Bruce Charlton's Notions

The traditional, orthodox concept of Heaven derives from ancient Greek philosophy - I shall call it Platonic - this can be summarised:

God - Creation - Beings

The first thing is God, alone - who does Creation - and late in Creation God makes Beings, including Man.  

For Christians; God is a God of Love, whose creation is a kind of gratuitous overflow of love: so we get

God-Love - Creation - Beings


By contrast, what I will call the Pluralist concept of Heaven - which is the one I believe to be true - can be summarised:

Beings - Love - Creation

The primordial situation is of many Beings, of whom two are are Heavenly Parents - Father and Mother.

Thus God is Dyadic, irreducibly Two and not a unity (or, the unity is of two always-distinct aspects, permanently-made a unity by Love); and it is from the Love between our Heavenly Parents that Creation comes into existence (Love, being the coherence and purpose of Creation; Love harmonising the diverse elements of Creation). So we get:

Beings-God - Love - Creation


The Platonic Heaven seems to be associated with a wish for absolute, abstract, infinite perfection - and God is defined in such terms - including that God is undivided unity, of infinite power and presence (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent).

And this primal God creates everything else (everything other than God) from nothing (ex nihilo) instantaneously, in zero-Time (first Nothing, then Something... there can be no graduation or graduality) - including Beings, including Men.

In a Platonic Heaven, therefore, Creation remains entirely God's business, and nothing/ nobody else can contribute to primary Creation (only to secondary details within Creation). Also Heaven is perfect, so there is nothing for Men to contribute to it. Also primary Creation happens in zero-Time.

The Platonic Heaven is essentially contemplative: Man has nothing necessary or useful to Do. Man enjoys heaven, but does not add to it (because it is perfect). In Platonic Heaven; we may express gratitude, worship, may do many things - but none of them are necessary, none make any qualitative difference to Heaven.

In sum, the Platonic Heaven, is a state not a 'process'. It is a state of being, a state of communion with God, of bliss... but essentially it is static - there is no dynamic to Platonic Heaven - because movement comes from difference, from desire, from deficit... and this cannot be because the Platonic Heaven is perfection.   


In distinction, the Pluralistic Heaven in a world of Love, but not of perfection. Love is understood as itself dynamic ('in' Time: Time is a part of primary reality), between Beings; and therefore Heaven is a continuation of Creation - and for Christians it is a Heaven of active, personal participation in Creation.

This happens because Christians will be resurrected into Heaven, and resurrection is understood as becoming divine - immortal, indestructible, grown-up children of God. The actuality of God's primary Creation is opened-to the contributions of resurrected Men.

Part of pluralism is the uniqueness of each being, including of each man. Each resurrected Man brings to Heaven something unique, that did not previously exist in heaven. Every single individual Man who enters heaven therefore brings something irreplaceable to the ongoing Creation.

In sum everybody who is capable of Love and who chooses to follow Jesus, may be resurrected into heaven; and each such person has something unique and irreplaceable to contribute to God's ongoing work of Creation.

The Pluralistic Heaven is not only-contemplative (although contemplation is surely possible, and part of things) - but is active dynamic and open-endedly creative: a growing Heaven. And this Creation of Men is included in the primary and divine Creation.

Man's unique and individual contribution is woven-into Creation permanently, forever. And this is made possible by Love.

It is Love that harmonises God's creation with the contributions of many individual and unique Men - resurrected Men joining in increasing numbers with time.


The Pluralistic Heaven is not perfect, it is not closed, it is not complete, it is not outside Time... on the contrary Time (sequential, continuous, linear) is an assumed part of reality. The Pluralistic Heaven is, therefore, developing, open-ended, growing... Heaven is in-movement, is changing, has a past and a future; and changing, expanding personnel - each with an unique contribution to make to the whole. 


So, we can see that the Platonic Heaven and the Pluralistic Heaven are very different places. While one may be contained within the other - only one or the other (or neither) could ultimately be true - since they each have extremely different ultimate metaphysical assumptions. 

I have often come across variations on the theme that this world and the Men, animals and plants who dwell here are perfectible: that this mortal life can be transformed into Heaven. 

The transformation has been variously expressed; one idea is that the gross materiality of bodies will be transformed into light; or that matter becomes spirit; or (in New Age type thinking) that the vibrational-state or frequency of the planet and everything on it will be raised. 

The underlying idea seems to be that this world as-it-is is "entropically" subject to death, decay, disease, and sin; but that the corruptible "stuff" of mortality and imperfection can be transformed and replaced by in-corruptible stuff... Thus Earth is changed into Heaven.

I regard this metaphysical belief as an early manifestation of Mankind's alienation, of our diminishing participation, of the loss of primal "animism" by which we knew that this reality is constituted by Beings - loving, conscious, purposive beings - and these are the bottom-line explanation. 

Because reality is Beings - therefore restatements of ultimate reality in such terms as vibrations or frequencies, of matter-spirit distinctions, or of light or any other physical property - are all abstractions. (All "physicsy").

That is these ways of understanding reality are all distanced, symbolic, representative - but not reality itself; and only a secondary form of understanding.

If, instead, we embrace the original and spontaneous human understanding of reality in terms of Beings, then we can recognize that what prevents Heaven on Earth is not a matter of matter, not about the "substance" of this world (as if it could be separated from the spirit). But instead that death, sin, insufficiency, "entropy" are a consequence on the inharmoniousness of relationships between Beings. 

In a nutshell: it is the lack of complete and eternal love that prevents our eternal lives and Heaven. 

We must rectify relationships and enable eternal Love to have Heaven. 

Heaven can arise only by Loving God first - that is, recognizing and committing ourselves to God's creation and creative methods and purposes. 

And second: by loving our neighbours/ fellow-Men - in other words Loving All Other Beings - forever.

These are the two Great Commandments articulated by Jesus Christ; and can be seen as shorthand for the eternal and irrevocable commitment to live by Love; in harmony with God's creative will. 

When beings live by Love, this is eternal - because there is nothing in Heaven (thus conceived) to disrupt or destroy divine creation.  

Since Love is what is needed, and since Love is a choice - we need to recognize that Love is the free act of a Being with agency as an essential attribute. 

Therefore (because Love cannot be imposed, top-down, from-externally); everlasting life and Heaven cannot be imposed, but must instead be chosen: indeed there must be a commitment to live eternally by Love. 

To make our lives eternal and dwell in Heaven is therefore a matter of relationship, and that relationship is voluntary (again, Love cannot be imposed)... 

Thus Heaven cannot be imposed on Earth by any means - what must instead happen is that all the beings of Earth (including the being of Earth itself) must choose to live by Love.   

I cannot see any way that such a lot of choices would be simultaneous, and Heaven cannot be partial; which would seem to mean that either Heaven must be delayed until every Being has chosen it -- which delay seems contradicted by Jesus's teachings (esepcially in the Fourth Gospel - of "John"). Or Heaven is elsewhere. 

(And also there is the fact of at least some apparently eternally-self-damned demons; which would prevent Heaven ever from happening - if indeed all must repent before eternal life can ensue.) 

Heaven surely cannot be partial; because the dwelling in Heaven of selfish or cruel Beings would not be Heaven! It would lead to destruction of that Loving creation which enables both perfection and eternity - and is itself the state of Heaven.

So, it seems to me that Heaven, and our eternal resurrected life therein, must be elsewhere than this earth; and segregated from this world of sin/ death - such that those Beings who have not committed to Love, do-not and cannot affect Heaven. 

My understanding is therefore that this-world cannot be other than it is; which is a consequence of God's Loving creation in a context of primal chaos, creation in the context of Beings that all have some tendency to death, to selfishness, to sin (and some Beings apparently incapable of Love). 

This world is temporary, and creation here is like the rule of a wise and wholly-Good parent imposed on children (i.e. Beings) who vary in their innate degrees of Goodness, and obedience. 

But for eternal life and Heaven to exist, these Beings (us, you and me, included) must be released from obedience in order to choose freely whether or not we want Heaven. 

So, this world is mixed: and has in it both evil (primal chaos, entropy, selfishness...), and also Good - vast and renewing manifestations of God's creative Love. 

Therefore; every Being or entity in this world has direct and personal experience of evil and Good. 

Every Being in this world is in a position to make the eternal commitment to live wholly by Love in a wholly Good "other place" that is Heaven - a Heaven that already exists, and to which we each can go by following Jesus Christ through resurrection, after death.

In other words; we can, will, and must choose either Heaven; or else "more of the same, mixed, kind of thing".  

But this world is not staying the same. 

This world apparently accumulates evil through time, because evil just-is cumulative, and Beings that choose evil become more evil..

(Unless the Beings repent; which means precisely making a commitment to follow Jesus to Heaven.) 

