From the category archives:

Heaven

Do You Believe a New Earth is Coming?

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The Christian scriptures tell us history will come to an end. It is not clear why believing this gets as much bad press as it does. But, maybe it has to do with some alarmist descriptions of the way things are today, and how this must be a sign that we are near the end.
It [...]

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Is It Easier to Wait For Something If You Know It Is Coming?

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With this question, I am thinking about the Christian faith in particular. I mean, God has given us some promises and we know we can trust these promises. So, if we have faith that God will fulfill his promises, then we should be well-equipped to endure whatever comes our way as we wait.
If we [...]

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Why Do We Hope in Heaven in the First Place?

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All people operate with some idea of heaven. Or rather, the idea floats through all human minds at some point. Not that it necessarily settles and grows into a solid hope of anything special. But it comes through. I wonder why that is.
Is it because we are naturally hard-wired to hope in heaven? Or, is [...]

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What If There Is No Romance in Heaven?

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When I look at Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting, The Blessed Damozel, it strikes me as a very real possibility that heaven could involve a certain kind of loneliness. Think about Romeo and Juliet. Even in heaven, they could find it a lonely place if it did not involve having each other.
We want to think that [...]

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Do We Think about Heaven in an Egoistic Way?

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Biblical images of heaven are communal in nature. They are about feasts, banquets, a city etc. They are not about being alone with God and finding spiritual rejuvenation in his presence - away from other people.
When I contemplate these images, it seems to me that the only place I will be alone with God [...]

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Why Did We Start in a Garden and End in a City?

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It is challenging to think that Eden was a garden and the new earth (heaven) will be a city. I always thought of heaven as a restoration of what was lost. But I guess that is an assumption I have to adjust. Biblical images of where we are going simply are not the same as [...]

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Are There No Questions in Heaven?

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You would only expect that being in prison made Bonhoeffer think about death quite a bit. After all, he knew it was a real possibility for himself, although he hoped it would not come to that. Unfortunately, it did.
Anyway, in a letter to his friend, Hans, he writes that before God “every question ‘Why?’ falls [...]

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