{"id":1063,"date":"2015-09-28T04:56:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T04:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/?page_id=1063"},"modified":"2019-06-10T04:58:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T04:58:36","slug":"meditations-the-hereafter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/meditations-the-hereafter\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditations – The Great Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.<\/em> – 1 John 3:2
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\"450px-Paradiso_Canto_31\"<\/p>\n

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Paradise by Dante Alighieri, illustration by Gustave Dore<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a common stereotype of life in the hereafter which describes it as, to be blunt, a great bore.\u00a0 ‘Sitting among the clouds strumming harps’ is the common dismissal that is used.\u00a0 This characterization is the result of a great lack of imagination.\u00a0 Just as most of us have trouble imagining the negative consequences of our actions, we also have trouble imagining the positive:\u00a0God, the resurrection, and the great conversation within the community and communion of saints.<\/p>\n

Imagining God, of course, is the hardest of the three.\u00a0 We do know from multiple testimonies that being in God’s presence grants a sense of joy, peace, and wellbeing that cannot be approached, let alone matched or exceeded, by any human substitute.<\/p>\n

Imagining the resurrection is a bit easier, thanks to the accounts of the\u00a0Resurrection of Jesus Christ and its aftermath in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, and the early theology to be found in the Epistles.\u00a0 Modern Christian writers such as C.S. Lewis, Jeffery Burton Russell,\u00a0Peter Kreeft, and Randy Alcorn\u00a0have written extensively on the general resurrection of the saints.<\/p>\n

Imagining people in heaven may be the easiest of all, and it is to this image this meditation is directed.\u00a0 It is our contention that among the people described on the People page<\/a> and in the more abbreviated form found on the Events pages<\/a>\u00a0on this site are some of the most interesting and admirable people who have ever lived.\u00a0 These are people who all of us would want to count as friends, who could be admired\u00a0even with their flaws, and who could be adopted as inspiring\u00a0faithful models.\u00a0 Now, imagine a place full of\u00a0such people, almost beyond count from every century and continent, each willing to spend a lifetime – literally their lifetime<\/em> – to tell you, their friend, how they were faithful to God and ended up with Him and you.\u00a0 Each one!\u00a0 Of course they would have moments (or years) of boredom or even despair, just as you and we once did,\u00a0but in the end their lives triumph.\u00a0 With God’s help you see what they saw, feel what they felt, hear their words and thoughts and prayers\u00a0in their own tongues with full understanding.\u00a0 Each skill they learned, every game they played, every hug given or received, every Godly act\u00a0is preserved to be shared with you. Would that be boring?<\/p>\n

To ask the question is to answer it.\u00a0 No entertainment industry could ever hope to match it.\u00a0 The account of each person’s salvation would take years, and if you are mathematically inclined you can take your idea of the numbers\u00a0in heaven and multiply the years of witness and love.\u00a0\u00a0Only an Eternity could hold it all.\u00a0 And in the end, should you tire of the reruns (for awhile), you could always turn to God Himself.\u00a0 Always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. – 1 John 3:2                 Paradise by Dante Alighieri, illustration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3777,"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1063\/revisions\/3777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaysmartyrs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}