Somethings Edwards Taught Me About Heaven

First we must start with some basic presuppositions. We don’t have the space here to defend these so much, but they are things you will no doubt readily agree with. Heaven was created to be a place of eternal happiness, joy, and blessedness (all of which is basically the same). It is a place for the worship of God and the magnifying of His glory. He is our greatest treasure and in Him do we find our greatest joy and satisfaction, and He is most glorified in our enjoyment and treasuring of Him. So in His presence, in heaven are joys and pleasures forevermore, and He wipes away every tear signifying that there is no unhappiness or grief.

One other point that may require a little explanation is that we can expect to recognize each other at the judgement and in the eternal state. Some evidence to consider in this regard would be Paul’s consolation to the saints in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Paul’s consolation to these Christians that lost friends is that they will meet again. For this to be a comfort it seems they must be able to recognize one another. Jesus’ teaching concerning the rich man and Lazarus would also seem to indicate that individuals will recognize one another after death and that they will be aware of each other’s state, whether of blessedness or corruption.

With this in mind Edwards concludes that the condemnation, judgement, and wrath that fall upon the reprobate will not be a sorrow to believers, but will actually increase their joy. In this world we sorrow over the lost, those we know and love and even those we don’t know. This is appropriate, because or mission here is evangelism, and while men yet live there is the hope that they would turn to Christ. Yet in the world to come that chance is gone. The reprobate no longer will enjoy the patience and mercy of God, but they will experience His full wrath and nothing but. Such is the demand of the righteous justice of a holy God. In heaven we will only love what God loves and we will hate what God hates.

I’d love to keep going and develop this further but you’re running out of time.

Edwards warns the lost saying, “Perhaps there are now some godly people, to whom you are near and dear, who are tenderly concerned for you, are ready to pity you under all calamities, and willing to help you; and particularly concerned for your poor soul, and have put up many fervent prayers for you. How will you bear to hear these singing for joy of heart, while you are crying for sorrow of heart, and howling for vexation of spirit, and even singing the more joyful for the glorious justice of God which they behold in your eternal condemnation? “You that have godly parents, who in this world have tenderly loved you, who were wont to look upon your welfare as their own, and were wont to be grieved for you when any thing calamitous befell you in this world, and especially were greatly concerned for the good of your souls, industriously sought, and earnestly prayed for their salvation; how will you bear to see them in the kingdom of God, crowned with glory? Or how will you bear to see them receiving the blessed sentence, and going up with shouts and songs, to enter with Christ into the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world, while you are amongst a company of devils, and are turned away with the most bitter cries, to enter into everlasting burnings, prepared for the devil and his angels? . . . How will you bear to see and hear them praising the Judge, for His justice exercised in pronouncing this sentence, and hearing it with holy joy in their countenances, and shouting forth the praises and hallelujahs of God and Christ on that account?”

Edwards writes in another place, “All natural affections, so far as found in animal nature or the infirmity of the present state, will cease in another world; and with respect to any affection that the godly have had to the finally reprobate, the love of God will wholly swallow it up, and cause it wholly to cease.”

So here is a mystery to our finite minds, that we could be so blessed in God’s presence that not only will we not grieve over the lost, even our loved ones, even if they be our own children, but that we would in fact rejoice it there condemnation, praise God for it, and be more happy for it. I confess that this is a mystery to man’s mind, how this could be so. Edwards explains that it is so because God’s infinite love swallows it up, but even still how this could be so, I don’t think we can understand, but we can understand that it is so. And if this is so, then how glorious heaven must be! It truly is beyond any imagining or conception of men. This is an amazing doctrine, a man humbling, and God honoring and glorifying doctrine. God is far beyond our comprehension. He is wonderful and terrible, and worthy of all our affection and praise. And apart from seeing Him this way, can we really say we honor Him aright? Do we know Him as He is? We never fully will, but as we grow in this grace these are the wonderful and terrifying things we will discover and relish.