“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third Heaven…How he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” – 2 Corinthians 12:2,4

Isn’t it sad that there isn’t more talk of Heaven these days? There’s a lot of talk about earth these days, and I think we need to balance that with some good eternal talk—some talk about Heaven—because, in the end, we need to be living right now in light of where we want to live forever.

When we don’t talk about it, our silence almost gives permission for others to make all sorts of wacky claims about Heaven and the afterlife. Hopefully writing this can help fix that.

I was studying once and I discovered that a number of theologians did not focus on Heaven in their ministries or writings like you would have thought that they would.

There’s a guy named Reinhold Niebuhr who wrote a number of classic works. One in particular is a two-volume in-depth study of The Nature and Destiny of Man. Okay, the title alone ought to kind of give you a heads-up as to where that book is headed, and yet he said nothing about Heaven, nothing to give us a glimpse of the glorious life that awaits us as believers.

Another guy is named William Shed, and he wrote a three volume classic on Dogmatic Theology. He devotes eighty seven pages to eternal punishment and only two pages to Heaven.

One of my favorite authors is a man by the name of Martin Lloyd Jones, who wrote a nine hundred page classic called The Great Doctrines of the Bible. And in that book, Lloyd Jones devoted less than two pages on the doctrine of Heaven.

Berkoff wrote a book called Systematic Theology. Many of you are probably familiar with it. He devotes thirty eight pages to creation, forty pages to baptism, forty pages to communion, and only one page to Heaven.

What’s going on with this? Why aren’t we hearing more about Heaven from the pulpit when go to church? Why aren’t we talking about Heaven more with our Christian friends? Why aren’t we sharing the promise of Heaven to our non-believing friends, that they could somehow hear what God has in store if they would simply put their trust in Him?

Let’s turn this around, gang, starting with ourselves. Who can you talk about Heaven with today?

Prayer—
Lord Jesus,
Thank You that You died so that I could have the hope of Heaven! I choose to take my eyes off of the things happening around me on earth and think first about what You have for me in Heaven.
Amen