Marriage: Part One: The First Marriage

The first human marriage was that of Adam and Eve. I say “human”, because eventually I’ll write on the “prototype”, and that was different (Christ and the church). It is an indispensable part of this discussion. But since I jumped in on Genesis 1 and 2, let’s anticipate that I’ll get back eventually to the “prototype” in a future blog.

At creation, God was setting precedents. Marriage was a big one. He first created the man. Then He created woman for man. Of course that’s tough to swallow. Much in the Bible is tough to swallow. So if you’re one of those who wants to write off the whole matter because it isn’t easy, my guess is that you’re like most people who feel that way: you have never seriously studied the Bible. (Forgive me if you happen to be an exception to the rule.) And then studying the Bible with the key person to interpretation and the 2-part division of law and grace must be part of your consideration. (I get a bit pedantic here because in my 59 years of experience knowing this has been so important and helpful to me.)

Regarding Adam and Eve, the New Testament affirms this same priority – that of Adam being prior to Eve. And it also affirms the innate worth of both female and male. But that they are different is assumed by the language. There are two in type, not one. God created “man” (humankind) in his image, male and female he created them. The work was not complete until female was created. The woman (female) was created because it was “not good” that man (male) should be alone. The woman Eve was made so as to be a helper for the man. This is read in wedding ceremonies that use a formal traditional liturgy. (But most pastors find ways to skirt around it. Apparently it’s too difficult to deal with. But we must remember that the abuse of position and authority never has proved that there is no such thing as position or authority.)

Was this the first marriage? Of course. God told the couple to be fruitful and multiply. And they did. Adam had relations with Eve and she bore a son. Then she bore another, and so on. When the subject of marriage and divorce is raised with Jesus, he referred to this first “marriage” (Mark 10:1-9). And in the process he made several points that make it clear he was referring not only the first marriage, but the Creator’s intention in marriage.

Jesus’ first point is that Moses’ law allowing divorce was given as a concession to humankind for their hardness of heart, and was not the first word regarding divorce. God’s was. In other words, the remedy for a marital problem was not the first teaching point on marriage from God. The first thing was the Creator’s design and intent. And that was, “the man should leave father and mother and be joined to his wife.” The joining was good: Genesis states it and Jesus underscores it.

Jesus underscored also the physical joining of the two bodies: The two become one flesh. It is clear from this that the separation occurring in divorce is a tearing apart of a body. (One of the prophets later cries out that “God hates divorce”.)

Finally Jesus warns that no human being should separate that which God has thus joined. God joins in marriage a man and a woman, and those who work to tear that apart should take warning. (Of course we all do our part to tear marriages apart, some by more covert means, yet still destructive. Only by God’s grace and mercy can our participation be rectified.)

It is really not a complicated matter. The Bible testifies that God made them at the beginning - male and female – and He made them in His image. The animals are not in his image. Humans are. And, incidentally, the animals understand by instinct, that male goes with female. Evan botanical life gets it. No confusion there.

Because this needs to be brief, let’s close with the blessing – just like a public service of worship! God blessed them, and said: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Its instructive that the command to be fruitful and multiply is the context for the blessing. There’s more than that, but it just so happens that marital intercourse, conception, childbearing and child raising are all part of something God wants to be a happy and blessed situation. He pronounced His blessing upon this, and with his blessing comes his very life-giving presence. Our part is to trust Him and take Him at His word when he speaks a blessing.

Marriage: A Short Introduction to a Big Subject

So…what is marriage? Marriage is when two people commit to loving one another as long as they both shall live. They live together, and typically, they procreate; that is, they have children together because that is a natural outflow of relationship.

Marriage fosters the ongoing life of the species, to put it in biological terms.

Many things could be said about marriage, and many things need to be said, because there is currently a lot of confusion about it.

I’d like to speak on this over a series of sub-topics. It’s not what you’d call a minor subject. Here are the 12:

The Prototype
The First Human Marriage
The Public Side of Marriage
Work, Investment and Reward in Marriage
Private and Exclusive: Protecting and Cherishing What You Have
Care and Feeding
Storms
Shipwreck
Mercy and Grace
Children
Orphans and Adoption
The Culmination of Marriae

I invite you to join me in this quest, because that’s what it is. This is a search for truth on a life-and-death matter. One could say that human marriage is a key to understanding a great bulk of life. Do you think that’s overstated? I bet you won’t after you finish these twelve topics.

