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Faith

Easter and Heaven

Apr. 5, 2012 3:27pm

Dr. Gary Scott Smith chairs the history department at Grove City College and is a fellow for faith and the presidency with The Center for Vision & Values. […]

Dr. Gary Scott Smith chairs the history department at Grove City College and is a fellow for faith and the presidency with The Center for Vision & Values. He is the author of “Faith and the Presidency From George Washington to George W. Bush” (Oxford University Press, 2009) and “Heaven in the American Imagination” (Oxford University Press, 2011).

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gssmith@gcc.edu

Author's Website

As Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ this Easter, heaven is naturally on the minds of many. Recent polls indicate that between 75 and 90 percent of Americans believe that heaven exists, percentages that far exceed the belief by residents of other Western nations.

As the author of “Heaven in the American Imagination,” I have recently been interviewed for both a television special and a “Time” magazine article on heaven. The widespread belief among Christians that we, like Jesus, will live after our death, has led many to ask what heaven is like. Throughout history Americans have offered many different answers to this question.

Although their interpretation of biblical passages has guided most Christians in describing heaven, their cultural settings, dreams, and hopes have also shaped their portraits as expressed in music, art, and literature.

Throughout American history, theologians and pastors have typically depicted heaven as an actual place of dazzling beauty, unending delight, and greatly expanded knowledge. Americans have largely agreed that heaven is a spectacular and delightful home for people who are aware of their own identities and life histories, enjoy rich fellowship with others, enthusiastically worship God, do meaningful work, and experience fantastic joy.

However, deeply influenced by their own life experiences and differing political, social, and economic circumstances, American Christians have provided conflicting portraits of heavenly life. From the Puritans in the 1600s to the Second Great Awakening of the antebellum years, most Christians depicted a God-centered heaven that focused on worshiping and serving the Trinity. Since the Civil War, many portraits of heaven have focused on service, education, and personal growth as these concepts became more important in American society.

During the last decade, several major cultural trends—especially increased anxiety, the prominence of our entertainment culture, the impact of the therapeutic worldview, and concerns about the breakdown of the family and the impoverishment of personal relationships—have shaped American views of heaven.

This has led Christians to offer competing pictures of heaven as a place of comfort, enriching entertainment, self-actualization, robust relationships, and bliss. Heaven has been depicted as a haven from the world’s ills, a magnificent home, a posh vacation resort, a perpetual playground, a therapeutic center, and a place of incredible happiness. Some conceptions of paradise provide a soothing antidote to the anxiety-arousing and disconcerting events that lead many newscasts and newspaper headlines. Heaven promises a pleasant respite from the world’s perils, tragedy, and despair.

America’s focus on entertainment, and fear that heaven may be boring, has prompted depictions of paradise as the ultimate recreation center. Anthony DeStefano’s best-selling “A Travel Guide to Heaven” portrays the celestial realm as “Disney World, Hawaii, Paris, Rome, and New York all rolled into one.” “Heaven is a pleasure palace, a fairyland … and a never-ending vacation…. It’s the ultimate adventure for travelers of all ages.”

For others, the afterlife is principally about introspection and self-actualization. It is the place where individuals listen to their inner child, repair their self-esteem, and finally attain closure. In phenomenally popular books, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “The Lovely Bones,” Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold respectively explain that heaven exists to help people make sense of their earthly lives.

Influenced by a culture that promotes and prizes personal happiness, still others make happiness a key feature of heavenly life. “God will supply us with everything we’ll ever need” to be happy in heaven, declared Billy Graham. Another evangelical predicts that the saints will have “the athleticism of Michael Jordan, the mind of Albert Einstein, and the creativity of Charles Dickens.” Finally, for many, heaven is primarily a place of reunion with family members and friends, characterized by love, intimacy, and comfort.

Americans’ great interest in heaven is evident today in book sales, television and movie themes, art, and music. Books based on the near-death experiences have been especially popular and influential in shaping American conceptions of the afterlife. More than a year after its publication, “Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back” is still number one on The New York Times Best Seller List for nonfiction.

As Christians celebrate Easter this year, they rejoice that Christ’s resurrection promises that those who trust in him as their Savior will someday join him in paradise. Until that occurs, Christians will continue to debate the features and wonders of heaven.

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Comments (21)

Injunator
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 1:57pm
His [Galatians 6"11] written holy bible is the only authority, words of God, Himself . . . the holy Spirit teaches but 2 Thessalonaians 2 is TRUTH/LIFE of God . . . ALL flesh is Psalms 58, Romans 10:3 describes ALL churches, religions, beliefs of many now . . . God is to be worshipped in Truth and in Spirit-

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mjazzguitar
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:58pm
Here we are still free to worship as we please, where Christians worldwide are discriminated against, beaten, and even killed just for being Christian.

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- tallahasseelassie
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:31pm
  Have you ever read By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century? I was grieved to read that more Christians were killed for their faith in that one century alone than in the entire 2000 year past history of the church. Makes me feel grateful to live here.
  
