"Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name..." - Philippians 2:9
For all of my life,
my thoughts have been fixated on the future. I started reading science fiction at a very early age. I reveled in the TV show "Disneyland" (later, "The Wonderful World of Disney") and especially when the topic was "Tomorrowland" or somehow dealt with space travel or life in the future.
For more than half my life, I have understood that my personal future is a real, concrete, physical existence in a pristine, restored universe. All credit goes to my God, creator of the universe, commonly known as Jesus.
If you happen to be a reader who is not yet a believer — perhaps you think you'll never be — don't "tune out" just yet. I constantly learn from and am challenged by the people I meet here on Steemit, regardless of differences in our beliefs. Even if you do close this article, I hope you'll check out my other writing on a wide-range of topics. Here's a Topical Table of Contents.
The Most Popular Person?
By Artyom Sharbatyan CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
At times I wonder about the oddest things...
I began wondering recently what it will be like to meet the God-Man, Jesus, in person. All the promises of scripture point to this coming reality. Most Christians share this expectation.
Songwriter Chris Rice,
in his title song on the album "Deep Enough to Dream," imagines falling asleep deeply enough to dream of being able "...to reach out and touch the face of the one who made me." Just thinking about the wonder and privilege of that coming moment chokes me up and fills me with great anticipation.
However, I imagine that there are going to be some logistical problems.
Won't Jesus be the most popular person ever in heaven?
Pretty much everyone who has had their life transformed by the LORD Jesus is going to want to see him. We will all want to express our undying gratitude, and to spend time with him. How is that going to work, considering that there is one and only one Jesus, while there are many millions, and perhaps ultimately billions, of his followers?
On the last day, when the dead in Christ are raised incorruptible and we who are alive and remain are transformed into new, imperishable bodies, there will be a vast and innumerable crowd of people, every one of us wanting an audience with Jesus.
Please don't get me wrong.
I'm not trying to be flippant here. I'm not trying to ridicule anyone or anything. I seriously wonder about things like this.
Even now, in the present time, I imagine logistical problems.
The most recent Global Crude Death Rate I've been able to find indicates about eight people of every thousand die each year. Of the present estimated world population of 7.4 billion, on average about 187 people die every second.
Religious statistics estimate the percentage of Christians on the planet at around one third. This in itself is interesting, because it matches the symbolic value in apocalyptic literature such as the Book of Revelation. If accurate, about 63 believers die every second.
Some Deep Thoughts
Photo courtesy of Ben White and http://unsplash.com
Are you starting to see the problem?
There's no way humanly possible, for Jesus as a man to meet and greet the number of redeemed who are moving on to glory each second. Even if we pessimistically derate that number by a factor of ten, there would be six people per second ushered through the pearly gates, being introduced to The Man.
I'm not really worried about this.
Just very curious. My suspicions are that I have much to learn about the contrast between "time" and "eternity." I'm sure that Jesus/God has this all worked out.
I've shared some of my meditations on eternity with my readers before. For example:
and
"How To Deal With That First, Rough Morning In Heaven..."
Continuing in a speculative vein, once all the dust has settled and we begin our blessed existence in Glory, we will have, literally, all the time in the world to visit with Jesus. Sure, there will be countless numbers of us, eventually populating billions of planets throughout the universe.
Populating billions of planets...
Photo courtesy of JPL/NASA
Recalling my math, there are an infinite number of complex numbers between each and every integer. Eternity is probably a lot like that mind-bending math postulate.
Another way of looking at it,
perhaps we'll be able to spend one-on-one time with Jesus whenever we wish. Perhaps eternity is non-linear, non-sequential. We may be able to multiplex our time, our attention, our location. We may never again have to worry about having to choose between two events happening at the same time; we may be able to experience them both.
I truly do look forward to personally visiting with Jesus one day. I already talk to him pretty much on a daily basis. I can hardly wait to find out exactly what that will be like, and how the details will all work out.
Your thoughts?
~FIN~
You are why I'm here on Steemit!
I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about them all.
⬇️To Check Out @creatr's World⬇️CLICK Each Image Below⬇️
|
|
|
One thing that immediately jumped out at me was your statement, "There's no way humanly possible.” While we both know and believe Jesus was man in the flesh. We also both know and believe Jesus is God, He was there at the beginning and is there now and will be at the end. He is omnipresent and omniscient. What He is capable of doing we cannot fully under stand. Your discussion with @stan is the same idea put into a human description so we can understand it.
I too often wonder and ask Him questions about things that does not really have a humanly answer, and I look forward to the day when I get to have them answered from Him, as He will make it perfectly clear.
I’m glad to have came across your postings, I will be watching for more.
Blessings!
