A question about Heaven

[Bro. Dave Gardner]

How does one get one’s imagination sanctified?

All one would have to do is ask.

Jas 4:2-3 KJV 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

 

[Sorn]

I have to admit, it’s funny to think of someone measuring something 12,000 furlongs long with a reed.

They did get coffee and meal breaks every half hour! otherwise, yeah, totally against OH&S!!

 

[Bro. Dave Gardner]

"Sanctified imagination"?? Is that a suggestion that a Christian can just go around making stuff up to satisfy his/her vision about what heaven is like?

One can have hopes about what it's like in heaven.....but the plain fact is that beyond the bible saying it's a great place, everything else is speculation and wishful thinking.

But the Bible says much, much more than that.

 

[Bro. Dave Gardner]

I have to admit, it’s funny to think of someone measuring something 12,000 furlongs long with a reed.

Perhaps an angel gave him a little high-speed help, or maybe he just took his time and enjoyed himself.

 

[Sorn]

But could you create them? I doubt there’s a soul who’s own idea of Heaven is inhabiting some other person’s galactic modification.

If you are asking 'can you create animal life' then possibly.
If you are asking 'can you create intelligent people kind of life' then no.

You think people wont want to go and stay in someone else world for a while???
Have you not heard of AirB&B??? People are perfectly happy to stay in someone else's (a complete stranger) bedroom!!!
Why not a beautiful world that would be resort like but much better??

 

[Bro. Dave Gardner]

Sorry. I misinterpreted your intentions.

No worries. I was taught that forgiveness is an attitude, not an event.

 

[Emmylouwho]

Perhaps an angel gave him a little high-speed help, or maybe he just took his time and enjoyed himself.

Sounds like fun to me.

 

[Emmylouwho]

If you are asking 'can you create animal life' then possibly.
If you are asking 'can you create intelligent people kind of life' then no.

You think people wont want to go and stay in someone else world for a while???
Have you not heard of AirB&B??? People are perfectly happy to stay in someone else's bedroom!!!
Why not a beautiful world that would be resort like but much better??

How do you know that creating animal life is perhaps possible in Heaven, but creating human life is a no-no? Is that scriptural?

 

[Sorn]

Because people in heaven are NOT going to be Gods of other worlds with people in them like we are now where they worship you etc.
I think from memory the Mormon's may have that belief but its NOT a Christian belief, completely not scriptural.

You will be able to write a computer game where you get to play a God if want to, maybe make a TV series, if you can get others to participate as actors etc, not to mention having to build a tv station etc also!

 

[Hmm]

I do not believe it is intended for permanent residence by all.

Heaven is not a permanent residence for anyone. "Going to heaven when you die" is not held out in the NT as the main goal. The main goal is to be bodily raised into the transformed, glorious likeness of Jesus Christ and this is in the future when God creates a new Heaven and a new Earth. Jesus said to the thief on the cross "Today you will be with me in paradise." Heaven, or paradise, is not the final destination; it is a beautiful resting place on the way there.

If its not literal then the symbology or picture language is to be understood as bigger and better, by a huge massive margin, than anything that came before it.

Agreed.

 

[Emmylouwho]

Heaven is not a permanent residence for anyone. "Going to heaven when you die" is not held out in the NT as the main goal. The main goal is to be bodily raised into the transformed, glorious likeness of Jesus Christ and this is in the future when God creates a new Heaven and a new Earth. Jesus said to the thief on the cross "Today you will be with me in paradise." Heaven, or paradise, is not the final destination; it is a beautiful resting place on the way there.



Agreed.

Heaven is not a permanent residence for anyone. "Going to heaven when you die" is not held out in the NT as the main goal. The main goal is to be bodily raised into the transformed, glorious likeness of Jesus Christ and this is in the future when God creates a new Heaven and a new Earth. Jesus said to the thief on the cross "Today you will be with me in paradise." Heaven, or paradise, is not the final destination; it is a beautiful resting place on the way there.



Agreed.

So, an interim heaven before the main Heaven? Are the two distinguishable from one another, or is it just that one happens before the other?

 

[Sorn]

Yes, they will be distinguishable, very much so. As good as the temp heaven will be, the main one will still be way better, plus you will be able to interact with it in different ways because you'd have your resurrection body by then

 

[Emmylouwho]

Yes, they will be distinguishable, very much so. As good as the temp heaven will be, the main one will still be way better, plus you will be able to interact with it in different ways because you'd have your resurrection body by then

Can I go to other galaxies in both?

 

[Sorn]

Don't know.
So the main premise of this line is that we have a soul and that when we die, if we are saved, our soul goes to heaven. However the heaven or paradise it goes to is just a temporary one while we wait the 2nd heaven and Earth along with our new resurrected bodies. Though technically we get the resurrected bodies at Jesus's 2nd coming.

This temporary heaven will be great but what we are able to do as souls, what limits we have, can we visit other parts of this creation before God rebuilds it, i have no idea.

However if in the new Heavens there are galaxies etc, we will be able to travel to them i would assume.

 

[Sorn]

Its possible that after the 2nd coming when all who are saved souls get their resurrected bodies, then at that point we may be able to travel to other galaxies in the current creation as well.

 

[A Realist]

'...everything else is speculation and wishful thinking...'

No!, everything may be speculation (absolutely nothing wrong with that), but not everything will be wishful thinking. Some things people propose to be in the new heavens and earth may well be, they guessed correctly, they just don't know it and probably doesn't happen often either.

Forming a belief on what might be pleasing to imagine is known as wishful thinking. I've seen a lot of stuff in this thread that sure is pleasing to imagine.

 

[D.A. Wright]

How do you know that creating animal life is perhaps possible in Heaven, but creating human life is a no-no? Is that scriptural?

No, it is not.

 

[Hmm]

So, an interim heaven before the main Heaven? Are the two distinguishable from one another, or is it just that one happens before the other?

Both, as I understand it. The 'interim heaven' (paradise) happens both before and is distinguishable from the 'main Heaven' (the new Heaven and new Earth). To go back again to when Jesus said to the thief on the cross, 'Today you will be with me in paradise.' We know that Christ himself will not be resurrected for three days, so 'paradise' cannot be a resurrection. It has to be an intermediate state.

 

[Bro. Dave Gardner]

If cuboid cities, being as high as they are wide and long, are not compellingly symbolic I'm not sure what would be.

Unfortunately, being unusual without any notion of what it might symbolize is not compelling, in a hermeneutical sense. Nor very clever.

 

[joshua 1 9]

"natural" and "spiritual, "

Natural means the body made up of the dust from this world: "The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven." This is why Solomon tells us: "the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." (Ecc12:7) Moses tells us we: "return to the ground--because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis3:19)David tells us: "when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust." (Psalm104:29)

At the resurrection our Body will be resurrected. This is why there is a difference between the rapture and the resurrection. There is a time when Jesus returns for His Church. Then there is a time when Jesus returns with His Church. "at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." (1Thes3:13) This is when His feet actually touch the ground at the Mount of Olives. "On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south." (zech14:4)