to the bathroom in Heaven. I don’t have a good answer to that, though I understand the question. She was five at the time, she is now eleven, and one of the major stressors of a five-year-old is to make sure she makes it to the bathroom in time. I remember being a child and thinking about how in Heaven I hope that we can have peanut-butter pie. I remember thinking that we could eat as much as we want without getting sick. Some of those thoughts have worn off as I’ve aged. Why don’t we think like children about Heaven anymore? Why can’t we use our imagination?

A common misconception about eternity surfaced in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. A member of the undying “Q continuum” longs for an end to his existence. Why? Because, he complains, everything that could be said and done has already been said and done, and now there’s only repetition and utter boredom. He says, “For us, the disease is immortality.” Finally he’s allowed to end his existence.[2]

Can Christians have fun? Why not?

Is Heaven to be boring?

Theme: Heaven will not be boring, Heaven will be fun. Heaven will have all the blessings of this life without the hardships, pain, and suffering. Heaven will be with Jesus.

WHAT WILL WE DO?

We will worship the triune God.

We will rule and administrate.

We will have different positions of authority.

We may rebuild cities.

We may build homes.

Some will compose and write music.

Some will play musical instruments.

We will serve.

Some will farm.

Some will cultivate orchards.[3]

1. It seems that the New Heavens and New Earth will be a reflection of how earth was to be before the fall.
   1. Things God created that have been distorted by sin will be made right and perfect.
   2. We live in a fallen world, but I believe the Bible shows that Heaven will be as God intended the Garden of Eden to be before sin entered the world.
   3. We can read Revelation 21 and 22 and see the comparisons with the Garden of Eden. In the eternal Heaven, in Revelation 22 it seems that that Heaven reflects the first Garden of Eden. We will see a Tree of Life again in verse 2 as there was a tree of life in the first Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). We see a river in the eternal Heaven in Revelation 22:1. We see two rivers in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:10 and 13. It does seem that the eternal New Jerusalem Heaven is going to be like the Garden of Eden was meant to be, only much better.
   4. We have purpose now and we will have purpose for all eternity.
   5. Just think for a moment about your best moments on earth. Think about your most exciting times.
   6. Think about how you felt when you first found out you were going to be a dad or a mom. Think about how you felt when you were first engaged or newly married. Think about the joy, comfort, and excitement on a vacation. Just think about how excited you were to get a new job or do a certain job. Just think for a moment about how much you love a certain hobby. Now imagine that joy, those feelings, that excitement going for all eternity. Imagine for all eternity doing what you love to do, but without being tired, without sickness or pain. I wouldn’t limit eternity though. You may get bored fishing for all eternity, but why would you do the same thing? What if you fished for a while and then played golf and then accomplished a task? It does seem that we will have purpose.
   7. Look with me at Isaiah 65:17–25 (ESV)

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷   “For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth,

     and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

¹⁸   But be glad and rejoice forever

in that which I create;

     for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,

and her people to be a gladness.

¹⁹   I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and be glad in my people;

     no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

²⁰   No more shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

     for the young man shall die a hundred years old,

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

²¹   They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²²   They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

     for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³   They shall not labor in vain

or bear children for calamity,

     for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,

and their descendants with them.

²⁴   Before they call I will answer;

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

²⁵   The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;

the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

     They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain,”

says the Lord.

