Last week I shared What I Plan on Doing 10 Million Years From Now, and this week continues that series on the afterlife. Normally I try to write more story-based pieces that are not quite as theologically intense, but most people consider questions such as “Where will I go when I die?” to be unanswerable, and I disagree. I hope this is helpful. I made an audio version for you if that’s easier to digest!
Where will I go when I die?
First it’s important to remember that time is not something we can really wrap our minds around. Multiverses might exist, and maybe time actually moves in a circle and not a line, like in the movie Arrival 😛 It’s probably something different altogether1. I don’t care, honestly, because I don’t think lofty concepts like that are too relevant.
But this is what I as a Christian do believe about the moment after death: “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord2” and “Today you will be with Me in paradise.3” I know that I belong to Jesus, and when I die, I will be with Him. I get choked up with hope thinking about that. I love Him. I won’t be disappointed.
But that isn’t “the Resurrection” that the Bible talks about. There is, as one scholar, N.T. Wright, put it: “life after life after death.” Yep.
What is “the Resurrection?”
Obviously I’m in the camp that believes that after Jesus died on the cross, He rose again. The resurrection. But that wasn’t really the Resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 uses beautiful farming language: Jesus was like the first fruit of the Resurrection; the rest of us—and even creation itself!4—will ripen later. And what did Jesus do in this resurrected body?
He walked around, hung out with His friends, and ate food.
He didn’t drink fun drinks, though, because on the night before He died, Jesus promised that He would wait to drink wine again until “the kingdom of God comes.5”
Isn’t that so sweet? Jesus decided to wait until the rest of us are resurrected, too, because He’s genuinely excited about the Resurrection, about celebrating with us.
And I think that gives us an idea of what eternity will be like. It’s going to be on earth; instead of us going up to some place in the sky, the culture and goodness and magic of heaven is going to be here, on this place we have a love-hate relationship with, doing the things we love to do.
Everything we hate about the world will be gone, because all the bad stuff—including what we hate about ourselves—is because of sin. Death, illness, dangerous weather, racism, broken relationships, greed, insecurity, fear…all of it will be gone and replaced with love.6
What about hell?
You know those judgmental-sounding Bible verses that are a long list of the type of people who won’t belong in the kingdom of God? People usually use those as weapons against Christianity: “Oh, so you’re saying I’m going to hell because I ______?”
Verses like that show us that heaven is not going to be a place where people hurt each other. Everyone longs for a world without hypocrisy, greed, gossip, stealing, and unfaithful relationships, right? But we don’t have the imagination to believe that it could actually exist someday.
Also, every single person does at least a couple of the bad things on those lists, so even if that kind of world did exist, no one would be in it! Look at Titus 3: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another…” That is relatable! All of us do hellish things. All of us don’t want to think there’s a God who should tell us what to do. All of us are trying to figure out where we belong.
Good news, though: “…But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.7” There’s no room for being holier-than-thou here. You escape hell the same way you escape getting hit by a bus or drowning at sea: someone rescues you.8
The Christian worldview isn’t rocket science. The afterlife isn’t a points system of whether your good deeds outweigh your bad. The only relevant question is…are you rescued by Jesus?
What about right now?
All this is very humbling. Christians are supposed to be the humblest people on the planet. Jesus exemplified humility9 and said "unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
If you’re prideful, you’re wearing the wrong clothes to the party.
"Eternal life" isn't some far-off possibility, but something that starts when you know God!10 The culture of heaven begins now. It’s imperfect, messy, and complicated—because “the kingdom of God,” the Resurrection, hasn’t fully come yet, and we’re all still affected by sin in ways we don’t even realize—but the peace, joy, meaning, unity, love…that all starts now. That’s why I like church so much. It’s like a foggy little peek into heaven.
Well. This is plenty to stew on for the weekend. Check in next week for some lighter reading: daydreaming and wanderlust!
Also, last weekend my friend Aprile flew me down to Orlando to help record her podcast series about Heaven! She’s one of the best researchers and communicators I know, plus she is super super fun. I’ll share the link to that when it’s ready.
Love,
Hope
P.S. Some pictures from the week 😚
Jearimy Bearimy, as The Good Place portrays it 😆
2 Corinthians 5:8
Luke 23:43
Romans 8:22
Luke 22:18
I love the song “After the Last Tear Falls” by Andrew Peterson; oceans of love and love and love
I highly recommend reading all of Titus 3:3-7! (It’s a lot of words but it’s worth chewing on, one bite at a time 😉)
If you want some more details about hell: I don’t know. But I’m annoyed by the misconception that the devil runs hell; the devil is going to be punished in hell! By God! I think GotQuestions has a good take on this.
Philippians 2:5-11, Mark 10:45, Mark 9:35
John 17:3 is a banger