{"id":484,"date":"2017-08-07T08:30:19","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T16:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?p=484"},"modified":"2017-08-04T14:51:47","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T22:51:47","slug":"identities-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2017\/08\/identities-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Will We Maintain Our Own Identities in Heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"rose-garden-heaven-large\"<\/p>\n

You will be\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0in Heaven. Who else would you be? If Bob, a man on Earth, is no longer Bob when he gets to Heaven, then, in fact, Bob did not go to Heaven. If when I arrive in Heaven I\u2019m not the same person with the same identity, history, and memory, then\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0didn\u2019t go to Heaven.<\/p>\n

The resurrected Jesus did not become someone else; He remained who He was before His resurrection: \u201cIt is I myself!\u201d (Luke 24:39<\/a>). In John\u2019s Gospel, Jesus deals with Mary, Thomas, and Peter in very personal ways, drawing on His previous knowledge of them (John 20:10-18<\/a>,\u00a024-29<\/a>;\u00a021:15-22<\/a>). His knowledge and relationships from His pre-resurrected state carried over. When Thomas said, \u201cMy Lord and my God,\u201d he knew he was speaking to the same Jesus he\u2019d followed. When John said, \u201cIt is the Lord,\u201d he meant, \u201cIt\u2019s really him\u2014the Jesus we have known\u201d (John 21:4-7<\/a>).<\/p>\n

If we weren\u2019t ourselves in the afterlife, then we couldn\u2019t be held accountable for what we did in this life. The Judgment would be meaningless. If Barbara is no longer Barbara, she can\u2019t be rewarded or held accountable for anything Barbara did. She\u2019d have to say, \u201cBut that wasn\u2019t me.\u201d The doctrines of judgment and eternal rewards depend on people\u2019s retaining their distinct identities from this life to the next.<\/p>\n

Bruce Milne writes, \u201cWe can banish all fear of being absorbed into the \u2018All\u2019 which Buddhism<\/a> holds before us, or reincarnated in some other life form as in the post-mortem prospect of Hinduism.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. The self with which we were endowed by the Creator is his gift of life to us, the self whose worth was secured forever in the self-substitution of God for us on the cross,\u00a0that self<\/em>\u00a0will endure into eternity. Death cannot destroy us.\u201d[i]<\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n

Some people read \u201cyou may participate in the divine nature\u201d (2\u00a0Peter 1:4<\/a>) and imagine that we will all become indistinguishable from God. But to imagine we\u2019ll lose our personal identities is a Hindu belief, not a Christian one. The verse in 2\u00a0Peter means that we\u2019re covered with Christ\u2019s righteousness. We\u2019ll participate in God\u2019s holiness yet fully retain our God-crafted individuality.<\/p>\n

Our own personal history and identity will endure from one Earth to the next. \u201c\u2018As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,\u2019 declares the Lord, \u2018so will your name and descendants endure\u2019\u00a0\u201d (Isaiah 66:22<\/a>). Jesus said to His disciples, \u201cI\u00a0<\/em>will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when\u00a0I<\/em>drink\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>anew with\u00a0you\u00a0<\/em>in my Father\u2019s kingdom\u201d (Matthew 26:29<\/a>, emphasis added). The same Jesus will drink the same wine with the same disciples. It isn\u2019t that what\u00a0used to be us<\/em>\u00a0will commune with\u00a0what used to be<\/em>\u00a0Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Rather, we, the same people but fully cleansed, will eat at a table with the one and only Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matthew 8:11<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In Heaven will we be called by our present names? The names of God\u2019s children are written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life (Revelation 20:15<\/a>;\u00a021:27<\/a>). I believe those are our earthly names. God recognized as valid the names Adam gave the animals. God calls people by their earthly names, the names given by their parents. He calls people in Heaven by those same names\u2014Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for instance. The names of the twelve sons of Israel and of the apostles, apparently the same names we know them by, are written on the city\u2019s gates and the foundations of its walls (Revelation 21:12-14<\/a>). Our names reflect our individuality. To have the same name written in Heaven that was ours on Earth speaks of the continuity between this life and the next.<\/p>\n

In addition to our earthly names, we\u2019ll receive new names in Heaven (Isaiah 62:2<\/a>;\u00a065:15<\/a>;\u00a0Revelation 2:17<\/a>;\u00a03:12<\/a>). New names don\u2019t invalidate the old ones. Many people had multiple names in Scripture: Jacob is also Israel; Simon is also Peter; Saul is also Paul.<\/p>\n

Imagine a beautiful rose garden. It\u2019s been perfectly designed and cultivated. But the rose bushes become diseased. The garden becomes a tangled mass. It\u2019s a sad, deteriorated remnant of the glorious garden it once was. Then the gardener determines to reclaim his garden. Day after day he prunes, waters, and fertilizes each bush. His desire isn\u2019t simply to restore the garden to its original beauty; it\u2019s to make it far more beautiful than ever.<\/p>\n

When the gardener is done and the roses are thriving, beautiful, and fragrant, is the rose garden the same as it was? Is each individual rose the same? Yes and no. It\u2019s the same rose garden, restored to its previous beauty and beyond. Yet to look at it, it\u2019s hard to believe these are the same roses that were once a withered, tangled mess.<\/p>\n

This is a picture of Creation, Fall, and Resurrection. When God is finished, we\u2019ll be ourselves without the sin\u2014meaning that we\u2019ll be the best we can be.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

For more answers to questions about eternity, see Randy\u2019s book\u00a0Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Heaven<\/em><\/a>\u00a0as well as his comprehensive book\u00a0Heaven<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and devotional\u00a050 Days of Heaven<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

[i] Bruce Milne,\u00a0The Message of Heaven and Hell<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove,Ill.: InterVarsity, 2002), 194.<\/p>\n

Photo: Pixabay<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You will be\u00a0you\u00a0in Heaven. Who else would you be? If Bob, a man on Earth, is no longer Bob when he gets to Heaven, then, in fact, Bob did not go to Heaven. If when I arrive in Heaven I\u2019m not the same person with the same identity, history, and memory, then\u00a0I\u00a0didn\u2019t go to Heaven. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heaven","tag-heaven"],"yoast_head":"\nWill We Maintain Our Own Identities in Heaven?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To imagine we\u2019ll lose our personal identities in the afterlife is a Hindu belief, not a Christian one.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2017\/08\/identities-heaven\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will We Maintain Our Own Identities in 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