If You Got To Heaven, Would You Like It?

"What kind of stupid question is that - of course I'd like heaven if I got there. As long as it's got none of that ridiculous stuff like sitting in a cloud and wearing a robe and strumming a harp while a golden halo floats above your head. I'd hate that. But if heaven is a beautiful place of pleasure and bliss and safety, how could anyone not like it?"

I'll tell you. The Bible does not describe heaven as merely a place of endless delight. It is that, yes. But the Bible has other things to say about heaven too - things more important than bliss, things that all of us have despised at some time or other; things that some of us, I'm afraid, will despise for all eternity.

Heaven is a place of virtue. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus told his disciples to pray, "Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." That petition reveals that while God's will is not always done here, it is always done in heaven. Here, people treat God's will with contempt and refuse to do it. St. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "It is God's will that you should be holy," but we resist God's will by being unholy. In heaven, God's will is obeyed and delighted in all the time. For this reason Jesus instructs us to pray that earth will be like heaven in this sense, that God's desires will be carried out rather than rebelled against.

If you dislike virtue you won't like heaven. Here is a list of adjectives that describe unholy behavior and attitudes: "complaining, contemptuous, cruel, dishonest, greedy, hateful, impatient, impure, irresponsible, irritable, lazy, neglectful, promiscuous, proud, racist, rude, selfish, sexist, undisciplined, unfaithful, unforgiving, ungrateful, violent". That list is not exhaustive, but it will do for now. How many of these adjectives describe you, and how many of these vices would you like to sneak into heaven with you? You will have to leave them all behind. You cannot drag sin into heaven. "Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false" (Revelation 21:27). In fact, any sin that still clings to you will have to be burned off (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). When all your sin is burned away, what will be left of you?

For years I have been trying, and mostly failing, to get people to read C. S. Lewis' short fantasy novel The Great Divorce. I do not understand why I seem to be the only person who regards it as the greatest book ever written outside the Bible. Could you please read it? It will illuminate for you, in compelling and astonishing ways, the truth that heaven is a place of goodness. Evil, in any of its forms, cannot dwell there. No one can contaminate heaven with vice, and no one can receive heaven on his own sinful terms. Many would rather go to hell than admit that they are wrong and must be remade.

Heaven is a place of virtue, and it is also a place of worship. The Greek word that we translate as "worship" means something like bowing the knee or prostrating oneself. It is our declaration - in word, posture, action and thought - that another is greater than we. In worship you declare your inferiority and another's superiority. Worship is submission, surrender, a placing of oneself under the will and authority of another.

In heaven we worship God. This is one of the themes of the book of Revelation. Revelation chapters 4 and 5 depict magnificent images of creatures and angels in heaven saying "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty" (4:8), and “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (4:11). The worship culminates in 5:13: "And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!'"

Does that mean that heaven is like a big church service? If it is, many would rather not go. Maybe they associate worship with stained glass and boring sermons and uncomfortable clothes and slow ponderous songs played on the organ. Or maybe when they think of worship they picture one of those evangelical megachurch extravaganzas that try to duplicate the revved-up atmosphere of a Superbowl halftime show. That style is not everyone's cup of tea either.

But it is important to distinguish between our culture-bound expressions of worship and the essence of worship itself. If we say that we don't like worship, do we just mean that we don't like a certain style of religious music? Nothing wrong with that. But if we mean that we don't want to acknowledge an authority greater than our own, then heaven is not the place for us. We belong in hell. Hell is where you get to clench your fists and say, "I did it my way. I was true to my convictions, and in the face of opposition and obstacle I defended my dignity and self worth." In heaven you bow before God and say, "You alone are good and right and holy. Everything belongs to you. Your will be done. Your name be honored." As the inhabitants of hell cry, "I am worth something!" the citizens of heaven sing, "God is worth everything."

It is not wise to view heaven principally as a place where we get to experience all fun and no pain. That, at best, is putting second things first. It is better to regard heaven as a place where God dwells, and is present to our senses, and at long last grants us freedom to obey and worship him without the hindrance of self-absorption and sin. Would you like that?