Saturday, March 3, 2012

A Timeless Heaven

This time around I have more of a thought than a question. I don’t expect many to disagree with me about this, but it could provide the opportunity for some interesting discussion. This idea works off of the same principles of time that I developed in my last post (God Pressed Play).

Here’s the premise: God lives outside of our timeline, which is how He is able to have a plan and allow freewill at the same time. What we experience day-to-day is not what God sees, because He is not limited by a linear existence.

So: the realms of Heaven and Hell also exist outside of Earth’s timeline. Although I have little knowledge of the natures of angels and demons, I would imagine that as they inhabit these realms, they also live outside of our timeline (though maybe not to the same degree that God does).

Therefore: The nature of our existence once we leave the Earth will change to match the realms we are joining, either Heaven or Hell.

We can only gather so much about Heaven from the Bible and, of course, we’re not going to be able to understand most things right now, even though it’s commendable for us to try. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:
“But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him’—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”

So, let’s do a little more searching into “the depths.”

I know that there is to be no marriage in heaven (“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven”- Matthew 22:30). This suggests that the relationships we built on earth will be quite different once we reach Heaven. There are several verses that consider the states that our bodies will take, that they will move from a natural form to a spiritual one:

1 Corinthians 15:43-44

“It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”

But a great part of our Christian tradition, one of the points that I’ve been taught for as long as I can remember, is that once we get to Heaven, we’ll see all of the loved ones that died before us. It’s a great picture—joyfully reuniting with family and friends that we haven’t seen in years. That tradition is built off of such verses as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

Obviously, Christians have been worried about who they’ll see in Heaven for quite a while.

But, let’s go back to the issue of time.

I suggest that when we go to Heaven, we will not only reunite with all of the loved ones who came before us, but will also meet all of those who died after us. Here’s a wonderfully illustrated table to help explain:



So, we are all on Earth, which is in linear time—we move forwards, whether we want to or not. The little black dots on the Earth timeline represent deaths. The red lines then correspond to their winding up in Heaven or Hell. If you’ll notice, no matter when on the Earth timeline someone dies, they end up in the same place in heaven—a nonlinear eternity.

If I were to add dates to the Earth timeline, it would show that someone who died in 1411 arrives in Heaven at the exact same time as someone who dies in 2012.

The coolest part of this theory? When I die, I’ll be able to see my grandparents and great-grandparents, and Moses, King David, Emperor Constantine, Abraham Lincoln, and Pope John Paul II. But, I’ll also be able to meet my great-grandchildren, and my great-great-grandchildren, and my great-great-great-grandchildren, and all of the other “greats” all the way up until Jesus decides to come back into the linear timeline and end Earth’s existence.

There’s a couple of other ways I could go with this. There could be an issue with Luke 23:43, where Jesus tells the criminal on the cross next to him: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Today.

But what does “today” mean when an eternal being is trying to explain Heaven to a linear one?

Now it’s a language issue. But I like the idea that I’ll be able to see all of my ancestors and descendants, all at once, when I get to Heaven.

I hope that isn’t heresy, cause it’s pretty cool.