Will We Have Bodies in Heaven?

Will we have bodies in heaven? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, it's Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

We pray that your Friday is going well. As we head into a weekend, you can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. In fact, we have a YouTube channel, and you can watch Adriel right now on YouTube and send him your question that way. And you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

A bunch of different ways to get in touch with us. And first up today, Adriel, I wanted to share an Easter card with you that we received a couple of weeks ago, just before Easter. It's from one of our listeners named Carolyn, and she lives in Big Rapids, Michigan, which sounds like a really neat place. And she says this, Hi, I listen to your Core Christianity podcast, and I marvel at Pastor Adriel's Bible fluency and Dr. Bill's compassion.

She doesn't really know me. You are both treasures to the faith and to God's people. I've always believed that the prayers of one or two people are all that are needed. I've never been one to ask to be on a prayer chain, although I know they build fellowship. My dear husband and I lost our infant son early in our marriage.

My husband died six years ago from Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's. Was I misguided to not bring these prayer matters to my congregation or to a wider group? Carolyn, I'm so sorry to hear about those losses, and I want to thank you for your kind words to me and to Bill, what a privilege it is to get to serve in this capacity and hopefully to encourage you and to continue to encourage you. And the question you asked is a really good one, I know, especially when we're going through something very difficult. Sometimes we don't want to talk to other people about it, even to ask for prayer. And so the question is, well, can't I just pray to you, Lord? Can't I just bring this need before you?

Isn't that enough? Aren't my prayers, if I'm offering them up to you in faith, isn't that enough? Why get on a prayer chain or why, you know, go to all the people in the church?

And sometimes I know others can feel like, you know, I don't want to make a big deal out of this. But God cares about our suffering. We are called as the people of God to rejoice with those who rejoice and also to mourn with those who mourn. And so bringing others into the loop, I think, is one of the ways that we bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, as the Apostle Paul says. And it's also, you know, when you get others to pray, one of the things that it does is it leads to more thanksgiving, especially as those prayers are answered. Now more and more people are saying, praise the Lord, thank you, God, for hearing this prayer.

And there's a great example of that. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, as he was going through something very difficult, a time of trial. He says this, in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 8, for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.

And now listen to what he says in verse 11. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of the many. In other words, Paul, in the midst of these challenges that he had gone through and is continuing to face, is saying, hey, pray for us.

Pray for us so that many will give thanks as God answers those prayers. And so when you include the people of the church in the things that you're going through, when you say, hey, brother, sister, would you pray for me? Would you put this on the prayer chain? Not only are you giving them an opportunity to fulfill the law of Christ, as it were, by helping to bear these burdens, we do need that encouragement and support when we're going through something hard, but you're also opening up the doors for them to be able to praise God as God answers those prayers, as God delivers us or heals us or comforts us in the midst of our difficulty. Thank you again for your encouragement, Carolyn. May the Lord be with you and bless you. Carolyn, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity.

We really do appreciate you. And I'm so glad you mentioned that passage, Galatians 6, 2, because I'm convinced, as a Christian psychologist, that if we were really doing that in the body of Christ on a regular basis, we would have a lot less anxiety, a lot less depression, a lot less divorce, but unfortunately we don't do a real good job of that. Yeah, you know, those one anothers that the scriptures talk about in the New Testament, bearing one another's burdens, loving one another's, loving one another, and so forth, there's a reason why they're repeated throughout the Pauline epistles all over the place, because that is so important for us as Christians. And it does highlight, once again, something that we often talk about on the broadcast, and that's the importance of the local church and being in a good church where you are being encouraged and where you can go to someone and say, hey, I'm going through a hard time.

Would you please pray for me? You ought to have that, and God wants that for you. That's one of the reasons why He's given to us, the body of Christ, and so we definitely need that, Bill, and you're right on.

Just a challenge for each one of our listeners. Go online, Google the one anothers of the Bible, as Adriel said. Look those up and see if your church is doing those things. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, our phone lines are open right now. We'll be taking your calls for the next 20 minutes or so. Here's the number, 833-THECORE. That's 1-833-843-2673, and you can feel free to leave a voicemail at that number as well. Let's go to Brandon calling in all the way from Alberta, Canada.

