Heaven is a Place on Earth

On August 27th, we laid to rest a beautiful, sweet and gentle member of our family.  She was our standard poodle, Rosie.  A strawberry blond bundle of soft fur and big brown eyes, Rosie came to our family in October of 2012 at 8 weeks old.   Sadly, we found out 4 months in when she was 6 months old that she had Juvenile Renal Dysplasia, a devastating disorder in which the kidneys never mature beyond the fetal state.  She was in chronic renal failure.  The prognosis is always death and there is no cure, only palliative care to maintain a good quality of life and possibly extend it by taking the load off the kidneys.  Most of what I had read said that dogs with both kidneys effected lived 2 years or less, most less than a year, and she had both effected.  I did as much as I could by changing her diet and we loved on her as much as we possibly could. She spent almost 2 years with us and passed away 17 days after her 2nd birthday.  She lived a full year more than most. Despite her difficulties, she had a good life.

Shortly after she was diagnosed, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Sadly, I don't have a lot of memories of her during that time, but my husband tells me she spent a lot of time snuggling with me while I recovered from surgery.  For two years prior to her joining us, we had been trying to conceive unsuccessfully.  She was a source of joy and unconditional love in a period of time in our lives that was especially difficult.

As I have been mourning her passing, my 5 year old has been satisfied that she is in Heaven.  He doesn't understand my grief in light of that fact. And I do believe it is fact. [If you believe emphatically that animals do not go to Heaven, please do not express that here.  My heart cannot handle that right now. Thanks.] This is not a post on the equality of animals to humans (which I do not claim), but rather an examination of what the Bible says about Heaven.

When the earth was created by God, death was not part of His original plan.  Animals and humans were created on the 5th and 6th days with a unique characteristic - the 'breath of life' (Genesis 7:15, in Hebrew 'ruach chayyim,' the 'spirit of life').  Eden was a prepared dwelling place for Adam and Eve and the dwelling place of God on Earth.  Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden and it was a place of sufficiency for animals and humans alike. Without sin entering the picture, all of creation was to be eternal (no death) and in the presence of God.  Animals and humans were companions; animals being specifically created for the purpose of companionship with man. When sin entered, death and destruction entered the earth; the fear of man came upon animals and that companionship was broken. Humans were banned from the perfection of Eden and exiled to a broken version of the original earthly plan.

What is your view on Heaven? Do you imagine it as a place in the clouds where we gain wings when we die? Do you imagine an eternal church service?  Either of those could sound peaceful or boring. When I was first learning about Heaven, I read about 'streets of gold' and a city environment.  Not being much of a city person, that disappointed me.  I wanted trees, flowers and wide open spaces.

In scripture, there are two descriptions of Heaven.  There is the 'present' Heaven where those who die in Christ before His return dwell until the final redemption occurs.  The Bible doesn't give much description of it, but it has at least two parts to it - a city (Jerusalem) and a garden (Eden).  It is where God, Jesus and angels dwell, a separated space from Earth.  Those who have died before Christ's return have some sort of resurrected body (Rev 6), but will be reunited with their earthly bodies at the moment of the rapture (1 Thess. 4:16-18).  This leads us to the 'New Earth'.  After Christ's return, we will be reunited with our present earthly bodies and they will be 'made new' or redeemed to be free of any sickness, disease, disorder or imperfection.  In the same way, our present earth will be 'made new'.  Just like the Earth was 'destroyed' in Noah's flood, it will be 'destroyed' with fire. This is not to say that it will cease to exist and a new one will replace it, but that it will be cleansed to start new.  Earth 2.0, if you will. After that, those who have died in Christ will occupy the New Earth for all eternity.  God will join us on the New Earth and dwell among us as He did in the Garden of Eden. 

Does that go against what you have always thought of Heaven?  It excites me!  All the places I will not have the opportunity to visit in this life, I will have eternity to explore and at 1000 times the beauty it is now.  The way creation was MEANT to be before it was corrupted by sin. There will be no death, no disease, no sorrow.  We will be fully human, yet perfect and in perfect communion with God. We will eat, fellowship with others, and generally enjoy God's creation. We will also worship, which I don't think will be an isolated, corporate event as it is in many cases now, but an attitude that we exhibit as a way of life.  God's presence will be our light and all that exists around Him will bring Him glory.

Back to my original thought. Is Rosie in Heaven? Will I see her again and enjoy her companionship for eternity?  I believe I will.  God created her as He did every living thing.  It was Him who gave her the 'breath of life.'  God did not introduce or create death.  To believe that the creatures He created would end their lives in death, without the possibility of redemption and freedom from the curse, seems counterintuitive to who God is, in my opinion.  This is where we see the importance of it for us.  If an animal could live for eternity, we obviously we do too.