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Robert Hawk
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:17pm
What stupidity.
All of this error is based upon actually reading biblical text with understanding and those who meander through it without connecting the dots, and those who suppose what is written there whiteout actually reading it.

Your clue is given in 2nd Peter chapter 3 where you will learn of 3 specific earth ages or eons (timed events). There was one prior to this one which ended in an ice age and there is this one then the next (known as the eternity). Further information is given concerning the eternity in the last chapter of the book of Revelation. You will not be in a flesh body in the eternity (if you make it to that point), Paul defines this quite clearly in 1st Corinthians chapter 15. Your time in this earth age, in the flesh is only probationary. Your works here and in the Millennium to follow very shortly, determine you rights to access the next earth age.
Will it boring there? Nope, just as it was not boring during the first earth age which each of us existed in. However Satan and his band of followers will not transfer over to the next earth age, they are all destroyed in the lake of fire at the end of the Millennium. Read about that in Revelation chapter 20.

As far as Easter goes. why do the children of the living God of Israel go to church and worship the goddess ishtar as opposed to celebrating the passover? Do you think this makes our Father happy?

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tallahasseelassie
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 11:14am
You don’t have to guess about heaven, you can touch a bit of heaven in prayer. Here are two books that explain how to touch God. Also explains some of the biology of prayer, how it changes the cells of the body, etc. Touching God and Deep Relief NOW available on amazon.com and http://www.forgive123.com .

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americanfoodblister
Posted on April 6, 2012 at 3:57pm
Silly Sledge, the Easter Bunny is another retail Gimmick just like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. Created by retailers to market a holiday..I was referring to spring celebrations before they got supplanted by the religious nutjobs for the superstitious. You know when they used to believe the earth was flat and worse…who are you to tell me I am wrong.. It is real history not a story or myth as is the Zombie story of Jesus..

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- Robert Hawk
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:05pm
  These are the comments of one steeped in the doctrine of Greek philos-sophos which are influenced by the teachings of Hegel’s students, specifically Feuerbach, Bauer, Sterner and Marx. Notice that the author indices the stories of Jesus are a myth, this is verbatim the words of Feuerbach and Bauer, who used the Dialectics of Stoic philosophia to derive this point. The interesting part is that they were later proven to be false.
  
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Blacktooth
Posted on April 6, 2012 at 2:18pm
The celebration of Easter is irrelevant to God and his Son, Jesus.

As for Heaven; The Bible describes it in various places but notice how Revelation 20:6 explains it:
“Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”

Those resurrected to Heaven will be Priests and Kings, ruling with Jesus and assisting mankind in their worship of the True God. Revelation 14:1

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- WhiteFang
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 2:28pm
  Hi blacktooth,
  
  Here is another scripture explaining the role of those resurrected to be in Heaven with our Lord; “And they sing a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slaughtered and with your blood you bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.” – Rev. 5:9-10
  
  It’s good to see what the Bible actually says about this instead of the man-made ideas of heaven and their Easter traditions.
  
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- mcsledge
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 2:37pm
  Blacktooth – I guess you must read a different Bible than most Christians. Those who are ungrateful will reap the consequences. One of God’s greatest gifts to man is the life, Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Man was commanded to do all things before the Father in Christ’s name.
  
  He who does not revere Jesus Christ at this special time of year can forget living in the presence of the Father and the Son.
  
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- Blacktooth
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 3:03pm
  mcsledge,
  
  Why do you assume I am ungrateful? What gave you that idea?
  Did our Lord tell us to celebrate Easter which is a pagan celebration with a Christian name stuck on it?
  
  Jesus told his faithful followers to observe his Death, and what he and it accomplished for all of us. He instituted the new covenant with his faithful eleven apostles on the night of the Jewish Passover date of Nisan 14, his arrest and his death followed the instituting of the memorial of his death and it’s importance. We are commanded to celebrate his death, not his resurrection. Luke 22:14-20
  
  We did this last night, just as the scriptures tell us to do.
  1 Corinthians 11:23-26
  
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DeavonReye
Posted on April 6, 2012 at 11:39am
It makes sense that “heaven” has morphed into “what I [emphasis on the ego] will get after I die.” “Heavenly mansion”, “no more pain”, “no more crying”, “bliss”, “safety”, . . . etc. Why? Because life on Earth sometimes sucks. . . .and may do so for years, ending in a painful death. But that’s . . . . well, . . . life! I suppose some people are comforted by the ideas of heaven, “no more trials and I am reunited with loved ones”. If it were true, . . . if THAT aspect of “heaven” were true, it WOULD be nice.

Do I buy it? . . . . . No, I don’t. True, that vision of “heaven” would be comforting, but others are not.

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TH30PH1LUS
Posted on April 6, 2012 at 11:06am
Lord Jesus,

Words fail when I think about what you did for me – for us all. That you would willingly allow yourself to be falsely accused, brutally beaten, tortured, and crucified as an atonement for wrongs you never committed. Not only the physical pain, but the mental and spiritual suffering after you lived a sinless life, never knowing a guilty a remorseful moment. Then on the cross, taking all my sins upon yourself. My lies, my failures without number. Things that I did that I never should have. Things that I didn’t do, that I should have. All of it. Lord, I don’t deserve that. I could never deserve that. I’m just a sinful man. Unworthy. How could you love me so much?