Tom Graham Flew Low, Now Flying High

Tom was always an encourager to me. It was funny, because when I'd first introduce him to a new person who was close to me, Tom took advantage. He invariably began the conversation with a straight face and a "crooked" comment.

I would watch the person talking with Tom for the first time to see the reaction. His very first words to the new person would be something like, "How on earth did you come to hang around with someone like John?" And he wouldn't crack a smile at all. Usually had a stern look. And the other person, depending on how quick he was might say, "Well, uh, uh..." And Tom would then rescue him and break out in a smile and say, "I'm just kidding."

He flew commercial planes and jets his whole career. (United I think). He told me that in the fifties, when he'd fly passengers from Seattle to San Francisco, on occasion they'd spot a pod of whales out over the Pacific - maybe a hundred miles off the coast of northern California. He'd come over the loud speaker and mention it to the passengers. And then maybe something like, "shall we go down and take a look?" And they did! I think this was before the jets, the 707s; so it was a prop plane, and he'd probably come down from 15,000 to - who knows what! - and the people would love it. They'd get a bird's eye view of the whales in migration.

And then there was Crater Lake in Oregon. It's that super-blue, super-deep beautiful lake that fills a crater in the Cascades. At least on one occasion he rolled over and swooped almost into the basin so the people had the ride and view of their life. You'd get fired for doing that today, of course.

As I say, Tom was an encourager to me. Here at the church where I serve in south Seattle, he was an elder. A senior elder, so he didn't attend meetings as often. Margaret went home to be with the Lord a few years back, and it has really been tough on Tom. She was his wife of (I'm guessing) 60+ years. After my dentist appointment this morning, I saw the blue sky after a squall, and thought, "maybe I can jump on the Southworth Ferry and see him again. So, when I got to the office, I got the word, "Tom died last night." Another friend nearby said, "he's got his reward."

That's for sure. A very great reward. (Psalm 16:5; Gen. 15:1)

Waiting Up Late For Me - or - A Major Turning Point

(I first wrote this for one of my relatives. Maybe it can help you.)

Going off to college was a turning point in my life. I think we have many turning points, but for me this was one of those major ones. I knew God, read my Bible and had even witnessed to friends a few times before this. When I got back to Northfield, Minnesota, I met people my age who were also Christians. They had a joy and confidence that I didn’t have. I also felt humbled, because, although I had heard the Word all my life, some of these new friends studied the Bible and knew parts of it better than I did; and I knew that they hadn’t been Christians as long. That got my attention.

More to the point was the joy, peace, and confidence I saw in their lives. These are for me still things I can’t live without. So here I was – away at college after four years of off-and-on conflict with my dad. It was about my dating life and the company I kept. On the one hand, I was involved in church and music ministry, for which he was glad. But I was stuck in some habits. The tension between my dad and me – and also between my conscience and my actions – was wearing me down. Part of the reason I left Tacoma and went to the Midwest for college was to tear myself away from my environment and habits and try to get a new start.

I remember a few times tip-toeing into the house long after the time I had promised to return home. Once it was way after midnight; the light was on in the living room. As I rounded the corner and tried to sneak up the stairs to my room, there was my dad. (That's him pictured in the sketch above.) He sat quietly in a living room chair, reading and waiting. He spoke in a low, controlled voice.

“Where have you been?”

I told him I had taken my girlfriend home and we had talked for awhile. He reminded me of the time I had agreed to return and asked why it was so much later. After stumbling through an excuse, I asked why he didn’t trust me. He was ready for that, and he responded right away, “Because you’re not trustworthy.” That stung, but I knew it was true.

There wasn’t much more conversation. It was late and he had made his point. There I was, soon to be a grown man, and he and my mother had spent 17 years raising me.

I remember another occasion, when I was again tip-toeing in after midnight. This time no light was on and I made my way upstairs, presumably undetected. As I slid into bed my heart raced and pounded for quite awhile before I was finally able to relax and fall asleep.

The reason that joy, confidence and peace mean a lot to me is that they were so elusive in those days! I suppose if I had to name qualities opposite to those things, I might say that I was “depressed, hesitant, and conflicted.” The weird thing is that in the midst of all that I saw myself as a Christian, and now still believe that I truly was. But maybe that’s why this was all such a raging battle! My experience and actions were pushing hard against where my heart wanted to truly go – where I knew I belonged.

