Marianne Gutierrez: Health Practitioner: What is heaven?

What is heaven? · 28 January 2007

Updated

I believe that this life is a test and the life in heaven is the real one. But then my Mum died, and every single death I heard about and every disaster and hearing about thousands being killed affected me very badly.

Heaven is our real home. Heaven is where we were originally supposed to be. So if that is the case, death can’t be that bad for the dead person? But Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb, even He understood the futility of death.

Jesus tells us about Heaven in John Chapter 14 ” ... in my father’s house there are many mansions …”

Jesus compares life in heaven to a Wedding.

In the bible Jesus refers to weddings and brides and bridegrooms all the time. In those days the people He was speaking to, would understand the inference because they knew what a Jewish Wedding was like. We in the 21st century living in other countries will probably not know what a Jewish Wedding is like.

Jesus always used parables and analogies so that everyone from any time or any country would be able to work out what He was saying by understanding the reference – in this case The Jewish Wedding.

Jesus was always talking about weddings, and brides – christians become the bride of christ when they accept what God’s Son Jesus did for them.
It sounds a bit odd and that is because the Catholic church took up the phrase Bride of Christ and called women that when they wanted to live together in one building and recite catholic prayers and strictly follow catholic rules and wear long pieces of fabric over their heads and bodies. None of which is in the bible – so I don’t know where the catholic church got its ideas from!

The Bride of Christ is simply an analogy to explain Heaven. We don’t literally marry Jesus. He uses it to describe the importance of His relationship with us and why He cares for us so deeply.

I can think of no better celebration than a wedding, especially these days – people spend, do, eat and wear exceptionally at a wedding. No matter what the income, the wedding is always a little more than what can be comfortably afforded. In other words we generally give our all to celebrate a wedding, because the occasion is always a very happy one. But this article isn’t about money – it is about love and celebration.

The Jewish Wedding

In the first instance a covenant (promise) is made between the Groom and the Bride’s father. The covenant can be made when the bride is still a baby and the Groom no more than a baby himself, in this case the negotiations are made by the parents. The covenant is the promise that the Groom will look after and marry the Bride and a purchase price is agreed. The Groom pays the father of the Bride. After this a glass of wine is shared between the two parties, the Groom and Bride. The drinking of the wine is a seal of the union.

Directly after this if the Groom and Bride are say teenagers when this covenant is arranged, the Groom goes back to his father’s house to arrange and prepare a home for his Bride. If they are babies when the covenant is made, then the Groom prepares a home when he is able. So the separation between Groom and Bride can be 12 months or many years.

Then on an unannouced night the Groom leaves his father’s house and walks to the Bride’s house with his Best Man. A shout goes out from house to house as they pass by. The Bride would hear the shouting, and would gather her bridesmaids together and they would get the Bride ready. The two men would reach the Bride’s house and wait outside. The Bride would go out to meet her Groom and walk back with him to his home.

Gifts would have arrived during the perod of separation and kept in a designated room in the house of the Groom’s father.

The Groom and his Bride would go to a room called the Bridal Chamber (in hebrew that has another name which I don’t know the spelling of). This was where the marriage was consummated. While consummation was taking place the Best Man and the chief Bridesmaid would wait outside the chamber. The Groom would come out once consummation had taken place and let the couple outside the room know. The importance in a marriage of consummation is that it confirms the promise and the union – two shall become one.

After consummation the couple waiting outside would tell the wedding guests that the Groom and Bride were now married and they would gather and enjoy a great feast.

The guests stayed for 7 days feasting while the married couple stayed ‘hidden’ in the bridal chamber for 7 days.

After 7 days the Groom would bring his Bride out and take off her veil so that all should see who she is.

The significant aspects of this wedding to what Jesus is telling us are these:
1 A price is agreed and paid by the Groom’s father
2 The Groom leaves his father’s house to fetch his Bride and bring her home
3. At the actual marriage ceremony – few are invited in this case just two
4. There is a feast which lasts 7 days, after which the true identity of the Bride is revealed.

This is how the analogy works:
Jesus (the Groom) left His Father’s house to come to us

Jesus establishes God’s covenant with us by paying the price of the penalty for our arrogance by dying on the cross and at the last supper uses the wine as a symbol of that union between God and Man.

Jesus leaves us after his death on the cross and resurrection and goes to prepare a house for us. (John chap 14)

Jesus will come back at an un-appointed time to collect his bride (us). He will come with his best man – the archangel gabriel. He will come with a loud shout. He will not come into the Bride’s house (the earth). The Bride will go up to him to meet him in the air. 1Thessalonians Chap 4 verse 16 to 17.

