{"id":83589,"date":"2020-03-15T22:28:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T04:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=83589"},"modified":"2020-03-15T23:20:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T05:20:32","slug":"two-thoughts-on-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/two-thoughts-on-heaven.html","title":{"rendered":"Two thoughts on heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Giverny,<\/a>
A view of Monet\u2019s garden at Giverny, by Art Anderson (Wikimedia CC) Since I have no photographs of heaven readily available, this will have to do for now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I continue to be struck by a quotation from then-Elder Russell M. Nelson that was, I believe, cited in the September 2014 issue of the\u00a0Ensign<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were born to die and we die to live,\u201d he wrote back in 1992. \u00a0\u201c<\/span>As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is one of the great arguments for the desirability of life after death. \u00a0Not for its truth<\/em>, of course \u2014 it\u2019s certainly conceivable that the universe might simply be the kind of place where hopes remain ultimately unfulfilled, where purposelessness and extinction triumph \u2014 but for its desirability<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because the simple fact is that we all die without reaching our potential. \u00a0We\u2019re all eventually defeated by failing energy, declining strength, faltering minds, and\/or death.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is true even if we reach a\u00a0hundred years of age. \u00a0But it\u2019s most painfully obvious with regard to little babies\u00a0who die in their infancy, to small children whose lives end before they\u2019ve\u00a0fully grown, to young people whose development is never completed. \u00a0Disease, war, crime, and accidents have brought so many lives to premature ends. \u00a0How many symphonies have gone unwritten, how many songs have been left uncomposed, how many medical breakthroughs unfound? \u00a0How many novels and poems were never begun? \u00a0How many acts of nobility and kindness have remained unperformed? \u00a0How many dances were never danced, how many books were never read, how many sights never seen?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nobody leaves this life having done and experienced all that he or she could potentially have done and experienced.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nobody.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, mercifully, we have all eternity ahead of us.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(For related thoughts with respect to the specific case of Ludwig van Beethoven, see here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

God loves all of his children, even those who have sinned grievously or who have rejected him. \u00a0In Moses 7, we see God weeping \u2014 to the utter astonishment of Enoch \u2014 over the suffering of those who have turned their backs on him and on his other children. \u00a0He doesn\u2019t cease caring for them. \u00a0His love is at least as deep as that of minimally decent mortal parents, who often still love their children even when those children are behaving hatefully or self-destructively.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For that reason and others, I\u2019ve always inclined toward something like universalism, and I\u2019ve long loved Pope John Paul II\u2019s response to a question about whether Christians are obligated to believe in Hell. \u00a0\u201cYes,\u201d he replied. \u00a0\u201cBut we can hope that it will be empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, God honors human agency. \u00a0We are free to reject him. \u00a0And, thus, it\u2019s possible, even likely, that there will be some who will never accept the gift of Christ\u2019s atonement, who will refuse to repent or ask for mercy, who will defiantly turn away from divine grace. \u00a0Such, I presume, are the \u201csons of perdition.\u201d \u00a0I believe that their numbers are, and will be, relatively few.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For everybody else, though, there will be at least some degree of salvation. \u00a0And I personally have deep faith in the patient and never-ending love of God, which leads me to hope, at least, that most people will eventually receive the fullness of all eternal blessings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe that we can be saved in a state of either indifference to divine law or defiant refusal to repent. \u00a0However,\u00a0I also doubt that anybody who sincerely seeks truth and goodness will be punished merely for having made a mistake. \u00a0Moreover, I believe in repentance and progress beyond this life. \u00a0The great plan of happiness is very, very, very good news.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I continue to be struck by a quotation from then-Elder Russell M. Nelson that was, I believe, cited in the September 2014 issue of the\u00a0Ensign: \u00a0 \u201cWe were born to die and we die to live,\u201d he wrote back in 1992. \u00a0\u201cAs seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1809,4483,1104,5817,1209,1612,1008,5787,2905,1812,1815,1011,55,9107,8085,1215,1056,1068],"class_list":["post-83589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-damnation","tag-death","tag-eternal-life","tag-exaltation","tag-heaven","tag-immortality","tag-john-paul-ii","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-latter-day-saints","tag-lds","tag-life-after-death","tag-mormonism","tag-nelson","tag-russell","tag-russell-m-nelson","tag-salvation","tag-universalism"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo thoughts on heaven<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I continue to be struck by a quotation from then-Elder Russell M. 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