Also; Beings that commit to Good are incrementally being removed from this-world and segregated in Heaven. 

In other words; this mixed world already contains Hell in part and in places; but is becoming more Hell-ish with time. 

In conclusion; Beings such as our-selves can choose Heaven or Hell - both of which we all have experienced in this mixed world. This is the choice between eternally living only by Love; and not making this commitment. 

We can choose Heaven, or we can choose to reject Heaven. 

We can also choose to "delay" our choice -- but this is, in its actual effect, a here-and-now rejection of Heaven, and embrace of this mixed-world, which is tending towards Hell. 

We can go-back on this rejection of Heaven at any time: repentance is always open to every Being. 

But, in this mixed but evil-accumulating world, and given that un-repented evil will become more evil; delaying the choice of Heaven does make salvation more and more difficult. 

Repentance is never impossible, but always gets more difficult with delay. 

The utopian project to make Heaven on Earth reached its zenith in the middle 20th century with the triumph of Communism in many nations; but has never been officially or explicitly abandoned - and in a covert and incoherent fashion still motivates the political Left (which now rules the world; sometimes operating under other such flimsy disguises as conservatism, republicanism, capitalism etc.).

The contrast drawn is between - on the one hand - Christianity which offers resurrected eternal life in Heaven - only attainable on the other side of that transformation that is biological death (aka. 'pie in the sky'). And on the other hand; mainstream, materialistic socio-political Western ideology; amplified by the promises of transhumanistic technologies, which offers a positively transformed Heaven on Earth.

Of course, any such thing is currently blocked by the inevitability of disease, ageing and death and the limitations of human intelligence and emotions. Also the inevitability of suffering.

But (so the utopian hopes go) assuming these can be cured by (waving of hands at this point...) advances in technology (drug progress, genetic engineering, computer-brain interfaces... whatever); then why wait for something as uncertain as Heaven-beyond-Death when we can have Heaven-Now? 

All assuming that humans can live forever, without ageing or disease; without suffering or misery (unless they want it; and then only as much as they want for as long as they want) - and with as much happiness and pleasure as they desire. Potentially a life of bliss...

Who wouldn't want that? 
 


And even if Christians can have Heaven after death - what about everybody else?

What about those (presumably a vast majority) who do not want to follow Jesus; including those who do not believe Jesus, who hate Jesus; who are bored, indifferent or hostile to Christian ideas of Heaven - especially if these require onerous restrictions on lifestyle (especially sexual expression)?

Assuming it is achievable; a techno-Leftist utopia promises a Heaven for everybody! And here and now and for-sure.  

That is the special appeal of Heaven on Earth; that is why so many people regard HoE as morally superior to the Christian Heaven.

Universal happiness forever... Better by far, yes?


No.

Not better, but in fact Hell on Earth, rather than Heaven.

But why so?


Leaving aside issues of feasibility (and I do not believe it is possible to do these things - indeed I anticipate a continuation of the already-happening collapse in human capability) there is a basic reason why Heaven on Earth is actually Hell; and that is that any actual Heaven on Earth must be based on compulsion.

Why? Because Heaven on Earth is only possible with universal cooperation.

It would not be Heaven if people were free to exploit, parasitise, destroy, foment discontent; and from everything we know about human beings, universal assent and support to anything is attainable only by universal and irresistible compulsion.


When people believe that they are engineering universal happiness and immortality (even or especially if this really were possible) then the end would justify any and every deployment of effective means.

Humans would be compelled to be whatever was required for Heaven, for their own good; and/ or humans would be replaced by something better-than (at any rate different-from) humans - who would go along with utopia.


Heaven on Earth must be utterly unfree - hence Hell.

Because Hell is not correctly defined as miserable, but as a state of permanent spiritual enslavement. Hell is still Hell even when its denizens are compelled-irresistibly to be happy - because then the denizens are no longer Men.

The condition of absolute unfreedom is the obliteration of the self, the person, the Man in essence. 

Such a state may be chosen, Hell is apparently what some people - perhaps many people - want. But when Hell is imposed, as it would need to be to make 'Heaven on Earth', then Hell would become universal. 


I'm not saying that this is possible, indeed I believe it to be impossible. The creator has not set-up creation to allow Hell to be imposed.

But I simply point-out that wanting Heaven on Earth is actually wanting universal Hell: it is to take sides with the agenda of the demons; with those who oppose God, the Good and Creation. 


What about the Christian Heaven and its selectivity? Why can't Heaven be for everybody?

I hope that the above will help make clear why. My understanding is that selectivity is the only way that Heaven can be Heavenly, and at the same time free.

Selectivity is the only way that the denizens of Heaven can be real Men, with real selves, real agency; really participating in the work of divine creation (bringing their own distinctive, additional contribution to creation).


Death and resurrection is the means by which we can make a free and permanent choice for real-Heaven. That is why Heaven cannot be attained in mortal life, in this world.  

Also; if Heaven is to be Heavenly, it must be freely chosen. If it is not freely chosen it is Hell.

You may, of course (you are free to do so) prefer happiness to freedom; in that case you have made your choice - which, as such, is neutral. But when you desire to impose that choice universally, you have chosen evil.
     

The religion of the Ancient Egyptians - which is massively documented - provides a detailed picture of how the world of God's creation was before the work of Jesus Christ. 

Creation was made by the pushing aside of chaos; civilization was like a clearing in the wild forest; and the chaotic forest was always trying to take back the world of religion, agriculture and the domain of the creating Gods. 

Most of the Gods were Good, but the representatives of chaotic evil remained - such as Set (or Seth) who dwelt in the deserts around the fertile and civilized state of Egypt; and Apophis the primal world-serpant who, every night, attacked the ship of the sun, to try and prevent dawn. 

Thus light/ life/ goodness/ order was engaged in a continual and eternal battle to hold-back the chaos/ evil that surrounded on all sides; and which would otherwise return the world to its primal disorder. 

 

This may be taken broadly to represent the situation of divine creation on earth before the work of Jesus. And Jesus's work can be seen as the additional creation of Heaven, as a New Place to be inhabited by resurrected Men who have first been temporarily incarnated onto earth as mortals. The mortal state is that from-which each Man must choose Heaven - or Not.

 

By this understanding, Heaven is - and for the first time - a place that free men can inhabit where evil has been excluded - permanently.

By 'free men; I mean Men who are agents; operating-from their own distinctive divine selves; generating their own thoughts - mini-gods. In other words: In Heaven Men are secondary creators (operating within God's primary creation) - who can fully participate with God on the continuing creation of God's ongoing, expanding world. 

 

Jesus gave Men the possibility of resurrection to eternal life. Resurrection means eternal bodies; and bodies can only be eternal in an eternal environment - which is Heaven. In other words, Heaven in a world without death.

By contrast; this mortal life we know, here on earth, is ruled by chaos (or 'entropy', dis-order). All changes and decays, nothing lasts unchanged; there degeneration and disease are everywhere and death is the inevitable terminus. This mortal world - taken in isolation - is therefore the same as that described by the Ancient Egyptians.

However, since Jesus Christ; we have the chance to opt-into Heaven; which is an everlasting world without evil - without chaos or entropy.  

And at the same time, when resurrected into Heaven, we remain our-selves; indeed we become even more our-selves and able to participate in the ongoing work of God's creation. 

So, our mortal lives on this earth give us all lived experiences of chaos, entropy and evil; and the opportunity to learn from these experiences in order to make a final, irreversible commitment in favour of Good. 

In other words; mortal life on earth is what enables us to understand what is being offered by Jesus: eternal resurrected life in Heaven. And knowing (by contrast and implication) both sides, both possibilities... our free choice may be informed.   

 

My understanding of this new possibility of heaven; is that it is due to the possibility of each Man making a permanent commitment to Goodness, to creation, to the work of God. Because Heaven is composed only of Beings that have made this permanent commitment - then Heaven is a place without evil. 

All the inhabitants of Heaven (Men and others) are on the side of God and creation; and everything they (we) do in Heaven is in-harmony-with God and creation. Thus, In Heaven there is no tendency towards chaos, entropy, evil...

In another description; Heaven is based on the principle of love. The harmonious working of many free agents is possible by their mutual love. It is therefore love which is the principle of cohesion in creation - which 'organises' the work of many free individuals into a coherent, ongoing, creativity. 

 

The 'process' by which any mortal Man from earth was made able to be resurrected-into Heaven was made possible by Jesus Christ; and the 'method' made simple and accessible. Since Jesus; anyone who wants Heaven merely has to 'follow' Jesus, who will lead us through resurrection and into Heaven (a path which he himself has taken) as The Good Shepherd. 

It seems that (here on earth, in this mrtal life) not everyone knows-about Heaven, not everybody wants Heaven; and among those who do want to go onto Heaven, there are some who do not want to follow Jesus, or do not believe Jesus can or will lead us to Heaven. 