This tells us that Heaven is our real home just as our home with our spouses on earth seems to be our real home. That Jesus will provide everything we need for a good life, just as husbands provide a home and an income for his wife and family.

The piece about going up in the air to meet Jesus in the Sky is a bit surreal and difficult to accept. But I do accept it.

Most christians believe we are in the end times, that the First World War was the beginning of the end times. The Apostles wanted to know how they would know when the end will be. And Jesus said when there are wars and rumours of wars. The wars he was referring to were when nations fought against nations, when the whole world was fighting as indeed it was during the First World and Second World Wars. The rumours of wars refers to the news. And these days because of sophisticated communications and technology we hear the news of wars all the time as soon as they happen. Jesus (and Isaiah) also speaks of the violence of the earth and earthquakes and shaking the world off its axis which is what happened with the recent tsunami in Asia. It is recorded that the earth was shaken off its axis (and back again) on Boxing Day 2005.

In the Book of Revelations it tells us what will happen in the end times. It speaks of a period of peace. 1000 years. But before that Jesus will take His people, His Bride home. Those left will have the opportunity to believe in Him during a time of peace. After 1000 years the beast will be released for a few years and then it will be the end. There will also be a time of Tribulation Matthew Chapter 24 verses 1 – 51 and no-one is sure if that is before the 1000 years of peace or afterwards.

I believe that Jesus wept at the Tomb of Lazarus even though He knew He was going to raise him from the dead because He saw the futility of death and all the deaths of those who do not believe in Him. He raised Lazarus from the dead to show us that there is life after death and that death is not the end.

God gave us free will, and when we chose to live life without Him, by wanting the knowledge He had (taking the apple from the tree of knowledge) He then allowed us to live in a world without Him unless we chose to believe in Him. He gave us what we took from Him and He gave us our freewill to make our own decisions.
But not forever, the time would come when the world would end and those who had not committed to God and His son Jesus, would be judged.

If someone makes a cake, do you praise the cake or the person who made it?

It is the same with the world and human beings and animals and nature. God made all that and what did we do? We thought we could make it too. We are still arrogant enough to think we can control life. Arrogance is the sin that Jesus paid the penalty for. Even scientists believe that a superior being started life. Something did.

I believe it is something called God. God tells us all about himself and all the whys and wherefores in the Bible.

One day we will all definitely know who and what God is and whether there is a Heaven.

Trouble is because of freewill, it may be too late for some to change their minds about whether they believe in God or not, they will be too late for Heaven. And it is that aspect that makes me weep when I hear about yet more disasters and more sudden deaths.

And this is why I write this.

I also wonder at man’s arrogance and pride. Surely as an insurance policy doesn’t it seem sensible to believe in God – just incase there is a heaven, just incase there is a hell? I mean if there isn’t any of that and the bible and christians are lying what difference does it make to take out the insurance policy and believe? If there is no Heaven, then it won’t matter a jot after you are dead, if you thought there was! But if there is a heaven and you didn’t believe in it and you die and discover that the christians were right – what will you do then? Because by then it is too late.
Luke chapter 16 verses 19 – 31

Jesus is speaking and telling His Disciples another parable:

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptiously every day.
But there was a certain begger named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid out at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. More-over the dogs came and licked his sores.
So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
And being in torment in Hades (hell), he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewize Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
Then he said: ‘I beg of you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’
And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
(Jesus is telling this parable knowing full well that He would die and rise from the dead, so in effect the Rich Man’s petition was answered and still many people do not believe.)

Jesus is giving this parable to warn those who do not believe in Him. He uses a Rich Man not because it is wrong to be rich, it isn’t. The Jews he was speaking to included His Disciples and the Pharisees. In the verses before this parable in verse 14, the Pharisees were deriding Jesus. So Jesus said to them: (verse 15) “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Jesus then goes on to speak about the Law and the Prophets because the Pharisees were so insistent that the Jews obeyed the law and had no compassion, so Jesus sought to make a point to His followers using the Pharisees pride as an analogy.)

So the reference to the rich man was making a point to someone who holds his pride and reputation higher than God as a rich man might hold on to his wealth and not shed any compassion on the less fortunate. Using a poor man as Lazarus was, meant someone who placed God higher than his pride and reputation.

I found this parable really the most sad when I thought of the dying in the earthquake in Asia. I pray that on their deaths they did have an opportunity to acknowledge God. It is not for me to judge as God knows their hearts but I cannot bear to think of any one person, not even my enemy suffering for eternity in hell.

This is why I write this.

I would be really interested to hear your comments either at the end of this article or you can email me direct, see the contacts at the top of this page.

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