IIf You Created Heaven What Would It Be Like?
I have always been fascinated by the subject of Heaven and what it will be like. In the many times I have speculated on the nature of its substance I have imagined many scenarios as to what to expect. The problem is that all of them had flaws that suggested that they could not be accurate or it would eventually lead to some of the same problems we have in this life.
I finally realized that Heaven cannot be imagined in the mind of man because man himself is flawed and filled with psychological hang-ups that demanded that any utopian ideas of Heaven would only serve to satisfy those very human hang-ups. Because everyone has a different background of experiences and psychological needs, each of us would necessarily have different views of what would be a "perfect" environment.
One of my most disturbing speculations of heaven involved my facing God and asking "What is Heaven like?" and having Him ask me, "What do you want it to be like?" How would I answer a question like that? I know beforehand that any answer I give would be imperfect and that I would have to accept that vision for eternity. A person could inadvertently create their own version of hell in doing so. I'm glad that the final decision is in God's hands for that reason.
I thought that it might be interesting to relate some of the versions of Heaven that I came up with through the years and speculate a little about the possibilities.
1. One version of heaven involved God choosing the environment I most admired during this life as how I would like to spend eternity. I thought it would be wonderful to be a member of a crew like the "starship Enterprise" and cruise the universe exploring different forms of life. That version became flawed when I realized I would tire of that in time in much the same way I actually tired of watching re-runs of "Star Trek, The Next Generation". In considering all possibilities I realized that any role-playing adventure would be insufficient as a possible Heaven.
2. Another possible scenario would be, to be given the chance to re-live my life but retain all the knowledge and lessons of the first time around. It would be nice to be aware of all the times I have hurt others and be able to correct those, and other mistakes. Strange as it may sound, using that knowledge for material gain would be the last thing I would want, as the only goal of such an experience would be only to correct the mistakes I have made, and making things right. How much more could each of us enjoy our life if we could have a second chance at the same life. But what would we do after this was accomplished? Always there is that question.
3. The idea of "multiple universes" is popular in scientific circles today and it opens the door to another possible version of Heaven. If there are an infinite number of universes, perhaps we could take our pick of what kind of existence we would like to have. There could be a universe with the ability to defy all the laws of physics, to be able to command anything we wish into existence, or an unlimited number of possibilities. The problem with such scenarios is that without restrictions of any kind, such an existence would be very boring. Its like asking someone to play a game with you and when they asked you "what are the rules?", you reply there aren't any. Such a game would have no purpose or reason.
4. One version I liked as a lover of history, was the ability to go back to any time period on Earth and observe the historical events we all read about in the history books, firsthand, and see how they really happened.
I had one condition in all of those speculations, and it was that there would be one place in Heaven that all the inhabitants could come together and share with each other as we did on Earth. This would be the "New Jerusalem" as described in the Bible and there, we could be with any of the souls we had known and loved while alive on this Earth.
I now believe that all of the above versions of Heaven are false and fall far short of the "real" Heaven God has planned for us. As human beings we tend to imagine everything in terms of our earthly experiences because we have no other experiences to compare to. Heaven is not of Earth but of God's creation and He has other experiences that we can only speculate on, and try to imagine.
I like the phrase attributed to Arthur Stanley Eddington, an astrophysicist of the early 20th century. "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we CAN imagine".
To rephrase that, I believe that Heaven is not only greater than we imagine, but greater than we CAN imagine
My email is:: a_epling.yahoo.com
I'm more along the lines of John Lennon and science. There may certainly be multiple universes. But we are not in them. The facts of our universe clearly mean that we die, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. There's absolutely no evidence other than faith that there is anything hereafter except our elements and molecules continuing on to be recycled after us.
Robin Williams beautifully portrayed an ideal heaven in What Dreams May Come, and then went there. Thereby avoiding the hell of Parkinson's disease on his mind and body. Smart man.
Ron