F.A.Q - About Heaven "On Marriage &, Relationships"

2. F.A.Q - About Heaven "On Marriage &, Relationships"

3. Introduction • Today, we will again be trying to answer a few FAQs loosely grouped under the title “Marriage & Relationships”. • As I stated last week, in a number of these questions, I will be giving my answer in the form of an opinion.

4. If the Bible does not give us a clear answer to these questions that are frequently asked, I will give you my opinion, in line with what we do know from the Scripture. • This is an attempt to bridge the gap between the known and the unknown.

5. Again, when I am giving you an opinion, you are not required to believe it. • Paul the apostle distinguished between his opinions and what God had to say. • An example of this would be his pronouncement on marriages between believers and non-believers in I Cor. 7:12 (Amp.)

6. “To the rest I declare--I, not the Lord [for Jesus did not discuss this]--that if any brother has a wife who does not believe [in Christ] and she consents to live with him, he should not leave or divorce her.” • In other words, he gave his opinion – “I, not the Lord,” am giving you this instruction.

7. The first question today may sound odd, or even ridiculous to you, but it is a serious question that some have asked. • For the most part, sex, something created by God has been a source of intimacy and great pleasure for married persons. • Sex and marriage go together hand-in-glove.

8. The sexual urge is born into men and women, just as our other appetites, such as hungering after food and thirsting for something to drink. • It was invented by God as a means of populating and maintaining a continually growing human population. • It was also meant to bring pleasure.

9. The problem, of course, is that like all “very good” things that God created, sex can also become a problem. • Marriages are sometimes dysfunctional because of differing sexual needs between a husband and wife. • Marriages can be destroyed by sexual infidelity.

10. Like any God-created human appetite, the problem only arises when the appetite becomes an unhealthy lust. • Intrinsically, sex was included in God’s estimation of all that He created as being “very good”. • As with all appetites gone wild, the outcome is sin, and the only remedy is God’s grace.

11. But bear in mind that sex was originally God’s idea, and that it was meant to be good. • It was mankind’s actions that brought sex into disgrace and gained it the bad reputation it has earned. • Originally, sex was the most intimate way to express love and deep appreciation toward a spouse.

12. Having said all that, especially for those who have enjoyed the sexual aspect of their relationship in a loving way here on earth, it is understandable that they might ask: • Will there be sex in Heaven? • However odd this may be to contemplate for some, others ask the question sincerely.

13. So, Will There Be Sex In Heaven? • I hesitated to go into this, but it is a legitimate question, and no one knows for sure, all I can do is present you with a case for and against and let you decide for yourselves. • As we have mentioned in earlier studies, we will maintain our identities in Heaven, including our distinct genders in our resurrection bodies.

14. So, Will There Be Sex In Heaven? • I hesitated to go into this, but it is a legitimate question, and no one knows for sure, all I can do is present you with a case for and against and let you decide for yourselves. • I have not been able to reach a firm conclusion.

15. An intelligent argument could be made either way, depending on whether one believes we might be married in Heaven. • Certainly, sex in human marriages among the natural peoples of the New Earth, will be present, for children are born. • Sexual relations existed before the Fall and were not the product of sin and the Curse.

16. In fact, sexual relations were part of God’s perfect design which He called “very good” in Gen. 1:31a (KJV): • “And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” • It was the introduction of sin and the subsequent Curse which degraded and perverted many aspects of sex.

17. Sex in and of itself is very good. • Since the lifting of the curse will usually restore what God originally made, I would expect sex could be part of that. • In that light, given what we know about continuity between this life and the next, marriage and sex could be natural carry-overs.

18. On the other hand, if one accepts that we won’t be married in Heaven then sexual relations would have no place for resurrected Christians in the eternal heavens. • Because sex was built into the marriage relationship, marriage and sex logically belong together.

19. Hence, this would be an exception to the general principle of continuity. • In which case, there would have to be a different sort of continuity between earthly marriage and the marriage of Christ to His Church. • There may also be some way in which the intimacy and pleasure we now know as sex will also be fulfilled in some higher form.

20. I have no idea what that might be, but I do know that sex was invented and designed by God, who again called it “very good”. • And I don’t expect Him to discard it without replacing it with something better. • There is a unique metaphysical power to the sexual union between a man and woman.

21. It is no coincidence that Pagan worship often involved sexual acts. • As immoral as these acts were, they recognized that a transcendent spiritual nature manifests itself in the sex act. • It suggests that sexual relations in this world foreshadow something greater in the next world.

22. Certainly we should reject all Christo-platonic assumptions that sex, which God called “very good” would be unworthy of Heaven. • Rather than viewing marriage and sex as bad things to be replaced by good ones, we should view them as “very good” things, somehow transformed, or resurrected, to better ones.

23. If we don’t have sex in Heaven, and if there is no frustration of desire in Heaven, then it would appear we would not desire sex. • Yet we will evidently have other physical desires, like desires for food and water. • But what we WILL desire, and enjoy, is the relational intimacy which is the best part of sex.

24. We may discover as we look back that sex prefigured what it means to be lost in intimacy with Christ. • Once we are married to Him, we would then be in the place that married sex pointed to as a signpost. • The question about sex also begs an anatomical question about our resurrected bodies.