But we can trust that God the creator will ensure that everybody will have the fullest chance to know such things sooner or later; and before each needs to choose between a commitment to Heaven - or Not.

There are two very contrasting views of Heaven that are held by people who regard themselves as Christians - one as a static state, the other as dynamic.

There are, of course, other possible views of how Heaven might be - since the only essential trait is that Heaven must be Heavenly, must be pleasing and enjoyable in an ultimate sense.

But the static and dynamic concepts of Heaven have characteristics that are opposite. Actual Heaven could be a mixture of them only at a superficial level - and deep down, the reality Heaven must be one or the other but not both.

I will explain them in terms of a list of contrasting paired descriptive words:

Static                           Dynamic

Peace                           Joy
Completion                Creating
Rest                             Energy
Stillness                      Developing, growing
Home                          Family
Presence                     Friendship
Bliss                             Love
No questions              Evermore answers
Certainty                     Increasing understanding 
Infallible                     Expanding vistas
Out-of-Time                In-Time    
Lost individuality       The same 'self'
Impersonal                  Personal
Everybody same         Each person different


You can see that the dynamic Heaven has a lot of 'ing' words, representing change; whereas the static Heaven is about an unchanging state of existence.

Regular readers will know that I believe that the Heaven offered us by Jesus Christ (especially in the Fourth Gospel) is the 'dynamic' Heaven.

But the point I wish to make here is simply that there are people who want the static Heaven; they want it deeply - it is the Heaven that they want. Of this I am sure.

Now, whether these people would be satisfied by static Heaven for eternity - I don't really know. It might be suggested that they would become bored at nothing happening. On the other hand, they would not be aware of any passage of Time - so why should they become bored?

But it could be said of dynamic Heaven that people would get exhausted and frustrated by never ever achieving final satisfaction, and the tedium of Time stretching ahead for ever...

One answer is that Heaven has 'many mansions' - in other words, different sub-Heavens for different people. I'm sure that is true - but ultimately the reality cannot be both of the above; if one of them is real, then the other is a subjective illusion. If one is the truth of Heaven the other must be a mistaken interpretation.

Either way, my point is that some people response to the list of characteristics of static Heaven with a heartfelt yearning: that is what they most want for themselves.

This means that any specified description of Heaven we may give to another person - to explain what Jesus has promised to his followers - is likely to put-off some people, even as it attracts others. This might be taken to imply we should keep our description of Heaven very vague and abstract - but that sounds evasive and uncertain - and will put-off those whose deepest hope is for a dynamic Heaven.

So if we are definite and precise concerning Heaven - it will attract some and repel others; but speaking in broad generalisations, or claiming ignorance of something so vitally important, will not work any better!

Thus the nature of Heaven has become one of the key issues for modern Christianity; and a subject which deserves a great deal more attention than it has customarily received in the mainstream and orthodox denominations.

*

The modern world is so permeated with egalitarianism that we cannot think straight.

Because reality is not egalitarian;  reality is hierarchical.

Especially, Heaven is hierarchical.

And this is profoundly important to Christian life on earth.

Indeed, the purpose of life on earth substantially depends on Heaven being hierarchical.

*

If Heaven was not hierarchical, then life after death would ultimately be dichotomous (salvation or damnation, heaven or hell, all or nothing) and life on earth would be drained of meaning except to ensure that one ended-up on the right side of the line.

If Heaven was egalitarian, then (once the soul was in heaven) there would be no difference whatsoever between a Saint and and a last-moment-repented sinner - leading to the question of why bother to struggle, to practice the virtues: why strive to be a Saint?

*

There are two matters to consider: salvation and theosis.

In a sense, salvation is 'easy': we are told it is 'merely' a matter of believing in one's heart that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But what then?

What about all the rest of a Christian life with which the Church is concerned? What about prayer? What about religious practices? Living by the Law.

What does all this achieve? Is is merely a matter of insurance?

*

The answer is simple: Heaven is hierarchical, and once salvation is attained then life on this earth is (crudely put) about attaining the highest possible rank in Heaven.

This is what the Eastern Orthodox Church calls 'theosis' - the main purpose of a Christian life - the process of becoming more God-like while on earth, the process of coming into closer communion with God.

The highest attainable Heavenly rank is Sainthood.

And while still alive on earth, a Saint will live both on earth and simultaneously in Heaven; a Saint experiences Heaven while still on earth (his head in Heaven while his feet walk the earth).

*

Why am I so sure that Heaven is hierarchical? Because that is what we are told: not once but many times.

Angels are arranged in a hierarchy.

The Old Testament prophets are arranged in a hierarchy (with some accorded higher rank - such as Abraham, Moses, Isaiah).

The Saints are arranged in a hierarchy (with some accorded higher rank - such as Mary the Mother of God, St John the Baptist - and among more modern Saints and martyrs, some are accorded a higher degree of veneration).

Heaven is permeated by hierarchy.

If that bothers us, then that is our problem.

*

Christian life, then, is first of all a matter of salvation: but once salvation is attained then it is a matter of steps towards, or away-from, communion with God.

That is the main job of life.

And rank in Heaven is (roughly) a matter of where this process has reached at the time of death.

After death, the possibility for changing rank in heaven more-or-less ceases: in Heaven we remain what we have become while on earth.

*

However, the Christian does not know while on earth exactly what rank he will have in Heaven.

And indeed, there is the big, constant problem of spiritual pride to contend with - whereby the striving for higher Heavenly rank may be subverted by the desire for spiritual status while on earth.

Spiritual pride is the desire for recognition (while on earth) that one possesses a more advanced degree of spirituality than is actually deserved.

Pride can force a wedge between spiritual status as recognized by the (inevitably corrupt) Church on earth, and the reality of Heaven.

And spiritual pride can mean that we believe that while on earth we have the power to discern our own deserved spiritual rank in Heaven.

Ultimately, this can lead to damnation - hence the pitfalls of striving for Sainthood, temptations so well recognized in the Orthodox tradition.

*

Furthermore, we know that the hierarchy of Heaven is almost the reverse of the hierarchy on earth (the rich man rated lower than the poor man, the humblest ranked highest etc.)

This is not a matter of precise inversion of earthly hierarchy - because theosis is a matter of free will, of choices; but that the higher one's status on earth, the harder it is to attain high status in Heaven.

*

Hence the traditions of Holy poverty, Holy asceticism, and Holy fools.

To be poor and humble, to suffer, to be regarded as a fool and to be devout is at least correlated with the highest rewards in Heaven.

(And vice versa.)

So these are things that those highest in status on earth need to do to increase the chance of being justly rewarded by higher rank in Heaven.

*

What does high rank in Heaven actually mean, and why should we want it? Would it not be enough to have the lowest rank?

These are deep questions to which we apparently do not have such clear answers.

The best answer may be along the lines that we get what we want: when we are full of pride then we do not want the closest communion with God for eternity; and we will get what we want to the degree that we want it.


*

Heaven is not a place or situation of perfect happiness, and people get terribly confused by trying to explain how it could be! 

Heaven could, in theory, be a place of perfect happiness; but only by changing people very fundamentally - including permanently destroying their individuality and freedom. 

People would need to be re-made as Beings incapable of anything but total happiness. 

Maybe this could be done (perhaps by some kind of supernatural-spiritual equivalent of genetic engineering, psychopharmacology and lobotomy?) - and if it was done then the people in Heaven would always be happy, whatever Heaven was actually like. 

After all, they couldn't Not be happy! 

Such modifications would overcome any and all possible objections of the "I couldn't be happy in Heaven, and would not want to go there, unless..." type. e.g. I would not want to be in Heaven "unless my wife was also in heaven" - or "unless my wife was not in Heaven" perhaps?

The only realistic answer (if Heaven is to be happy) is that in such a Heaven we will be re-made such that nothing could ever possibly disturb our state perfect happiness.  

In other words, if we do try to make Heaven a place of perfect and unalloyed happiness, then we have defined Heaven in terms of how people react to it; which makes Heaven all about the constitution of the people in it, their set-up, their capabilities and reactions. 

But in reality Heaven is (surely?) what it is - and therefore not how all people will react to it? 

In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus tells us that Heaven is the place of eternal life after this mortal life, or life everlasting. He describes its characteristics by means of stories and symbols - in what we might regard as "poetic" or metaphorical language. 

Heaven is the "place" where we go when resurrected. Its basis is love. When in Heaven we are fully Sons of God. 

Heaven is a choice, and Jesus assumes that some, many or most people will not choose it - will not want it. 

We get there by "following" Jesus (the Good Shepherd). 

Jesus desires that we shall be his friends, not his servants. 

And so on...