Brandon, great to hear from you. What's your question for Adriel? Hey guys, my question has to do with the structure, I guess you could say, of Scripture. In a few places, I think in the Pentateuch and also in the book of Revelation, a chapter number will fall part way down a heading. I was just kind of wondering why that is. The specific example I'm looking at right now is Revelation 9.

Hey, great question. So, you know, like, one thing that is just helpful to remember is, you know, as the Bible was written, it didn't have chapters and verses originally, right? So this was something that was added later, I believe around the 13th century.

And really, the whole purpose was more for convenience than anything, so that we would be able to identify a passage quickly. And I think this is a good thing, you know, that it's broken up in this way. But it's not, you know, the chapter divisions and verse numbers, those weren't inspired by God. And sometimes they can be a little bit confusing, because, you know, as you noted, sometimes, you know, there's a new chapter in the middle of a section. It's sort of continuing the same idea or the same argument. Does it make sense? Why would, you know, we put a chapter break there? And so it's fair to say, hey, look, sometimes we just have to kind of ignore that it's there, and remember that we're trying to look at the broader context here. And so, again, I would say, I mean, the two things to recognize are, okay, the chapter divisions and verse numbers aren't inspired by the Holy Spirit, but they are helpful, I think. I'm glad that they're there, so that way, as I'm preaching, I can say, hey, open up in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 8. And so it's just good in terms of, you know, identifying a text quickly and memorizing scripture and so forth. And so I appreciate that question, and I can't speak for, I mean, I don't know the whole history about how essentially they determined, you know, why to put, you know, the chapters the way that they did.

And so, you know, that maybe requires a little bit more research, but we know it's not inspired. Hey, Brandon, thanks for calling us all the way from Alberta. God bless you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Maybe you have a question about the Bible, a passage that you always kind of wondered about, or maybe you have a question about doctrine or theology or something happening in your church that you're either confused about or concerned about. Give us a call right now at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to John calling in from Iowa. John, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Adriel. Hey, I know you're pretty good on your different branches of Christianity. I was kind of wanting to know if you could tell me much about the Anabaptists, you know, their core beliefs, history, their practices, and I'll go ahead and take my answer off the air, Adriel.

Thank you, Adriel. Hey, thank you for that question. Yeah, sometimes, you know, the Anabaptists, the re-baptizers, you know, sometimes people confuse them with just Baptists, you know, people who believe that you need to be baptized only after you make a profession of faith and if you were baptized as an infant that you need to go and get baptized again, but really it was a group that sort of sprung out of the time of the Reformation. The Protestant reformers didn't really like the Anabaptists, and in part because they, you know, played with doctrines like the doctrine of justification, the proper understanding of God's word, the church, the sacraments, they were, you know, a very radical group during the time of the Reformation. So I think it's not really helpful to think of the Anabaptists at that time and to say, well, Baptists today, they're just to sort of draw an equal sign there with Baptists today, but so I think, you know, they had problems with the doctrine of justification, they had problems with the proper understanding of the church, they really sort of rejected, you know, the whole idea of the church and church history. This is one of the things that Luther and other reformers had a problem with them on, is it seemed like they were just departing from, they sort of took some of the ideas of the Reformation and then ran in the wrong direction with them and departed from the Catholicity, the universality of the Christian church and sort of became their own sect. Some of them were also really associated with the sort of apocalyptic movement, you know, this is the end, the end of the world, and so kind of a radical group, and I think that's where I would want to leave it. So generally speaking, not the best place to get your theology from is the Anabaptist sect. Are there any current denominations that you would say that echo some of the beliefs of the Anabaptists?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, more radical groups that maybe minimize the importance of the word and sacrament and emphasize the sort of, you know, the spirit, the work of the spirit in this radical way, while also departing from core Christianity, we might say the core tenets of the Christian faith related to the church, related to the sacraments, related to the doctrine of salvation, and so, you know, I don't need to name names, and again, we don't want to draw one-to-one correlations, but there are similarities, and it's the same with, you know, you think of like modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, or Mormons. You know, there were ancient heresies, some of the earliest heresies taught that Jesus was a created being, that he was a creature, and there are groups today, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, that teach the same thing. It's sort of the, you know, age-old heresy being repeated again and again and again. I've heard it said before that Satan doesn't have a lot of new tricks, he's just sort of doing the same thing over and over again, and that's why it's really important for us to understand church history, and some of these debates that have happened historically, you know, properly understanding the scriptures and so forth, and so, yeah, I mean, there's weird stuff out there, even today, Bill, that's why it's so important for us to know the word. And I'm so glad you said it's important to know church history, because so few evangelicals today, in my opinion, have any clue about church history, and it can be so helpful to help us not repeat the same mistakes, the same heresies of the past, correct?