The more important question is will YOU be in Heaven? I am wondering if my dog will be in Heaven because I am sure of my entrance there when I die because of my relationship with Christ. The brokenness of our world corrupted her body and brought on premature death. I look forward to seeing her whole and healthy. God's love for us is so great that He went to great lengths to conquer death for us and give us the opportunity to live the life He originally intended as a free gift. We can do nothing to earn it. Animals being in Heaven is secondary to YOU being there.  Whether they go there or not does not depend on a relationship with Christ, but it does for humans. Do you have a relationship with Christ? The Bible clearly states that to spend eternity with Christ, we must have a relationship with Him.  You have the choice to follow Him or not. That is our distinction that sets us apart from animals; we have God's spirit in us that gives us the Free Will to choose Him or reject Him. However, if we reject Him, He rejects us and our eternity is spent apart from Him.  Apart from God is death, fear, sorrow, pain, despair, disease and isolation. With God is life, joy, peace, love, wholeness, fellowship and beauty.  What will you choose?

The World Vision Debacle

World Vision. Oh, World Vision. What a quandry you have created for Christians who support you. This is a sign of the times. It’s not the issue, it is a symptom of a greater problem. Homosexuality isn’t even the issue here, although we want to make it the issue to make the loss of support seem outrageous and nitpicky. Rich Stearns came out and said that the reason he and his organization had changed their policy on same-sex marriage was to defer to the authority of the local church and to remove an issue that is causing division in churches. It makes Christians sound petty and like that is the only issue we focus on. It is simply the issue being pushed currently, but the broader issue here is the belief that the Bible must change with new social belief systems, that it needs to evolve and that God would want us to change the way we believe because we have evolved. I have heard all of those things in explanation of acceptance of many previously unacceptable practices. This is not the first time an organization has come out to say that they were going to change the way they believed on one, small, seemingly unimportant subject from the Bible and that it was okay because they kept the Gospel intact. Sorry, folks it doesn’t work that way. Either the Bible is ALL true or it isn’t. If you start chipping away at the Biblical truths, you take the power and validity out of the Gospel. Each compromise chips away at the foundation of faith for believers and non-believers alike.



Let’s look at the life of Joe Student. He attends public school, but grows up in a Christian home. He attends college in Michigan where he begins to attend church at Mars Hill Church. He listens to Pastor Rob Bell week after week. Rob Bell is the author of ‘Love Wins’, a book that in essence teaches that Hell is actually the difficulties we face on earth and is the consequence for our sins while living this life, but our good, merciful and all-loving God does not condemn His creation to an eternity away from Him. So there is no Hell, no eternity away from God. What did Christ die for? Chip, chip…



Sin! He died to take away our sins! Welllll, are there really any sins? The Espicopal Church and many others have taken a stand supporting Same-sex marriage and abortion, so homosexuality has been removed from the list in 1 Corinthians and abortion ‘is not mentioned‘ in the Bible, so apparently that means it‘s not wrong:

‘Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’ (notice verse 11 says, ‘you once were’, not ‘you still are, but it’s okay, I won’t hold it against you‘)



　

or this verse in 1 Timothy:

‘We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.’



　

Really any sin can be justified and explained away, so why call anything a sin? So Jesus died for our sins and to open the door to an eternity in God’s presence. Well, there aren’t really any sins and Hell is only the difficulties we face on earth, so what exactly is the Gospel for? Chip, chip, chip…



So, we have Joe Student learning from false prophets all through college and into the working world with a weak and diluted faith. If he passes on what he has learned, he adds to he already weak populations of Christ-followers.



Each compromise disarms and dilutes the Gospel and by default, the Bible. They make it irrelevant. Not only do we have these compromises on social issues, but we have Christians promoting evolution as God’s method of Creation. This leads to an even further dilution of the Gospel because it takes away the fact that humans are a special creation, made in God’s image. Chuck Smith, the deceased founder of Calvary Chapel had a radio show before his death. I listened to two of them in which he disregarded God’s Word. In one, he said that children were only good to have if they were useful and the necessity of large families no longer existed because we are no longer an agrarian society. He touted the use of birth control because we shouldn’t be having more than two or three children per family. In another radio show, a woman called in who had been advised to abort her conjoined twins. He told her she should abort, that God would understand and forgive her and that he did not have time to pray for her. I was appalled that a leader of such a huge church would resort to worldly and sinful remedy for this difficulty instead of appealing to God for a miracle.


The World Vision debacle is just a small piece of a bigger problem. We as a church are getting weaker and weaker in the face of societal pressures. The Bible says that we will face persecution for Him and all of this compromise is just an attempt to avoid that persecution. Do I think that people should pull their support from World Vision for this policy change? I don’t know and I won’t advise anyone either way. That is between each person and God. I am honestly glad we don’t support them so I was not in a position to make this decision. It is unfortunate that the support will be lost, but I do understand. If World Vision is willing to compromise on a seemingly small issue, what else are they compromising on? Let’s say that a same sex couple is serving together in India and are asked by a child about their relationship. How do they handle it? Children ask innocent questions and believe things that they learn at a young age. The answer they give can make or break a child’s faith.

As a church, we need to get some courage and be ready for war. Face persecution with grace and unwaivering faith. Nope, it will not be easy and the temptation to compromise will be great, but the compromise of organizations like World Vision and the Epsicopal Church puts the rest of the faith community in a precarious position. We will be bullied to change our policies and beliefs simply because another faith-based organization did and I’m sure there will be threats of the loss of funding and tax-exemptions if we do not conform. Get your armor ready, friends, the war is raging!