{"id":39019,"date":"2018-10-29T08:10:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/"},"modified":"2018-10-29T08:10:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:10:00","slug":"famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous Author Says \u2018Boredom of Heaven Worse than Tortures of Hell\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Josh and Sean McDowell write in &ldquo;The Resurrection and You&rdquo;:<\/p>\n\n<p>Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov expressed the attitude many have about heaven when he wrote, &quot;I don&#39;t believe in the afterlife, so I don&#39;t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Sadly, a similar view of the afterlife is common even among Christians. Our vision of heaven is often limited to an extended, boring, uninspiring church service. Many see it as a place where we will mosey about among clouds in long white gowns while strumming on harps. Somehow our image of heaven has become grotesquely distorted, and the prospect of life after death has not captured our imaginations or transformed our lives.<\/p>\n\n<p>I (Sean) recently asked my students what they would do if they had only three days left to live before they died and went to heaven. How would they spend those few remaining days? Answers included skydiving, traveling, surfing, and (of course) having sex. I followed up with a simple question: &quot;So, you think there may be pleasures and experiences in this life that if you don&#39;t do them before you die, you will miss out on altogether because they won&#39;t exist in heaven?&quot; All but two students answered yes. The prospect of heaven dismayed and disappointed them.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3398,3516,3883,3886,3887,3888,4134,4139,4442,4633,4657,4708,4828,4840,4982,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,396],"class_list":["post-39019","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-afterlife","tax_ctp_tags-boredom","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-temporary","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-life","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-eternity","tax_ctp_tags-heaven","tax_ctp_tags-hell","tax_ctp_tags-meaning-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-pleasure","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection","tax_ctp_tags-reward","tax_ctp_tags-sinful-pleasure","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Famous Author Says \u2018Boredom of Heaven Worse than Tortures of Hell\u2019 - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Famous Author Says \u2018Boredom of Heaven Worse than Tortures of Hell\u2019 - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Josh and Sean McDowell write in &ldquo;The Resurrection and You&rdquo;: Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov expressed the attitude many have about heaven when he wrote, &quot;I don&#039;t believe in the afterlife, so I don&#039;t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/\",\"name\":\"Famous Author Says \u2018Boredom of Heaven Worse than Tortures of Hell\u2019 - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-29T08:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-29T08:10:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Famous Author Says \u2018Boredom of Heaven Worse than Tortures of Hell\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Famous Author Says \u2018Boredom of Heaven Worse than Tortures of Hell\u2019 - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/famous-author-says-boredom-of-heaven-worse-than-tortures-of\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Famous Author Says \u2018Boredom of Heaven Worse than Tortures of Hell\u2019 - CT Pastors","og_description":"Josh and Sean McDowell write in &ldquo;The Resurrection and You&rdquo;: Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov expressed the attitude many have about heaven when he wrote, &quot;I don&#39;t believe in the afterlife, so I don&#39;t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. 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