Norwich Youth For Christ

This question came from one of the students who comes to MASC at Fram.

In short: we do not know the answer.

A bit more: there are some useful things to think about.
1. The Bible does talk about heaven, but the bigger emphasis is on the resurrection. This is the word we use to describe the event at the end of this current life, when Jesus will return and we will see a new heaven and a new earth being made. This is the lasting place where we will be after we die. Heaven may not be the final resting place for us.

We can say this because Jesus often talks about the resurrection and the Kingdom of Heaven. He also talks about how things are in heaven. This may be talking about ‘the way things should be’. Heaven certainly exists. However, the emphasis that seems to come from the Bible is about life after life in heaven.

2. Jesus is asked a question about relationships in the resurrection. In Matthew 22 Jesus answers says that “at the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage”.  Perhaps this tells us something about how the life after our current form of life is different to now. I think that in heaven and in the resurrection, we’re all going to be surprised by what we remember, how we relate to each other, what we value and a host of other things too!

3. There is a relationship between life on earth and life in heaven/the resurrection. Jesus often talks about how the way we treat others makes a different to how things are in a spiritual way. E.g.  in Matthew 6 Jesus says that being forgiven is affected by forgiving others. in Matthew 25 Jesus talks about how the way we treat others will influence how we are treated by God.

4. When Jesus came back to life after his death on the cross, he was very different in his bodily form to how he was before he died. And yet he still seems to be able to remember things from when he was alive (He is also God, which is worth remembering when looking to Jesus as an example). Perhaps this tells us something about what life is like in the next life. Read John 20-21 for a bit more about Jesus’ resurrected body.

In summary, the way we live our lives on earth does have an affect on how things are in the life that is to come. Whether we can remember everything or not is uncertain. It is important to remember that our life today has an influence on life forever. And our life forever will be very different to life as we know it today.