1. Isa 65:17: God is going to create a new heavens and a new earth.
2. Former things shall not be remembered or come to mind… This is likely just an expression. This does not mean we will not have any memory. We will talk about that on another Sunday.
3. Verse 18 references Jerusalem.
4. Verse 19 talks about God rejoicing in Jerusalem and God being glad with His people. There will not be any more weeping. Verse 20 is interesting. On one hand it is saying there will be infants, but people will live very long. An infant will not only live a few days. Even the person who dies at 100 will be thought accursed… Why is there death? This is because this passage seems to be blending the Millennial Reign with the eternal New Heavens and new earth. This is called a merism which is blending the New Heavens and Millennial Reign together. This is a figure of speech taking two extremes like I searched night and day.
5. So, we can conclude that Isaiah is writing about both. The Millennial reign and the New Heavens and New Earth. They are both a renovated state.
6. Isa 65:21-22 references houses and inhabiting, as well as vineyards and eating of the fruit.
7. Isa 65:23 references labor and bearing of children.
8. Mixing Isaiah 65 with Revelation 22 shows the details of a city and a garden alongside the details of a vineyard.
9. Isaiah is called the fifth gospel. Isaiah prophesied about the future of Israel and he prophesied destruction, but then in Isaiah 42; Isaiah 49; Isaiah 50; Isaiah 52:13-53:12 we have the four servant songs. These are all about the Messiah. We see the suffering Jesus would go through. Then Isaiah chapters 56-66 are prophesies about the future times until the end. Isaiah 65 even anticipates the spread of the Gospel in Acts. Then, this passage. This passage looks to Heaven.
10. Why? Because of the Suffering Servant. This is still all about Jesus.
11. When we talk about Heaven, this is all about Jesus.
12. Randy Alcorn writes: Isaiah 65:21 suggests that we’ll build houses and live in them on the New Earth. If so, we’ll no doubt decorate them beautifully. Buildings on the scale of the New Jerusalem reflect extensive cultural advancement. Human builders will learn from God’s design, just as Leonardo da Vinci learned by studying the form and flight of birds while working on his flying machine. What will clear-thinking human beings— unhindered by sin and the barriers that separate us— be able to design and build? What would Galileo, da Vinci, Edison, or Einstein achieve if they could live even a thousand years unhindered by the Curse? What will we achieve when we have resurrected bodies with resurrected minds, working together forever?[4]
13. It is quite likely people will continue to compose music, write stories, discover things.
14. Suppose people continue to explore, but now they can explore all these new oceans. Suppose people can explore outer space and go even further than ever before.
15. A major point to be made is that we will have resurrected-perfect bodies. In 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapter on the resurrection, Paul writes about our resurrected bodies. I don’t know if we will be able to, but Jesus was able to walk through walls (John 20:19), Jesus was not limited by gravity (Acts 1:9). That could be because Jesus is God, but who is to say that our resurrected bodies will not have more capabilities than we have now.
16. The Bible does NOT give any indication of a disembodied boring state. No, on the contrary, the Bible shows an embodied existence in a real place of activity.
17. We will also be with all of the believers who have gone on before us, and they will NOT be boring.
18. Hebrews 12:22–24 (ESV) ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³ and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
19. David Jeremiah writes quoting Jonathon Edwards: As the famous American theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote, “No inhabitants of that blessed world will ever be grieved with the thought that they are slighted by those that they love. Or that their love is not fully and fondly returned …. There shall be no such things as flattery or insincerity in Heaven, but there, perfect sincerity will reign through all in all. Everyone will be just what he seems to be and will really have all the love he seems to have. It will not be as it is in this earth where comparatively few things are what they seem to be and where professions are often made lightly and without meaning. But there, every expression expression of love shall come from the bottom of the heart, and all that is professed shall be really and truly felt.”[5]
20. The greatest reason heaven will NOT be boring is because we will be with Jesus. Revelation 21:3. Jesus is NOT boring.

• Psalm 16:11 (ESV)
• ¹¹  You make known to me the path of life;

• in your presence there is fullness of joy;
• at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

