Jun 12 2009
Missing People In Heaven
So I was talking with a friend last night, and the topic came up of missing people in Heaven. After all, odds are that at least one of our loved ones here on earth are not going to be saved, and that means we will be eternally separated. It seems odd to think that we may have to go for eternity without ever seeing somebody that we loved here on earth, and on top of that, know that they are in a place of eternal suffering and pain. When Heaven is always thought of as a perfect place, where suffering and sorrow are no longer known, it’s hard to rationalize this view with the idea of missing those who were not saved.
Of course, we will be with Christ, and the new love that we will experience from this will probably far outstrip the love we had for any other human being. Christ had perfect love for us, and showed it perfectly, and on top of all this He is fully divine. How can we see all this and not just be completely overwhelmed by it? In so being overwhelmed however, it also seems that we will come across another problem. In seeing the perfect love and goodness of Christ firsthand, I think it will seem nearly impossible for us to rationalize Him sending anyone to Hell. Also, for those we loved on earth, it will seem even more unbearable after we experience what true love really is.
This is not a post on the rationality of a loving God sending anyone to Hell however, but an inquiry into the idea of missing someone, an obvious form of pain, in a place where pain is supposed to be nonexistent. I think the answer lies in God’s sense of justice. While we will be exposed to God’s perfect love in Heaven, we will also be exposed to His perfect justice, and see just how good it is. We are all born with a sense of justice, and intuitively we feel that an evil act should have undesirable consequences. We all privately cheer when the bad guy gets his own in the end of the movie, even if we personally may detest the methods used by the hero. Just as with our idea of love, our idea of justice will only grow when we are exposed to it in its perfect form in God.
In terms of evil in the world, it is generally held that we have a choice to do evil or to serve God. Many Calvinists especially do not believe that we have free will in this sense, but that is an argument for another day, and enough to write entire books on in fact. Basically however, in order for a perfectly just God to punish us for our sins, we must in some way be accountable for those sins. It seems absurd that we could be punished by God for something that God compels us to do through creation. As such, it would appear intuitive that we have some sort of choice of good or evil, that allows us to be sent to Hell for not obeying God. Not only does this allow for the possibility of Hell however, but necessitates it for all humanity, which is why we needed a Savior in Christ. Those who choose to follow Christ are granted salvation through their faith, and it is those of us who do this who will be in Heaven. When we have a fully developed sense of justice after being exposed to it perfectly in God, I believe we will be filled with a sense of necessity for those who are in Hell to actually be there.
Although we will probably miss those who are not with us in Heaven, it seems logical that a more fully developed sense of perfect justice will allow us to rationalize why they must be there, and what it would mean about our Lord if they were not. In a way, we will see that it is what we too really want for them when we honestly look at the lives they lived. Although they may have been good people in general, if they did not accept Christ as their savior, then they were living in a rebellious state against God, which is the greatest atrocity anyone can possibly commit. Our feelings of love for them will not reside, but it is exactly because we love them that we will realize that the choice not to follow Christ was theirs alone, and we are respecting their own freedom by allowing them to rest eternally in Hell.
-Demo
