pratt Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 what were your perceptions of heaven? in the past, i was thinking 1. a condominium type of living (in my father's house blah, blah blah) 2. streets paved with gold (at least must be better than yellow brick road) 3. No night fall, always bright and cool somehow 4. Angels kept singing hallelujah to god,,, am i supposed to sing that to eternity too? 5. Absolutely no sex (remember the brothers and wife thing) 6. Country club house faciloities 7. Favorite food which will magically appear? Now, as i come to think of it, that is not heaven, it is probably a different hell in disguise..... ok folks, what were your thinkings of your heaven when you were believers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyjj Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 I didn't think about it that much. My major concern was not deserving to go to the other place.... I guess my perception of what heaven was like came from C.S. Lewis's Narnia chronicles, which I read repeatedly from the age of 7 (despite having no idea of the Christian themes at the time) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Xtech Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Heaven is a place where nothing nothing ever happens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator buffettphan Posted September 8, 2011 Super Moderator Share Posted September 8, 2011 My father's house... These weren't my perceptions of heaven, but watch out! According to those True Christians at Rapture Ready, depending on your works here on earth -- you might end up in an outhouse. I guess the competition among christians never ends. Check out the mansions in heaven here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzy Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 To me both the Christian and Muslim heaven seem pretty materialistic. I mean the Bible tries to impress people about heaven by telling how everything is made of gold and gems there. Otherwise you just worship god for eternity. I was often pretty bored with worship in the church, so it doesn't sound like a great thing to me. And the Muslim heaven of course tries to lure in people (or more precisely men - cause women don't matter) with the promise of those virgins. I think these are both very primitive concepts and rather unimpressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 My father's house... These weren't my perceptions of heaven, but watch out! According to those True Christians at Rapture Ready, depending on your works here on earth -- you might end up in an outhouse. I guess the competition among christians never ends. Check out the mansions in heaven here. That's a pretty nice outhouse. It even has toilet paper. I've been in worse as a kid. I remember using the pages torn out of catalogs for TP. Here's a tip: The glossy pages look like they'll be kinder to your bottom but they just smear it around. Use the plain old black and white pages for a cleaner bottom. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thought2Much Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 The view of heaven that I've gotten from a lot of Pentecostals is that there won't be mansions or anything physical there, but just our spirits hanging around and singing our praises to God for all of eternity. It sounds like the most horrifically boring thing that could ever be imagined, and a fate just as bad as being tormented in hell for eternity. For me to be happy in such an environment, my personality would need to be altered so much that I wouldn't even be me anymore, so what would be the point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 I used to imagine I'd finally have all my many questions answered, would be able to travel around the universe like star trek's teletransporter and would get to do pretty much whatever I found interesting. Who knows? If we don't blow ourselves up or kill ourselves off with a super virus, perhaps one day we will create our own heaven. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted September 8, 2011 Super Moderator Share Posted September 8, 2011 I always assumed the Biblical description (gold, etc.) indicated the best things we could imagine, and then it somehow goes beyond even that. It seemed unknowable to us mere mortals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 I used to imagine I'd finally have all my many questions answered, would be able to travel around the universe like star trek's teletransporter and would get to do pretty much whatever I found interesting. Who knows? If we don't blow ourselves up or kill ourselves off with a super virus, perhaps one day we will create our own heaven. I thought something similar. I thought we'd learn the answers to these questions as opposed to having them handed to us like some people thought/think (like you die and somehow you're all-knowing...how strange is this idea when you think about it?). mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaToOmega Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 To me both the Christian and Muslim heaven seem pretty materialistic. I mean the Bible tries to impress people about heaven by telling how everything is made of gold and gems there. Otherwise you just worship god for eternity. I was often pretty bored with worship in the church, so it doesn't sound like a great thing to me. And the Muslim heaven of course tries to lure in people (or more precisely men - cause women don't matter) with the promise of those virgins. I think these are both very primitive concepts and rather unimpressive. Its interesting that they want no material possessions here on Earth but the reward is material possessions in heaven. Bit like the catholic church. Think of the poor but look at the no expense spared extravagance of our churches. Actually I shouldn't say that. I knew an artist that did high quality work in gold for the churches of various faiths. Without exception they tried to screw him financially even though he was one of the only people that knew the intricacies of the art. He was poor as a result. So I should qualify it by saying they get the best of everything by screwing those who had the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Here's a question, if you have an IQ of 80 on earth, do you get a bump up in heaven? If so, are you really the same person you were on earth? If not, can you really fully appreciate heaven and its offerings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thought2Much Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 If all that's required of you in heaven is to sing praises to God, I don't see why anyone would need an IQ bump of any kind. In fact, an IQ DROP would be more beneficial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul34 Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Also, streets paved with gold would hold up poorly to even foot traffic. God should hire some better civil engineers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrotherJosh Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Actually I shouldn't say that. I knew an artist that did high