Do you ever wonder what we will look like in heaven? Some thoughts that people have is that we will be like ghosts, or we will be like angels just floating on clouds, we will not have bodies. The Bible never mentions any of these above thoughts and Randy Alcorn has explained it so clearly of anyone I've ever read explain it in his book of "Heaven". Here are some excerpts from "Heaven", Chapter 11.
(Disclaimer: I, Deb Paradis, am not a theologian. There may be things in this book that you do not agree with and that is ok as long as it is the author's opinion and not the scripture he has quoted from the Bible. God knows the WHOLE plan as he created us. We see glimpses of it in scripture and I believe that all scripture is true with any errors. Whether you agree with someones interpretation of the scripture is for you to work out as you study the Word.)
"Wishful thinking is not the reason why, deep in our hearts, we desire a resurrected life on a resurrected Earth instead of a disembodied existence in a spiritual realm. Rather, it is precisely because God intends for us to be raised to new life on the New Earth that we desire it. It is God who created us to desire what we are made for. It is God who 'set eternity in the hearts of men' (Ecclesiastes 3:11). It is God who designed us to live on Earth and to desire the earthly life. And it is our bodily resurrection that will allow us to return to an earthly life--this time freed from sin and the Curse.
Conversion (accepting Christ as your personal Savior) does not mean eliminating the old but transforming it. Despite the radical changes that occur through salvation, death, and resurrection, we remain who we are. We have the same history, appearance, memory, interests, and skills. This is the principle of redemptive continuity. God will not scrap his original creation and start over. Instead, he will take his fallen, corrupted children and restore, refresh, and renew us to our original design.
The empty tomb is the ultimate proof that Christ's resurrection body was the same body that died on the cross. If resurrection meant the creation of a new body, Christ's original body would have remained in the tomb. When Jesus said to his disciples after his resurrection, 'It is I myself',' he was emphasizing to them that he was the same person--in spirit and body--who had gone to the cross (Luke 24:39). His disciples saw the marks of his crucifixion, unmistable evidence that this was the same body.
Not only do we know what our present bodies are like, we also have an example in Scripture of what a resurrection body is like. We're told a great deal about Christ's resurrected body, and we're told that our bodies will be like his.
The Lord Jesus Christ . . . will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)
Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2, RSV)
And just as we have borne the likeness of the eartly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:49)
The difference between Adam and Christ is not that one was a physical being and other wasn't. It was that Adam was under sin and the Curse, an Christ was untouched by sin and the Curse. Jesus was and is a human being, 'in every respect like us' (Hebrews 2:17, NLT), except with respect to sin.
Though Jesus in his resurrected body proclaimed,'I am not a ghost' (Luke 24:39, NLT), countless Christians think they will be ghosts in the eternal Heaven. I know this because I've talked with many of them. They think they'll be disembodied spirits, or wraiths. The magnificent, cosmos-shaking victory of Christ's resurrection--escapes them. If Jesus had been a ghost, if we would be ghosts, then redemption wouldn't have been accomplished.
Jesus walked the earth in his resurrection body for forty days, showing us how we would live as resurrected human beings. In effect, he also demonstrated where we would live as resurrected human beings--on Earth. Christ's resurrection body was suited for life on Earth, not primarily life in the intermediate Heaven. As Jesus was raised to come back to live on Earth, so we will be raised to come back to live on Earth (1 Thessalonians 4:14; Revelation 21:1-3)."
Quote by Bruce Milne, "The Jesus who says, 'Touch me and see; a ghost does hot have flesh and bones, as you see I have,'...this is the Jesus who draws back the curtain on the heavenly life and shows us what it will be like: embodied!"
Please feel free to comment or ask questions. I like hearing what our class and others have to say. Have a great day!, Deb
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