In her children’s book, What’s Heaven?, Maria Shriver describes heaven as “somewhere you believe in…It’s a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk to other people who are there. At night you can sit next to the stars…If you’re good throughout your life, then you get to go to heaven…When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you up to heaven to be with him…”
With this children’s book, Shriver has articulated what most American adults believe about the afterlife: if you’re good enough in this life, your soul goes to paradise for eternity when you die.
Three out of four Americans believe there is an eternal, spiritual paradise called heaven, and of those believers, three-fourths are confident they’ve been good enough to gain entry when they die. On the other hand, only about half of all Americans believe in a place of eternal, conscious torment called hell. Interestingly, among those who believe in hell, only two percent believe they deserve to go there!
In my experience, while almost all Christians have very clear ideas about what we believe heaven and hell will be like, and who will end up where, most of us have trouble explaining why we hold these specific beliefs. Compared to what the Bible actually says about the future, much of what we believe about death, resurrection, and the afterlife seems awfully shallow and overly sentimental.
So why does this conversation matter?
Your beliefs about the future make up your eschatology, a great big word that just means “a study of last things.” The reason why your eschatology matters is because what you believe about tomorrow will determine, in large part, how you choose to live today.
If you believe an angry God is chomping at the bit to condemn filthy humans to hell, you might live your life in fear of God, instead of seeking intimacy with Him. If you believe God is the great Softie in the sky who only loves and never condemns, you might treat God like a pushover who doesn’t really mind when we make selfish or stupid choices. If you don’t believe in any afterlife at all, you might feel more inclined toward a self-centered life, free from any transcendent accountability.
No matter what you believe about death and the afterlife, you can be sure those beliefs determine some of your habits and choices. Your eschatology is always showing.
The greatest philosophers and academics of the 19th Century believed humanity was on the cusp of a breakthrough, and with science and technology, higher education, and human initiative, we would soon achieve utopia with no help from God. Theologian Richard Bauckham writes about this wave of optimism that reached its crest in the late 1800s…
“…when a combination of scientific and economic advances, on the one hand, and democratic freedoms and wider education on the other, produced a strong sense that history was accelerating toward a wonderful goal…the millennium in which the world would live at peace. Prosperity would spread out from enlightened Europe and America and embrace the world.”
What immediately followed was the bloodiest century in human history, during which 160,000,000 people died in several wars. More people died in 20th Century wars than all other centuries combined since the birth of Christ. Prosperity did spread, but not nearly far enough. There may be more wealth in the world today than ever before, but three million children a year die from malnutrition. Terrorism and fear abound. Higher education doesn’t seem to be making humanity any wiser.
What is wrong with us?
One of the reasons Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians was to address people who were coming to terms with their own limitations. The congregation in Corinth was made up of people who had only recently given their lives to Jesus. Upon hearing and believing the promises that Christ made about eternal life, they couldn’t sign up fast enough. Many Corinthian Christians believed that their new life in Christ would be immediately and totally different from their old life in the world.
As it turns out, life after Jesus looked a lot like it did before Jesus. The Christians in Corinth began to doubt everything about Jesus and themselves. And Paul wrote these words to address their despair:
“My friends, I want you to know that our bodies of flesh and blood will decay. This means that they cannot share in God’s kingdom, which lasts forever. I will explain a mystery to you. Not every one of us will die, but we will all be changed. It will happen suddenly, quicker than the blink of an eye. At the sound of the last trumpet the dead will be raised. We will all be changed, so that we will never die again. Our dead and decaying bodies will be changed into bodies that won’t die or decay. The bodies we now have are weak and can die. But they will be changed into bodies that are eternal. Then the Scriptures will come true:
Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
Sin is what gives death its sting, and the Law is the power behind sin. But thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Dear friends, stand firm and don’t be shaken. Always keep busy working for the Lord. You know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:50-58)
The new believers in Corinth were freaking out because they thought God was finished when Jesus rose from the dead, but the Resurrection wasn’t the end. It was just the beginning, and the Kingdom of Heaven is not all the way here yet, which means something even more awesome is coming. Paul’s message to those discouraged Christians was simple: Don’t worry…God isn’t finished yet!
Here’s why this matters: even when we fail, even when we can’t fix the world’s problems, even when we can’t fix our own problems, God’s heavenly promise remains. When this world knocks you off your feet, you can pick yourself up off the floor and trust that God, who began a good work in you through the resurrection of Jesus, will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6).
Getting into heaven isn’t about going to church enough or living a picture-perfect life. It’s all about saying “yes” to God’s free gift of total forgiveness in Jesus Christ. As we look toward Easter, my prayer is that you will trust that God’s promises about the future are trustworthy and everlasting. No matter how bad the present may seem, every believer’s future rests firmly in the loving hands of our heavenly Father.