So off I went to college. Sixteen hundred miles from Tacoma. I poked my way through classes and found myself struggling to make decent grades. (I went to Highline – in the SeaTac area – the year after that.) But in the midst of that year away, far from home, I did some soul-searching and got closer to God. It took some humbling. There were times of loneliness and it took work making new friends. I got involved with teams of students who went out and put on programs and led worship services at churches nearby. Sometimes we hitch-hiked several hundred miles to get to the church or youth group we were assigned to for the weekend.

So, now 40 years later, what does it look like for me to be sure life will bring confidence, joy and peace? How do I know for sure that I won’t have a herky-jerky ride that delivers only a weird mix of surprises I can’t depend on? The answer I’ve found of course is that the source of joy and peace is Jesus Christ. But for all of us the big question is how to maintain a life-line to him. To use that water illustration - one can have a lake of cool, fresh mountain water. But how do you get a good pipe to it and draw up the water for what you need every day!?

For starters, those who say that Jesus Christ is not Lord of all and giver of life – they are simply wrong. If you have been rationalizing away what people have testified to you about him, that’s a problem. If one wants the peace, confidence and joy that comes from the forgiveness of sin, Jesus Christ is the only one who delivers. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Communism, Globalism, humanism – all these make empty promises.

But back to the water illustration. In John 7 we see Jesus attending the third major annual feast of the Jewish year, the Feast of Booths (Succoth). He stands up and says with a loud voice, “If any one trusts me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. (He was talking about the Holy Spirit, which those who trusted in Him were going to receive).”

God’s Holy Spirit actually lives in the person who trusts Jesus Christ. It’s sort of like you and me living in a house and making it our home. The Spirit of God lives in our body and makes it His home. And when He does, He brings with Him all the good gifts of Jesus Christ and daily reminds us that they belong to us. This is genuine good news. If you keep reading, there can be unbelievable benefit to you.

Maybe I should remind you, the gifts of God are not “spiritual” in the sense that they are for monks and nuns. They are not “other-worldly” in that you don’t get them until you die. Nor are they so hard to understand that only someone trained as a scholar can grasp them.

God gives daily food. He gives friends. He gives wisdom, jobs, understanding and insight. He gives laughter, and happiness in families. The Bible says that “all good gifts” are from God. (James 1:17). Without minimizing things such as eating, drinking and physical pleasures, perhaps relationships are the biggest.

When I would sneak into the house late at night and hoped to be undetected, my fear was not that my parents would never forgive me. Nor was it that God would send me to hell for being disobedient. I knew that He was forgiving. I knew that’s why Christ died, to pay for my sin. What I was stuck on was that my behaviors were chopping me off at the knees. I wasn’t owning up to things, and this was undermining my relationships – with Christ and other people. I now know that the opportunity to break away and go off to college was also a gift from God! This time away helped me back away from my situation and look at it. This became a time during which I got to meet a whole different group of people who affirmed, loved, and served the same Lord my parents served. (My parents weren’t perfect, of course, but they were trying their utmost to serve God and help their four boys do the same.)

God cleaned me up. He got me more deeply into His Word. He gave me a fresh look at people who walked the walk. Those people weren’t perfect either, but somehow this all helped. Jesus said, “You are made clean by the word I have spoken to you.” Jesus is the living Word. His blood atones for our sin. But to really know, experience and revel in that “clean-ness” every day is to be able to name the sins that need cleansing. Like Luther says, we don’t have to belabor this and forever make a longer and longer list of our ugly sins. Forget that. It’s impossible. But when God brings to my mind something I’ve done wrong, or an attitude I persist in that stinks, He’s putting a finger on it. He’s calling me to name it with my lips – between Him and me. (If my sin is also between me and another person, I need to name it to that person too, for we are all called to be family under Christ.)

The good news here is that this humbling and naming brings freedom. Freedom brings power over the evil. Naming and confessing defeats Satan. The power we gain brings joy and celebration. I really see this when I look around at so many people who live in the sewers of life. That’s where I was headed. I’m glad God helped me.

