Is heaven boring?

Is heaven boring?

This blogpost comes from David Robertson, who blogs at theweeflea.com”.

Paul said that living in heaven is better than living on earth – “For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me” (Phil. 1:21-23).

There is a strange idea – that hell is a fun place to be, and heaven is boring. Hell is where you party with all your mates – and heaven is endless harp strumming. Satan is the father lies – and this is one of his biggest ones – and one of the most dangerous. Hell is hell. It is not possible to conceive of a worst place to be. Hell is not just darkness, torture and loneliness. It is also the most boring place you could ever be – the same endless hellish repetition. Heaven is heaven – it is not possible to conceive of a better place. And it is a place of joy, music, life and infinite variety.

We are sometimes so immersed in our culture and its memes that we do not realise how much it affects us. As a young Christian I was walking on the beach in Brora in the Scottish Highlands. I was at a missionary conference where the speaker was a wonderful man called Dick Dowsett. It was midnight and the moon was shining off the water. I turned to Dick and said – ‘Mr Dowsett, I have a problem”. “What is it, David?”. “Well, it’s all this. It’s so beautiful. I don’t want to leave it and go to heaven”. “Why? What do you imagine heaven is like?”. “I’m not sure, but I think it’s a bit like a church service that goes on forever”. He laughed and again asked: “Where would you like to visit on earth before you go to heaven?” “I want to go to Beijing, Barcelona, Sydney and many other places”. “David, you need to understand that Beijing, Barcelona and Sydney will be in heaven – or at least the good that they represent, the beauty they have – without all the bad bits. Everything good on this earth is in heaven – this is just the beginning”.

It was an enormously helpful conversation for me. I began to learn to stop thinking of heaven as some kind of ethereal almost non-physical place. Instead, I came to see heaven as the ultimate reality and this world as what C S Lewis calls ‘the shadowlands’. In other words, all the joy, beauty and love in this world, is just a taster for the real party. That’s why we are told that the invitation to follow Christ, is really an invitation to the greatest wedding party in the universe. “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9NLT).

That’s why Paul longed to go to heaven – because it meant that he would be with Christ. He knew that he had a job to do on this earth – he knew that Christ was in and with him on this earth. But that was always tempered by sin and its effects – both his own and others. Heaven is a sinless place. And it is the place of ultimate beauty, joy and interest – because Christ is there. You will never get bored – because it won’t be about you – it’s about Christ. And it is impossible for Christ to be boring.

Even the image of an eternal boring church service is wrong. Yes, there have been times when a church service seems as if it was going on forever and it was more like purgatory than heaven. But I hope you have had, or will have the experience, I have had a few times – where the sense of God’s presence, the joy and the beauty was so dominant that the time passed so quickly, it seemed as though heaven had come to earth, and you wished it would go on forever! It will. But not yet…. that was just a taster – wait until you get to the real party!

Another way of putting it is from the final book of the Narnia stories – The last battle. It is one of my favourite books ever. I don’t know how many times I have read it! Each time I read it; it seems as though I have learned something new. For me it has been most helpful about heaven.

At one point Jewel the Unicorn delights: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!”

Our experience in this life is one of decay. Change and decay in all around I see. Everything is running down. In heaven it is the opposite. Everything is being renewed. There is always something new to learn. A new song to sing. New experiences. It is never ending. And never boring!

Christians have an eternal inheritance in heaven, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pt. 1:3-5NIV).

We should daily look forward to a world without evil, suffering, sorrow, or death (Rev. 21:4). Anticipating the glorious realities of the resurrected earth has breathtaking implications for our present happiness and our sense of the far-reaching scope of the gospel message.

Let’s live upon heaven’s joys now, jettisoning unbiblical and unworthy views of heaven, and believing that the best truly is yet to come.

Consider

Where would you rather be? In a place of endless boredom, misery and loneliness; or a place of endless variety, joy and company? Jesus came to save us from ourselves. He went to heaven to prepare many places for those who trust in Him (Jn. 14:1-3). Have you accepted His invitation to join Him there? If you are a Christian – why do you long for the temporary, vain and fake jewels of this world, when you have the crown of Christ?!

Prayer

O Lord, forgive us that we too easily listen to the lies of the evil one – as if life with you could ever be boring! Help us to get rid of the false images we have of heaven – and enable us on this earth to get a foretaste of what heaven will be like, so that we do long for it and you even more. Lord, take us home. Amen.

Further reading

Lewis CS, “The last battle”

Acknowledgement

This blogpost comes from David Robertson, a Scottish commentator on religious, social, and political affairs. David moved to Australia in 2019 and currently lives in Newcastle in New South Wales.

Posted, March 2024