Two friends were walking along a country road and precisely at the same moment that one saw a
lovely wild flower the other spotted a poisonous snake. When the one had killed the snake and the
other had put the flower in his button hole, they walked on in silence for a while, and then the one
with the flower said, "I wonder which one of us is a realist." The other man thought for a moment,
and then replied, "I suppose I must admit the flower is as real as the snake." The study of heaven is
an emphasis on that very point--the flower is as real as the snake.
There is a popular philosophy aboard that makes people believe they are only being realistic
when they face up to the fact of evil. Snakes are real and only the foolish who want to escape reality
deny their existence. But this kind of thinking leads to the promoting of evil under the guise of
realism. A realistic love story, to the world, demands some immorality, for immorality is real.
Swearing is popular on TV because real people do swear, and so to be realistic we must hear it on
TV. Real people today do everything that real people did in ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, and
since modern people want to be realistic they argue that it not only should be done, but it should be
promoted in movies, music, and literature in order to make our art and culture realistic.
The Christian can have no quarrel with the desire to be realistic, but he does have to disagree
with those who limit the real to the negative. The flower is just as real as the snake. You do not
have to pour forth the poison of hell to be realistic, for the pure and pleasant springs of heaven are
just as real. Those whose vision of the real is so narrow and limited that they must promote what is
evil to be realistic are extremely unrealistic, for true realism takes in the whole picture of reality.
True realism recognizes that evil is real, but also that it is only a temporal reality, and that it is a
reality that has come into existence and will one day cease to exist. The good and the true and the
beautiful, however, are the eternal aspects of reality that will never pass away, but will, in fact, be
forever increasing when evil has ceased to exist. Sorrow is real, but joy is real forever. The true
realist devotes himself to that reality which lasts.
The Christian is one, who, because he has set his affections on things above, knows which aspects
of reality on which to focus his attention. What one sees as reality all depends on which direction he
looks. The poet wrote,
Two men looked out of prison bars
One saw mud, the other stars.
The study of heaven is to help us focus our attention in an upward direction so that no matter how
real the mud is, the stars are the reality that we emphasize. Hell is real but heaven must be more real
to the believer, for the flower is just as real as the snake.
So often heaven is not real to the believer because they get so bogged down in the realities of this
passing life, and they neglect to study the permanent life to come. Cults tend to emphasize heaven
and the glory ahead. They produce beautiful books and films of spectacular color on the Holy City
to be shown in homes. The Mormons are forever writing and preaching on the glories of heaven.
Most offshoots of the main stream of the church use heaven for major appeal. Leaders of cults have
to know what appeals to human nature if they hope to succeed in gaining a following. They have
learned that the hope of heaven is a universal hope, and so they capitalize on it, while the Orthodox
Church often neglects it and loses out as a result.
The hope of heaven is a hope that God built into the heart of man. The ancient Egyptians had an
elaborate theology concerning the afterlife. Others had no details, but they believed in heaven.
Livingstone, in his travels in Africa, had one of the tribesmen tell him: "We live only a few days
here, but we live again after death; we do not know where, or in what condition, or with what
companions, for the dead never return to tell us." Some such hope as this is the hope of men in every
nation, and when there is such a instinct written into the very nature of man, you can be sure there is
a reality corresponding to the desire.
Birds have an instinct that tells them there is a warmer climate in the south even if they have
never been there, and when they obey that instinct they reach the fulfillment of their desire. All
instincts and desires have a reality to fulfill them, and so it is with the human desire for a life after
death. Man has an instinct for immortality. Goethe said, "It is, to a thinking being, quite impossible
to think himself non-existent." Franken said, "The demand for self-preservation is one of our most
powerful instincts; it transcends the tomb itself, for the desire for immortality is nothing else than
one form of the search for self-preservation." Dr. Beibitz says the universal belief in survival, and the
craving for a future in which righteousness will be vindicated is as truly a part of the structure of the
universe as is the fact of death itself. In other words, the flowers is as real as the snake.
The director of a play was not satisfied with the leading man in the death scene. "Come on" he
pleaded, "You've got to put more life into it." It may sound paradoxical, but that is exactly what
Christians should do. They must put more life into dying. Dying was so exciting to Paul that he
didn't know what he wanted most. Should he die and be with Christ, which was really so much
better, or live and help others gain this same hope. Paul, of course, had an advantage over us, for he
had been caught up into heaven and had a preview of life to come. The Scriptures give us enough of
an idea of what to expect, however, so that we too should be able to face death with anticipation.
Unfortunately, many Christians have a drab and distorted view of heaven. Lloyd George once
made this confession that probably describes the feelings of many: "When I was boy, the thought of
heaven used to frighten me more than the thought of hell. I pictured heaven as a place where time
would be perpetual Sunday, with perpetual services from which there would be no escape. It was a
horrible nightmare and made me an atheist for ten years." People who love life and have a creative
spirit are just not interested in a church service that lasts forever. Endless rest, to many, means
endless boredom. It is important, therefore, that the appealing realities of heaven be expounded so
that people will be excited about eternal life, and, therefore, be willing to yield their lives to Christ,
who alone is the Way into that land of everlasting abundant life. We need to see that life does not
become more narrow in eternity, but rather it is expanded--
"And every power finds sweet employ
In that eternal world of joy."
The Scriptures do emphasis the glorious worship we will offer to God in eternity because of the
great joy that will be ours, and the everlasting gratitude we will have for the Lamb of God, who died
for us. This is not to be neglected, and no Christian would want to when it is rightly understood, but
we ought not to neglect the other promises that appeal to our human hopes for fulfillment and
satisfaction. It can safely be said that in eternity God will grant His children every desire of their
perfected hearts. In Rom. 8:32 Paul says, "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for
us all,
Will He not also give us all things with Him?" God gave us His Son, and He will not deny us
anything that is secondary. If you have given your best, you do not hesitate to give less.
