Oct 12, 2009
We will be shocked by who’s in Heaven. Do we live like this is depressing or exciting for us?
I fail, but I want my life now to prove I’ll be overjoyed—not annoyed—with whoever else God lets into Heaven.
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Theme based on Derek Punsalan's Grid Focus.
What a thought. Good, good perspective.
A well-known theologian argued once that, even though he doesn’t believe hell will be empty, he sure hopes it will be. And he thinks you should hope so too.
Interesting post.
It has never occurred to me to be annoyed. He has been gracious enough to save me, and I know what kind of wretch I am, why wouldn’t I be excited to see what other wretches He has saved.
The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:19-21 who will not be going to Heaven:
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Well now, that makes it just easy doesn’t it?
The Lord Jesus had something to say on this matter too besides the apostle Paul, He said in Matthew 7:21 -
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
So there will be people that have made a profession of faith in Christ that will end up in Hell. That should cause all professors of Christ to see if they have genuine faith or superficial faith.
I can’t wait to get to Heaven because the Lord Jesus Christ will be there…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbzJYqj2xC4
And knowing that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to heaven, proclaim the gospel and pray for your lost family, friends, and neighbors. And also know that nobody deserves Heaven, they only merit Hell for their rebellion against God.
Love the Keith Green piece. And I think Keith would have LOVED Abraham’s perspective.
Here is Keith Green song wriiten for his non-Christian parents…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePsN-E7hm2s
He loved his parents enough to tell them the truth about the Lord Jesus.
Abraham,
Thank you for provoking thought.
Thankfully when I am with Jesus I will have perfect relationships with all of his other guests.
The thing that grieves me the most is how shocked we will be when we find that the people we assumed would be there aren’t. May we all proclaim the Gospel to all we meet whether we think they believe it or not.
In Christ,
Matt
Excellent point Abraham. I think about this often. I very rarely get to a point where I can experience joy and excitement at the thought of Person X getting into Heaven. So quickly my flesh turns my Salvation by Grace into some sort of divine country club. I can’t think of situation where elitism is a good thing. (Any thoughts?) It’s a daily battle. Like someone said, “Every born again, maddening mentally ill person will look you in the eye at the resurrection knowing how you treated them.”
I guess my mind is a little slow to comprehend what you’re getting at. We will be shocked by who is there – meaning folks who we think down here aren’t going to be there, or who isn’t there- folks we expect to be there, but won’t?
I think I will be shocked by the latter more than the former – Please don’t attack me for saying this – but I have a hard time with the once saved always saved mentality. Either you have given your life to Christ and you live for Him, or you have given your life to Him and you walked away. So why would we be shocked by those who clearly are not living for Christ?
2 Peter 2:20 – 22
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
Not starting an argument, just trying to understand.
my thought on it is this:
if we ‘give our life’ to Him and yet walk away (and are not drawn back) it shows the giving of our lives was not real: His purchase of our lives is not a refundable and irrevokable transaction. if the ‘transaction’ fails, there was no transaction to begin with…
true faith has works following hard after it, and perseveres (because it’s His sovereignty that holds us there, not our wills).
sorry, i meant to say not a ‘revokable’ transaction. that’s what happens when you change tenses midway….
Now that we know we’ll be shocked does that mean it won’t be a surprise? :-)
thanks for helping me check myself before I wreck myself
I more often wonder how many would expect to be annoyed that they would see me there. And hope to conduct myself in a way that makes that thought less likely.
Surprised at who is in heaven, and perhaps shocked and mourning those who we expected who aren’t present?
Do you still believe in “heaven” in the conventional sense? Or do you mean the New Heavens and New Earth in the biblical sense? (OK, I recognize that was an unfairly rhetorically loaded way of putting it … but I’m not erasing it now that it’s out there :-)
I do find the whole question transformed when my imagination locates this whole scenario here, however. I find that I can be more hopeful.
My reaction will be,
“My gracious and beautiful Lord was merciful enough to save you and me? My God be glorified!”
He saved a sinner like me. I know He can save anybody.
I understand the point that underlies this discussion (which has been going on for at least 50 years that I know of) but I have never understood that the assumption that it would even be possible for us to “experience shock” at who is in heaven.
We will be “on the other side of the flesh”, fully understanding and reveling in the grace that has been extended to us. It seems to me that our perspective would be identical to the perspective I had at the wedding of a friend’s daughter last month: as I noticed others in attendance at the wedding besides myself, I certainly wasn’t shocked. I just realized that, like me, they had been invited. And like me, they had accepted the invitation, put on their wedding garments and showed up.
Why would I express shock at their presence?
To be honest, I only hope my children, parents and brother and his family and of course the rest of my extended family are there. I don’t think much about others. Maybe I should.
[...] a great 22-words question for now and then! [...]
Listen to what the Lord Jesus has to say in this matter in Matthew 20, He says not to be upset with who He saves and sends to Heaven:
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’
“So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
[...] We will be shocked by who’s in Heaven. Do we live like this is depressing or exciting for us? 22 Words. [...]