Questions About Heaven Answered

You're listening to the Bible guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, there it is morning. We talked the whole night through. Good morning, good morning to. You, and and there you go. Yes, man, Hey, by the way I kicked it off, that's a Tuesday. Tuesday. It doesn't get much better. Hey. We had a small group at our house because we're running our small group coinciding with our series you know What Heritage and there I said, maybe my wife said it, but somebody said, hey, how many you listening to the Bible guys? And I was very humbled that out of like the eighteen people that are in there, and by the way, they're all college age, right, there was like seven of them. Yeah, well all the cool college kids are listening to the Bible guys. Yeah and I both know. Hey, but anyway, but nobody had said something about they sing good morning. And so because I was in my house, I went ahead and pulled up the Singing in the Rain clip where they actually Debbie Reynolds sings good morning, and I said. This is where I got it from. Yes, I met, well half of the song, you know the first half, because you know, after that it gets you know, like, unless. You love singing in the ring, it's just a lot. It's a lot. So anyway, uh, but they were literally blown away because not a single person other than one of them and my kids had seen singing in the ring. So it's pretty funny. Wow. Yeah, okay, well good well, congratulations to that group. That sounds like a banger group. Now that sounds like so much fun, right, Okay. So hey, so we are in the middle of this of a series this week called Stump. The pastor Yes. This is an awesome one, yes. Because we are going through questions that people have written in. So we're saying every episode that if you would like to send in a question for us to consider it in the future, please email us at info at the Bible guys dot com or comment on a clip, YouTube or anything else that you know you can message us. Yeah. So that's awesome, dude, Yeah, pretty cool. So what's the big question today? Well, here is the first question. Let's tackle two. We're going to tackle two, I guess. Okay, and they're both they're both along the lines of heaven, so this is kind of fun. Yeah, they kind of go together. So here's the question. First of all, by Melissa jh I Melissa Jay. She says, you often comment, when I get to Heaven, I'm going to ask this question or talk to this person that you may or may not have known here on earth. Where in the Bible does it say all our questions will be answered or we'll be able to talk to anyone we want. That's a great question. Yeah, yeah, and so do you do? You want me to tackle it? Go ahead, you want to try, Okah, go for it. Well, here's the thing. It doesn't say any of those things. Okay. It doesn't say we'll be able to ask any question we want. It doesn't say the words when you get to heaven, you'll be able to sit down and ask any question you want, or talk to anybody you want to talk to you. No, it does not say those words. It doesn't say that that's right. However, there are indications that we'll be able to find people and talk with them, right. So, for instance, I'm very reminded of the rich Man and Lazarus. Right. So it says in Hades, where he was in tour. This is Luke, chapter sixteen, verse number nineteen. It says in Hades where he was in torment. He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. Father Abraham, he called out, have pity on me, for I'm in agony in this fire. And so why this matters is both the rich Men and Lazarus retain their names, memories, and awareness, which is sort of like the next question actually of their earthly lives. And the rich man even remembers his family and asks them to be warned, showing continuity of personal memory after death. So this is not only a scripture that supports we have memories, but it also supports questions. Right, So he's asking Abraham a question, and then also, uh, isn't there another there's a there's a description revelation that talks about conversations with people who remember how they. Died and how Yeah, the martyrs, Yes, so the martyrs remember. Let me let me I just just pulled this up a second ago. Let me let me find it. Yeah, So there's there's questions about that, which means means that if we find if we roam heaven, and uh, you know, it may take us a while, but let's just say eventually we run into you know, the apostle John. Yeah. Right. Uh. You know, if he remembers in the Book of Revelation how he dies, then that must mean that he retains memories to such a degree you can say, I have a question about the Bible. I'm forgetting the chapter in Revelation. But the martyrs are around the throne of God, and they're conscious of the fact that they were martyred. They remember the. Relations thins relations six nine through ten. Oh, there you go. I saw under the alter of the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God. They called out in a loud voice, how long Sovereign Lord, Holly and True until you judge the inhabitants of the earth. And then it goes on after that. Yeah, yeah, it goes on. And so they're conscious of the fact that, you know, there's bad things happening on earth and that they were martyred. So here's what I would say this question specifically, she's asking, how do we know that all of our questions will be answered? Right? That's really the thing. I think The next question is going to be more about our what kind of consciousness do we have? What are we aware of? Who are we aware of in heaven. But I answer them at the same time. But yeah, but this one is being asked, you know, how do we know? All of our questions