The point is that resurrection to eternal life is not described in terms of how we feel about it; but in terms of the new possibilities that Jesus has made available to Men. 

Instead of a life of this mortal life of partial and temporary gratifications, lived among evil from others and within our-selves; Heaven is a place of love, with everlasting and transcendent satisfactions. 

..As with the "living water" Jesus describes to the Samaritan woman; or the "meat which endureth into everlasting life" he contrasts with earthly food - including manna - he expounds after feeding the five thousand.

But even aside from the descriptions of the Fourth Gospel - based on the assumptions that God is the prime creator, wholly Good, and our Father (and Men His Sons); a Heaven of total happiness doesn't make sense - while a Heaven of eternal resurrected wholly-loving life can make sense. 

 

I am very dismayed when (which is often, usual) I come across Christians who conceptualize Heaven in terms of a reward of some sort, and God as some sort of spiritual examiner - allocating salvation on the basis of performance. 

And threaten the agents of evil with exclusion from Heaven; or express delight at the misery to be caused by their exclusion.*

This asserted scheme is a terrible, false, and deeply aversive misrepresentation. 

The reality of the situation is - surely? - much better expressed by presenting Heaven as a choice? 

To enter Heaven is a choice - and, because Heaven is a situation utterly without evil (or else it would not be Heaven) - to exercise that choice entails leaving behind all this is evil in us... 

Discarding at the porch all that is evil; heaping each and all of our sins and defects "in a pile on the doorstep"; before proceeding through the gates of resurrection, and on to Heaven. 

Anyone can enter Heaven who wishes to do so - so long as he will pay the price of admission; and everyone capable of wanting Heaven is capable of paying the price of admission - because that price is (simply) to disarm himself of all that is not-Good. 

Those who insist on holding-onto their sins, are denied admission whether they want Heaven or not - which is a simple matter of coherence, because insofar as they 'want' Heaven, those who will Not discard-repent all their sins have decided that (in fact) they want their sin/s more than they want Heaven. 

But that reality is not well expressed in terms of God's allocating places in Heaven, and each Man being brought to the bar of God's judgment'. 

We choose or reject Heaven and what is needful to become a part of Heaven; we are not barred from Heaven by anything except our own choice.  

In a salvation-focused sense; all our mortal life can be boiled-down to that point on the threshold of Heaven when we decide whether irrevocably to allow our-selves to be made-Good... or Not.  

But, it is a choice. 

Jesus came to give us this chance, to offer the gift of Heaven. Whether we take that chance, and accept that gift, is up to each-of-us. 

*Rhetorically speaking, this is actually counterproductive. The majority of unbelievers regard such threats as a lame joke made by pathetic losers. And, more generally, those who do not go to Heaven overwhelmingly don't want to go to Heaven - are repulsed or bored by the whole idea of Heaven. So there is not much reason to suppose they will regret being "somewhere else" - at least, not at first.    

A Social Justice Warrior speaks:

As a atheist, feminist, antiracist, environmentalist, sexually-inclusive leftist; I don't personally want to go to Heaven. 

But I have noticed that people of my kind are grossly Under-Represented among the resurrected souls - indeed, so far as I can tell, there are none of us there At All! 

This is conclusive evidence of an intolerable and extreme prejudice against sinners by those responsible for Heaven. 

Indeed; Heaven has historically been a massively Non-diverse environment; and enforced the systemic Exclusion of sinners. 

But not all unrepentant sinners are so-called 'evil'! Some sinners are indeed much better - nicer, kinder, more concerned - than The Good. 

Indeed, when properly understood by the correct ideology - sinners are better, more moral, people than the (so-called) Good. 

It is, the Good who are Truly evil - as conclusively evidenced by the blatant, unjust and bigoted exclusion of sinners from Heaven.  

Such gross Apartheid between unrepentant sinners and the so-called 'followers of Christ' is clearly an intolerable injustice. After all, unrepentant sinners and Jesus-haters are normal human beings too, and have the inalienable right to go anywhere, and be anything - Including Christians! 

It might be said that anyone who Wants Heaven and repents can already live there; and that people like me just do do not want Heaven... But That is exactly the problem. 

This is systemic discrimination - the righteous have made Heaven a hostile and toxic work-environment for sinners - precisely in order to exclude us. 

We do not want Heaven only because the 'righteous' have made Heaven into a Hell for sinners!  

Systemic discrimination must therefore be dismantled, and Heaven made into a comfortable and welcoming environment for sinners. Only then will sinners be appropriately represented in Heaven.

But there will be no benefit if sinners are admitted to Heaven just to become an underprivileged minority victim class.  

Sinners must therefore cease to be 'judged'. 

The environment of Heaven needs to be purged of hostile and discriminatory and triggering references to 'God'. 'Christ' and 'divine creation'. 

(Due to centuries of inequity, even the slightest hint of deity can be experienced as a hurtful micro-aggression - so this process of purging requires to be comprehensive and detailed.) 

Our aim is that sin and sinning be viewed positively, as Valid Lifestyle Choices. To that end, centuries of ignorant anti-sin propaganda must be undone. 

Sin needs to be praised, subsidized, rewarded - to inculcate the higher ethic that sinners have nothing to be ashamed of. 

Sinners ought to be Proud of their sinning; and until such Pride is spontaneous, natural and universal - our work is not complete.  

In the short-term, this will means that the admission and promotions practices of Heaven will need to be supervised and managed. 

Fortunately, Hell offers consulting facilities for setting up an equitable Human Resources facility to provide oversight of all Heavenly activities - and while these services are expensive, they are much cheaper than the alternative of Heaven being annihilated by the mass media, the legal system, and state bureaucratic regulation. 

In the short-term, there will need to be a levelling-up phase of Affirmative Action, with Quotas for unrepentant sinners in Heaven - including at the highest levels. 

We cannot tolerate a Glass Ceiling for sinners! 

Therefore, in order to create the necessary positive environment for sin and to address the systemic inequalities of the past; quotas will need to favour sinning.

Therefore; Satan will need to be put in charge of Heaven.

In the end; Heaven can be a genuine 'Good Place' only when those who wish to destroy God's manifestation are given the same encouragement and support as those who 'Love Jesus Christ'. And that can only achieved be ensuring that Heaven is administered by Hell. 

The followers of Jesus will, of course, always be very welcome in the New Heaven and will suffer no disadvantage...

So long as they (like everybody else, without discrimination) are willing to swear a binding-oath to our mission statements of opposing God and denigrating Christ; and show willingness to work actively and enthusiastically in the cause of social justice - aiming at ultimate eradication of that apparatus of systemic exclusionary-inequity called 'divine creation'. 

By my understanding - there are two common wrong ways of conceptualising Christianity: one is the traditional, the other liberal.

The traditional is that Christianity is primarily a system of morality; and salvation (i.e. resurrection into Heaven) is a reward for a 100% effort to live in accordance with a moral system (repenting all failures to do so).

Traditionalists believe that to advocate and/or not to repent, sexual behaviour outside the code is at least a self-exclusion from Heaven, or (more traditionally) an absolute barrier to acceptance in Heaven.

The liberal view is that Christianity is a gift of salvation from Christ to all; and has essentially nothing to do with morality, especially not with sexual wishes, expressions and behaviours.

Nowadays; the traditional way, in practice, puts a system of sexual morality at the heart of Christian living; while the liberal believes that sexual morality is a matter of worldly expedience merely - an accidental (non essential) product of individual disposition and social circumstance.

Liberals believe that anybody who wants it can dwell in Heaven post-mortem - and sexual behaviour is of near-zero significance; except that those who falsely-insist sex is primary are excluded from Heaven; on the basis that if the sexual code adherents were included, then Heaven would not be Heaven.


I regard both as wrong. Essentially, Christianity is about mortality, not morality; but morality is linked with resurrection into Heaven. I need to explain this, because it is not obvious to most people.

Where does Christian morality come-from? I believe it comes, ultimately, from the condition of Heaven; which is 'organised' (spontaneously, naturally) on the principle of loving creation.

Heaven is a matter of immortal, resurrected persons living (loving, creating) in families*. 

Yes, Heaven is for all of those who want it; but - because Heaven is 'a family affair' - sexual morality is deeply linked with the wanting of Heaven. Because sexual morality is about families.

Those who - in mortal life (unless they repent) - reject the Heavenly-reality of marriage and family Do Not Want Heaven; and therefore will not have it.


Any explicit this-worldly System or legal code of morality - including sexual morality - will inevitably be deficient; since all verbal expressions are both incomplete and distorted. Nonetheless, there is, in actually-existing reality, a morality of Heaven.

The morality of Heaven is based on love, and love is bound-up with creation - the primary (but not only) form of creation is generation, reproduction, i.e. family.

The reality is that we Just Are God's Children and spiritual siblings; Jesus is our brother. It is ultimately all a matter of relations and relationships.

