50 Things You Need to Know About Heaven , livre ebook

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ISBN 978-1-4412-6424-4
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To my wonderful wife, Cindy. You are my beautiful partner in life, and I love you. I owe so much to your wonderful wisdom and support.
To my two sons, J.R. and Chad. I love you too, and am so proud of you both.
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Dedication 5
Introduction 11
1. Who goes to heaven? 13
2. How good must a person be to get to heaven? 16
3. Do Christians go to heaven immediately after they die? 19
4. If people die without Christ, will they get a second chance to go to heaven? 22
5. Is heaven the same now as it will be in eternity? 24
6. Is Jesus in heaven right now? 26
7. What did Jesus mean by “mansions” in heaven? 29
8. Do people in heaven know what is happening on earth? 31
9. What does the Old Testament say about heaven? 33
10. What does the Bible mean by the “new earth”? 36
11. What will we do in heaven? 38
12. Will we have to work in heaven? 40
13. What will heaven look like? 43
14. Where is heaven? 45
15. Will animals be in heaven? 48
16. Does anything ever change in heaven? 51
17. Will we be bored in heaven? 53
18. Will we know our Christian friends and loved ones in heaven? 56
19. Are there marriages and families in heaven? 59
20. Will we remember our earthly life in heaven? 61
21. Is heaven a physical place? 63
22. What is the new Jerusalem? 65
23. Will we be singing and playing harps all the time in heaven? 69
24. Will there be time in eternity? 71
25. Will we see God in heaven? 74
26. What will it be like to worship God in heaven? 76
27. Will we have bodies in heaven? 78
28. Will we live with the angels in heaven? 81
29. What is the difference between reincarnation and resurrection? 83
30. Will everyone be alike in heaven? 85
31. Will there be any sin in heaven? 88
32. Will we eat and drink in heaven? 90
33. What does the Bible say about hell? 93
34. What do the words Sheol and Hades refer to? 96
35. Are the stories true about people going to heaven and returning? Are the stories of near-death experiences true? Have people come back from heaven? 98
36. Don’t other religions have a similar teaching to the Bible’s teaching about heaven? 100
37. Is anyone just annihilated at death? 103
38. Is there such a thing as soul sleep? 105
39. Do some people go to purgatory after death? 108
40. How can I explain heaven to my young children? 110
41. If I live in hope of heaven, won’t I neglect earthly needs around me? 112
42. What happens to those who are unable to believe in Jesus, like aborted babies, young children, or those who have a severe mental disability? 115
43. What should I do if I am afraid of death? 117
44. How can I be sure I’m going to heaven? 119
45. What is the great white throne judgment of Revelation 20? 122
46. What does the Bible call the “judgment seat of Christ”? 125
47. Will others in heaven know my secret sins on earth? 128
48. What are “heavenly crowns”? 130
49. Why will some believers rule with Christ over the new earth? 132
50. What can I do to prepare for eternity in heaven? 135
About the Author 139
Back Ad 140
Back Cover 141
Introduction
J ust scan the Internet. All the polls and surveys taken of Americans over the last ten years or so suggest that more than half of the U.S. population believe in the reality of heaven. This is true of polls taken in Canada and England as well. Heaven is very well-liked. It is universally thought to be a place of great happiness, with freedom from pain and sorrow. So who wouldn’t want to believe in heaven?
Our ideas of heaven are drawn from many different sources. Perhaps our ideas are taken from what others have said or from a book we have read. People may have thoughts about heaven influenced by TV and the Internet. The TV show Touched by an Angel , which ran from 1994–2003, gave us glimpses of how some thought angels from heaven interact with our lives. But how do we know whether any of these concepts about heaven are true?
This book is designed to be your guide to what the Bible says about heaven. The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books in three different original languages. It was written over a span of two thousand years by forty different authors from three different continents. There are an estimated six trillion Bibles in print today, and the Bible is just as relevant now as it was when the first Bibles were copied on papyrus. Perhaps its wisdom on heaven is worth the investigation. Join with me in the exploration of this fascinating subject.
1 Who goes to heaven?
A story is told of an angel who appeared to a man and granted him any single wish he desired. He thought for a long time, contemplating how he might use this fortunate event to gain a lifetime of wealth. He finally said, “Let me see tomorrow’s newspaper.” He imagined turning to the stock report and learning what stocks had gained a significant profit overnight. All he had to do was invest his life savings in those stocks and he would make a “killing.” The angel obliged, handing him the following day’s newspaper. As he turned the pages to find the stock market report, his eyes caught a glance of the obituaries. There was his name!
Few of us plan our days as if we are going to die tomorrow. We frequently joke about it, but we don’t take it seriously. Neither do we seriously consider what happens to us after death. We plan our retirement far more conscientiously than we do the “retirement” that follows our retirement. If we think about the afterlife at all, we assure ourselves that we are better than most others and deserve to be in heaven—if it exists.
I once sat on an airplane next to an older man with whom I struck up a conversation. Eventually our discussion led to spiritual things. “On a scale of 1 to 100,” I asked, “how sure are you that you are going to heaven?” With a certain confidence, he said, “Oh, 95 percent, I think.” It’s natural for us to place our confidence in our own goodness and rank ourselves as a viable candidate for heaven. After all, we think, there are so many other immoral, irreligious, and violent people around us, some even close friends. Compared to such less-than-admirable people, we come out ahead. God must “grade on a curve,” and that means I will be in heaven.
In conversations like the one I had with this older man, I rarely find anyone who is 100 percent confident about going to heaven. We would think that a 95 percent assurance—or better, a 99 percent assurance—is well worth the risk. But is it? Would you get on an airplane at Chicago’s O’Hare airport—most often ranked the busiest airport in the world—with that kind of risk? If there was a 99 percent chance that your plane would make it to its destination, and only a 1 percent chance it would crash and everyone on board would be killed, would you board that plane? Doe