quality work in gold for the churches of various faiths. Without exception they tried to screw him financially even though he was one of the only people that knew the intricacies of the art. He was poor as a result. So I should qualify it by saying they get the best of everything by screwing those who had the least. While I was growing up I witnessed my dad (who had extensive lawn care and sprinkler system knowledge) get roped into caring for our church's grass and landscaping. This was a large church too so the landscaping was extensive. Weekends were often wasted mowing, watering, tinkering, staining, trimming, and whatever else needed done. Of course, my father could have stood up and said no but the point is that this is just a small example of what I have seen all churches do in that they'll guilt people into doing something (think daycare, worship music, sound system, janitorial work etc...) often for free and this person will often end up being the lone person doing these tasks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser01 Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 even as a kid i ddint like the concept of heaven. i found the idea of worshiping god for a eternity so boring and uneventful, but i didnt think it through becuase i was allready petrafied of hell as a kid. i think the idea of heaven is a extension of peoples own desire for when they die to have control over it. over time the ideas would develop if you have the "right" kind of belifes you would be rewarded at the great unknown of death with your own self centred perfection. and all those who dont have the belifes through inductive reasoning get hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dagan Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 I used to imagine I'd finally have all my many questions answered, would be able to travel around the universe like star trek's teletransporter and would get to do pretty much whatever I found interesting. Who knows? If we don't blow ourselves up or kill ourselves off with a super virus, perhaps one day we will create our own heaven. I imagined the same thing. *High fives* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AC Skeptic Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Descriptions of heaven vary depending on the author. One such description mentioned already is that we would be continually praising God. I had a professor who was remarked that this is a good litmus test for Christian maturity, namely whether that sounded like a good thing. (honestly, when I was closest to "god", that did sound like a good thing). I always assumed life in heaven was so radically different that you didn't experience it like you experience life here. Therefor, I didn't need a description of things it sounded like I wanted to be doing (like eating burgers or having sex) because I wasn't "living" in time like I am now. Or another way to put it, I just assumed God would make me supernaturally super super super happy and joyful. Whether are not people who die as babies would have an adult conscious in heaven was the source of doubt in me that goes back 15 years to when I was in college (but not nearly enough to crack my faith). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex05 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 The whole brother and wife thing really troubled me. Also, lets say you lose someone and then you go onto live another 30 years and then die. You go to Heaven, but that person has their own life there already? It's why I'd rather there was no afterlife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikirin Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I was about 7 years old, I remember vividly thinking about heaven and hell, and how it wasn't the torture that bugged me as much as the idea of infinity, of living forever and ever. Even in heaven, the idea of living for infinity seemed really scary to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxie Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Have any of you read "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman? There is a scene in the book which discusses heaven and it goes something like this: Imagine a bird that flies thousand of miles, once every one thousand years to the highest mountain at the end of the universe, to sharpen its beak. Now, imagine, after aeons, the bird has worn the mountain down to nothing. And you, in heaven, STILL won't have finished watching "The Sound of Music." And you'll enjoy it! That's exactly what I think is would be like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMo Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I never believed I was "going to heaven." I believed that I was "going to the new earth." I believed that everything was going to be a perfectly renewed earth...like the fixed Genesis 1 and 2. I believed that the new earth would be the new Eden...Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 21-22...the Paradise without the tree of knowledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonother Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 When I was saved, I don't think that I ever desired eternal life. I just desired to avoid eternal hell. I also think that I had a clearer picture of hell than of Heaven. Heaven will be joined to the earth in the New Kingdom. Thus, "the meek shall inherit the earth," etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will02 Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Heaven (assuming its real) just sounds like eternal slavery to me. Eternal slavery vs eternal torture... what a choice! If possible, I'd rather remain an earthbound spirit after death or get reincarnated than go to either place. Having my conciousness simply cease to exist wouldn't be too bad either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wester Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 This is how my mom sold it to me back in the day: (1) Eternal Youth and Perfect Body - grandma is not sick anymore, she's young again, the guy with one leg grows his leg back (2) Superhuman Abilities - hey, now you can read Chinese and speak Swahili! How cool is that? (3) See All Your Dead Relatives, Friends, and Pets - probably individualy customizable, cuz there are plenty I don't want to see. (4) Many Mansions - hey you don't have to live in this hovel anymore, you get your own Bruce Wayne style digs - yipee (5) Streets Paved With Gold - if there is no money in heaven, what's the point? is it really that much more functional than asphalt? (6) Eternal Happiness - like, maybe everybody has their own supply of MDMA or some really good heavenly grass or something (7) Low Hanging Misty Clouds everywhere - my personal delusion (8) 24/7 Church services - like easily accessible pews everywhere man (9) A big white gate with kindly old white-bearded St. Peter keeping out all the African-American blues musicians and other rable. (10) Goofy blond-headed, winged tinkerbell angels darting about in the sky and playing harps. Joy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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