Is Heaven Boring?
By the time I was a 7-8 year-old boy, I understood four things about Heaven: (1) everyone who was ever saved will be there, including lost friends and relatives, (2) there will be lots of singing, (3) we will have rest from our toils and troubles, and (4) nobody will be bad.
This sounded much better than the alternative. It even sounded really fun for, oh, maybe even the first two or three years. But, if thats all there is, wouldn't it eventually become REALLY BORING? Like going to church 24/7/365? I would never have said this, of course, but the thought was already beginning to take shape - probably even when I was 10 or 11.
And by the time I was 15 or 16 - by the time I had started reading large chunks of scripture on my own - I began to discover something even more troubling: scripture, it seemed, wasn't talking much about this issue of how one goes to Heaven after one dies. Even the places where it seemed like scripture might be talking about Heaven, it wasn't that explicit about it - it seemed as though it could also be talking about something completely different.
I didn't talk about it much. The thought was too disturbing to me to verbalize. But I began to wonder: if most of scripture doesn't even talk about this issue of how to get into Heaven, just how useful is it? Scripture, it seemed, didn't even make sense if you assumed its main purpose was to tell you how to get into Heaven.
Up next: Square peg theology and round hole scripture.
Related Tags: Heaven
This sounded much better than the alternative. It even sounded really fun for, oh, maybe even the first two or three years. But, if thats all there is, wouldn't it eventually become REALLY BORING? Like going to church 24/7/365? I would never have said this, of course, but the thought was already beginning to take shape - probably even when I was 10 or 11.
And by the time I was 15 or 16 - by the time I had started reading large chunks of scripture on my own - I began to discover something even more troubling: scripture, it seemed, wasn't talking much about this issue of how one goes to Heaven after one dies. Even the places where it seemed like scripture might be talking about Heaven, it wasn't that explicit about it - it seemed as though it could also be talking about something completely different.
I didn't talk about it much. The thought was too disturbing to me to verbalize. But I began to wonder: if most of scripture doesn't even talk about this issue of how to get into Heaven, just how useful is it? Scripture, it seemed, didn't even make sense if you assumed its main purpose was to tell you how to get into Heaven.
Up next: Square peg theology and round hole scripture.
Related Tags: Heaven
posted by Matt at Tuesday, July 25, 2006
3 Comments:
I always wondered the same thing about Revelation. If this is such an important book, why isn't it waaaaay easier to understand?
Maybe it's more about what we do HERE, hmmmmmm?
With some fear I add my thoughts on this subject. My impression is that the Bible and all the actors found in it are leading us to a general conclusion. That being that all things regarding "God" and "Jesus" are good and good for us. To believe that it's just a book to lead us to Heaven may be false. I believe it is meant to "mold" us into beings fit for Heaven. But that it is also meant to make us the essence of Jesus while here on earth. When we are like Him He lives in us here on earth. His goodness lives on even while He is gone to be with God the father. Anything that is NOT His goodness, is of Satan and of this world. Scripture says "this world is not my home, but I am passing through..". But I believe we are to be useful for Him while we are here. You know, doing the Jesus things. Nena
Much maternal wisdom from Nena (for those outside of the family, thats what my kids call my mother).
I especially like what you said about spiritual formation in scripture.
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