Wonder of Heaven

Ron Rhodes

Description

Increasing economic and cultural instability is leading North Americans to wonder more and more about existence beyond death. Many sources--some trustworthy, some not--are offering opinion, conjecture, and comforting words.Noted Bible teacher Ron Rhodes, bestselling author of Angels Among Us, goes to the Scriptures, God's gift to help us live on earth in a way that prepares us for heaven. He tackles the important questions:What is the moment-of-death transition actually like?In what state will believers exist? Will they know loved ones?What will God's people do in eternity? What will it be like to live with God forever?The Wonder of Heaven punctures the notion of a harp-strumming, do-nothing eternity. After glimpsing their home with God--and with people as God meant them to be--Christians will be filled with an anticipation that makes their lives brighter, stronger, and more effective today.Includes some material from the book Heaven: The Undiscovered Country.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
• Date de parution: 01 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736931946
• Langue: English

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.Lockman.org )
Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Cover by Dugan Design Group, Bloomington, Minnesota
THE WONDER OF HEAVEN Copyright 2009 by Ron Rhodes Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rhodes, Ron.
The wonder of heaven / Ron Rhodes. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7369-2456-6 (pbk.)
1. Heaven-Christianity. I. Title.
BT846.3.R46 2009
236. 24-dc22
2008020677
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 / BP-NI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
With fond memories of my brother Paul now absent from the body, at home with the Lord .
2 C ORINTHIANS 5:8
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special heartfelt thanks go to my wife, Kerri, and our two children, David and Kylie. How I look forward to living with them for all eternity in the unimaginably splendorous heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16)! Thanks also to my many friends at Harvest House Publishers, especially Bob Hawkins Jr., for his continued commitment to publishing relevant, contemporary books.
A NTICIPATING H EAVEN

