Ultimate Discussions 10

(See Ultimate Discussions 1, below, for Introductory Material)



The Ultimate Happiness: Heaven


One of the Old Testament songs contains these lyrics:

Thou wilt show me the path of life:
In thy presence is fullness of joy
At thy right hand there are pleasures
For evermore.¹

C.S. Lewis said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”² If I could describe heaven in one word, it would be life. Hell is the exact opposite, death. In fact, it is called the second death in Scripture. The ultimate result of man’s rejection of life. In heaven, God banishes everything that corrupts and tends toward death. The following passage of Scripture describes heaven.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
And there shall be no more death,
Neither sorrow,
Nor crying.
Neither shall there be any more pain.

For the former things are passed away.³

Heaven is not the stereotypical fairy tale told to children at funerals to comfort them in their immaturity. To understand heaven requires a good deal of thought. Heaven is the reversal of the curse that came upon man and creation due to sin. It is the restoration of the order. It is the result of Christ’s victory on the cross when death was conquered. Christians must be resurrected with new bodies just be able to withstand and partake of heaven’s joy, its “serious business.” Heaven is the eternal exploration of the infinite horizon that God is. Heaven is eternal celebration. (That is why singing and music are so often mention in heaven.) Heaven is where man and God meet without any mediation. All distances are removed. And heaven, life, can be experienced a bit even now. Christians get a down-payment on heaven when they receive Christ. But only Christians can understand what that is.

Thank you for listening to these short discussions. My desire in writing, recording, and copying all these things is to share with you how to know God and go to heaven. The last chapter in the Bible contains a simple invitation. It says:

And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will,
Let him take the water of life
Freely.⁴


I encourage you to respond to that invitation by acknowledging your sins, laying down your arms, and placing your faith in Christ and receiving the gift of a right relationship with God.

It is absolutely free.
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¹ Psalm 16:11
² C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer (New York, Harcourt Brace & World, 1964), 93.
³ Revelation 21:4
⁴ Revelation 22:17