1. Let’s apply this.
   1. Look with me at Revelation 14:13: And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
   2. Did you notice that? Their deeds will follow them. What we do on earth will follow us, so it is best that we store up treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-20).
   3. Hebrews 6:10 tells us that God will not forget the good things we do.
   4. We can look forward to Heaven. Heaven will be greater than anything we can imagine.
   5. We can share the Gospel knowing that we are inviting others to paradise.
   6. We can also know that if we have extra suffering here and now, we won’t have that for eternity.
   7. Some of us would love to do certain things, but can’t because of health. You can do all that and more in Heaven. If you can’t go fishing anymore, you can in Heaven. If you can’t run anymore, you will be able to in Heaven. If you can’t play golf anymore, you can in Heaven. If you can’t read anymore, or travel, or hear, in Heaven these things will be restored. In Heaven you will be able to be active without pain. In Heaven you will be able to have energy which you cannot imagine now.
   8. I am amazed by the energy of children. They can move so fast! I am amazed at my young age how sore I can feel in the morning. I cannot imagine life without having to think about energy levels, but in Heaven this will be fixed.
   9. However, our experience in Heaven is determined by our faithfulness to Christ now.
   10. Remember we are saved by grace, but we will have rewards for faithfully serving Jesus.
   11. So, just like how in this life the mistakes we make now catch up to us later, it is true for all eternity. Serve Jesus faithfully now and you will have more opportunities to serve Him forever.
   12. This whole message, this whole series is contingent on us knowing Christ.
   13. We must know Him. God came to earth and took on flesh. He lived the life we could not live and died the death we could not die. He did this for His glory, and He did this to welcome us into Heaven. These passages are all about Jesus.
   14. We talk about what we do in heaven, but what is most important is that we are with Jesus.
   15. Are we living with Jesus now?

Close:

I love C. S. Lewis’s profound perspective in his book Mere Christianity, when he writes,

The Christian says, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.”[6]

We are created for eternity. We are created for Heaven and it will not be boring.

Heaven will not be boring; Heaven will be fun. Heaven will have all the blessings of this life without the hardships, pain and suffering. Heaven will be with Jesus.

Do you know Christ?

Luke 9:23

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

[1] http://jokes.christiansunite.com/Heaven/Golf_in_Heaven.shtml

[2] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 7599-7602). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[3] Enns, Paul P. (2011-03-01). Heaven Revealed: What Is It Like? What Will We Do?… And 11 Other Things You’ve Wondered About (p. 153). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[4] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 7599-7602). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[5] Jeremiah, David. Revealing the Mysteries of Heaven (pp. 70-71). Turning Point. Kindle Edition.

[6] Ingram, Chip; Witt, Lance (2016-02-23). The Real Heaven: What the Bible Actually Says (Kindle Locations 1380-1388). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Where are They Now (present Heaven versus future Heaven)? (Deut. 26:15: Heaven is where God resides; Revelation 21; Phil. 1:23; Luke 16:19-31; Rev. 6:9-11)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, January 15, 2023

Today, I want to talk about the present Heaven versus the eternal Heaven.

Jonathan Edwards, the great Puritan preacher, often spoke of Heaven. He said, “It becomes us to spend this life only as a journey toward heaven . .  . to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end and true happiness?”[1]

So, let’s look at Heaven.

It is really difficult to talk about Heaven without looking up a lot of passages, but for flow I only want you to have to turn to one passage. In Revelation 6:9-11 we see a scene of martyrs interceding in Heaven. This is a scene in Heaven, and we can draw some conclusions from it.

Today, my theme is to teach on the present heaven versus future heaven with a goal to help us meditate on our eternal home.

Revelation 6:9–11 (ESV)

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. ¹⁰ They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

1. Context of Revelation 6:9-11
   1. In a minute, we will draw applications from Rev. 6:9-11.
   2. This passage is the last book of the Bible and there is a lot going on here. There are differing views of Revelation. But let’s put this in the narrative of the Bible.
   3. In Genesis 1-2 everything was created good.
   4. In Genesis 3 sin entered the world. Ever since sin entered the world things have been fallen, depraved, messed up.
   5. So, that is the state we were left with all through the Old Testament.
   6. Then Jesus came and He died on the cross for our sins and rose again. That is the New Testament.
   7. Now, we are in the end of the Bible and also the future consummation of all things.
   8. Rev. 6 takes place during the tribulation period and that is the period when God is pouring out judgment on all the world.
   9. The tribulation period will be followed by the Millennial Reign and then the New Jerusalem which will be the new heavens and the new earth.
2. Now let’s differentiate between the two Heavens.
   1. We find in Scripture that the future Heaven is not until the end of the Bible. In Revelation 21 we find the reference to the future Heaven and that is the new Jerusalem. We find other references throughout the Bible to the New Jerusalem and that is the eternal Heaven.
   2. We also find through the Bible references to the millennial reign. We find this in Rev. 20:2-6 as well as Old Testament passages. This is not the New Jerusalem, nor is it the current Heaven.
   3. When we think of passages concerning the resurrection of the body, that will be for the new Jerusalem and maybe the millennial reign. When we think of passages about Jesus wiping every tear from our eyes and no more crying, etc (Rev. 21) that is the New Jerusalem. A lot of what we will talk about in the coming weeks will concern the New Jerusalem and eternal Heaven, so today I want to talk more specifically about the current Heaven.
3. For the rest of the message, I want to draw on 5 encouraging applications about the current Heaven. I will substantiate these applications from the Rev. 6:9-11 passage and a few others.

