All Comments for: Until We Meet Again | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2007 > October

Christianity Today, October, 2007 |

Good Question

Until We Meet Again

'Does the Bible teach that we will recognize our loved ones in heaven?'

Daniel R. Lockwood | posted 10/23/2007 08:52AM

As the years pass, this question looms larger in my thinking. Last year, I attended three funeral services of godly saints who'd passed away. One was my 85-year-old father-in-law, whose exemplary life ...

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Rate and Comment on this article

Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 comments.

Page: 1

Show All

ajayi lanre

Posted: November 06, 2007 6:31 AM


good

Don Johnson

Posted: November 05, 2007 11:56 AM


Could I add another passage? See 1 Thess 2.19-20. Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are his glory and crown in the presence of the Lord at his coming... Hard to see how Paul could look forward to rejoicing in their presence before the Lord if he has no expectation of recognition. Regards, Don Johnson Jer 33.3

John M

Posted: October 30, 2007 1:16 PM

Even if we do see our loved ones again, I doubt that it will add any joy to the experience of being in heaven. I'm assuming the experience will be perfectly joyful anyway. If we will also recognize people in heaven who irritated us on Earth, but we assume that we will feel no irritation toward them in Heaven, then we must also assume that seeing loved ones will provide no additional joy. i.e. the presence or absence of any other person in heaven should not affect our overall joy level.

Chuck

Posted: October 29, 2007 8:42 AM


Jesus, I trust in you. Whatever happens I am sure for the best. I mean I trust in you with my life now. You have never let me down. Why should I think that when I die, you will walk away? I am sure your interest in my and my friends well-being will continue long after my physical body is forgotten. Amen!

Daniel R. Lockwood

Posted: October 25, 2007 1:56 PM

Forgive my high rating of my own article, but I had to choose something! I appreciate readers' mention of recognizable biblical characters in a post-mortem setting: Samuel to Saul, Lazarus and Dives (the rich man), Moses and Elijah on the Mt. of Transfiguration. I chose rather to establish biblicially our connection to the resurrected Savior and ran out of room for those important examples. As to dualism, a certain form of dualism is, in my view, thoroughly biblical. You cannot read Jesus or Paul and not see it. It is not, of course, the dualism of Plato or the Gnostics, but let's not throw out the thriving baby of biblical theology with the dirty bathwater of Greek philosophical distortions.

Seiji Shindo

Posted: October 25, 2007 8:49 AM

i am 20 yr. old.i'am almost 7 yrs born again christian. my whole life in 7 yrs i've been struggling for a happines i join a fraternity to find that joy i find it in my friends. while i'am with them i learn how to smoke ciggarites and to use drugs. i became an drug addict until now and i am struggling in my faith because of the fear and negative thoughts in my mind. i started to be parraniod while i am in the influence of that drugs and until now i am a double minded person. and i really cannot read my bible because of my doubt that is god true etc.. what will i do to have that happines and to be secure in my ways of living and to be a good person in my neighbor because all of my neighbors even my family looks on me as an enemy. i don't know how to do? how can i trust to your god? and when will my life change? i hope that your website can help me and find my real purpose here in world. that's all thank you so much.

Walter

Posted: October 25, 2007 2:16 AM


If true, then babies stay babies forever.

Ephrem Hagos

Posted: October 24, 2007 1:58 PM


Although popularly accepted, it is sad to say that Lockwood's article is mere wishful thinking with little or no insight into Scriptures. E.H

Bill WGCF.org

Posted: October 24, 2007 10:09 AM

Amen to anonymous. The article is interesting and great to stir up conversation, but I think the questions that we ask about heaven (bodies, loved ones, pets, details of the heavenly city) are all proof that we are human, and ask lots of "earthly" questions about a spiritual, eternal place. I'll see my Grandmother, and the Apostle Paul, and everyone else, but all of that will pale in comparison to the fact that Jesus will be seated on the throne, accepting our worship! "Hi, Grandma, let's go worship!".

anonymous

Posted: October 24, 2007 12:44 AM

Interesting that I would read this article tonight, the fouth anniversary of my wife's sudden unexpected death at 45. I have found great comfort in reading Randy Alcorn's writing on heaven and the point he makes about the no marriage verse. We know that everything, including relationships, will be perfected in the new heaven and the new earth and no matter what our relationship was like for 20 years here it will be better there. Certainly, it will not be the central focus of our attention when we are in the presence of Jesus.

Andi Eicher

Posted: October 23, 2007 10:00 PM

The disciples recognised Moses and Elijah - well before the final resurrection. The rich man in the story of Lazarus and Dives recognises the erstwhile poor Lazarus across the great divide that seperates them. Jesus was recognised by his disciples (though not immediately by some of them) - though he continued to bear the marks of his crucifiction in his glorified body. God will hardly undo our identities in glory!

VGB	Posted: October 23, 2007 4:17 PM

10/23/07 It is my sincere conviction that the above was clear, and from The Word. However, the one illustration that our Lord and Savior Jesus told us about while He was on this earth (as recorded in the Gospels) was the parable of Lazarus and the Rich man. When they both died, they could recognize each other and Abraham as well. As for my Mormon friends, may I remind him/them that Christ himself also said that in heaven they neither marry nor give in marriage; because we'll be like the angels NOT EARTHLY any more. VGB

Sam	Posted: October 23, 2007 4:14 PM


This is a dualistic understanding of salvation--if not gnostic. Our souls don't go to heaven. Our whole person goes into the ground, back into the very dust out of which God's Spirit blew life into us--where we await the resurrection of our bodies--out of the dust into the new creation, the new humanity!

John	Posted: October 23, 2007 12:36 PM


Well reasoned article, could not agree more.

Raymond Takashi Swenson

Posted: October 23, 2007 12:22 PM

I agree with everything you have set out here. It is completely consistent with the beliefs of my church--the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Mormons"). With respect to your concluding questions, we Latter-day Saints believe additionally that it is possible for us to be united in marriage for eternity, and to also be linked forever to both our parents and our children. That belief places a very different complexion on our marital and family relationships in the here and now, and it is the driving force behind the search for family history records, which can now be accessed via the Internet and on computers at thousands of family history libraries open to the public. Whether you are Baptist or Buddhist, Catholic or Jew, African American or descendant of an Ellis Island immigrant, the largest single source of records on your own distant ancestors is there, and you are welcome to use it at no cost.

Page: 1

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment