Posted on 01/28/2014 10:16:06 AM PST by Gamecock
"Have you read Heaven Is for Real?" I've been asked this question more times than I can count. So let me just tell you—no, I haven't. I was actually asked by the publisher to read the manuscript to offer an endorsement before the book came out, but I declined. And clearly the lack of an endorsement from me has not hindered sales.
I've been hoping that the hoopla surrounding this book and so many of the other "died and went to heaven and came back" books would end. And then I went to the theater over the holidays and saw previews for the upcoming movie based on Heaven Is for Real. So before you ask if I am going to see the movie, let me just tell you—no, I'm not.
People sometimes say these stories encouraged their faith or the faith of someone they know. But I think they actually diminish biblical faith by elevating claims of a supernatural experience over the substance of the Scriptures. Most of these claims of seeing into heaven focus on earthbound concerns and stunted human desires that lack what the Bible describes as the heart of heaven—the glory of God, the Lamb who was slain, on the throne of the universe. In embracing these stories we're saying the Bible is simply not enough, that someone's mystical experience is needed to verify or "make real" what God has said. But saving faith is putting all our hopes in who God is and what God has said as revealed in the Bible. It is being confident of what we can't see (John 20:29; Hebrews 11:1), not being convinced by something someone else supposedly saw.
Interestingly, Jesus himself spoke of the uselessness of such testimony for generating genuine faith. Jesus told a story about a rich man in the place of the dead who calls out to "Father Abraham" to go and warn his brothers so they will not end up in the place of torment (Luke 16:19-31). The rich man wants someone who has died and gone to heaven to come back to life and tell about his experience so that his family members will believe what the Scriptures teach about the consequences of failing to become united to Christ by faith.
In Jesus' story Father Abraham says, "If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, (meaning, if they won't believe what the Bible says) they won't listen even if someone rises from the dead." Jesus is saying that everything we need to put our faith in the promises of God, everything we need to find comfort and hope regarding the life beyond this life, can be found in the Scriptures.
There are only five testimonies of seeing into the realities of heaven that we are obligated to believe. These testimonies clearly develop rather than diminish biblical faith. There is Isaiah, who saw the Lord high and lifted up, seated on a throne (Isaiah 6); Ezekiel, who was given a vision of the future new heavens and new earth that he describes as garden-like city in the shape of a temple called The Lord Is There (Ezekiel 40-48); Stephen, who, before he was stoned by the people of Jerusalem "gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God'" (Acts 7:55-56); John, who saw the risen and glorified Jesus seated on the throne of the universe being worshiped by all the people of the earth, all the creatures of the earth, and all the angels of heaven (Revelation 1, 4); and the apostle Paul, who was caught up into the third heaven and "heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter" (2 Cor. 12:1-7). Isn't it interesting that Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, did not include details about what he saw in his personal guided tour of heaven and said, in fact, that it should not be talked about?
None of these witnesses claims to have died and come back to life. None of these testimonies focuses on meetings with other people who have died. These witnesses are clearly captivated by God alone. We read that they fell on their faces as their eyes beheld the glory of God radiating from his being.
Of course, the Bible does tell us about some people who died and came back to life. Yet it doesn't see fit to record their testimony about the experience. Evidently it just isn't worthy of being presented to us as a foundation for faith. If it were, wouldn't there be a book of Lazarus in which he gives us a run-down on those four days in the grave before Jesus called him back to life (John 11)? Matthew tells us that when Jesus died, "many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised" (Matt. 27:52). Amazingly that's all we're told. If the testimonies of those who have died and gone to heaven and come back to life provided something of value to help us to put our faith in the promises of God, wouldn't the Gospels contain their testimonies?
The question really isn't about whether or not a 4-year-old's description of heaven lines up with what the Scriptures teach. The question is whether or not we really believe that God in his Word "has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3). Admittedly the Bible does not provide as much detail about what awaits us beyond this life as some of us might like. It does tell us four significant things:
1. We will be with Christ (Luke 23:42-43, Phil 1:21-23).
2. It will be far better than life on this earth (Phil 1:21-23).
3. We will be away from the body (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).
4. Our spirits will be made perfect—completely cleansed of sin (Hebrews 12:22-23).
Since we know that to be at home with the Lord is to be away from the body, when one of these books describes physical bodies in heaven that are healed and whole, we know instantly that it is not a genuine account of the current realities of heaven. One day the physical bodies of those who are united to Christ will be healed and whole like the body of the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22-23; 1 John 3:2). But that will not be until the day Christ returns and makes all things new. Right now "we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20-21).
Until then, we do not need the testimony of an impressionable 4-year-old boy, a neurosurgeon, spine surgeon, sports writer, or even a pastor to know that heaven is real. We have everything we need in the Bible. Its testimony is enough to generate genuine faith in Christ, as well as a greater longing for unending life in his presence.
To someone not inclined to believe a heartwarming story like above won’t matter either.
Jesus said so.
We walk by faith and not by sight.
The problem is that too many people these days ar ewalking by sight.
I see so much in the Pentecostal churches where people are always seeking for a fresh infilling, a new manifestation, something everyday, as if, if they don’t get them, their faith is shaken. I’ve coined a term for them of *experience junkies*. They always have to be after the next spiritual high.
But I finally realized, that those who constantly need to see, and hear, and feel, and touch, for all their claims for *great faith* , for *believing for God to move or work*, in reality, have weak faith. If they don’t *see* something, they think God isn’t doing anything. That’s not faith.
The popularity of these kind of books and widespread acceptance is just a sign of the times.
A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed. Matthew 16:4
Wow, these responses, where is the love? Isn’t it kind of neat he could recognize his “young” grandpa but not the “old”? Isn’t that kind of exciting we get our young bodies in heaven?
I know God is a radical God and will do the exceptional to send a message of His reality to this lost world.
He did send a message. 2000 years ago.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1
Matthew tells us that when Jesus died, “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matt. 27:52).
Why don’t you argue w Matthew?
It simply just confirms what has been preached all along.
AMEN to what you say!
“But maybe scripture is so compelling that reading it makes it clear to anyone who will see that it is perfectly correct and had to have been written by God?”
In truth, God INSPIRED the persons who wrote the books of the Holy Bible to write the words.
“But I finally realized, that those who constantly need to see, and hear, and feel, and touch, for all their claims for *great faith* , for *believing for God to move or work*, in reality, have weak faith. If they don’t *see* something, they think God isn’t doing anything. That’s not faith.”
Rather, the folks you describe are the SEAK faith. God Bless them.
“I know God is a radical God and will do the exceptional to send a message of His reality to this lost world.”
God continues to SURPRISE us not just via HIS WORD, but by doing these messages of His reality.
“Rather, the folks you describe are the SEAK faith. God Bless them.”
Correction, those who do SEAK faith.
AMEN to that too!
But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”
Many, not content with what God tells them, have itching ears for novelties.
Plenty of that going around upstream.
Rather, what is being seen is simply “confirming” what scripture says.
Gamecock I appreciate your genuineness, but this theology that God’s magnificent works are “only” for teaching is the primary reason the church suffers deep emotional and spiritual poverty. Evil gets to hit us with all kinds of dark artillery and then we tie up God’s wonderful personality with a withering theology where we won’t let Him be himself with us.
It’s the equivalent of someone valuing theory over actual encounter. The two can blend together well. It as if someone would rather theorize about kissing vs actual kissing.
No one suggests seeking experiences rather seeking God and letting him be himself with us, then one’s world will beautifully flower.
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