I have often wondered, when Christian missionaries preached to primitive tribes of people, how those people would aspire to heaven when they see in those missionaries evidence of a culture far superior to theirs. Would the life style of the missionaries be more appealing to those people?
If everybody’s perception of heaven is patterned after their own experience in this life, wouldn’t the expectation of a European King, for example, who lived in the fifteenth century, be very modest compared to the expectations of an average well-to-do person who lived in the twenty-first century? Also, what might have been the expectations of early Christians who lived in the first century?
I think Christian heaven is being united to God, where Christians, even before death, become united to the body of Christ through baptism; and, after death, they do only God’s will and present no obstacle to God acting through them. They are wedded to Christ, function in perfect union with him. His life is their life. They actually enter into God’s life. I think this destiny far surpasses every human society on earth and makes human earthly accomplishments seem minimal compared to what awaits all of us in heaven.
Maurice A. Williams
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