This mortal life is a domain of learning, therefore not intended as a place of perfection; mortal living is temporary, intrinsically corrupted and corrupting; and our salvation is to become saved-from this intrinsic sin. Sin is the condition of mortality. To be saved from sin is to want what Heaven offers - immortal resurrection into the condition of Heaven.

Those who do not want resurrection, and/or who do not want to remain conscious and free agent selves, and/or those who do not want family - all such do not want Heaven; and will not have it.



Why do people reject family? Look around, it isn't uncommon...

Some expediently reject their actual mortal family, perhaps because their earthly family is unloving - some are rejected-by their families; but that is not significant unless they reject the ideal of family.

Many who have utterly miserable and dread-full actual mortal families will - and perhaps with greater intensity - wish for a life of ideal, immortal, uncorrupted family life. They will yearn for the ideality of Heaven because the actuality of earth makes them aware of their need and desire for the truth of family.

Such will be saved, and will find their way to Heaven; because that is precisely what Jesus made possible.


But it seems that there are many (especially nowadays, in the West) who reject family - not in practice but in principle; not specifically but generally.

Often because the Heavenly condition of loving creation in familial relationships (including Men and extending to the divine  - the divine being Men in exalted condition) is something they reject as an ideal.

Such may want to be fully independent agents, without any family ties; perhaps because family ties block what they most want - which may be sexual, or may be related to other gratifications from status, power or whatever. A prime motivator of anything other-than the family ideal, means they do not want what Jesus offers.

There are those who reject the ideal of divine Heavenly family - and therefore in this mortal life they quite spontaneously seek other primary goals; and advocate other ideals...

Some do not want resurrection but prefer to remain spirits. Some do not want to become more divine, but are satisfied with them-selves as they are. Some do not want eternal life of any kind. Some hope for an end to their consciousness - they are tormented by self-awareness. Some want eternal happiness, but do not want eternal and loving relationships. Some want to use people, not love people.

None of these want Heaven; and (since God loves us) they will not have Heaven forced-upon them; theirs is some other destiny.


So, in an ultimate sense, the link between salvation and mortality is real because of our motivation and our ideals.

Those who are motivated to accept Jesus Christ's gift of Heavenly life will - quite naturally and spontaneously, as a consequence of this motivation - have and express and advocate the ideals of Heavenly life during their mortal lives... albeit that ideal will always be modified and impaired by mortal constraints of human limitations in understanding and corruption.

After all, salvation to eternal life is salvation-from these mortal constraints. Salvation is necessarily on the other side of 'biological death'; so there is zero possibility of attaining the ideal in this mortal life.

But not-to-have the ideal is not-to-get the ideal.


Therefore, actual earthly morality is inextricably-linked with immortal Heavenly life.

In other language: ultimately and primarily, sin is the condition of mortality, not morality; and morality is necessarily a part of Heavenly immortality.

Thus Heavenly immortality is attainable only via the motivations of mortal morality. 


*Note: It might be asked where this idea of Heaven organised in families comes from? Three possible, staged, answers are that 1. The idea is to be found in the Fourth Gospel. 2. This is confirmed and amplifed by the Mormon Restoration. And 3. that anyone who has this idea may have it confirmed by divine revelation and direct intuition.

To answer the question Is God Good? requires first understanding what God is trying to do with creation. Many/ most people get this wrong. 

People try to evaluate whether God is Good by examining this world and drawing up a balance sheet of good-things versus bad-things - and seeing which comes out top. They ask questions like whether this is 'on average' a good world; or whether the good things that happen/ have-happened outweigh the bad. 

They assume that God sent Jesus Christ to make a better mortal world, and they try to evaluate the truth (or success) of Christianity by 'calculating' whether the world was a batter place after Christ; or whether Christian people or places are better than non-Christian.

And implicitly judging 'better' by criteria - usually 'utilitarian', to do with inferred mass happiness or suffering - that are assumed to be above (or prior to) the truths of Christianity.

But this line of thinking is nonsense - as would be obvious except that Men have been misled for a long time. 

Jesus came to bring Men the chance of everlasting resurrected life - not to make this a better world (let alone perfect, or a paradise). 

So, the first common error is to regard this transient mortal life and world, as if it was the aim and end-point of God's creation. 

The second common error is to regard this mortal life as merely preparation for admission to eternity.

The idea that nothing matters about our mortal lives except that they prepare us to take a test set by God, to pass a judgment by God. 

The background assumptions to this error is that everybody in the world and who has ever lived wants to go to Heaven. Earth is a 'pre-school' that prepares us for that divine examination which all Men want to pass. But God only allows those worthy to proceed to Heaven - the rest are consigned to Hell. 

This is wrong because not all men want to go to heaven, and many or most Modern Men in particular reject Heaven prefer to choose Hell. 

The proper way to understand this mortal life and world is as a place of opportunities for learning - a 'school'. Like an idealized school, the basic rationale of what happens in mortal life is directed toward the eternal life after 'school' - i.e. Heaven. 

The main thing we are supposed to learn is about love - love of actual persons, typically starting with the family. Heaven is for those capable of love, who commit to put love first - eternally; which is what we mean by love of The Lord, and of Jesus Christ. 

There the school experiences of this mortal life, and what we have learned from them, are not forgotten; but are brought into eternity. 

So, this life and world are created for those who want to go to Heaven - this world provides each of these with experiences from which they can learn and which will prepare them for Heaven. 

But this world contains many Men who are not sure that they want to go to Heaven, and some who have already decided that they do not want Heaven. 

For them this world, the school of mortal life, has a different purpose - which is to provide the experiences from-which they can learn whether or not they want Heaven. 

All Men are free and each decides his or her own fate - decide whether to accept the gift of Heaven - or whether they want... something else, which may be (and in 2021 probably is) hell. 

Mortal experience cannot make somebody want Heaven - certainly not if they are incapable of love or reject love. 

But it can provide each person capable of love with experiences from-which they may become clear about their decision concerning what happens to them after death. 

God can engineer a situation in which this choice is made conscious - albeit perhaps only briefly; so that every-Man is compelled to make a choice, but no Man is compelled to choose one way or the other. 

So, the second common error is to regard God as a gatekeeper of a universally-desired Heaven - permitting some to proceed, and casting others down. 

The reality is very different. All those who really want Heaven, who are capable of love and prepared to make an eternal commitment to put-love-first, will go to Heaven. 

Admission to Heaven is not by examination; but by self-selection. 

God wants as many as possible to choose Heaven, and God's problem is that many reject it. 

Therefore, this mortal life is designed to encourage as many people as possible to choose Heaven after death - each soul in its own way, each person's mortal experience designed for such goals; and this mortal life was created for that purpose. 

When I was an atheist, I used to regard the Christian idea of Heaven as just an eternal version of the hedonism of this world. 

In other words, I did not distinguish Heaven from the mainstream idea that the main thing in our lives is to be as happy as possible/ suffer as little as possible; with the mainstream 'utilitarian' notion of morality as wanting the same for as many other people as possible. 

But if happiness is made the main thing about Heaven, then this leads to all sorts of difficulties in conceptualizing Heaven - which then make it even harder to believe in the reality of Heaven. 

Many Christians already make the error of regarding Heaven as 'perfect in every way' which implies it must be a static state. However, if perfect happiness is also required then this rules-out free will (and indeed individuality) because we must be Made Happy.

And it rules out our participation in creation. 

Yet, if we want to summarize Heaven in a single concept; that concept should not be happiness by creation - taking account that creation is inseparable from Love. 

The idea of eternal happiness paralyses any possibility of creation - because it removes any motivation for creation. It also paralyses actual interpersonal Love as the characteristic of Heaven - replacing it with an abstract and unchanging love this just-is: going nowhere, because there is no reason to go anywhere (it being already-perfect).  

Therefore, we should - I think - take care not to place happiness or any other 'emotion' at the centre of heavenly life; but instead regard happiness, suffering and misery as being subordinated to Heaven's primary reality and goal of loving-creation. 

In Heaven we may be happy at any particular time - but we may also suffer. For example, we may aspire - we may desire change which is improvement; and in general be discontented with how things are at present.  

For example; there may be - at any given moment and for a particular individual - be unrequited personal love in Heaven. We may wish to become eternally married to someone who does not feel the same way about us. And this is extremely painful: here and now. 

But in Heaven we have discarded sin; and therefore unrequited love is a starting point - not an endpoint. In heaven, one who suffers unrequited love will live eternally; but that person will be experiencing, creating and learning - and through this will come healing. 

Also, nobody in Heaven is bereft of love; everyone will be in a loving family. And while family love is not the same as love of a spouse; it is certainly far better than the indifference and neglect that so many people experience in mortal life.  

