March, 1942
THE K I NG ’ S BUSINESS
85
The Bible's Good News About Heaven By LOUIS T. TALBOT* Lo* Angeles, California
■f “ | HE BIBLE never d i s c u s s e s heaven theoretically, but prac- JL 1 tically. Keflections upon heaven are never a waste of time. Rather do they provide a moral force for our practical life upon this earth. A true believer, longing for heaven, is never too heavenly m i n d e d to be of no earthly use! The Biblical description of heaven is made up of an array of positives and negatives. More is said, of what is not in heaven, than of what is to be there. For example, John gives us a list of “no mores.” Heaven is made up of the absence of many elements that characterize our life on e a r t h . There will be no more pain, no more night, no more sorrow, no more cry ing, no more curse, no more tears, and no more death. Heaven is a place of inexpressible beauty. It is called a place of “many mansion^,” “a building of God, an house not made with hands,” “a city,” “a better country,” “an inheritance,” “glory.” Our God is a God of beauty. This world must have been very beau tiful when it first came from the hand 'President o f the Bible Institute -o f Los An geles and Pastor o f the Church o f the Open Door.
of God. Although sin has come in and brought chaos and the blight of death to everything, still there remains some evidence of the original glory. But the New Jerusalem ne^er will know sin and its fruits. It will be perfect in form and s p l e n d o r . John was granted a glimpse of it one day from his lonely island of Patmos, and he tried to describe what he saw. But no human words could portray the magnificence that he beheld. One day you and I shall stand in the glory, and when we catch a vision of the splendor of that city, perhaps we shall say to the b e l o v e d disciple, “John, why didn’t you tell us it was so beautiful?” • And I think John will reply some thing like this: “I did my best to de scribe its glory, in the last chapter of the Revelation. It was the best I could do. But to really know, you had to see it for yourself.” And, oh, my friends, we shall see it. This is the glad experience that awaits §ven the weakest of the children of God. Praise His name! Heaven is a place of companion ship of all the redeemed of all ages. God no doubt has infinite surprises in store for us. Paul says, “Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:9). Think of being intimate' with Peter, James, and John! Think of sitting down with these eyewit nesses of stupendous happenings and having them tell us about the trans figuration, the resurrection, the ascen sion! Qur loved ones, too, will be there—those who have died trusting in the finished work of Calvary. I shall see my dear old mother, and you shall see yours if she was in her life time a believer in the Lord J e s u s Christ. We shall Clasp that precious hand once more and hear that1well loved voice. i But above all, we shall see the Lord Jesus Clirist, for thè Word of God as sures us that “we shall see his face.” We are to be “for ever with the Lord.” Heaven would not be heaven, without Him. % I have read somewhere of a child who was inconsolable over the loss of her mother. Her father, for a change of scenery, sént her to another local ity. While she was gone, he built a beautiful house and filled it with rare
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