Friday, June 11, 2010

Will heaven be merely spiritual?

When we think of Heaven, winged cherubs, white clouds and blue sky are the images that first flood my mind--an ethereal place with spiritual beings. I suspect that we rarely think of physical bodies or geographical places being part of that world.  Renaissance painters have unwittingly influenced our idea of heaven for many generations. 

The interesting thing is that Heaven is described as concretely earthy both in the Old and New Testaments. Specifically, Isaiah 11 describes the peaceful nature of the future animal kingdom and Revelation 21 & 22 describes Heaven as a city with streets made of precious stones, trees that bear fruit and a river running through it.  Physical stuff.  

Does this mean, then, that not only our souls get saved but our bodies also?  We're getting more used to the idea of bodies coming from a little string of information called DNA that contains all the source code to recompose our bodies.  Jesus already modelled a heavenly body.  After his death he appeared to many people, walking, talking and eating with them in an undoubtedly physical, yet fantastic, body (Luke 24:36-45).  

So what if Heaven has a physical dimension we ask?  Well, maybe Christians should pause before dismissing the material concerns of this world--the world to come appears to be no less tangible.  In fact, it may be even more physical than what we already know.  

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