Therefore; while Heaven is much happier than mortal life for many people, much of the time; as it ought to be on earth; happiness is best considered a motivator, a guide, a reward - and not the end-point. We will surely feel very happy sometimes, and less happy or miserable at other times. 

But we ourselves will be far better able to cope and make the best of these feelings - which will be the basis for our living and working. 

Heaven is not about happiness primarily - but about living in love, fully aligned with God, and participating in the divine work of creation.  

One of the difficulties of describing Heaven in detail is that people are so different. 

Heaven is the resurrection of actual individual people - and since these people remain their original selves (but elevated to the divine) then Heaven cannot be summarized any more easily than people. 

Consider the question: What are people like? Any accurate answer you gave to that question would fail to capture the specifics of actual people, and would necessarily be very generalized indeed - and probably very abstract. 

Because all people are different - so much so, that (except with respect to specific traits - like differences between men and women, younger and older) no two people are alike. 

Consider the people you know best - probably your family. All my grandparents were different characters, each an individual, each distinct from each other - and add-in my mother, father, brother, sister, son and daughter and there is a collection of unique individuals. There are some family and social resemblances of course; but fundamentally and very clearly, each is absolutely unique. 

Add-in those who have been intense or close friends across my life, and consider them as well. Each friend was a distinct person - had an unique 'flavour'; and for none of them could I think of anybody else in the world who he or she was really 'like'. 

Heaven is populated by people - and people who are more themselves in Heaven than on earth - because divinity raises up the real self while discarding the passively absorbed or expediently inculcated social 'personality' aspects. 

And it is only in these 'personality' aspects - the product of socialization, environment, propaganda, fashion etc - that Men appear to be superficially similar. When we get to know somebody, we see past these temporary common traits - and that is the case in Heaven.   

So your Heaven will be different from my Heaven according to our different fundamental nature - just as your life is fundamentally different from mine, here on earth. 

Indeed, I know of nobody, have heard of nobody, who lives as I do (or thinks as I do) - even in this mortal life! How much more this will be the case in Heaven, when the necessities of mortality are gone. 

Heaven differs according to those with whom we are most associated - and/ including those whom we most love; because although Heaven is the place of love - that does not mean 'equality' of love, since love is of its nature unique between persons. 

We do not love any two people in The Same way, nor to the same degree - because love is two unique divine souls in relationship. Each love is unique in quality, as well as varying in strength. 

Your life and work in Heaven will be even-more-different from others people's lives and works than it is here on earth; because all that generic stuff about jobs, sustaining the body, dealing with bureaucracy, the effects of mass media etc will be gone. 

Presumably; in Heaven my life will be shaped, but even more so than now, by the nature of my creativity - and this is extremely different from the creativity of nearly everybody I have met or heard of (and identical with none). 

By 'my creativity' I mean what I actively want to participate in, and which is a never failing source of satisfaction: the only never failing source of satisfaction in this mortal life. 

Creativity by this meaning is a word for the distinctive engagement of our real selves with God's creation. In this sense: creativity is the only activity that never palls. 

Hence: creativity is the only activity fit for eternity. 

I know enough to see that what absolutely fascinates me in this respect is of near indifference to nearly everybody else (nearly- but not every- body else - which sharing is what makes creativity valuable). Also, what other people find endlessly (eternally) absorbing often leaves me pretty indifferent. 

In other words; in Heaven our lives will be more different from each other than they are on earth - because we will be more different, because our lives will be shaped by those who (most) love; and because we will be expressing our individual creative nature. 

In Heaven there will be no homogeneity at all! 

It is only on earth that cohesion is imposed by making people 'the same'; whereas in Heaven all coheres by love.

So in Heaven we can and shall be as different from each other, and do such different things from each other, as might be imagined to happen in the largest and most (wholly) loving extended family, village, college or workplace. 

Whereas the inducements of Hell are easily appreciated - otherwise there would not be so many who choose it; the appeal of Heaven has been poorly conceptualized by Christians. 

Indeed, the way it is usually described - whether anthropomorphically or abstractly - Heaven often sound very un-appealing to someone who is not already a Christian. 

The deep truth of Heaven is that it is the place which coheres from Love; whereas Hell only coheres (to the extent it does, temporarily) from expediency and mutual exploitation. 

But 'Love' in Heaven is more of a background state, and the description does not give any idea of what resurrected people are actually doing. 

I have (fairly recently) clarified for myself that Heaven is the place of creation - create-ing is what people do in Heaven; and we can regard this creating as limited only by the power of imagination when it is formed in a context of Love. 

In other words, in Heaven - what can be imagined is created - so long as we realize that Men are not resurrected into Heaven until they have made a permanent and irreversible commitment to live-by-Love. 

This is what ensures that Heavenly imaginings not 'limited' nor 'constrained' by Love; but instead are formed in the context of a world of positively-loving Beings - who share God's purposes and whose love for each other forms the background for every-thing they do and think. 

That is why and how Heaven is wholly Good. 

Imagination in Heaven is therefore reality - because the artificial and false barrier we experience between thought and action is removed in Heaven - thoughts are real, and thoughts are permanent. 

(Just as primary creation was from God's thought.)

Whatever your earthly creativity might be, whatever good-imaginings of -making you have ever done - these will be enhanced and made enduring in Heaven. they will be added-to, woven-into God's pre-existing and on-going creation. 

Sounds great to me!

 

By contrast, Hell is the place of chaos and chaos tending - it is a chaotic environment, en route to total chaos and reduction to mere being without form. 

Imagination in hell is 'free' to be as evil, selfish, and short-termist as maybe - but there is no familial nor social context for this imagining - therefore it is private and un-shared. 

Imagination in Hell is much like a psychotic delusion on earth. One can believe anything is true, really believe it - can dwell In these imaginings as your reality. 

...But all this is locked in the nutshell of your own (discarnate, spirit) mind and cannot affect anything else.  

So; both in Heaven and Hell, Imagination becomes reality; and we get to live in our 'fantasies'. 

In Heaven imagination becomes real-reality, in Hell it becomes delusional-reality.

But to dwell in Heaven one must voluntarily give-up and be cleansed of all imagination that is not rooted in Love. That is the price of admission to Heaven. 

Are you prepared to pay that price?

  

 As a young child, aged about five or six, I quite suddenly became afraid of death. That is, I became afraid of other peoples' death - I became afraid that someone I loved, among my family, relatives and close family friends - would die and be lost to me. 

At this point in my life I was not an atheist; but neither was I a Christian. I was, indeed, somewhat hostile to Christianity as it was taught me. And I was (as perhaps all Men are) a natural pagan; therefore I did not love the gods, and I assumed that the gods did not love me; but instead they wanted propitiation, worship, sacrifice. They did not want to be 'asked', but needed to be begged. 

Thus I prayed - whenever the thoughts of death came to mind - with desperate pleading and multiple repetitions. I prayed for the preservation of those I loved; that they would not be taken from me and lost from my life. 

Death seemed like the greatest disaster that could befall me - but at that point I could hardly comprehend my own death; so the worst I could imagine was to be left bereft, unprotected, in a world of strangers who were probably indifferent and uncaring at best; and some were spiteful, hostile, nasty. 

I realized, with perfect truth, that to live within the loving warmth of family was the greatest possible benefit the world had to offer; and that death threatened this happiness and security more - and more irreversibly - than anything else. 

In general; I think that these spontaneous and natural beliefs of early childhood are truths - truths implanted by God or known from our pre-mortal lives. Therefore, not only truths about this earthly mortal life; but eternal truths. 

...Yet, of course, truths as understood by the mind of a child. 

Therefore, our best goal as adults to to return to these spontaneous childhood beliefs, but this time consciously and by choice; and understanding what they really mean in an eternal context. 

I now understand my young-childhood fear of death to be representative of the real terribleness of death when (as naturally) understood as an end to mortal life with loss of the self - loss of what makes each person who they are. 

It is this legitimate fear that Jesus Christ came to save us from. A child could understand it - and indeed a young child is nowadays more likely to understand what Jesus offered than almost anyone else. 

A child's fear comes from the fact that he knows, deep down, that the death of our loved ones in mortal life can only be delayed - and that sooner or later everyone will die. It is indeed, the awareness of death that triggers this stage in childhood. 

Spontaneous human thought (among children, and those whose minds are child-like) cannot get further than this the fear of death and the desire to delay death. The child cannot see past the fact of death. Neither, apparently, could the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament who regarded all Men's lives as terminated in Sheol, nor the Ancient Greeks who regarded all lives as terminated in Hades - both of which entailed loss of the self. 

The dead were not the people they had been in mortal life; and so there was no consolation in their persistence as 'ghosts'.   

