Heaven (37 page)

CHAPTER 32

WHAT WILL WE KNOW AND LEARN?

I
t's common to hear people say, "We don't understand now, but in Heaven we'll know everything." One writer says that people
in Heaven can "easily comprehend divine mysteries."
²³⁴
Is this true? Will we really know everything in Heaven?

WILL WE KNOW EVERYTHING?

God alone is omniscient. When we die, we'll see things far more clearly, and we'll know much more than we do now, but we'll
never
know everything.

The apostle Paul wrote: "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I
know
in part; then I shall
know fully,
even as I am fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12, emphasis added). The italicized words are based on two different Greek words:
ginosko
and
epiginosko.
The prefix
epi
inten­sifies the word to mean "to really know" or "to know extensively." However, when the word is used of humans, it never
means absolute knowledge.

In his
Systematic Theology,
Wayne Grudem says, "1 Cor. 13:12 does not say that we will be omniscient or know everything (Paul could have said we will
know all things,
tapanta,
if he had wished to do so), but, rightly translated, sim­ply says that we will know in a fuller or more intensive way, 'even
as we have been known,' that is, without any error or misconceptions in our knowledge."
²³⁵

The New Living Translation reads, "Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror." Mirrors in Paul's time had serious
flaws. Corinth was famous for its bronze mirrors, but the color was off and shapes were distorted. The mir­ror's image lacked
the quality of seeing someone face-to-face. Knowing and seeing were nearly synonyms in Greek thought.
²³⁶
The more you saw, the more you knew.

One day we'll see God's face and therefore truly know him (Revelation 22:4). Under the Curse we see myopically. When we're
resurrected, our vision will be corrected. We'll at last be able to see eternal realities once invisible to us (2 Corinthians
4:18).

God sees clearly and comprehensively. In Heaven we'll see far more clearly, but we'll never see comprehensively. The point
of comparing our knowing to God's knowing is that we'll know "fully" in the sense of accurately but not exhaustively.

In Heaven we'll be flawless, but not knowing everything isn't a flaw. It's part of being finite. Righteous angels don't know
everything, and they long to know more (1 Peter 1:12). They're flawless but finite. We should expect to long for greater knowledge,
as angels do. And we'll spend eternity gaining the greater knowledge we'll seek.

WILL WE LEARN?

I heard a pastor say, "There will be no more learning in Heaven." One writer says that in Heaven, "Activities such as investigation,
comprehending and prob­ing will never be necessary. Our understanding will be complete."
²³⁷
In a Gallup poll of people's perspectives about Heaven, only 18 percent thought people would grow intellectually in Heaven.
238

Does Scripture indicate that we will learn in Heaven? Yes. Consider Ephesians 2:6-7: "God raised us up with Christ and seated
us with him in the heav­enly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches
of his grace." The word
show
means "to reveal." The phrase
in the coming ages
clearly indicates this will be a progressive, ongoing revelation, in which we learn more and more about God's grace.

I frequently learn new things about my wife, daughters, and closest friends, even though I've known them for many years. If
I can always be learning some­thing new about finite, limited human beings, surely I'll learn far more about Jesus. None of
us will ever begin to exhaust his depths.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Learn from me" (Matthew 11:29). On the New Earth, we'll have the privilege of sitting at Jesus'
feet as Mary did, walking with him over the countryside as his disciples did, always learning from him. In Heaven we'll continually
learn new things about God, going ever deeper in our understanding.

Consider again those Greek words
ginosko
and
epiginosko,
translated "know" in 1 Corinthians 13:12, used of our present knowledge on Earth and our future knowledge in Heaven.
Ginosko
often means "to come to know," and therefore "to learn" (Matthew 10:26; John 12:9; Acts 17:19; Philippians 2:19).
Epiginosko
also means "to learn" (Luke 7:37; 23:7; Acts 9:30; 22:29).
²³⁹
That we will one day "know fully" could well be understood as "we will always keep on learning."

