Dr Paul Allen

Of all the misconceptions we have about Heaven, which is the most destructive? That’s a difficult and important question to tackle. Someone asked: Do you really believe we will eat and drink in the afterlife?  Yes! But many Bible-believing Christians would die before denying the doctrine of the resurrection—and yet they don’t fully believe it. Some Christians don’t understand what resurrection means.  They really believe they will spend eternity as disembodied spirits. God’s revelation concerning the resurrection and the New Earth—our forever home—eludes them.  A Christian university professor wrote, “I was floored and dismayed to discover the vast majority of my students don’t believe in the bodily resurrection.” Some evangelicals even believe we become angels when we die. If I could eliminate one belief about Heaven, it would be the heresy that the physical world is an enemy of God’s redemptive plan rather than a central part of it. Dangers of Christoplatonism “Christop...

What body do we occupy between the time our lifeless bodies decompose into worm-fodder and when they are resurrected in glory?  The short answer is that we don’t know. The Bible doesn’t say. Biblically speaking, it’s a secret.  So, let’s start with what the Bible  does  say: Disembodied spirits seem to require a material, animated host , i.e. a person or animal (remember the pigs) in which to operate in the material world. In Scripture we see spirit beings such as angels and demons disengaged from the material dimension until they manifest in a bodily form. Matt  12:43   When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 2 Kings  6:17   Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Bodies ...