1. We can be encouraged that we go straight to Heaven when we die (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23).
   1. Heaven is where God resides, and we will go straight to Heaven. We can know that we go to be with God because those saints are with God, and they are interceding for others.
   2. We also know in Luke 23:43 Jesus told the thief that that very day he would join Jesus in paradise.
   3. In 2 Cor. 5:8 Paul wrote about being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
   4. In Phil. 1:23 Paul also wrote about departing and joining Jesus.
   5. We go to be with God in Heaven when we die.
   6. Now, where is Heaven? Scientists at Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, among others, postulate that there are ten unobservable dimensions and likely an infinite number of imperceptible universes.[2]
   7. I find that fascinating. Heaven is in a realm that we are imperceptible to, but God is there.
   8. We see it happen in Scripture, such as 2 Kings 6:17 when Elisha’s servant’s eyes are opened in order to see God’s angels all around him.
2. We can be encouraged that we will have consciousness in the immediate Heaven (1 Samuel 28:16-19; Luke 9:31; 16:19-31; Rev. 6:9-11).
   1. We see in Scripture that we will be conscious. If we simply think about this passage in Revelation, they are conscious and they are actually interceding for the persecuted church.
   2. We also see consciousness in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.
3. We can be encouraged that we will have contact with those who have gone before us (Luke 16:19-31; Rev. 6:9-11: they worship, not one merged identity.
4. In the Rev. 6:9-11 passage they are worshipping together. We see the people together again in Rev. 7:9-10.
   1. We see a group of people together.
   2. There is no reason to think that when people die they are not reunited with their loved ones as well.
   3. By the way, these Scriptural examples are specific cases, it seems that Heaven is far greater than anything we can think or imagine.
   4. Worshipping Jesus is exciting, standing before His throne, but Heaven will be more than worship.
   5. Heaven will be fellowship; we see that indicated in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.
   6. Paul desired Heaven more than earth so it must be greater than we can think of.
   7. In 2 Cor. 12 Paul wrote of some type of near-death experience and said that he saw things that he was not permitted to speak of. He also did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body.
   8. Now, is a good time for me to also say that it seems that the immediate Heaven is physical, not purely spiritual.
   9. Listen, the physical body is not bad, it is good. It is Christoplatonism to think that it is bad. Remember I shared that last Sunday. Greek philosophy, Platonism, impacted Christianity to think the physical is bad, but it isn’t.
   10. These descriptions in Rev. 6:9-11 and in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus give physical descriptions. They had voices to cry out. They were wearing white robes.
   11. “The rich man and Lazarus are depicted as having physical forms. The rich man had a tongue and a thirst that he wished to satisfy with water. Lazarus had a finger, and there was water available to him in Paradise, into which he might dip his finger. Of course, these references may be entirely figurative. But they might also suggest the possession of transitional physical forms, existing in a physical Paradise, to sustain and manifest human identity between death and resurrection.”[3]
   12. These bodies and this physical realm are still different than the New Jerusalem and the bodies are not our resurrected bodies, they may be temporary bodies, but it does seem physical.
   13. The physical can go in and out of the spiritual. We see that all throughout the Bible when God interacts with humanity. Of course, God is spiritual (John 4:24), but the angels are physical and they interact with our realm (Hebrews 13:2; Genesis 18; the Lord’s appearance to Abraham; Genesis 19 the angels visiting Lot).
   14. We also know that God is unchanging, that does not mean that Heaven is unchanging. God can change Heaven as He sees fit. This means Heaven can be a certain way now, but then transition when the New Jerusalem comes down from earth.
5. We can be encouraged that in Heaven we will have a memory of life on earth, otherwise we would be a different person. (Luke 16:19-31).
   1. In the passage in Luke 16:19-31 the rich man and Lazarus had memories of their life on earth.
   2. I like how Randy Alcorn points out that without our memories we would be different people.
   3. Also, in 1 Samuel 28:16-19, Saul wrongfully tries to bring up the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel and Samuel remembered Saul and really was alert to what was going on.
6. We can be encouraged that it is likely our past family members and friends are interceding for us now (Rev. 6:9-11).
   1. We see this in Rev. 6:9-11. They are interceding for the Christians on earth.
   2. Actually, their intercession is more valuable than our prayers because they are with Jesus and so they are righteous. James tells us that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, and they are righteous or they wouldn’t be in Heaven (James 5:16).
   3. This means they are interceding for us, but that does not mean we should pray to them. We can pray straight to Jesus, why pray to anyone other than Jesus Who is Lord and God (Hebrews 4:14-16).
   4. Just imagine that your friends and family are in Heaven interceding for you, isn’t that amazing?

