beth,
Hi, I have not seen you post here before, welcome to the forum.
Heaven will be wonderful but somehow I doubt it will all be wine and cheese.
Fair enough, I'm not a big wine drinker anyway.
I have a feeling the exultation has more to do with the atmosphere of returning to live with God than it does with existing forever in some sort of pleasure chamber. We're not talking about the play boy mansion here!
Perhaps that is a pity, but OK I know what you mean. But I'm not clear what the attraction is for living with such a being.
Imagine a place free of despair and temptation. A place of continual peace and joy like you've never been able to capture here on earth.
Yes OK, but those feelings of despair and temptation are what many find as the real challenges to life, and trying to overcome such problems is what makes life so rewarding. Some would say it is the experience and recognition of the "not so good" that allows one to appreciate and seek the good. If everything is perfect then boredom sounds like a real potential, although I would assume such a perfect God would resolve that somehow. But isn't it the fear of failure that makes one strive harder to succeed? If you have ever tried something seemingly insurmountable and have succeeded then you might understand the superb satisfaction of such an event. If all the obstacles are removed then what challenges remain that would make eternal life worthwhile.
I believe one of the main reasons we were put on this earth was to learn. Experience things and gain practical and academic understanding (such as languages) that we never could have in our pre-mortal existence.
Ok, although one could argue that an omnipotent god could have found easier methods to achieve that. However, that is not the point of this thread. The issue is perhaps the length of time given. If you are lucky enough to live to 100 you would have still only experienced and learnt a microscopic fraction of the total knowledge available. Now compare that time to your life in eternity. A short lifespan on Earth does not seem to be anywhere near long enough preparation for a life in eternity.
Have no fear there would be much work to do once we return home again. Helping those still on earth, building a new universe, teaching... etc.
This is where Qs question is relevant. One suggestion is that heaven is a supernatural place where our souls would reside and where we go at the moment of death. And this suggestion would meet your idea that heavenly souls could help the living. However the bible doesn't seem to support this concept if I correctly understand what other Christians have said.
The bible seems to say that Hell is the grave, i.e. permanent death, and that Heaven is the Earth made perfect. Access to heaven, or death (Hell) is not determined until judgment day when everyone worthy would be resurrected physically and allowed to inherit an Earth made perfect. The opportunity for spirit souls to help the living would simply not arise. This scenario would also be consistent with the difficulty we have in currently trying to locate souls. An omnipotent God would have little trouble placing souls in a holding pattern until final judgment, although the concept of time here would probably have little meaning.
So in this perspective we would be back on earth where nothing could go wrong, for eternity. So the question remains, what do we do with eternity where nothing could go wrong and there are no real challenges?
