Fun-Filled Eternity

One of the most mind-blowing things I’ve learned about Eternity is that the Heaven we know is a temporary place. 

Randy Alcorn in his book, Heaven, explains that there is a “difference between the present Heaven (where Christians go when they die) and the ultimate, eternal Heaven (where God will dwell with his people on the New Earth).” 

One passage he cites is Revelation 21:1; Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.  The new Jerusalem comes down to the new earth (Rev 21:2) and God lives here on earth with us (21:3), the way he was supposed to before that whole forbidden fruit fiasco in Genesis 3. 

What?  You thought the Bible says the earth will be destroyed?  Guess again!  For the meek to inherit the earth (Matt 5:5) there has to BE an earth.  God isn’t going to give decrepit, worthless piles of dirt to his beloved children.  The earth will be restored to what it was supposed to be.  God says he makes all things new (Rev 21:4), not that he makes all new things.  Think of it: if the earth is destroyed and a brand new one created, that means Satan wins.  It means the earth is too far gone to be restored.  That’s not the God I know.  No one and no thing are beyond his redemption and restoration.

I don’t know about you but that EXCITES ME!  It’s going to be SO FUN!  You want to talk about dreams coming true?  We will get to do all of the things we love to do, and we can’t get hurt!  That means I can play my drums with abandon.  I can write without frustration (maybe even without spell check).  I’m going to do some serious white-water kayaking, without a life-preserver.  Whoo-hoo!

So if you think Heaven will be a never-ending church service or playing harps while bouncing around on clouds you are sadly mistaken.  "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Cor 2:9)

Oh, and BONUS, there will be COFFEE!  (Heaven, p 207)  Can you imagine how amazing coffee, and everything else, will taste when it is as it was meant to be? 

I can’t wait, can you?