We have been talking about heaven in Sunday School and church for the past couple of weeks. Maybe because I just made a significant deposit in heaven, the subject is more interesting to me than ever before. It is difficult for me to imagine a place that is not cursed as this world is, but I am enjoying the images that have been running through my mind. Today we (maybe I) decided that heaven might be like Mayberry with gadgets. I like the modern technology that is available to us--computers, satellite television, cell phones, etc., but I long for a simpler, safer world.
We read a little passage from Billy Graham's book called Death and the Life After that tells us what will not be in heaven. No denominations-divisions were made by man not God; no need for secondhand knowledge because our spiritual intelligence will be perfected- we won't look to writers or commentators for inspiration; no fear-we won't need alarm systems or locks; no night-everything will be out in the open; but most importantly, no suffering or death. Now that is something I can hold on to. I live with the knowledge that I have lost some of the most important people in my life to death and that I may lose others, but I have the assurance that the people I have lost were believers, so I will see them again.
I read this comparison many years ago in Halley's Bible Handbook, so this week I pulled it out to share with my class. If anyone has any doubt that The Bible is just a collection of old writings and not the inspired Word of God, read this.
The first word in Genesis:
"In the beginning God created the Heaven and Earth" Genesis 1:1
Almost the last word in Revelation:
"I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth" Revelation 21:1
"The gathering together of waters He called the Sea" Genesis 1:10
"And the sea is no more." Revelation 21:1
"The Darkness He called Night" Genesis 1:5
"There shall be No Night there" Revelation 21:25
"God made the Two Great Lights" (Sun and Moon) Genesis 1:16
"The city has No Need of the Sun nor the Moon" Revelation 21:23
"In the day you eat thereof you shall surely Die" Genesis 2:17
"Death shall be No More" Revelation 21:4
"I wll greatly multiply your Pain" Genesis 3:16
"Neither shall there be Pain any more" Revelation 21:4
"Cursed is the ground for your sake" Genesis 3:17
"There shall be No More Curse" Revelation 22:3
Satan appears as deceiver of mankind. Genesis 3:1,4
Satan disappears forever. Revelation 20:10
They were driven from the Tree of Life. Genesis 3:22-24
The Tree of Life re-appears. Revelation 22:2
They were driven from God's presence. Genesis 3:24
"They shall See His Face." Revelation 22:4
Man's primeval home was by a River. Genesis 2:10
Man's Eternal Home will be beside a River. Revelation 22:1
The approximate dates of the Bible that are accepted by most scholars begins in
2500 BC and ends in 100 AD, yet the continuity is evident.
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