Where is all this going? Maybe you have some big decisions that are looming. I can’t walk you through all the applications of the gospel to your life. But I can tell you this: Through Christ, God who made you in His image is your Heavenly Father. He knows your needs and has the power and will to help you. He’s calling you now to trust Him.

Faith is the condition. Faith, and only faith. To have faith doesn’t mean you can explain it all. Faith is simply trusting that Jesus Christ died for your sin. Often it is a re-affirming faith: you re-visit that place where you once trusted Christ, say “I have wandered off the track,” and ask the Father again to restore to you the joy of salvation. Faith, in order to be faith, must look away from self. Break the mirror. Look only to Jesus Christ. This is a daily discipline. No one has this all figured out. Everybody has to learn to walk daily as little children do, step by step.

You might hear voices that tell you the “fear of God” is old-fashioned and must be discarded. But instead, discard those voices. They are liars, deceivers. (This is not said for dramatic effect. See John 8:44.)

Enjoying life is ultimately only possible by failing in love with Jesus Christ. Fall in love with Him. He’s in love with you. This is true not because you or I are always loveable. It’s because of His very nature. “Beloved, let us love one another…for God is love.” God loves people. That’s what He does. But of course, it all comes on His terms. Pull the clear water out of the reservoir. Drink it by faith. Let His scriptures – especially maybe the Psalms and the New Testament – daily build your faith. “Faith comes by hearing…the Word of Christ.” You won’t find faith deep within your own heart. By nature you and I are unbelievers. We are doubters and skeptics. Crush the mirror; pick up the Word.

Converting Cohabitation to Courtship

The purpose of this document is to set out a plan for the creative and constructive use of a period of time the cohabiting couple can use to build a strong foundation for marriage. This is particularly for couples who profess to be Christians and those who wish to move in that direction.

The following are some guiding principles:

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). Therefore, there are two things which a creative period of separation is not: It is not punishment, because Jesus paid the price for all our sin. And it is not a way to earn more favor with God. We approach God with all our needs confidently because of the status Jesus has given us as a gift through the cross: we are God’s children.

Marriage is a picture of Christ’s love for the church; therefore we approach Christian marriage with the sense of a high calling. (Ephesians 5:21-31)

The roles of husband and wife shown in the Bible are not conditioned by culture, and therefore the gospel promise of life in Christ moves you in two manners: closer to God and blessing, and further from the world and compromise.

The decision to live in two different residences until the day of marriage must be mutual, and cannot be one that is enforced or policed by man. It is a sacred matter of grace between the man and the woman and their God. It is a faith decision made in response to God.

This period is expected to be creative and constructive. Therefore, resources will be given to the couple, chiefly God’s Word and special guided opportunities for learning and fellowship. God always shows His grace to be more than sufficient for our need.

The roles of the man and woman are laid out in scripture to correspond with Christ’s love for the church, His bride. Therefore, although these roles are not ironclad and inflexible by any means, the man will learn the art of initiating and the woman the art of responding. Some traditions call this time of preparing for marriage “courtship”. (Our culture has almost totally lost the sense of this: the church must not follow culture but lead it.) The assumption is that God in his wisdom calls the man to learn to initiate, because men in sin are prone to neglect things and renege on their responsibilities. The assumption is also that God, in grace, calls the woman to learn response because she, in some sense, needs to learn to wait upon the man as the church waits upon the Lord for His word.

Finally, a sacred period of separation is an act of love toward the community. It gains the couple a place of respect which their cohabitation had in effect undercut. And it gains for themselves a clear conscience and defense against Satan’s accusations, which he constantly hurls at Christ’s bride.

Dementia, Fear and Faith

“Have you lost your mind?!” This question is often addressed in a shrill voice by a parent to a child in a tone of dismay or ridicule. The little one addressed stands ashamed because he got out of line. But some people really do lose their mind, many of them older people, and no shaming should be happening. It’s due to a disease that hits people with more predictability the older they get!

I remember driving my dad to his house after he had attended a pastors’ meeting with me. This was in 1990. He was a retired pastor, and I was an active one. We negotiated the freeway turns going from Everett, Washington to Redmond, where he lived. I was accustomed to him making aggressive navigational remarks when I was at the wheel, and usually tolerated these with minor irritation. But this day there were way too many of them and I mentioned it a mile before we pulled up to his driveway. I was shocked at his response, because it revealed a vulnerability I had been clueless about until then. “I just don’t remember things so well these days,” he said, trying to solve this riddle as he spoke. Immediately the thought came to me, “Dad was talking me through the turns on the freeway to help himself stay in the game. He was actually disoriented back there!” For a guy who flew in the South Pacific and pulled many all-nighters driving across country, this was a real change.