Whatever pleasures we have known here on earth while living under the curse of sin are trivial, paltry diversions compared to the pure delights of heaven.
-J OHN M AC A RTHUR
We will be ageless and not know pain, tears, sorrow, sickness, or death. We will have bodies of splendor.
-R ENE P ACHE
We shall then have joy without sorrow, and rest without weariness . Be of good cheer, Christian, the time is near, when God and thou shalt be near, and as near as thou canst well desire. Thou shalt dwell in his family.
-R ICHARD B AXTER
The king of terrors, the last enemy, will never be able to breach the pearly gates and disturb the bliss of heaven! No more deathbed vigils or funerals. The hearse will have made its last journey.
-J. O SWALD S ANDERS
Let us not be afraid to meditate often on the subject of heaven, and to rejoice in the prospect of good things to come . Let us take comfort in the remembrance of the other side.
-J.C. R YLE
For Christians, death on its earthward side is simply that the tired mortal body falls temporarily to sleep, while on the heavenward side we suddenly find ourselves with our dear Savior-King and with other Christian loved ones in the heavenly home. Why fear that?
-J. S IDLOW B AXTER
When we get to Heaven, the joy of seeing our loved ones once again is immeasurably increased when we realize that all of us will indeed be perfect! There will be no more disagreements or cross words, hurt feelings or misunderstandings, neglect or busyness, interruptions or rivalry, jealousy or pride, selfishness or sin of any kind!
-A NNE G RAHAM L OTZ
Heavenly-mindedness is sanity. It is the best regimen for keeping our hearts whole, our minds clear . It allows us to endure life s agonies without despair.
-M ARK B UCHANAN
Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven
-J ONATHAN E DWARDS
There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
- T HERE I S A L AND OF P URE D ELIGHT (H YMN )
I want to know one thing:
the way to heaven-how to land
safe on that happy shore.
God Himself has condescended to teach the way;
for this very end He came from heaven.
He has written it down in a book.
Oh, give me that book!
At any price give me that book!
I have it-here is knowledge enough for me.
Let me be a man of one book.
Here, then, I am, far from the busy ways of men.
I sit down alone; only God is here.
In His presence I open and read His book
that I may find the way to heaven.
-J OHN W ESLEY
C ONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Anticipating Heaven
The Wonder of Heaven
1-Entering Death s Door
2-Biblical Portrayals of Death
3-Life in the Intermediate State
4-Alive Forevermore: The Future Resurrection
5-The Resurrection: Frequently Asked Questions
6-Heaven: Frequently Asked Questions
7-The Splendor of the Eternal City: The New Jerusalem
8-The New Heavens and the New Earth
9-The Blessing of Heaven for Believers
10-Heaven for Those Who Can t Believe
11-Rewards for Faithful Service
12-Helping Those Who Grieve
13-Looking Toward Eternity
Postscript-An Invitation to Believe
A PPENDIXES
Appendix A: Inspiring Bible Promises on Death, Heaven, and the Afterlife
Appendix B: The Great Cloud of Witnesses : Are We Being Watched from Heaven?
Appendix C: Assessing Alleged Firsthand Reports About Heaven
Bibliography
Notes
Other Great Harvest House Reading
About the Author
T HE W ONDER OF H EAVEN
I n the Shakespearean play Hamlet , death-and what lies beyond death s door-is metaphorically described as the undiscovered country. 1 It seems an appropriate way of describing something that human beings know so very little about.
The Scriptures use the word country of the blissful, eternal ream of heaven. Indeed, the splendorous abode where saints will one day dwell is described as a heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16)-and the saints will dwell there for all eternity .
Eternity is a big concept. We read in the pages of Holy Writ that God has set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This inspiring verse led one commentator to reflect, Though living in a world of time, man has intimations of eternity. Instinctively he thinks of forever, and though he cannot understand the concept, he realizes that beyond this life there is the possibility of a shoreless ocean of time. 2 It is wondrous to even think about it. It is in view of this sense of eternity in the human heart that one Christian suggested that we re heaven-bent, that our hearts have an inner tilt upward, and that the grain of our souls leans heavenward. 3 I think he is right!
From the first book in the Bible to the last, we read of great men and women of God who gave evidence that eternity permeated their hearts. We read of people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and David-each yearning to live with God in eternity. David, in particular, put it this way: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2, emphasis added). He rejoiced, saying, I will dwell in the house of the L ORD forever (Psalm 23:6).
Speaking of the blessed saints Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, Scripture reveals the following:
They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:13-16, emphasis added).
These saints realized that this world was not their final home. They were content to be strangers and pilgrims, refusing the urge to nestle to make themselves comfortable. Their desire was to pass through the world without taking any of its character upon themselves. Their hearts were set on pilgrimage. 4 Refusing to be distracted, these saints saw the promised realities from a distance and persisted in their pilgrim character, looking for a country of their own and refusing to return to the land they had left. 5
In much the same way, Christians throughout church history have longed for heaven s joys, considering themselves to be only loosely tied to this earth. 6 No wonder the great J.C. Ryle ( A.D . 1816-1900) suggested that believers are in a strange land in the life to come they will be at home. 7 At the moment of death, you and I as Christians literally depart the land of the dying to go to the land of the truly living.
The Near Universal Belief in an Afterlife
All throughout human history, people of different cultures and religions have given evidence that they possessed a sense of eternity in their hearts. As Randy Alcorn puts it in his book Heaven , Anthropological evidence suggests that every culture has a God-given, innate sense of the eternal-that this world is not all there is. 8 Because of this innate sense of eternity, Barry Morrow suggests that from earliest times humanity has tenaciously believed in an afterlife. 9 We see this even in false religions. 10 Islam, for example, speaks of a sensual paradise, while Native American religions speak of eternal hunting grounds. In Confucianism, when a parent dies, the children must perform all necessary rituals so that the parent can enjoy a trouble-free afterlife. Children thus burn a paper house, car, money, and other such items in order to transfer them to their deceased loved one in the afterlife. Modern psychics have built an entire religion on belief in an afterlife. Though such false religions have grossly distorted the truth about the afterlife, it is nevertheless highly revealing that belief in some form of an afterlife is near-universal.
This near-universal belief is surely the reason, as Thomas Ice and Timothy Demy p