Conclusion:

So, we go straight to Heaven and then eventually to the New Jerusalem.

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.

As you fly toward Santa Barbara, you stop at the Dallas airport for a layover. Other family members you haven’t seen in years meet you. They will board the plane with you to Santa Barbara. Naturally you look forward to seeing them in Dallas, your first stop.

But if someone asks where you’re going, would you say “Dallas”? No. You would say Santa Barbara, because that’s your final destination. Dallas is just a temporary stop. At most you might say “I’m going to Santa Barbara, with a brief stop in Dallas.”[4] Similarly, the Heaven we will go to when we die, the present Heaven, is a temporary dwelling place, a stop along the way to our final destination: the New Earth. Another analogy is more precise but difficult to imagine, because for most of us it’s outside our experience. Imagine leaving the homeless shelter in Miami and flying to the intermediate location, Dallas, and then turning around and going back home to your place of origin, which has been completely renovated— a New Miami. In this New Miami, you would no longer live in a homeless shelter, but in a beautiful house in a glorious pollution-free, crime-free, sin-free city. So you would end up living not in a different home, but in a radically improved version of your old home. This is what the Bible promises us— we will live with Christ and each other forever, not in the intermediate, or present, Heaven, but on the New Earth, where God will be at home with his people.[5]

This heaven is all possible because of Jesus.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

[1] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 352-354). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[2] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 997-1005). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[3] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 1443-1447). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[4] http://www.epm.org/blog/2015/Apr/22/present-heaven-future-heaven

[5] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 978-981). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Heaven is for Real and you were Created for It!  (2 Cor. 5:6, 8; 2 Tim. 4:8)

Prepared and preached for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, January 8, 2023

Years ago, I moved to a different city from Cincinnati, though I am originally from Dayton. One day I walked in a barber shop, it was a small barber shop that a local recommended, but when I walked in, I felt like I stood out like a Steelers fan in the Dawg Pound. I saw a few guys shootin’ the breeze there and one of them asked me, “You’re not from around here, are you?” I said where I was from and they made me welcome, but I will never forget walking in there. The realization hit, “No, I am new in town.” It has only been 16 years since I lived in the Dayton area, but everything has changed. Sometimes I like to go to the website of the school I graduated from or check it out on Facebook because it has all changed. Nothing, absolutely nothing, stays the same. In 2015, they tore down my high school and built another one. I attended the same school district from kindergarten through twelfth grade and it is all different. I like to think back; I think I do that more as my daughters get older. I think about what it was like when I was eleven and what my dad was doing, though my dad was younger than I am now when I was that age. Everything changes. So, having moved just less than four hours from home, I am amazed at people who move overseas. I am amazed at people who left Germany, or Ireland in the late 19^th century to begin a new life in the states. Where are you from? Do you long to think back to the area you came from? Or, maybe you long to think back to a different age? Are you longing for something, or somewhere, or sometime?