It was God—not Satan—who made us learners. God doesn't want us to stop learning. What he wants to stop is what prevents us
from learning.

Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards, who intensely studied Heaven, be­lieved "the saints will be progressive in knowledge to
all eternity."
²⁴⁰
He added, "The number of ideas of the saints shall increase to eternity."
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Will our knowledge and skills vary? Will some people in Heaven have greater knowledge and specialized abilities than others?
Why not? Scripture never teaches sameness in Heaven. We will be individuals, each with our own memo­ries and God-given gifts.
Some of our knowledge will overlap, but not all. I'm not a mechanic or gardener, as you may be. I may or may not learn those
skills on the New Earth. But even if I do, that doesn't mean I'll ever be as skilled a gardener or mechanic as you will be.
After all, you had a head start on learning. Remember the doctrine of continuity: What we learn here carries over after death.

Don't you love to discover something new? On the New Earth, some of our greatest discoveries may relate to the lives we're
living right now. Columnist and commentator Paul Harvey made a career of telling "the rest of the story." That's exactly what
we'll discover in Heaven again and again—the rest of the story. We'll be stunned to learn how God orchestrated the events
of our lives to influ­ence people we may have forgotten about.

Occasionally we hear stories that provide us a small taste of what we'll learn in eternity. One morning after I spoke at a
church, a young woman came up to me and asked, "Do you remember a young man sitting next to you on a plane headed to college?
You gave him your novel
Deadline."
I give away a lot of my books on planes, but after some prompting, I remembered him. He was an un­believer. We talked about
Jesus, and I gave him the book and prayed for him as we got off the plane.

I was amazed when the young woman said to me, "He told me he never con­tacted you, so you wouldn't know what happened. He
got to college, checked into the dorm, sat down, and read your book. When he was done, he confessed his sins and gave his
life to Jesus. And I can honestly tell you, he's the most dy­namic Christian I've ever met."

All I did was talk a little, give him a book, and pray for him. But if the young woman hadn't told me, I wouldn't have had
a clue what had happened. That story reminded me how many great stories await us in Heaven and how many we may not hear until
we've been there a long time. We won't ever know every­thing, and even what we will know, we won't know all at once. We'll
be learners, forever. Few things excite me more than that.

WILL WE EXPERIENCE PROCESS?

The first humans lived in process, as God ordained them to. Adam knew more a week after he was created than he did on his
first day.

Nothing is wrong with process and the limitations it implies. Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature" (Luke 2:52). Jesus "learned
obedience" (Hebrews 5:8). Growing and learning cannot be bad; the sinless Son of God experienced them. They are simply part
of being human.

Unless we cease to be human after our resurrection, we will go on growing and learning. If anything, sin makes us less human.
When the parasite of sin is removed, full humanity will be restored—and improved.

The sense of wonder among Heaven's inhabitants shows Heaven is not stagnant but fresh and stimulating, suggesting an ever-deepening
appreciation of God's greatness (Revelation 4-6). Heaven's riches are rooted in Heaven's God. We will find in Heaven a continual
progression of stimulating discovery and fresh learning as we keep grasping more of God.

In
Hamlet,
Shakespeare called what lies beyond death "the undiscover'd country"
²⁴²
It's a country we yearn to discover—and by Christ's grace, we will. Jonathan Edwards—as fine a theological mind as the world
has ever known—defended and developed this thought, which he considered critical. He wrote, "How soon do earthly lovers come
to an end of their discoveries of each other's beauty; how soon do they see all there is to be seen! But in Heaven there is
eter­nal progress with new beauties always being discovered."
²⁴³
He continued, "Happiness of heaven is progressive and has various periods in which it has a new and glorious advancement and
consists very much in beholding the mani­festations that God makes of himself in the work of redemption."
²⁴⁴
Edwards contended that we will continually become happier in Heaven in "a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of more
and more of God's glory with greater and greater joy in him."
²⁴⁵
He said there will never be a time when there is "no more glory for the redeemed to discover and enjoy"
²⁴⁶
There won't ever "come a time when the union between God and the church is complete" because we will always be learning something
new about our Bridegroom.
²⁴⁷

We can anticipate an eternity of growing in Christlikeness as we behold God's face and are continuously "transformed into
his likeness with ever-increasing glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18). We can begin this joyful process here and now, and there's
every indication it will continue forever.