25. Will Resurrection Bodies Have Sex Organs? • Since men will be men and women will be women, and since there will be continuity between the old bodies and the new, there is every reason to believe that resurrected bodies will have sex organs.

26. Is that inconsistent since they wouldn’t be performing a function for which they were so wonderfully well designed? • Not necessarily. • Jesus was a perfect man, yet He was single and abstained from sex. • A number of people practice celibacy by choice.

27. Paul called celibacy a gift of God, and spoke of sex in marriage in I Cor. 7:5-10 (NCV): • “Do not refuse to give your bodies to each other, unless you both agree to stay away from sexual relations for a time so you can give your time to prayer. Then come together again so Satan cannot tempt you because of a lack of self-control. . .

28. 6I say this to give you permission to stay away from sexual relations for a time. It is not a command to do so.7I wish that everyone were like me, but each person has his own gift from God. One has one gift, another has another gift. 8 Now for those who are not married and for the widows I say this: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am. . .

29. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry. It is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire. 10 Now I give this command for the married people. (The command is not from me; it is from the Lord.) A wife should not leave her husband.” • Paul expressed his opinion in two instances here.

30. The point I wish to make is that one can be celibate and yet still fully human. • Or, taking another approach, simply because an organ is designed to function in a certain way does not mean that it must. • For example, nipples on a female serve a purpose, but why do men have nipples?

31. One day, while with a group of minister friends, one asked another, “_____ why do men have nipples?” • The preacher asking the question had a habit of wearing his pants with the waist just below where his chest began. • The other preacher he asked was pretty snappy with a come-back, and replied:

32. “In your case ______, to hold your pants up!” • Seriously, I can think of very little function that nipples serve for men, yet we have them. • The New Earth will be filled with natural peoples, all conceived through sexual procreation, and this will continue throughout all generations, as we have pointed out before.

33. However, the Redeemed of all the ages will be different from the natural peoples saved during the latter days of this Earth’s existence. • If that difference also includes the need for, or the practice of sex for the Redeemed, I’m sure we can live with that.

34. But, the purpose of sex for procreation, as far as the Redeemed are concerned, will have been fulfilled. • If there is no sex in Heaven for the Redeemed, we will participate in what sex was always pointing to – deep and engaging relational intimacy with Christ and one another.

35. I don’t believe that we will feel like we are missing out on anything. • In Heaven, it is entirely possible that our relationship will transcend sex as we know it here in this life. • I rather doubt that we will be focused on anything except the Lord and each other in the most agreeable and happy way possible (with our without sex).

36. Will We Be Reunited With Infants Who Have Died? • We all know that the Bible teaches we will be reunited with all believing loved ones who die. • But what about infants, small children, and those who are mentally handicapped or have died to young to believe in Jesus?

37. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, demonstrated a special love for children and the mentally ill. • He taught that we need to become like little children in order to enter God’s Kingdom, and He made a point of embracing children when His disciples sought to exclude them in Matt. 19:13-14.

38. Luke 18:16(NIV, 1984) says: • “But Jesus called the children to Him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’” • In Matt. 18:2-4 (NIV, 1984) Jesus used children as examples of faith:

39. “He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And He said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

40. In Ezek. 16:21, God expressed his anger at the killing of children and referred to them as “My children.” • In Matt. 18:10 (NASB), Jesus said that the angels assigned to children, • “. . . continually see the face of My father who is in heaven”

41. It is my firm belief that God saves and covers with the blood of Jesus, infants, the unborn, and children who die too young to understand and accept Christ. • In Psalm 8:2a, David wrote: • “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise . . . . .” (This was quoted by Jesus in Matt. 21:16).

42. The specific inclusion of infants is significant because they would not be conscious of giving praise; praise for them would have to be something instinctive. • So, infants and children who die before understanding and accepting the Gospel are covered by Christ’s blood so that they go to heaven when they die.

43. An interesting passage in Luke 1:15 (informs us that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb: • “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb.”

44. This passage suggests that God conferred a saved and righteous standing on John, even though as an infant he could’nt understand or respond to the plan of salvation. • Since God, who is no respecter of persons, did that with John the Baptist, He can do it as well for other children.

45. In a similar vein, David said that God had been His God since his mother bore him in Psa. 22:10: • “From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” • In Jer. 1:5 (NIV, 1984), God told Jeremiah He had known him since before he was born:

46. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” • After the infant son of David and Bathsheba died, David said in II Sam. 12:23b (NIV, 1984): • “. . . I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

47. David, in his agony of grief, consoled himself with the knowledge that he would one day join his son in Heaven. • In Heaven, I personally believe that many parents will meet or be reunited with their children who were stillborn, or who died while in their infancy or at an early age.

48. Perhaps these infants or children will take their parents by the hand and lead them around the present, or Intermediate Heaven. • Then one day, after the final Resurrection, they will enjoy one another’s company on the New Earth, and experience its wonders, together forever.

49. Who Will Our Friends Be In Heaven? • Eternal Heaven will be on the New Earth, where people will live and work in a relational society. • We will glorify God as the one big family of Christ in a rich relationship with each other. • Friends will be more dear to us than ever in Heaven.

50. Do you have a close friend who has had a profound influence on you? • Do you think that it was a coincidence that he or she was placed into your life, or that you lived where you lived so they could become your friends? • Certainly, it was no coincidence.