Absolutely. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Now, in addition to being a pastor and the host of this program, you should know Adriel is also a published author. He has a brand new book out that we are really excited about. It's called Praying with Jesus.

Yeah, this book was just released earlier this month, and I'm really excited. I'm really grateful, man, just the Lord's kindness in providing an opportunity to write this book. Praying with Jesus is a book on prayer, diving into the Lord's Prayer in particular, a prayer that many of us are really familiar with, but we're going deeper and, you know, getting behind each petition of the Lord's Prayer.

I hope that you do get a hold of this resource. Again, it's called Praying with Jesus, my new book on prayer, and I think it will really encourage you to commune with God in prayer and to cultivate a healthy prayer life for yourself. This would be a great resource for you individually or for your family or for your Bible study.

Maybe you're involved in a small group Bible study or a Sunday school class as a leader. Why don't you get this book, Praying with Jesus? It's yours for a gift of $25 or more by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Well, we do receive voicemails here at Core Christianity. You can call us 24 hours a day, and you can leave your voicemail on our system. Here's one that came in from one of our listeners.

This is Frida from Mexico City. Hi, Pastor Adriel. I've been reading through your book Praying with Jesus.

I'm enjoying it a lot so far. It's making me want to pray more, but I was confused about a certain part where you talk about how we won't have physical bodies in heaven. I know Revelation talks about a new heaven and a new earth, but how is that different from the heaven Christians typically refer to? When Paul mentions spiritual bodies, I always took that as meaning we'll have bodies in heaven for eternity. Thank you. Hey Frida, excellent question, and thank you for sending us your message all the way from Mexico City.

I would love to visit there sometime. And thank you also for the encouragement on the book. In one of the chapters I talk about the importance of the body in particular, and I do mention sort of in passing that doctrine of the intermediate state. That is, when we die as Christians, our souls are immediately perfected in holiness, and we go to be in the presence of the Lord. Our spirits go to be in the presence of the Lord, waiting for the time of the resurrection when we do receive a glorified body, but we don't receive that glorified body prior to the resurrection. And so the saints who are in heaven, that is, all those who have trusted in Jesus Christ who believe in him, they're there in the presence of the Lord, and they exist in this sort of disembodied form, right, as spirits in heaven.

Now what exactly that looks like or feels like, I don't know. I mean we have, you know, the visions that John received in the book of Revelation. You have other passages that seem to talk about those, you know, those departed saints being in the presence of the Lord around his throne in heaven. I think specifically of Hebrews chapter 12, for example, where it talks about, you know, the saints, you know, who have gone before us, perfected in holiness in the presence of the Lord, worshiping God, but they're still waiting for that resurrection that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And so what he was describing there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, you mentioned it, you know, right, when Paul talked about a spiritual body, for example, that hasn't happened yet. The resurrection that Paul is describing there hasn't happened yet. We know that it will happen because Jesus rose from the dead.

That's a part of his argument. He says Jesus rose from the dead, so we're waiting now for for the rest of the harvest, the resurrection harvest to come. We're a part of that harvest if we believe in Jesus Christ, but that resurrection body doesn't come until the return of Christ. Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 20, But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and their falling asleep just means, you know, who've died. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. So when does the resurrection, the final resurrection of the dead happen, where we all receive those new bodies, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?

They happen at the same time, they're contemporaneous events, and so we won't have bodies in heaven prior to the coming of the Lord and the final judgment, where we all live, you know, in that new creation, the fullness of the new creation that's described at the end of the book of Revelation. And so, okay, a lot there. But again, love your question, and thank you for giving us a call from Mexico City. God bless you, Frida, and I hope to hear from you again. So glad to hear about those resurrected bodies, because yesterday my back was really hurting, and I was just like, and I need that, man.