Those in the helping professions may refer to the condition generically: “It’s dementia.” That’s a convenient label, and we know so much less than we’d like at this point. Our minds get a lot slower as we age. Popular magazines even prescribe exercises for us to stay sharp with the hope of staving off the eventuality of this horror! My wife asked me to read one of these articles. But professionals continue to sound a warning about something called Alzheimer’s Disease. It stands in its own camp with a raging defiance. It killed my dad. But it took a decade.

Since I’m a pastor, I’d like to say something about the spiritual aspects of this disease. A person’s spiritual well-being can affect other areas of life. This has to do with relationships. Maybe our story can help you a little.

I remember a family gathering soon after our drive on the freeway. We gathered in the Redmond home; the young generation, grandchildren of my parents, were there. We were laughing, listening to loud music, and people were reacting to something on the TV in the family room. Adjoined to this was the kitchen where dad paced, scowling and staying out of the fun. Some of the people began to notice this, because his normal “stand apart from the crowd” posture was accentuated. When the music and laughter rose to a high pitch, he was observed making a complaint. “What gives?” we thought. Some in the group reacted to his unsociable mood. “Why is Dad throwing cold water on this occasion?” we thought. “We’re all having a good time, except for him.”

Loud noises and sudden movements are perceived differently by Alzheimer’s patients than the normal person. I think that was partly what was going on there. Maybe a car swerving in traffic would fit in that category. Thus, his agitation on the freeway earlier. But, without getting into medical analysis, which I can’t do, let’s look at relationships. When a person begins to suspect that there is a new reality (onset of Alzheimer’s), it ought to be checked out. If there is a bad relationship to begin with, such as unforgiveness between people, the moment a person doesn’t measure up becomes a moment to seize on. “He’s so uptight!” “Why doesn’t she enjoy life more?!” This situation is like what happens when a family has substance abuse in one or more members. The entire family system is often dysfunctional and the “disease” can exacerbate this. What are some key faith and relationship issues?

Unbelief and fear are related. Faith is a matter of trusting – that Jesus Christ really came from heaven, entered our history, died to atone for humankind’s sin and reconcile us to God. The God factor is everything, because He’s the one who made us for relationships. Through a right relationship with Him, we have meaning, peace, and security. He created us in His image. But if we continue alienated from Him, we live in guilt, fear and insecurity. There’s no way to keep from “transferring” those feelings onto the people we are closest to. Especially when pressures like Alzheimer’s, substance abuse, or money problems arise.

And even when reconciliation is effected, as long as one lives in the temporal sphere, there will still be unresolved things such as pain, loneliness and mystery. These, of course, can be met by the grace of God for the believer. But for the unbeliever, there must be alternative routes to resolve them. Blaming and shaming are things we all tend to fall back on, as opposed to trusting God and seeking His will for solutions. Those are two extremely different approaches. And, any honest “believer” would admit that he often fails and falls back into blaming and shaming. That’s why we write into our worship liturgies things called “confession of sin”. We don’t always live up to our calling and need renewal through daily forgiveness.

Back to some concrete terms. If your mother has dementia and is approaching death – certainly the death of relationships as you have known them – who will take care of her emotionally? When she’s fearful how can you reassure her? When the caregiver who’s paid below minimum wage and doesn’t speak English well has duty in the middle of the night, how well will things go? Do you feel guilty for letting things get to this point? Do you have someone to talk to about your pressures? I’m often reminding myself in pastoral work that the caregiver needs care! This person can easily get overlooked.

As Dad’s condition worsened he went into a nursing home. The second and final caregiving situation had a specialized Alzheimer’s unit. Toward the end of this nine month period, we had to commit him to a “gero-psych” evaluation. This was discouraging. He had always been healthy and strong, and because he was on the razor’s edge of being aware of things, he resisted them the intake people. He didn’t understand why they were putting him in a wheelchair, nor did he know why all the strange people were handling him while we were backing away. He got excited and resisted. From their point of view, he was making things difficult. Drugs were their answer. I felt like I was observing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in real life.

