Month: May 2025

How Will We Be Like Him?

The author contemplates the transformative experience of Heaven and the New Earth, focusing on how believers will resemble Christ in character and have new, indestructible bodies free from sin. They explore the uniqueness of individual personalities, potential cognitive abilities, recognition, and the non-divisive nature of gender and race in the afterlife.

I think that it is exciting to think about what I will be like in Heaven and the New Earth. It is not just our environment that will change, but we will be changed. The classic teaser passage about this is 1 John 3:2,

2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:2 (ESV)

My question for this article is, “How will we be like Him”? Jesus is the incarnate Son of God. He became human and all indications is that He remains human to this day. I am human and when I pass I will remain human. I will not become an Angel. Angels are a separate yet similar species. I will be a human with a heavenly body (2 Corinthians 5:1). That will be a body very different than I one I now have. It will not have the genes or the structures formed by sinful nature. That is a big plus. It will be a body formed to exist in the dimensional space of Heaven and not this universe. That may not be noticeable to me. What else?

When Jesus rose from the dead, He had a resurrected, human body and also was the incarnation of the Son of God. I am not sure that I will have the same properties when I have a resurrected body that is built for this universe. What can we say about our heavenly body and our resurrected earthly body or just “our self” after death in Christ?

Our character will be like Christ, not just “sort of” like Christ as we are now? I will have all of the fruit of the Spirit to the full:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)

Beyond this there are many other personality qualities listed in the New Testament. These won’t make us into personality clones of each other. We will just be great people. I expect that we will retain certain personality traits that make us unique now–positive ones.

My body(ies) will be indestructible and eternal. No more sickness, aging, or death. I’m looking forward to that. Anything else? The rest is strictly hypothetical.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 speaks about the resurrected body, not necessarily the heavenly body:

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44(ESV)

I’m going to say “glory” in verse 43 means in part “beautiful”. Most of us will not leave pretty corpses. Some of have been unattractive even as babies. It will be equal, yet diverse, forms of beautiful. How will we know each other then? If you die looking awful. Will you be unrecognizable? I hypothesize that we will have a gift of recognition not based on seeing faces. This would be great for those who are currently “face blind”. Peter, James and John knew Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration. We are not told of introductions or name tags.

The quote above uses “powerful”. I expect both bodies to be “powerful”. But with what powers? No fatigue? Able to move fast? Able to lift heavy stuff? I am not really sure what “powerful” all entails. But we will in no way be feeble.

Will we retain gender or race? God desires people from every nation and Revelation 7 says:

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Revelation 7:9 (ESV)

I expect that the answer is yes, but it will in no way be divisive or diminishing.

What about cognitive abilities? Not sure. Muscle memory and athleticism? Exciting to think about, but I don’t know. Abilities that have no analog with our abilities now? I sure hope so. The resurrected Jesus seems to either blind people’s recognition abilities or to be a shape-shifter. That may be a God quality. Might we able to present as a child, adult, or good-looking senior? It’s an intriguing idea.

There is much to look forward to when you are connected to Christ and have God’s grace covering you.

Are There Levels of Hell?

In the classic poem, Dante’s Inferno, Dante pictures Hell as nine concentric circles of increasing suffering. Each based on a person’s predominate sin. Satan is at the bottom frozen into a lake. So there would be a “cold day in Hell” if Dante were correct.

The Bible has very little to say about the final place of judgment for the damned. Revelation describes it as a “lake of fire”. Jesus’ word for it, Gehenna, describes a burning garbage dump. Jesus describes it as a place of flames and where the worm does not die. “Eternal” suffering is also stated. We can also infer from Jesus’ suffering on the cross that the punishment for sin is both a physical death and a spiritual death, where spiritual death is being forsaken by God. That is enough to know that I don’t want a tour let alone to permanently end up there.

The only passage to possibly suggest a variation of suffering comes from Jesus:

20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

Matthew 11:20-24 (ESV)

I think the key of understanding this passage is that it speaks of it being “tolerable” on the “day of Judgment”, and not after. The people in Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum had seen Jesus do miracles. They will know that they had unrefutable proof before their eyes and still rejected it.

It is suggested that Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah would have repented had they been able to see this. At least, many people in these cities would have repented. The other cities had their opportunity and blew it.

Will it be a similar situation for those who heard the Gospel? Maybe even had family members plead with them. They may have heard the considerable proof that comes with Christian apologetics. Still, they rejected the opportunity of salvation. There will be fear and regret, for sure, only too late.

These realizations have to arrive on a person long before Judgment Day. It should be evident at death if you find yourself in Sheol. https://afterdeathsite.com/2023/11/14/how-is-sheol-different-than-hell/

Is there another level of “tolerability” that comes with the possible hope that still exists in Sheol? The cities that Jesus condemns had their opportunity to see and believe. Many other cities, though very evil, had not. What does 1 Peter 4:6 and Jesus’ actions in 1 Peter 3:19-20 say about a possible witness and repentance post-mortem?

19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

1 Peter 3:19-20 (ESV)

In this part the people who were drowned in Noah’s flood get a witness from Jesus while in Sheol. They were not known for their virtue. All they could claim is ignorance. Then just a few verses later:

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

1 Peter 4:6 (ESV)

This reads like a post-mortem opportunity to me. The use of Hebrews 9:27 to counterpoint this is clear misapplication of a verse. If opportunity did/does exist for Tyre, etc. or other people who die in ignorance, then it is certainly “more tolerable”. Faith is a strange thing, however. The reaction of the people who saw the miracles but still did not believe proves it. Even those who would receive witness in Sheol would not necessarily repent.

This topic only interests me because I care. I would rather that no one experiences Hell. I feel that way because God feels that way. But the Law is something that God doesn’t change. He fulfills it for us through Christ. To receive what He has done makes all the difference.