I don’t know what else to say. Thank you. With all my heart, thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykf9t_vh4nw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH5u7UuzDyc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL633A68B0F0B19BDB

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USAMEDIC3008
Posted on April 5, 2012 at 11:44pm
Sorry easter Has nothing to do with Jesus
You got to stop with traditions of men

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- Texas.7
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 12:41am
  Easter is the most historically correct holiday we have. It has nothing to do with pagan traditions, though it’s name may have originated with that. It is the third day (per Jewish night/morning days) after Jesus died on the cross, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread which spanned 7 days from Passover.
  
  Jesus, who offered Himself as the Lamb for our sins, with His blood painting the door through the Wall for our salvation, became for us the Bread of Life. When I asked God to explain my new manger scene on my first Christmas Eve as a believer, He spoke to me, saying, “Jesus was laid in the manger, as food for the Sheep”. As a sign of His mission on Earth, Jesus was laid in the feeding trough of the sheep upon His arrival.
  
  The Jews, who have been without a Passover Lamb for 2000 years since the Temple was destroyed (as Jesus prophesied, referring to His Body as the Temple not made with hands), have developed traditions around the unleavened bread at the Passover feast. It is dipped in saltwater to remind the Jews of their tears in slavery in Egypt. And it is eaten with bitter herbs, as Jesus was given gal to drink on the Cross, to remind them of the bitterness of their affliction. Three matzas are placed together in a cloth envelope of sorts. The matza is used to signify the Lamb. These represent Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for though they don’t know it yet, God has taught the Jews of Christ also.
  
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- Texas.7
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 12:59am
  cont.
  The three cups of wine wine blessings given throughout the meal each represent a layer of God’s mercy towards the Jews fulfilled in time, and in Christ. The third cup, after the meal, stood for redemption. Jesus took this cup, and gave a blessing given at that time when a man and woman were betrothed. The Bridegroom would offer a cup of wine to the woman, which represents the blood seal of their covenant (that two would become one flesh, one blood). He is offering His blood, which by drinking, she accepts. Something traditional for him to say would have been, “I would lay down my life for you”.
  
  Jesus, offering the Cup of Redemption at the Passover Feast, offers the blessing of a Bridegroom, “”Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:27-28)
  
  Jesus was the Passover Lamb. He was the Shepard who laid down His life as a Lamb, for the flock. He is the Bridegroom, who promised that we would next drink of the cup at the Wedding Feast in Heaven. He was the Bread of Life, and instructs us to “feed the sheep”- with Him, for knowing Christ brings new life. He is the Word- which we understand once we know that man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that God speaks. He was the power behind the Staff of Moses, who was Himself to be raised up again after being placed down. Everything about Passover was completed in Christ. And He will lead us home.
  
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- Texas.7
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 9:34am
  sorry 4 cups of blessing- the 4th, which Jesus was referring to when He said that He would partake with them later, represents the fruition and completion of redemption- the Kingdom complete.
  
  The Jews also set a cup for Elijah, just in case he shows up as is still expected. While we have seen the precursor of his appearance in John the Baptist, we too anticipate Elijah and Moses to return as great prophets to the world during the late end times.
  
  On Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. It is resurrection day, when the Lamb who was slain for all of mankind came back from the grave, because death couldn’t contain Him. It is our most important holiday, for this is His victory over death for us.
  
  Which takes us to the topic of this article, because just as the Bridegroom goes and builds another room on his parent’s house for the couple prior to the wedding, Jesus left to prepare a “room”. That building is the Body of Christ, New Jerusalem. And the glorified city will be our heavenly home.
  
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- americanfoodblister
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 12:42pm
  Yes very true, Easter formally known as Spring Equinox for thousands of years before the men in funny hats hijacked yet another tradition and supplanted it with another fantasy, represented rebiirth, renewed life as in new life again. We all know it as dead of winter leaving and spring has sprung life again…not a hard one to figure out. Some people are so gullible ..
  
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- mcsledge
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 2:40pm
  If you are referring to the Easter Bunny, then you would be right.
  
  If you are referring to the celebration of the life, Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ at the time of the Passover, then you are dead wrong.
  
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- USAMEDIC3008
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 5:25pm
  MCSLEDGE
  Thank you. Jesus became the last blood sacrifice passover.
  The last suppre was not passover
  Jesus died on wed the day before the passover, when he died It got dark
  making it the passover
  Wed night – Thur night- Fri night
  Thur-Fri -Sat 3 days 3 nights
  arose just after sundown Sat
  Sunrise Baal Eggs chicks Bunnies Spring fling Jesus had better things to do..
  HAPPY EASTER to some
  May God blessings and peace Be on ALL of good will
  
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- USAMEDIC3008
  Posted on April 6, 2012 at 8:21pm
  Be vewe vewe quiit imhunten wrabbitts
  
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