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The dead in Christ aren't in limbo awaiting the end-time melding of modes. Given the relativity of time, in relation to us, they're already enjoying some form of the New Jerusalem. This "great cloud of witnesses" (Greek: "martyrs") hovers about us, mind touching mind, spirit touching spirit, and one day, at the final resurrection of the Last Day, hand grasping hand! Created in the image of God, in the new heaven and earth we will put on God's likeness. As John wrote:

"Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3, NRSV).

Heaven is where Jesus is; and after death some form of ourselves, reflecting the risen Jesus, will function in dimensions of reality not now accessible to us.

Arthur O. Roberts is professor at large at George Fox University and author of Exploring Heaven: What Great Christian Thinkers Tell Us About Our Afterlife with God (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003).

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April 2005, Vol. 49, No. 4