After this things settled down and we found a nursing home ten miles from my mother. Her decision to commit him to the unit had been precipitated by months of tussling with him and cleaning up in the wake of incontinence problems. I would have absolutely hated to go and visit him and just stare at the wall without much conversation. In the second nursing care situation I became “that nice guy”. He didn’t know my name or who exactly I was.

And then music came in handy. He had taught me chords on the piano, paid for my music lessons, and had driven me to them countless times, as had my mother. Now I dug out the guitar, and had the nursing home tuck his trumpet in a hall closet where I could quickly grab it during visits. Boy was I glad for the Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey hits that he had taught me! We both played them by memory. The old favorite hymns came back too. I kept a list of song titles in my wallet and in the guitar case.

Somehow, I suppose, God made our brains with an easy access for music. It seems that information tied to music, rhythm, and movement lasts longer than some other strictly cognitive things. This is not scientifically precise on my part, but I have observed it firsthand too many times to pass it off. What a blessing. We had many song sessions together and he didn’t even know my name. I also saw him reacting with simple glee when someone brought in a cat to the lobby. When you get older do you again enjoy the simple things like little animals and little children because you’re no longer busy keeping that pressurized schedule – and you’re unable to do the “treadmill”?

Back to relationships and our spiritual life: A close family friend named Cliff once said he wanted to write a book called Flowers are For the Living. He never got to it, but his concern was that we too often wait till our loved ones die to talk about what great people they were. Tell and show them while they’re still alive! I’m glad I was able to give Dad a shave and wash his face once. I’m glad I could push him in a wheelchair a few times. It was on a sunny sidewalk in Redmond, a block from the Microsoft campus. I sang, prayed, and recited scriptures aloud on that spring day. It was a way to “connect.” Had I not forgiven him – had he not forgiven me – whatever needed forgiving, we would have had a roadblock in our relationship. But because God actually entered our history, and we both take that seriously, there was a sizzling reality to this whole eternal life promise. So an ugly thing like Alzheimer’s enters the picture. You push through it, and the damned thing won’t have the last word. The Lord of the empty grave will! When you can’t keep yourself together, He can – and will. And He’s promised to call us out of our graves just like He did to Lazarus. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

Heaven Is A Big Deal

I hear that many people aren’t terribly interested in going to heaven. They think it’s either sitting on fluffy clouds and being bored, or it’s just a theory that really has no substance.

I hear that there are even Christians that don’t look forward to it because they basically think the same thing! (Check out this link: http://www.epm.org/store/product/heaven/ )

This is a real problem.

Heaven is all about having a living, vibrant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So the whole matter all stands or falls with the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. If you’re a Christian, look carefully at what I’m going to say, because if you’re skeptical about heaven, these thoughts might help. If you’re not religious, or you have a different belief, check out some things you may have never seen. Consider carefully the following:

Jesus of Nazareth was a true historical person.
Jesus often said things that made people either angry or confused. My point is that if you haven’t studied the New Testament writings, you’re likely basing your notions of him on ignorance. You might be buying into the foolish notion that he merely taught people to love one another.
Jesus taught that there is a hell where people will be forever cut off from the possibility of heaven or paradise.
Jesus taught that he was the one and only Messiah, who could rescue people from being separated from God, and literally give them a free pass into heaven. (This very idea, of course, offends many people, but you can’t escape it in the documents that witness to his words and deeds.)
Even though he never said the words, “I am God”, many things Jesus said were tantamount to his making this claim.
The miracles he did, the courage he showed in the face of evil, and the compassion he demonstrated toward the downtrodden, consistently demonstrated his absolute uniqueness in the human family. (He was sine qua non – without peer.)

The idea here is to begin to lay a foundation of truth about Jesus Christ and the meaning of life. God created you and me “in his image”. The first couple, Adam and Eve, had a wonderful relationship with God in what we might call the “first heaven – the first paradise”, the garden of Eden. But a severe break in this blissful friendship took place! And with that breakup came disease, doubt, fear, guilt, estrangement and much more. In a word, man was cut off from this first heaven. Guess what happened.


