Heaven (FYI only, NOT starting a religious flamewar)

[Horst or Rebecca J. Bohner]

> Good point!  What DO people do all the time in the standard Christian
> heaven?  Drift around on clouds?

Only in the world of Hollywood scriptwriters and cartoonists, all of whom
seem to suffer from an amazing lack of imagination.

[NOTE:  The following is simple factual info on what the Bible says about
heaven.  It is not intended as an invitation to argue about whether the
Bible / Christianity is true or not.  Chapter and verse references are
available upon request:  I won't bore you with them here.]

The Bible actually says nothing about ghostly spirits drifting around on
clouds playing harps all day.  Rather, it says that God's children will be
resurrected (that is, given actual physical bodies, only these ones are
glorified bodies that will never decay or die and which do not have any of
the negative limitations of mortal bodies) and will have various kinds of
work to do in God's service when He makes "a new heaven and a new earth".
We're told that the resurrected believers will "reign on the earth", so
they'll evidently be in positions of authority and responsibility over God's
perfected creation.  It sounds as though there'll be plenty of meaningful
and valuable work for everybody there, work that is perfectly suited to each
person and with which they will never be frustrated or bored.

I agree that it's hard to comprehend how anybody could live eternally, or
even just a very long time, without getting really really sick of it.  But
if every day of your life in eternity were even more wonderful than the best
and happiest and most fulfilling day you've ever had as a mortal, and if you
were experiencing joys and pleasures which were infinitely stronger than
anything you've ever known here on earth, then you really wouldn't want it
to end.  It's only because we see so much depressing stuff, and experience
so much tedium and frustration, that eternal life seems like an intolerable
burden.

OK, I'll stop spouting now.  :)
--
Rebecca J. Bohner
rebeccaj at pobox.com
http://home.golden.net/~rebeccaj