will be answered? And in First Corinthians, chapter thirteen, Paul says, now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror. But then we will see everything with perfect clarity. Right. All that I know now is partial and then complete. But then I, and he's talking just as a Christian follower of Jesus will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, So he says that right now I only know partial. I only know what the Bible says. But I don't know everything I know the mind of God. I don't know how he does what he does, or why he does what he does. I don't know all the facts and the details. But he says, but then when I get to have an it'll all make sense and I'll know everything completely. So you and I memorize it, and now I know in part. Then I shall know fully even as I am fully known. Yeah. So Paul teaches that our knowledge will be expanded, not erased, and we will know fully, implying that memory and understanding will be perfected, not forgotten, and so yeah, to be able to ask the questions to get them answered. It stands the reason, right and all of that. But like, isn't there isn't there an indication? Didn't Jesus say it is not yet? Didn't he say, goodness, I'm just going by memory here? Yeah? But didn't he say it is not for for yet? For what am I thinking here? It is not meant for you to know yet, right, the Kingdom of Heaven, the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, sure, right, indicating that one day you will right right, which which again is more knowledge about the Kingdom of Heaven. So yeah, I believe that we'll be able to interact with others, right. I believe that we'll know their identities. I believe that we will have our memories, which means if we have our memories, then hopefully I'll retain some of my same curiosities. Yeah right, So I mean that's. Really what we're talking about. We're talking about like, if I'm wondering about something here on the earth, will I still will it not matter? Or will I still have my same curiosities? Well? And Andrea Bee asks a similar question, So, Hi, Andrea B, Hi Andrew B. And she asks, will we have knowledge of our life on earth and our relationships after we are gone? Right? And I think she means after we go to heaven. Yeah, And then she says, or is our memory just wiped? Right? So the here's what we know at the Mountain of Transfiguration Matthew, Chapter seventeen, Jesus goes up on the mountain. That's a good one, and he's got Peter, James and John with him, and Moses and Elijah come and are talking with Jesus, and Peter, James, and John know exactly who each person is, even though they never met Moses or Elijah. Moses died two thousand years before they were alive, or a thousand years, thousand years before they were alive. No, it's more than that. Two thousand years before they died, before their life. Elijah was fifteen hundred years before they were alive. Right, But they recognize these two. They know, Hey, that's Moses and that's Elijah. And so in the spiritual realm there seems to be this perfect knowledge. And how would they know that unless they were given knowledge of it? Maybe that's what I'm saying they were. I think the amount of transfiguration and this was a spiritual environment on earth in the moment, I think they stepped into the spiritual realm, right. I don't know that. I think that Elijah and Moses showed up physically with blood and bones and muscles, right. I think it was that Jesus walks into the spiritual That's why when he walks back out he's glowing. Right. Yeah, So I think that God just God opened their eyes to be able to see the spiritual. Very similar to when Elijah's servant can't see and he's all afraid that they're going to get wiped out by the army, and Elijah says, if you could see what I could see, We're surrounded by all these people. God show him, right, and he sees all these fiery tarts all around them. God's protecting them in the moment. He gave him a glimpse of what was spiritual. I think that's what's happening for them. Only this is Jesus in his spiritual form with Moses and Elijah. Sure that I have ever thought that it wasn't a physical, earthly physical Elijah and earthly physical. Well, I think what I'm trying to say is this was blended the spiritual physical in a way that they never saw the spiritual because that clearly Peter, James and John were in their physical body, Jesus was in his physical body, yeah right, But I don't think that was the focus of Moses and Elijah, whether they had a physical body in the moment or not. What these guys were seeing was a blending of the spiritual realm in this in the physical realm. But it is possible, I believe that Adam and Eve had a physical body in the spiritual realm. Yes, right, that's the Garden of Eden exactly. So you did God, right, that's yeah, right, yeah, yeah. So my question is did Moses and Elijah. I mean, we'll be giving bodies in heaven so that they will have had a physical body, but like but but but for. Yeah, but are they in heaven? Now we've talked about that. Yeah yeah, yeah, right, right, right, right, right, right, yeah right. So if so, if so, if Peter, James and John were able to just sort of pass through into a spiritual realm, then that means perhaps they not only did they see Moses Elijah, but they could have perhaps seen other. Things, yeah, or that the spiritual realm came to them. But yes, yeah, yeah. So so anyways, you have this where where Peter, James and John know who Elijah and Moses, which means there's a conscious awareness of an individual and knowledge beyond their current knowledge base. Right right where Paul says, we we know only partially now, but then we will know