We may long for a place, a time, or something else, but what we are really longing for is Heaven. God created us for Heaven.

I have homework for you. Today, I begin a sermon series on Heaven. I would like to ask you to think about your questions about heaven and submit the questions that you have. If they are not covered, I will try to cover them on the last sermon in the series. You can write them down and give them to me, or you can email the office at bethel2771@gmail.com.

Theme:

My theme is simple: Heaven is real, and you were created for it.

My application is hopefully encouraging: Long for Heaven, Heaven is paradise.

1. Heaven is real and you were created for it:
   1. Randy Alcorn: Heaven:
   2. The sense that we will live forever somewhere has shaped every civilization in human history. Australian aborigines pictured Heaven as a distant island beyond the western horizon. The early Finns thought it was an island in the faraway east. Mexicans, Peruvians, and Polynesians believed that they went to the sun or the moon after death. Native Americans believed that in the afterlife their spirits would hunt the spirits of buffalo. The Gilgamesh epic, an ancient Babylonian legend, refers to a resting place of heroes and hints at a tree of life. In the pyramids of Egypt, the embalmed bodies had maps placed beside them as guides to the future world. The Romans believed that the righteous would picnic in the Elysian fields while their horses grazed nearby. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said, “The day thou fearest as the last is the birthday of eternity.” Although these depictions of the afterlife differ, the unifying testimony of the human heart throughout history is belief in life after death. Anthropological evidence suggests that every culture has a God-given, innate sense of the eternal— that this world is not all there is.[1]
   3. The Roman catacombs, where the bodies of many martyred Christians were buried, contain tombs with inscriptions such as these:              
   4. In Christ, Alexander is not dead, but lives.                
   5. One who lives with God.                
   6. He was taken up into his eternal home.
   7. One historian writes, “Pictures on the catacomb walls portray Heaven with beautiful landscapes, children playing, and people feasting at banquets.”
   8. In AD 125, a Greek named Aristides wrote to a friend about Christianity, explaining why this “new religion” was so successful: “If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.”
   9. In the third century, the church father Cyprian said, “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.”[2]
   10. Our native land is not here, nor is it overseas. Our native land is Heaven. We were created for it.
   11. S. Lewis wrote: If our deepest desires cannot be satisfied in this world, then we must have been made for another world.” He pondered this and other truths, which led him to Christ.
   12. But, today we do not long for heaven do we?
   13. There’s cartoonist G. Larson’s “Far Side” which shows a guy strumming a harp on a cloud in heaven saying: “Wish I’d have brought a magazine.”
   14. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain portrays a similar view of Heaven. The Christian spinster Miss Watson takes a dim view of Huck’s fun-loving spirit. According to Huck, “She went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn’t think much of it. . . . I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said, not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.”
   15. The pious Miss Watson had nothing to say about Heaven that appealed to Huck. (And nothing, if we’re honest, that appeals to us.) What would have attracted him was a place where he could do meaningful and pleasurable things with enjoyable people. In fact, that’s a far more accurate depiction of what Heaven will actually be like. If Miss Watson had told Huck what the Bible says about living in a resurrected body and being with people we love on a resurrected Earth with gardens and rivers and mountains and untold adventures—now that would have gotten his attention!
   16. When it came to Heaven and Hell, Mark Twain never quite got it. Under the weight of age, he said in his autobiography, “The burden of pain, care, misery grows heavier year by year. At length ambition is dead, pride is dead, vanity is dead, longing for release is in their place. It comes at last—the only unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them—and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence; where they achieved nothing; where they were a mistake and a failure and a foolishness.”
   17. What a contrast to the perspective that Charles Spurgeon, his contemporary, had on death: “To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes.”^[3]
   18. Part of the problem is that we have an inaccurate view of Heaven. Let’s begin to change that.
2. Heaven is a place
   1. I am beginning a series on Heaven, so I don’t want to spoil the series today, instead I just wish to set up the series.
   2. I will talk about several passages, and you can look them up at home.
   3. Sometimes we think things in Heaven are only spiritual. This is not true.
   4. If things in Heaven are only spiritual then why does God use so many material objects to illustrate what we’ll have in Heaven, like “house, dwelling, clothed, rooms (Jn. 14), white robes (Rev. 6:10-11), rivers, gardens, and the tree of life in Heaven. Both Rev. 2:7 and 22:2 refers to the SAME Tree of Life that was physical in the Garden of Eden in (Gen. 2:9).[4]
   5. Randy Alcorn writes: Christoplatonism: Plato was “the first Western philosopher to claim that reality is fundamentally something ideal or abstract.” “For Plato . .  . the body is a hindrance, as it opposes and even imprisons the soul (Phaedo 65– 68; 91– 94).”
   6. But according to Scripture, our bodies aren’t just shells for our spirits to inhabit; they’re a good and essential aspect of our being. Likewise, the earth is not a second-rate location from which we must be delivered. Rather, it was handmade by God for us. Earth, not some incorporeal state, is God’s choice as mankind’s original and ultimate dwelling place.
   7. To distinguish the version of Platonism seen among Christians from secular forms of Platonism, I’ve [Randy Alcorn] coined the term Christoplatonism. This philosophy has blended elements of Platonism with Christianity, and in so doing has poisoned Christianity and blunted its distinct differences from Eastern religions. Because appeals to Christoplatonism appear to take the spiritual high ground, attempts to refute this false philosophy often appear to be materialistic, hedonistic, or worldly.[5]
   8. But Heaven is a real place. Jesus reminded His disciples to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9).
   9. In the Bible it will refer to multiple heavens: 1) the atmosphere, the universe and where God resides.
   10. There are many scriptures on heaven, but consider just a few. Look at these Scriptures:

Psalm 2:4

The One enthroned in heaven laughs…

2 Cor. 12:4:

I was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

2 Cor. 5:6, 8:

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

2 Tim. 4:8:

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

1. Heaven is a destination,
2. It will not be boring,
3. It is paradise.

• Significance of Heaven
  1. Have you lost loved ones, you’ll see them again if they were in Christ.
  2. Are you having trouble walking or maybe you cannot walk, you will have a perfect body someday.
  3. Maybe your eyesight is failing, you will have renewed vision.
  4. Maybe your memory is struggling, you will know more and remember again (1 Cor. 13:9-13).
  5. Maybe you are watching a loved one suffer through something, know that this is not how God intended it. This is because of our sin-filled world. Your loved one will live again without these sufferings.
  6. Do you have trouble getting up and facing each day? Do you experience pain constantly? This will end and you will have a perfect body.
  7. Do you experience depression or mental illness? In Heaven this will be gone.
  8. Do you have a loved one that you cannot talk with because of Autism or something else? You will have conversations with that loved one in Heaven.
  9. Jesus reminded His disciples to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9).
  10. Have you ever been at a family reunion, and you wanted to see and talk to so many people, but there just wasn’t time? There will be in Heaven. And you will be able to talk to Jesus, and Moses, and Elijah and all these other people.
  11. Do you want to see your parents again? Your grandparents?
  12. In Christ Alone: No guilt in life, no fear in death…

 A few years ago, a family of five died in a car accident. They were young parents, 29 years old, with three children. They were soon going to Japan as missionaries. The youngest was 2 months old. Their car was hit from behind by a semi and they died at the scene, all of them. That broke my heart. But upon further reflection, this is cause for praise. They all went to Jesus together. They could have experienced 80 years of suffering in this life, but instead they are in Jesus’ presence. They are in Heaven.

What are you longing for?

When Meagan was pregnant, both times, we longed for the day of our daughter’s birth.

But you know what we all, all of us as humans long for? We long for Heaven. We try to duplicate Heaven in our homes, malls, amusement parks, vacation destinations. We desire Heaven because we were created for Heaven.

Prayer

[1] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 265-274). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid, Kindle Locations 287-288.

^[3] Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2011).

[4] Ibid.

[5] Alcorn, Randy (2011-12-08). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 8723-8724). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.