After
creating the new universe, Jesus says, "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5). Notice the verb tense is not "I have
made" or "I will make" but "I am making." This suggests an ongoing process of renovation. Christ is a creator, and his creativity
is never exhausted. He will go right on making new things. Heaven is not the end of innovation; it is a new beginning, an
eternal break from the stagnancy and inertia of sin.

WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE TO LEARN?

Could God impart knowledge so we immediately know things when we get to Heaven? Certainly. Adam and Eve didn't go to school.
They were created, it ap­pears, with an initial vocabulary. But Adam and Eve are the exceptions. Every other person has learned
by experience and study, over time. And Adam and Eve were learners the rest of their lives. Nothing ever came automatically
again.

When we enter Heaven, we'll presumably begin with the knowledge we had at the time of our death. God may enhance our knowledge
and will correct countless wrong perceptions. I imagine he'll reveal many new things to us, then set us on a course of continual
learning, paralleling Adam and Eve's. Once we're in resurrection bodies with resurrected brains, our capacity to learn may
in­crease. Perhaps angel guardians or loved ones already in Heaven will be as­signed to tutor and orient us.

We will also study. Martin Luther said, "If God had all the answers in his right hand, and the struggle to reach those answers
in his left, I would choose God's left hand." Why? Because it's not only truth we want, it's also the pleasure of
learning
the truth. God reveals himself to us in the process of our learning, often in bite-sized chunks, fit for our finite minds.
The great preacher Donald Gray Barnhouse once said that if he was told he had three years left on Earth, he would spend two
years studying and one preaching. Expressing a similar de­sire, Billy Graham said that if he had his life to do over again,
he would study more and preach less.

Will we study doctrine in Heaven? Doctrine is truth, which is an extension of God's nature, and therefore also cannot be exhausted.
We will have eternity to explore it. Truth will be living and vital, never dry and dusty. We will dialogue about truth not
to impress each other but to enrich each other and ourselves as we discover more and more about God.

To study creation is to study the Creator. Science should be worshipful discovery because the heavens and all creation declare
God's glory. God reveals his character in flowers, waterfalls, animals, and planets. God's name is written large in nature,
in his beauty organization, skill, precision, and attention to detail. He's the Master Artist. On the New Earth everything
will be a lens through which we see him. Biology, zo­ology, chemistry, astronomy, physics—all will be the study of God.

Will we discover new ideas? I believe we will. Jesus, the God-man, was sometimes "astonished" at what he saw on this earth
(Matthew 8:10). If there was ever a man incapable of surprise, wouldn't we have expected it to be the "one who came from heaven"
(John 3:13)? But if Jesus could be astonished on this old Earth, surely we will often be astonished at what we see in God,
people, and creation on the New Earth.

There's so much to discover in this universe, but we have so little time and op­portunity to do it. The list of books I haven't
read, music I've never heard, and places I haven't been is unending. There's much more to know. I look forward to discovering
new things in Heaven—forever. At the end of each day I'll have the same amount of time left as I did the day before. The things
I didn't learn that day, the people I didn't see, the things I was unable to do—I can still learn, see, or do the next day.
Places won't crumble, people won't die, and neither will I.

What we do now is not discarded once we enter eternity. What we learn now is noterased in heaven. . . . What we experience
injoy and understanding and insight now is not destroyed, but is the foundation on which ll our eternal experience and growth
is based