completely. That's a very different thing. The Bible talks about the marriage supper of the Lamb and and a feast right and everybody's feasting and celebrating together. There's a consciousness and an engagement in things we normally do as humans today. They're sitting around a great feast, they're celebrating Jesus. They recognize Jesus. He says, we will know and be known. The Bible says, so, uh, there's there's Basically, I think people struggle with their concept of heaven. That's that's it. And we've talked about this before. But so Jesus said, I go and prepare a place for you. When when when we read the part with with Lazarus and the rich Man and Abraham, at that time the place of the dead seemed to have paradise and judgment right, Jesus says in one passage, and in hell the rich man opened up his eyes, lifted up, his eyes called out to Abraham. So you have paradise and hell nearer, then, the Bible says at Jesus. During Jesus' time in the tomb, Corinthian says, he leads captivity captive, and a lot of theologians believe that means he took then those that were in paradise, not those in hell, but those are in paradise to the place that he prepares for us. Jesus said, I go and prepare a place for you. That's what we think of is heaven. In my father's house. There's many rooms right now, John fifteen, Right right, we think of that. So there's a place. And if it were not so, I would have told you I'm going to leave, and when I'm going to come back and get you and take you to where I'm that you may be where I am. But then when it's all done, you get to the end of the Book of Revelation, Book a Revelation says that God finally destroys the heaven and the earth, and everything is done. While there's this great judgment in eternity. There's the judgment see to Christ, there's the great White Throne judgment. Everybody's going to stand before God in that moment. And then when that's all done, the Bible says, he said, behold, I make everything new. Lookie makes a new Heaven and a new Earth. When he talks about heaven, he's talking about atmosphere, he's talking about space, and he says, I'm making a new Earth. And he says, I'm going to be with them, and I will be there. God, they will be my people. Right, and describes there'll be no more tears, There'll be no more disease, There'll be nothing. And it says that the new Jerusalem comes down to Earth, and this new Jerusalem is fifteen hundred miles cubed, fourteen hundred, fourteen hundred miles high, fourteen hundred miles wide, fourteen hundred miles deep. And this city that comes down, this new Jerusalem that comes down to the new planet Earth that God makes. I think that's the place Jesus said I'm going to make for you, right, that's the place you and I think of as heaven. But God's plan is to meld. Then the spiritual, this new Jerusalem with the new physical that he creates on earth. And then he's taking us back to what He always originally planned in the garden for Adam and Eve, right this perpetual communion with Him and full on human society the way it was supposed to be. So the Bible describes that new city, that new Jerusalem, has twelve gates and commerce coming in and out. There's kingdoms and rulers, and there's food, and there's animals, and there's all that. There's trees, there's rivers, there's all the things that makes up a perfect paradise that we were supposed to be in in the Garden of Eden that sin broke, God brings it back. And now just as Adam and Eve could walk with God in the spirit even while they were flesh, we will be able to do the same thing. We live both in the spiritual realm and the spiritual realm combined. What died when we died was the spirit side of us, right when we died in sin. Even though our bodies are alive, we died in sin, and the spirit side died of a died in us. Christ then resurrects the spirit side of us and in eternity, we'll have the ability to live both in the physical and spiritual. That's what that is. So these questions, of course, you're going to know people, You're going to know your name, You're going to know events, You're going to know a those things. But God's going to wipe every tear from our eyes. We're not going to have grief over what we experienced on Earth. It's going to be gratitude and awareness learning. Hey, not going to do that again, right. So let me ask you this question. So it says answering your questions in heaven. So when you go to heaven, are there any questions off the top of your head that you think? Man, I'm gonna definitely ask. Oh, we've said that so many times, haven't we have we? Yeah, we've said that on the thing. Hey, when I get to have it, I'm going to ask. Oh, just in passing yea, yeah, yeah, gee, I wonder about that. Yeah, but off the top of your head now without reading a passage in the moment, so I'll throw out one. Okay, explain to me how dinosaurs were on the arc? Were they on the arc or not on the arc? Like, what's the timeline. Right, So we know that dinosaurs, by the way, existed with mankind. Right, So Joe talks about Leviathan. So yeah, I believe that dinosaurs, by the way could have been on the arc because there could have been baby dinosaurs. Oh sure, yeah, in egg form, baby form something. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, so you'd ask God that question. I would ask that's one of them. Yeah. I think I've got a lot of whys. Yeah, why those are the Biggins And I think that that's the purpose of him saying listen, you only know in part right now, but in eternity you'll know completely. I think it's going to make sense when we start to see all of human existence from God's perspective and not ours. I've used this illustration before. When I was a kid, you know, we didn't have a TV, so we read a lot of books. We played a lot of games. My mom was always doing some crafty things, so making cross ditch or something, and I can remember on multiple occasions sitting down on the floor playing. We had a really small living room, we didn't have a family room, we didn't anything. It was a really small house and the eight hundred and twenty five square feet or something was the house vicious. So we were together when I wake up in the morn moent and we're like, all right, Jeff, get you close on go side, right right right. But you know, during the winter and stuff, we were all in the house together, and so a little little house. I remember watching my mom. She'd have a hoop. You ever watch somebody do cross ditch, they'd have like a hoop, stretch the fabric out, and then she's making these x's and yeah, my mom, my mom did that. Yeah, all these crust dish things like this. She'd make these beautiful, beautiful things. She frame them sometimes really beautiful. I remember looking but from the bottom it was just like tangled thread. It didn't make any sense at all, right, very very little sense. I could start to realize, oh, I think she must be making a house or something. But on the on the bottom side, it was just all threads hanging down. Yeah, and it didn't look great. But then when you come up and from her perspective it was it was a piece of art. From my perspective, there was kind of a vague awareness of what she was making. I couldn't read the words, I couldn't really see the faces. I couldn't see all the colors and things, but on her side, I could see it. I think that's going to happen for us is right now you and I are kaive in the tangled mess looking from down here up to God's perspective. But in eternity will be in God's perspective. And then I think it all makes so much more sense. Right now we live a life that's built around us and our needs and our perspectives. And then we will see God's big picture that he's He's doing and the and well we'll see the whole story. Have you ever done any of those things? Have you ever read a book where the author starts off at the first chapter, like in the middle of clearly a story they're going to tell. Well, a lot of movies do that. Yeah, movies will do that, right, Yeah, it'll start with the end in mind. What was the movie? Oh, oh, yesterday. I got home late last night, and Jenna also got home late from work, my daughter, and so her boyfriend was over, her fiance was over at the house, and so they kicked back on the couch and Jenna was like, oh, I've never watched the cartoon Mega mind. Wow. So she wanted to watch it. It's animated film, by the way. Jenna, Yeah, and John goes, okay, whatever this is. This is how you know that they're not married yet. Is He's like, yeah, whatever you want to watch is fine as opposed to going to me, Hey, you want to go downstairs watch a fight? Right, so our football game. So she she turns it on and it starts off with the character Mega mind talking about some surprising things, and then you realize he's falling to his death, right, and then just before something bad happens, then it cuts to the beginning of the story where he's being born. Right, So they and this is kind of how it's happening for us, is we are living our little chunk in the middle of the story or at the end of the story, and sometimes it can be a little confusing what all this is about. But in that at that point then God's going to go back and we'll have the whole story, just just like those movies. And it's a great it's a great movie feature or tool to tell a story. Right. Bless you, Chris, Well, thank you, Jeff, I appreciate that he does, he blesses. Yeah, Well, I was writ in the middle of my sentence. It's kind of rude, Right. I should have I should have held off. It's the matter with me. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, doesn't make sense. So that it's a good storytelling tool. And I think one of the reasons why we like that tool is because we're actually I think we instinctively know we're kind of living that story a little bit. Right, Yeah, well that's great. Well, hey, I think that we've exhausted. Well, I had a couple of things. So people who have some questions about these things, particularly about heaven, I think Lee Strobel's book The Case for Heaven is a really good book, really good book on that. And then I keep suggesting Norm Geisler. But Norm Geisler in Systematic Theology, you can either buy the one great, big one Systematic Theology and one volume. It's like sixteen hundred pages. It's slightly academic, but it's theology a little bit more approachable than say, super super academic people. But anyways, if you buy the individual books Systematic Theology, volume four, he talks about God's plan for the church, and he also talks about the last things. From a theologian's perspective, how do all the last things, heaven and eternity and all those things. How does it work? So if you're mildly technical or you're willing to just kind of plow through this kind of stuff, it's really really, really good. I think his writing really framed a lot of my perspective on eternity. And then Josh McDowell wrote a great little book a number of years ago called More Than a Carpenter, And I would suggest all three of those books for both of these questions, quite honestly. So if you're looking for something to follow up beyond some more stubstance than what Jeff and Chris can offer, then these guys are legit. Yeah, sounds good. All right, Well, hey, that's uh, that's the end of our time. So hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible gas. H m hm m m m m m Hm