Heaven is for real!

This week a very learned man shared his opinion that there is no heaven. World renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking claims that heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark. 

My first reaction to his claim was to pray for God to reveal Himself to Mr. Hawking and then scripture came to mind. 

The Apostle Paul told the church members in Corinth that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. He then referred Christians to Isaiah 29:14 which reads, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."

1 Corinthians 1:20-25 reads, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

Mr. Hawking isn't a believer but he is a very intelligent man. According to scripture, "the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14

Mr. Hawking is living proof that someone can be very intelligent and yet miss the whole point of eternity. How very sad that he believes that when he's dead–it's all over.

As Christians, we believe in eternal life because we believe that Jesus was truly the Messiah, that He made atonement for our sins when He died on the cross and that He was resurrected through the power of God's Holy Spirit. Jesus told us that He was going to prepare a place for us and that He would one day come back to take us there. That place is in heaven and the disciple John tries to describe it in the book of Revelation. I believe it defies description–John couldn't find the words to explain what heaven is like. 

Paul also said that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. 

Mr. Hawking may have been somewhat right about one thing without his really knowing it. He said that people who believe in heaven are afraid of the dark. Those who have the Spirit of God within them know that God is light and we will forever be in His light when we arrive in heaven. Scripture tells us that those who don't have God's Spirit are living in darkness. As believers, I suppose you could say we have a fear of the dark, but it's less of a fear and more of a desire to live in the light of God. Those who choose not to believe in God have no fear of the dark because they are already living there, they are comfortable where they are. They have nothing to compare the darkness to.

I may be foolish in the eyes of the world, but I truly believe in heaven and look forward to the day when I'll get to see the mansion that is being prepared for me. Paul put it best when he said, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." Amen, brother Paul!