Fighting back tears, a young woman confessed to my husband that she was afraid she didn’t want to go to heaven. Since then, as we’ve related that story to others, we’ve discovered many Christians have that fear.
And no wonder! Artists and movie makers depict heaven as a colorless place where the occupants sport wings and halos and have nothing better to do than strum harps and lounge on clouds. Skeptics like Mark Twain denounce heaven as unbearably boring and full of hypocritical prudes.
Misconceptions about heaven abound. So let’s clear some of them up. Here are 4 questions that Christians are embarrassed to ask about heaven.
1. Is heaven in the clouds?
Comics and movies typically depict heaven’s occupants as lolling on fluffy, white clouds. But that’s not at all what the Bible depicts. The Bible teaches that on the day of the Lord, the physical cosmos “will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10). After the judgment, God will create new heavens and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). Those whose names are in the Book of Life will dwell there with God (Revelation 21:3).
2. Do people become angels in heaven?
Is the idea that people who go to heaven become angels a biblical one? Not at all. God created the angels before he created the earth (Psalm 148:2-5; Job 38:6-7). Angels are ministering spirits who serve “those who are going to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:13-14). People don’t turn into angels when they die; rather, at the end of the age, angels will “separate the evil from the righteous” people (Matthew 13:49). Something more wonderful is in store for God’s children. “The Lord Jesus Christ… will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). It will be an imperishable body, raised in glory and power, a spiritual body that bears the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:42-49).
3. Will heaven be full of nerds and prudes?
In high school, I went with my then-boyfriend Clay to the youth group at his church. There, the pastor’s daughter said she wanted to go to hell because that’s where all her friends would be. She echoed Mark Twain’s sentiment: “Choose heaven for the climate and hell for the company.” Clay points out that in heaven, “There will be murderers (such as Moses), adulterers (such as David), and prostitutes (such as Rahab). But they will all be repentant. Hell, on the other hand, will also be full of rapists, whiners, cowards, liars, and many a Pharisee, but none of them will be repentant.
4. Will heaven be boring?
In Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer said that Miss Watson “went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn’t think too much of it. But I never said so.” Of course humans will worship God. But our primary occupation will be reigning with Christ forever in the magnificent new heavens and earth (Revelation 22:5).