"DOES HEAVEN EXIST?"
Hugo McCord
A carefully researched article in TIME (March 24, 1997), "Does Heaven Exist?", is introduced this way:
It used to be that the hereafter was virtually palpable ["clear to the mind; obvious; evident; plain"], but American religion now seems almost allergic to imagining it. Is paradise lost?
The importance of asking if heaven exists is well set forth in TIME’s quotation from Professor Peter Kreeft of Boston College:
Next to the idea of God, the idea of heaven is the greatest idea that has ever entered into the heart of man, woman, or child.
I. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
"The idea of God" is preliminary to, and the foundation for, "the idea of heaven." Is the existence of God real?
An atheist and a Christian, spending the night together in a tent on the Sahara Desert, disagreed. The atheist said that human knowledge only comes through our five senses, and since his Christian friend admitted that he had never seen, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled God, he would have to say he could not affirm the existence of God.
The next morning the atheist looked out their tent door, and said to his friend, "A camel passed by here last night." The Christian asked him, "Did you see the camel? Hear, feel, taste, or smell the camel?" "No," said the atheist, "but only a camel leaves tracks like these in the sand." "Indeed so," said the Christian, "and only God leaves such tracks in our universe that we have to say that a Creator has been here."
The heavens tell of God’s glory, and the expanse proclaims the works of his hands. Every day pours forth information, and every night breathes out knowledge. There is no speech and there are no words; their voice is not heard. Yet their sound goes forth in all the earth, and their words to the end of the world (Psalm 19:1-4).
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) said that the stars speak:
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine,
"The hand that made us is divine."
The ancients wrote, "Ex nihil, nihil facit," "Out of nothing, nothing comes." But if something has come, as our universe, then something, or somebody, has always been in existence.
No house is self-built: "Every house is built by someone, and he who built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4). Joyce Kilmer thought that "all things" includes a tree:
I think I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain,
Which lives intimately with the rain.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
II. NO HEAVEN, GOD IS SENSELESS
God’s book has taught people how to cultivate worthwhile fruit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). Many people have set themselves to produce that nine-fold fruitage, and have succeeded.
The radical change made by reborn sinners as they become fruit-bearing Christians is set forth vividly by Joni Tada in the TIME article: "compare a hairy peach pit to the tree it becomes, loaded with fragrant blossoms and sweet fruit." The aroma spread by dedicated Christians makes other people seek their company.
But, after God has taught sinners how to grow good fruit, inevitably and eventually they all die. If there is no heaven, those people will stay dead, which makes their Creator look silly. Why did he make people, teach them how to produce excellent fruit, and then let them die forever? General Motors executives have more sense than God, for they do not hire engineers and skillful workers and produce a beautiful and powerful Cadillac, and then drive it into Detroit River and let it sink.
III. NO HEAVEN, GOD IS IMMORAL
In God’s teaching people the greatness of love, he had Jesus to say that "No one has a greater love than this: that one lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). In World War II such was exhibited when a live grenade was thrown by the Germans into a trench of American soldiers. Before it exploded, one soldier lay upon the grenade, and when it exploded he was instantly killed, but he had saved the lives of the soldiers on each side of him. If there is no heaven, that brave and unselfish soldier will receive the same reward as the murderous Hitler, both dying forever. God is without morals who treats people that way.
IV. NO HEAVEN, GOD IS CRUEL
God has "set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and because of it no normal person wants to die forever, but craves a happy, endless existence, "eternal life" (Titus 1:2). If God has not provided a place for such a joyous future, he was mean to instill "eternity in" their "hearts." An earthly parent is cruel if he puts the expectancy of gifts under a tree on December 25 for his children, and fails to be their Santa Claus.
V. HELL EXISTS ALSO
The God of love, who is neither senseless nor immoral nor cruel, and who is wiser than all of us, knows that a place of "everlasting fire" (Matthew 25:41) is right for some people. Though we do not understand why hell is as real as heaven, we have seen so many evidences of God’s goodness we dare not to second-guess God and criticize him.
He brought us into existence when he did not have to do so, and has displayed a love for sinners (Romans 3:23) that extends to "the whole world" (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2). He, himself being "love" (1 John 4:8, 16), which we are not, he will make not one mistake on judgment day. Every one that he sends to hell will grieve his heart: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). "O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" (Romans 9:20).