Does this mean that God intends to spoil us rotten in heaven, like an over-indulgent father? Yes,
and no. Yes, He intends to grant us every desire, but no will not spoil us, for our desires will all be
Christlike and conformed to His will. We will desire nothing harmful or sinful, for sin will be more.
God will grant us the desire of His children's hearts, and because His children represent a
great variety of people and personalities, it means heaven will be filled with infinite variety. One of
the reasons there are few details of heaven is lest some conclude that is all there is. The Bible keeps
general on purpose, for what appeals to you may not appeal to me, and vise versa. The general
statements leave it open for each to dream and speculate according to their own interest. But listen
to the preciousness of the general promise. Paul in Eph. 2:7 says, "That in the coming ages He
might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Paul is
saying that for all eternity God is going to show those who trust His Son just how kind He can be.
That is all anyone needs to know about heaven to make it the most exciting source of joy.
This means if you are a Christian who is weary of life and all of its battles have worn you out,
heaven will be rest to you. This is a valid hope of the battle worn believer. But what of a Christian
who has been forced to lie on a bed of illness for years? They are sick of rest. They want to serve,
so their hope of heaven is that it will be a place of active service. Martha Snell Nicholson expresses
this hope in poetry:
"I do not think of heaven as a place or rest,
Where I may lay my weary head upon thy breast.
So many hours I spend on earth with folded hands,
With tortured nerves, and body gripped with iron bands.
And only faulty service now I give to thee;
So Lord, my dream of heaven is that it will be
A place where I shall stand erect, and straight and strong;
With feet that run to do thy will the whole day long;
And joyous strength for tasks which thou wilt set for me;
A spirit strangely, wondrously, like thee, like thee.
As love for thee, perfected, burns a living flame,
Let this be heaven, Lord, I ask in thy dear name!"
Can anyone look at this prayer in the light of God's promise and doubt that it will be answered?
Her joy will be full, and so also the joy of those who long for rest. Let us leave the joy of heaven as
open as the Scriptures do, so that it covers the case of every child of God. There is no place for
narrow and limited joy in the plan of God. Let the Mohammedan have his heaven of wine, women,
and song, and let the Buddhist have his eternity of the peace of nothingness, but the Christian will
build his hope on the heaven of infinite variety worthy of the God of the Bible. The joy of heaven is
that there will be, not only something for everyone, but that there will be everything for everyone.
The glories and joys of heaven are kept general because of the infinite variety that will come
from the kindness of God. On the other hand, the Bible is very specific in telling us what will not be
heaven, and by so doing leaves the door open for us to speculate on the unimaginable joys that must
characterize life without these negatives.
For example, death shall be no more. If that is not cause for joy, what is? The New Jerusalem will
be a city without a cemetery. This means there will be the vigor and strength of perpetual youth.
There will not only be a great increase in our powers, there will never be any set backs, loses or
decays. Progress in heaven will be perpetual. No value gained, and no relationship developed will
ever be lost. We will eventually know everyone in heaven by name. Not only will people be blessed
by the absence of death, but so will all creation, for none of the beauty of it will ever decay.
Winter will be gone forever.
Beyond these chilling winds and gloomy skies,
Beyond death's cloudy portal-
There is a land where beauty never dies,
And love becomes immortal.
If you can plant a flower in heaven or the new earth you will have its beauty forever, for death
cannot touch it. The joy of heaven will be everything lasts. Every gain is a permanent gain. The
last enemy to be destroyed is death says Paul, and when this is accomplished all of God's children
will be--out of the shadow into the sun, the battle fought, the victory won.
It was the joy of eternity without sin and death that enabled Jesus to press on to the cross and die
for our sin. Heb. 12:2 says, "Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the
throne of God." It is obvious that the joy that Jesus saw was not merely His own, for He could have
returned to the glory of heaven without going to the cross. It was the joy of redeemed people with
Him for all eternity that compelled Him to endure the cross. Jesus said in Himself--the joys of
heaven for all of the redeemed are so great that I cannot refuse to bear their sin and endure their hell
that they might enter into the eternal kingdom. He said it is worth the cross to make this eternal joy
possible.
This certainly explains why all the inhabitants of heaven will sing praises to the Lamb of God.
The cross will be one symbol that will be relevant for all eternity. The love of Christ for us
expressed on Calvary cannot be comprehended . We will never fully understand this love until we
enter into the full experience of salvation in heaven. The poet feels that even then it may be beyond
expression-
"O for this love let rocks and hills there lasting silence break,
And all harmonies human tongues the Savior's praise speak!
Angels, assist our mighty joys strike all your harps of gold!
But when you raise your highest notes, His love can ne'er be told."
Possibly the greatest mystery of eternity will be, why did He love us so? We must assume that
the joys of heaven will be so great that Jesus will forever be glad He paid the price for it all.
John tells us in Revelation 21:4 that pain shall be no more. At God's right hand there are
pleasures for evermore, but no pain. This too has implications for joy beyond our imagination. This
implies there will not be any kind of injury possible in our eternal bodies. No falling on the streets
of gold, and this means no one will be too young or too old to be falling. There will be no
immaturity or infirmity that can lead to mistakes and accidents. What fools men are to risk eternal
pleasure with no guilt or sorrow of any kind for the sake of pleasure that displeases God and leads to
all kinds of pain and sorrow.
"there shall we see his face
and never, never sin;
there from the river of his grace,
drink endless pleasure in."
God forbid that we sell this great inheritance for the world's mess of pottage. Do not give up jewelsfor junk of diamonds for dust. Let us set our affections on things above where we will see forever
that the flower is more real than the snake.