God Knew the Need and Made a Plan
One of the very first things that happened was that God addressed the truth of this evil. And almost in the same breath He began to plant in Adam’s and Eve’s minds that their “heaven” could be restored. That’s the meaning of the words in Genesis 3:15. (Immediately God gets down to business with a positive, healing plan.) It was, admittedly, a shadowy promise, And even though they didn’t comprehend it then, His word was given. And it began to actually take fleshly substance when an animal was sacrificed for the man and his wife to have clothing! A life had to be taken in order to restore life. Sin and separation were attached with a cost. This “foreshadowed” the sacrifice of a Life in the future that would have infinitely more value than an animal. This future sacrifice would re-open Paradise and Heaven, but that wouldn’t be understood for quite some time.

There is much that could be said about how God called Abraham and gave him the covenant promise. We could speak of Moses, the tabernacle sacrifices and the Ten Commandments. But meanwhile, you’re wondering about Heaven.


Sin Separates

In this “fallen world” man’s sin separates him from God and Heaven. The door to paradise got locked tight. And we got “locked up” too: humanity became wrapped in the iron chains of sin, death, and the devil! We were imprisoned by sin, slaves to our lusts. (Some of the liturgies help us confess this in its manifold aspect: “We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed.”)


Jesus is the Key for Reconciliation

Jesus was somewhat like the sacrificial animal that had to be given up. He was the great “Lamb” of God, the life God put forward as the answer to our spiritual death. Jesus was the key to unlocking heaven.

God sent His Son, Jesus the Messiah, into the world at the right time, the Bible says. Why did He wait so long? We have some answers to that, but the main thing is – its good for us He did send Him, because Jesus’ death blasted open the gates to Heaven! And now when people look to the solution God put out there instead of their own self-made utopias and nirvanas, what a powerful and amazing thing they discover!

Heaven opened up when Jesus died. The curtain of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was torn in two, symbolizing what really happened: man could have friendship with God again! And when Jesus burst out of the tomb on the first “Easter”, people saw him and gave their eyewitness accounts (see the NT documents). But guess what else! Not only was the transcendent Heaven open to “mortals.” He brought heaven down to us. It became as close as the nose on your face. How could that possibly be – you say? Read on.

You might recall that Jesus not only healed people, cast out demons and pronounced the forgiveness of sins, but he taught a lot about “the kingdom of God”, and “the kingdom of Heaven.” These phrases are constantly cropping up in the gospel accounts!

Blessed are those who recognize their spiritual poverty, because the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for standing up for the right thing. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.
Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Be sure that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in Heaven their angels always are gazing at the face of my Father who is in Heaven.

And then he blasted some with this: “Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who want to enter to go in!

Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit from Heaven as the “guarantee” that those who trust God and follow Christ will actually inherit all the great things he promises. Those who look to God’s solution to the great calamity (sin and the fall from grace) get the Holy Spirit to actually live in their bodies. Now, the Holy Spirit is only one. There are a lot of spirits but only one Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit lives in you and you trust the God of Heaven, you get God, and you get Heaven. (After you die, Christ will raise you from the dead and welcome you into eternal bliss with Him at the exact time the Father has determined.) And this is especially great for those who suffer a lot on earth for the name of Christ. It does not go unnoticed by Him who sees all things.


The Final Sorting Out

So – heaven is coming – as truly as Jesus is coming in judgment, and every eye will see him and all the tribes will wail and moan because they’ll wish they had listened.
And when He comes in power and glory – “on the clouds of heaven” – with billions of people seeing Him at the same moment, He will judge all the nations. Every single solitary person will parade in front of him and He will separate them out, like a shepherd sorting out sheep from goats.

To some He’ll say, “Enter this fabulous paradise I’ve prepared for you. Enter my joy. You haven’t seen the half of it. I’ve been looking forward to having you as my special guest for all of eternity.” My friend, that’s going to be Paradise to an exponential degree. And the best of it will be that we will always be with this One who gave everything up so that we could live.

And then, yes unfortunately, there will be the other side of the matter. He will say to many, “Depart from me. I never knew you. We weren’t friends before; we aren’t friends now. There’s another place for you, a place of eternal torment.”

Stumbling or Building

Now if that sounds offensive, it is. The problem is, things can be both offensive and true at the same time. That’s what Jesus Christ is. Some people stumble over him. Others build upon him and get Paradise and Heaven. Because not only is He offensive and true. He is also good.

If you’re riding the fence of indecision, jump off it and get into His camp. Ultimately there is no fence, only a dividing line.