Yeah, I mean, we all do, Bill. I mean, talk about what I long for and what I love about, and this is something we don't have to wait until the resurrected body for, but like, being perfected in holiness. That's what we expect will happen.

That's what we anticipate when we do die to go be with the Lord, but being perfected in holiness, no longer that battle with sin, that struggle, that fight, being able to worship the Lord freely, without any hindrance, you know, of the weakness of our bodies, or, you know, that battle with the flesh. Man, I just think that that's so awesome, and what a thing to look forward to. So I won't be grumpy to my wife anymore when that happens? No, no, you won't be.

You won't be perfect love, yeah. That's great to hear. This, she'll like that too. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Adrienne calling in from St. Louis. Adrienne, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah, hi.

Hi, guys. My question is, I've been watching the Chronicles of Moses, and in the end, Moses wasn't able to make it to the Promised Land, I guess for doubting God, and so that really just struck home with me, kind of just made me a little upset, because I was wondering if Moses led all of those people, and he was God's great helper, but God still didn't allow him to go to the Promised Land. How is an average person here on earth supposed to make it to the Promised Land? Yeah, our only hope of making it to the Promised Land is Jesus, our great high priest, our Savior, and you're doing some good, like, I mean, some good biblical theology and sort of looking at the Promised Land as a picture of heaven, because it really was, you know, the Promised Land was a picture not just of heaven but of the new creation in the Old Testament, and Moses isn't allowed to go, but that doesn't mean that he's not in heaven or that he wasn't saved. There's an amazing scene in the Gospel of Matthew. It actually appears in all the all the synoptic Gospels. In Matthew 17, though, it's the transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus goes up on a mountain with some of his disciples. They're in the Promised Land, we might say, right? They're there, and who do the disciples see appear with Jesus?

They're on this mountain as he's being transfigured. Behold, this is Matthew chapter 17 verse 3, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. Moses, you know, there were consequences to his sin, and there are consequences to our sin as well, but just because we experience those consequences, those disciplines from the Lord, doesn't mean that we're not saved. I mean, it's one of the ways God exhibits his love for us, is keeping us, holding on to us, disciplining us when we sin. Certainly, Moses received the discipline of the Lord for the ways in which he sinned, and for him, you know, it was a big deal because he was this spiritual leader and example for the people, and so God took his sin very seriously.

He takes all of our sins seriously, but especially those who are in positions of spiritual authority. They're held accountable to an even greater degree, I would say, and that was certainly true for Moses. But while he didn't make it into the Promised Land, he didn't get to go there, he helped to prepare the way, he sent the people in, that doesn't mean that he didn't make it to heaven or that he wasn't in heaven, and we see that beautiful scene of him there, standing in the Promised Land, right, with Jesus and Elijah at the Mount of Transfiguration. Now, there were many people who went through the wilderness who weren't saved, who didn't make it to the Promised Land, and the issue for them was unbelief, that though they saw the mighty works of God, they didn't believe. Jude makes this absolutely clear in the letter of Jude, Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Verse five says, now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. That is, those who just didn't embrace the gospel, who didn't believe. There at that time, by the way, really wild that Jude says, Jesus is the one who saved the people out of the land of Egypt. I mean, talk about a proof text for the deity of Christ and Jesus working there during the time of the Old Testament, but the issue is faith. And so Adrian, I would say to you, it's one thing, right, like the wilderness generation, to see the mighty works of God, to hear the gospel, the good news, and so forth, and to reject it, not to believe.

That was the problem. So how can anyone make it? How can we make it? It's not by our perfect obedience, because all of us sin, we all fall short. Even Moses, right?

I mean, that's clear from the example that you bring up. It's only through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's what gives us hope. It's through Jesus that we experience that true rest in the hope of the promised land, the real promised land, the land of rest that God has provided for all those who trust in Christ and have the forgiveness of sins. And that is a free gift for each of us. It's a free gift for you, Adrian. So I pray that you live in it, that you receive it, that you enjoy it, and that you rest in what Jesus has done for you in the hope that he gives to you. God bless. Explore the truth of God's word together.