Nonetheless, a Christian knows that he has been instructed Not to fear, that fear is a sin - and this prohibition on fear includes death. So for a Christian the fear of death is just the beginning of the matter - not its end. 

As an adult we can and should realize that the best (and only) possible gift to address this childhood fear of death would be that this mortal life would be followed by an immortal life in which were still our-selves, and could (potentially) live forever with those that we had loved in mortal life. 

In other words, The Answer to death is: that-Heaven promised by Jesus Christ - that Heaven (I would add) particularly as clarified by more recent, more detailed Mormon revelations concerning the nature of Heaven and the continued existence and importance of the family*. 

Unlike paganism; Heaven is not a spontaneous insight of childhood. Its necessity - as the only solution to the problem of death which answers to the desires of a loving young child - could perhaps consciously be derived from the conviction that the Christian God the creator is our loving parent (thus very far from the gods of paganism, and from the abstract deities of some philosophies and religions). 

But the Christian Heaven - that is, of resurrected Men living eternally as 'children of God' (ie. as ourselves creative gods) and in familial 'brotherhood' (i.e. in families and divine friends) and knowing the ascended Jesus... such a Heaven could not realistically be inferred by a child. The child would need to be told; and then he might - or might not - believe Heaven was true. 

I decided (as child of about six, a while later than the above-described stage) that the Heaven I was told-about was not true, but was made up from manipulative motives... 

I would still agree - that Heaven as it was told me (or, as I understood it) was Not true; and that the description had been contaminated by this-worldly motives related to making me behave in certain ways. 

Yet I erred in throwing-out the whole idea of Heaven; rather than (as I should have done) thinking more deeply about Heaven, aimed-at discerning how Heaven really was. 

I disbelieved in the Heaven that I was told-about - but I should have believed in Heaven as it really is; and I should have made it my life's task to comprehend that that real Heaven offers the only full and satisfying answer to the problem of death. 

My suggestion is that others should do the same. You should think upon the idea of Heaven, and how Heaven would need to be in order to answer the problem of death. 

Only when you have grasped what Heaven really would answer that problem, have you discovered what it is that Jesus is asking you to believe... Or, more exactly, what Jesus is offering to those who want Heaven.

And you will find that when the problem of death has been answered; then the fear of death - I mean that inescapable existential angst - is indeed cured. 

At least, such fear is cured whenever we have Faith and Hope based upon Love (or 'Charity'); and even when we don't experience the cure, we can know that restoration of that Faith, Hope and 'Charity' will drive-out our fear. 

*I regard mainstream Christianity as having lost sight of some of these key revelations about the nature of God, Heaven and the Family - which was why I believe that Joseph Smith and some of the other Mormon prophets were inspired to articulate these vital truths in a new, radical, and superior metaphysical theology. This appears in the work of early Mormons and some recent writers - along with other non-essentials and errors; therefore requiring, as always, discernment. But these truths having been articulated was of great value to me. Instead of having to work them all out, I was more easily able to recognize intuitively their truth, beauty and virtue; then (without too much effort) to organize them in my understanding.   

When Christians urge themselves, and each other, to live in Hope - hope in expectation of the resurrected Heavenly life beyond death - this is usually mis-understood to mean ignoring this mortal earthly life (both its positive possibilities, and its suffering and despair) in favour of thinking about our future after death. 

This sounds-like childish wishful thinking to unbelievers - living for Heaven sounds like a recipe to waste our mortal lives... But if it meant living for Heaven instead-of for now; this would also be unacceptable philosophically; because it makes no sense for a loving creator God to ask his children to live mortal lives that are futile.

It sounds-like - in trying to be unworldly - Christians are denigrating this world; and pinning everything (including this mortal life itself) on hopes on being lavishly compensated for this worldly-denial by some better future state of being... 

It sounds-like Christians are making a mortal-eternal 'trade-off'; as if Christians are being asked to give-up moderate and temporary satisfactions in this world; for the promise of later and eternal reward in the next world. 

But, however it sound to superficial analysis; properly understood almost the opposite is the case. 

It is the fact of resurrected life in Heaven that makes possible a meaningful and purposeful life on earth. 

Mortal Life and Heaven are synergistic, not in opposition; but Heaven must come-first, because Heaven provides the frame for mortal life. The frame (of life before birth and after death) that gives meaning and purpose to what is within. 

Heaven provides the eternal frame that makes-sense of your mortal life and my mortal life... But only if we personally have made the choice of Heaven. 

If, on the other hand - like almost-everybody all the time (and self-identified Christians when their faith wavers or subsides, and they fail to repent) we choose only this-world - then we destroy any possibility of a life of meaning and purpose.

Because if life is temporary and leads always to annihilation, and if Men are not children of God the creator (and each with an unique destiny in Heaven) - then there is nothing worth doing in this mortal life because it is not going anywhere, and all possible human (and other) relationships are merely transient psychological blips. 

Only by choosing to live this earthly mortal life in context of Heaven - can we have value and appreciate both earth and Heaven. 

Only by faith in eternity can the little things of our life be known as significant. 

When this life is known as a time of learning, individually-tailored by God for our own spiritual learning - only then we can we take this life seriously as valid and necessary despite everything in this being temporary. 

And despite this life at times being a place of suffering. This mortal life is not meant to be bliss but a time of preparation: preparation for Heaven. What we learn truly, here-and-now, we can benefit-from forever. 

Just as the only route to resurrection goes via our death; so the only way we can learn that which we need for resurrection and for our best Heavenly existence goes via this mortal life. 

So long as you are alive, you have some-thing (or many things) you need to learn; or else God would not be sustaining you. 

That is the meaning and purpose of your life - in other words the meaning and purpose of your life is contained in the experiences of your actual life; including your mental life, your thinking life - and your dream life as well.

Your job is to learn from these experiences - and (as of 2021) that learning needs to be active, conscious and by choice.  

Heaven does not replace earth, does not drain meaning and purpose from this mortal life; but instead your actual and experienced life gets meaning and purpose from Heaven - and only from Heaven. 

What was the effect of Jesus Christ on subsequent reality - his 'cosmic' effect on the world?

One way of thinking about this is that Jesus established Heaven (mad it happen) - by enabling resurrection to eternal life; and to examine the effect of Heaven on the totality of things. 

A consequence was that Heaven became a possibility for all Men. This potentially affects the life of every Man - but only if the possibility of Heaven is believed.

Once established, Heaven became inhabited by (more and more) ex-mortal Men. If we assume that those in Heaven are not cut-off from mortal Men; then there is a new potential for contact between the living and 'the dead' - between mortal and immortal Men. 

Furthermore, when Jesus ascended to Heaven, this made possible the Holy Ghost - to comfort and guide all Men. From that point, no Man (wherever, at whatever time) would ever need to be alone or cut adrift from the divine.

But Heaven also had a effect on the purposive powers of evil: on Satan, the demons and their servants and slaves among mortal Men. Because heaven represents an eternal and indestructible reminder of the ultimate defeat of evil - by those who desire its defeat. 

Heaven is an eternal escape from evil, a place without evil - so whatever may happen elsewhere, evil can never triumph fully or finally. 

This means that the motivation of beings of purposive evil can only be: 

1. For themselves, a continual and recurrent hardening of their will to reject Heaven - the continual and unending justification of this rejection and the seeking of c one after another temporary compensations. 

2. Externally - to manipulate other beings to reject the eternal offer of Heaven, and to do so fully and finally. This by asserting the attractions of sin; such that sin becomes the core focus of life, and the elimination of sin a thing to be avoided at any cost. 

The last point I will mention is that after Heaven came into existence, then Men could potentially have glimpses of Heaven - and if they then came to desire Heaven for themselves, then this desire might permeate their mortal lives. 

 

Creation doesn't reverse - so how may the consequences of bad choices be dealt with?

On the one hand, all necessarily choices have consequences... or else the choices would not be real; on the other hand, this seems to suggest that every sin by every person who ever lived will be 'woven-into' the web of history and will permanently mar it.

Creation will therefore (apparently) be 'imperfect' - and yet Christians are (apparently) promised some kind of perfection in the Heavenly state...  


The problem with the above statement is that it has the inbuilt assumption of life tending towards a final static state - like a carpet that has-been woven. It also has that nasty word/ concept of 'perfection' inbuilt - which implies that Heaven is a single, predetermined and preplanned state of perfection - any departure from which is therefor a shattering of that perfection...

Nonetheless, if Heaven is love, and yet people so often reject love, and this has unloving consequences - then how can Heaven be a loving state?


Well, there is an answer - a satisfying answer! - and it is underpinned by the proper (as I regard it) understanding of love: specifically of love.

And therefore we already know the answer, because we all have sufficiently experienced love and its workings (even if it was more of a lack-of and yearning-for love - which is built in as a hope and indeed expectation).


