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| The Transfiguration Lodovico Carracci 1594 (Wikipedia) |
(Part of a series on death and the hereafter)
Do people have
intermediate bodies in the present heaven? God and angels are in essence spirits (John 4:24; Heb
1:14), but human beings are by nature both spiritual and physical (Gen 2:7).
God did not create Adam as a spirit and place him in a body. He first created a
body and then breathed into a spirit. We cannot, it seems, be fully human
without a both a spirit and a body.
We don’t know for sure, but between our
bodily death and our bodily resurrection, God may give us some
physical form
while we wait for the Resurrection. Paul says that we long to be clothed with
our heavenly dwelling (2 Cor 5:2-4). Some read that our intermediate state in
heaven is one of disembodied nakedness. Perhaps, but others see Paul saying
that at death we are immediately clothed with a heavenly dwelling to await the
Resurrection.
In Rev. 6:9-11, the martyred souls under the altar received white
robes to wear until all the martyrs came in. Could the clothes be only symbolic
of Christ’s righteousness? Or could physical clothes be symbolic of Christ’s
righteousness like the Ark of the Covenant was a physical box symbolic of God’s
presence?
It appears the Apostle John had a body in heaven. He grasped,
held, ate, and tasted (Rev 10:9-10). Paul was not sure in his vision of heaven
if he had a body or not (2 Cor 12:3). It is significant that he thought he
might have had a body, because he did not consider a material form to be
unspiritual as a Christoplatonist would.
We definitely do not receive resurrection bodies immediately
after death. We receive them when the Resurrection happens (1 Cor 15:12-32).
Until then, we wait in heaven (John 5:28-29). We do know that there is at least
one physical body in Heaven: Christ’s resurrected body (Acts 1:11; 7:56)[1], and
perhaps at least three. Enoch and Elijah were taken to heaven in their physical
bodies (Gen 5:4; Heb 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11-12).
Beyond those three, Samuel’s form appeared to Saul and
the witch of Endor (1 Sam 29:11-15), and both the witch and Saul recognized
Samuel as the form of the real prophet and not an unidentified form. Was that
his intermediate body? Moses and Elijah appeared physically with Jesus at the
Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36). Moses had died, and Elijah had gone in a
whirlwind. Did they appear in their recognizable, intermediate forms? If so,
perhaps because we are both physical and spiritual beings, we all have
recognizable, intermediate forms.
Will we remember life
on earth? Yes. The
martyrs of Rev. 6:9-11 clearly remember what happened to them and the people
who did it to them. In heaven it appears those who endured bad things on earth
are comforted (Luke 16:25). Our deeds on earth will follow us to heaven (Rev.
14:13), both good and bad (2 Cor 5:10; Matt. 12:36). Our reward will be based
on our lives on earth, so our eternity will forever remind us of our lives on
earth (Matt 6:19-21:19:21; Luke 12:33; 19:17, 19; 1 Tim 6:19; Rev 2:26-28).
Memory is a basic element of personality. If we are ourselves, then there must
be continuity of memory from earth to heaven. Physical death and heaven will
not do away with our origins and history or our knowledge of it.
Do those in heaven now
see what is happening on earth? If the martyrs in heaven know that justice has not yet been
served, then it seems that heaven’s inhabitants know at least some of what is
going on in the Earth. When Babylon falls in Rev 18, an angel points to the
events of Earth and addresses the inhabitants of heaven (Rev 18:20). The
multitude roars with hallelujah when judgment is accomplished (Rev 19:11-14). Samuel
remembered what Saul had done before Samuel died, and he was aware of what
happened after he died, too (1 Sam 28:16-19). Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus
at the Transfiguration about Jesus’ departure, and the fulfillment coming at
Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). We have a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on as we
run our race on the arena of Earth (Heb 12:1-2). There will be rejoicing “in
the presence” of angels when one sinner repents (Luke 15:7, 10). Who is doing
that rejoicing? If one can see from Hell to Heaven, why could you not see from
Heaven to earth? (Luke 16:23-26). But when you have the Lord Jesus to worship,
His presence and our worship will probably take a lot of our attention.
[1] So
Jesus’ resurrection appearances do not enter into this discussion since his
body was the resurrected body. Those appearances matter for us when we come
into the New Heavens and New Earth.
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