Reality is a process in time, changing, dynamic - it is creation, which entails change; it is love, which entails change - reality is not a timeless state; and Heaven is therefore an ideal situation, but not a state-of-perfection.

(In fact, process is too physics-y a word for it, so is dyynamic - biological metaphors are preferable: reality is life, growth, development, transformation, evolution, consciousness etc...)


Therefore Heaven is not a 'blueprint' (any departure from which is necessarily im-perfect/ flawed/ not-Heaven...) but instead a matter of establishing that ideal situation.

Another way of thinking about it is that Heaven is not something imposed upon us from above, not something we are fitted-into; rather heaven is a 'bottom-up process of discovering, learning, loving, creating...

It is not built to a plan, but generated moment-by-moment by free, agent, conscious entities...


We have perhaps already experienced this (at least so far as love goes) - but did not know we were experiencing it; I mean in early childhood in the context of loving and being loved. We just lived immersed in the current moment - and when that was good, then it was ideal.

But Heaven withdrew from us even as the capacity for knowledge arose - the capacity to know can arise only by separation from what is experienced. And as we know, we fear; so that the current is no longer ideal, since we fear that it may be - will be - lost.

Consciousness ejects us from Heaven. (At first...)

Insofar as we know, of can imagine, the happiness of a loving family through generations; we can know or imagine Heaven.


Heaven is a return to what we have already experienced, but this time with consciousness. We return to the immersive experience of happy childhood in a loving family; while knowing that this is happening, that this is the situation we are in.

But instead of immersion we have creation. Instead of taking everything for granted, being swept-along by events, just in a state of 'being'; in Heaven we participate in God's work of creation.

That is what it is to be - like Jesus - a Son of God. A co-creator with The Father.

Not only to be part-of creation; not only to be an observer of creation; but to become a participant in creation.

That is - indeed - our 'job' in Heaven.


So, how does sin not mar Heaven?

Because sin does not mar the family - not when there is repentance and love.

All families are made-up entirely of sinners - yet even on earth and during mortal life we know (because we have experienced) that loving families can be ideal, for periods of time.

And that which is ideal, is not marred.

 

It is striking how often the expressed Christian understanding of Heaven is extremely "minimalist". In other words; the idea is that very little happens in Heaven. 

Furthermore, in such a Heaven we ourselves are simplified (by subtraction of all sin).

Heavenly life is thus described very simply; including discarding almost everything most people might most value in this mortal life; such as family and marriage; and our most cherished creative and other activities. 

Sometimes, indeed, Heavenly life is reduced to the single activity of communion with the divine. 

This sounds, on the face of it, pretty un-appealing - except as a relief and escape from suffering. 

The usual answer to such objections is that we shall ourselves by-then have-been transformed... 

Such that what seems now to be an aetiolated existence; will, when we are actually in that situation, be wholly satisfying; indeed joyful beyond our current possibility of understanding. 

It is probably clear from the above that I - by contrast - regard Heaven in a "maximalist" kind of way; as greatly enriched by more, and continuousness, of broadly the same kind of positive things that are best in this mortal life. 

Thus I regard Heaven as a place of more, and more loving, and everlasting relationships - including family, marriage, friendship; and ultimately loving relationships of other forms with other kinds of ("non-human") resurrected Beings such as animals, plants, and natural elemental Beings. 

And I regard Heaven as a place of "work" - the best kind of work; that work which derives from creative love. 

Which is to say creative work, fulfilling work; work that adds-to, enhances, enriches divine creation. 

But to return to the minimalist view of Heaven - assuming (as I do) that it is indeed mistaken, and apparently rather ineffective as a positive inducement; it is interesting to speculate why it arose? Why might people have decided that Heaven must be minimalist?

I think it is partly hinted above, by the idea that after sin has been stripped-away; not much would remain. 

Maybe also that it is easier to imagine perfection (which is how some people regard Heaven, although I think this is a mistaken emphasis - because implicitly static) if that perfection is simple?

I think there is also a residue of "historical Gnosticism"; by which I mean the pre-existing (among pagan Romans and Greeks) Neo-Platonism that captured mainstream and traditional Christianity (and not just the recognized Gnostic sects). 

This philosophical ideology (permanently) embedded within-itself what might be termed the religion of "Gospel Christianity" by its metaphysical insistence on philosophical concepts as a mandatory framework for Christianity. 

(Such as an infinite gulf between creator and created, strict monotheism (leading to the abstractions of Trinitarianism in order to encompass the divinity of Jesus); creation being from nothing (rather than an organizing of pre-existent chaotic "stuff"), and God and the divine world being "outside of Time". There are more.) 

Other aspects of this pre-Christian philosophy included a belief that the material was innately evil, and the the purely spiritual was therefore the proper aim; and this led to an ascetic ideal that strove to achieve the greatest possible independence from the material body during mortal life; essentially by subtractive disciplines. 

From this perspective, it is natural to regard Heaven minimalistically, and the denizens of Heaven likewise. 

And the assumption that the divine world - in order to be wholly good - must not change; probably led to the deletion of sequential Time from Heaven - such that there was neither need nor possibility of resurrected Men doing anything in Heaven. They would simple "be". 

(Even the doctrine of resurrection after death, which could hardly be ignored; was transformed into an abstracted, spiritualized, "resurrection body" - which body ended by being hardly regarded as material at all - but instead something more like light than everlasting flesh.) 

Of course the minimalist Heaven may include elements of reaction against pagan (and other) understandings of the post-mortal life as simply a continuation and enhancement of this mortal life - with more of our desires fulfilled, and less of the sufferings. 

These are seen as wish-fulfilment merely - and wish-fulfilment is not (by such an analysis) distinguished from selfish day-dreaming fantasies (e.g. imagining post-mortal luxuries of sex, feasting and/or fighting - according to taste). 

It was probably not until the advent of Mormonism from 1830 that an explicitly maximalist understanding of Heaven (more consistent with the Gospels, common-sensically understood - especially the Fourth gospel) was rediscovered and linked with a metaphysical theology. 

This included a focus on marriage and procreation, family life, and co-creative activities in loving cooperation with God the Father - and a "evolutionary" emphasis on divine creation as eternally "ongoing", continuous, eternally being added-to. 

Ultimately, as always, this question of minimalist versus maximalist understanding of Heaven, reduces to a question of personal discernment based on the deepest intuition that we can arrive-at. Having consciously clarified our awareness of the alternatives, we each need to decide which are true possibilities, and which we most desire for our-selves.

**

Note: This post was stimulated by a comment from NLR at the NCP Blog. 

We want more than this world can provide - we want the best that we can imagine.

Of course, some people don't have much facility for imagination - yet at the very least, we want what this world cannot sustain. This would be Paradise - the best things of this world (or, the feelings induced by the best things of this world), sustained; Paradise is engineered as a place of happiness - but it would not be Heaven.

Some people most want very evil things - power, domination, destruction, to see others suffer - to themselves be the cause of suffering, to take pleasure from the suffering they have inflicted... and so on. Paradise for such people would be a place dedicated to their own satisfactions (therefore indifferent to others) - it would not be any kind of Heaven.

Heaven is for divine beings - can we imagine ourselves as divine, yet still our-selves; can we imagine life in a world of similar divine beings? in general - we need help in imagining Heaven, whereas Paradise comes naturally and spontaneously.

Indeed, Paradise does not need to be imagined - because we already know what it is like; all we have to suppose is that it is like the best things that we have felt, and sustained - this does not need imagination, it is merely an extrapolation.

Heaven does require imagination, indeed in mortal life Heaven could be said to exist only in imagination. This is not to say Heaven is 'imaginary' and false - but that imagination is the primary reality - and if Heaven cannot be imagined, then it does not exist during our mortal lives.

We need help in imagining Heaven, and if we do imagine it, we may not be able to communicate that knowledge - because the task is to induce that imagination we have experienced in the mind of another person. Speaking of our imagined Heaven, or writing it down, or painting it - does not necessarily do this - indeed it may induce some quite different and false imagination in another person.

Nonetheless, communication of imagination can happen, and imagination is the place where knowledge of Heaven exists (and no other place) - and I think perhaps more people lack this knowledge, and need this knowledge, more urgently than ever - so Heaven is something that needs experiencing and communicating, if at all possible; and this has to be by imagination - with imagination taken seriously, and imagination recognized as knowledge.

People who can imagine, and can imagine Heaven have a job to do. They can only do half the job - but that half, they should be doing.


Note: Imagined depictions of Heaven which have helped me include from Tolkien the Undying Lands, Rivendell, Lothlorien and the afterlife in Leaf by Niggle; from CS Lewis the end of The Last Battle, the end of The Screwtape Letters, and most of The Great Divorce, from Joseph Smith the King Follett Discourse, and from William Arkle his Letter from a Father.