Hey, very nice to "meet" you, @wyorunner! I'm also glad that you found my postings...
Please check out my Topical Table of Contents (which I hope to eventually update, God willing) for more and varied theological musings, as well as other curious and eclectic stuff...
Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments! :D
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. 27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Thanks, Mary, for reminding me of this scripture.
Yes indeed, with God, everything is possible! :D
I heard the eye of the needle refered to a small gate on the Eatern wall
You are a deep thinker, creatr. I agree that it will all work out.
You always give me something else to think about. Maybe you have already met him?
Yes, I have... just not yet face to face...
Thanks, Karen, for stopping by and commenting! Have you met him yet? :D He's there for you in John's book... Keep on reading! ;)
Im reading but no visit as yet :)
:) :) :) I'm praying that as you read, you would come to know Jesus as the wonderful, amazing, loving person that he is, and that you will be greatly blessed by what you learn. :) :D
I am reading and starting to understand a little better :)
Simple answer: Massive parallelism. A modest example from Acts 9:
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!""Yes, Lord," he answered. The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."
The Lord is simultaneously interacting with two people in two places.
Yeah. It's like that.
Yeah, I like your simple answer.
He already does that, and so there's no reason not to in the future. I suspect that we will all also have the benefit of having all the advantages of "time" without any of the drawbacks (such as not being able to be in two places at the same "time." )
Thanks for your encouraging comment! :) :D
So, thinking more about what you've said... ;)
One key difference is that, for what I imagine, in the New Heavens and New Earth, if multiple people want to have a personal audience with the LORD, massive parallelism in the physical realm will have to be a possibility...
And whether that may be done by temporary "task spawning" - i.e. cloning/duplication of the LORD's (or our) personal bodies (perhaps possible, as they are "glorified" bodies) or by multiple time/consciousness threads that branch off, who knows?
Computer science does give us some interesting conceptual prototypes for this. ;)
Thanks for your stimulating interaction, Stan! Blessings!
"Whenever two or more of you are gathered in my name, there I am also."
So this is going on all the time. It just depends on whether the Lord turns on "visibility mode" for any particular person or group.
Then there is the question of "what is eternity" and what does the Lord mean by "I AM". We may be able to be everywhere and everywhen all at once.
I suspect that linear motion through time at the constant rate of one second per second is an artifact of this reality.
Yes! I couldn't agree more! :)
I've been thinking about that aspect of time since the age of five.... :O
And "everywhen" is such a good word... I love it!
That is where the LORD dwells...
Thanks, Stan, for reminding me of this verse this morning...
My heart really needed it! :D
Thanks for the article. I grew up believing that we would rise on that great judgement day. Then I met folks who believe that absent from the body is present with Christ. Thus they are already in heaven. I do not know. I can only pray for the day when I will be there. My love passed away Dec. 12 and I know she will be there. We can find something from the scripture but can only imagine the rest. I am looking forward to that day. Again thanks.
Greetings, friend @enjoywithtroy.
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, and BTW, Welcome to Steemit! I hope you find lots of interesting reading and interacting here.
There's a whole discussion latent in your observation about the different schools of thought. My thinking has changed quite a lot during the course of my life. What I most look forward to is resurrection, which I believe will take place on the last day.
I also believe that, as a believer, I've already been raised to spiritual life in the first resurrection.
I am so very sorry to hear of your loss, and I look forward to rejoicing with you when you and your love are reunited on the last day. Blessings!
😄😇😄
P.S. Please drop me a note when you write your introductory post? Thanks! ;)
Thank you for your kind words and welcome. I found out about steamit from several sources. Marci and I were not able to marry here on earth. I have been told that we are all the same in heaven. I have wanted to make it right and be her spouse as she wanted on earth in heaven. I do not know if God provides miracles in heaven, however I would like to do that for her. I know that Jesus has make it all right though and it will not matter however at this point as it is still fresh it matters to me. Thanks for your Christian article. She was a believer. I wish more folks were.
I've spent a lot of time reading scripture and thinking about heaven. If you click on the GIF above, you'll find my Topical Table of Contents. It's a little out of date now, but I hope to update it before too long. In any case, you'll find quite a few articles that express my enthusiasm for the topic of the New Heavens and the New Earth that Jesus has promised to bring about. :)
Thanks again for visiting my blog, and I hope you find much of value here on Steemit.
The first time I saw Ten Commandments when I was a kid, I wanted to go up on that mountain and meet God. That has never changed for me--that attraction-- that sense of wonder
One of my favorite songsters - Chris Rice - is a beautiful blend of poet, musician, and believer... He has written more than one piece that expresses one of my strongest feelings.
When I finally meet God, I've got an endless list of question for him. I desperately want to ask him how he made certain things, how he chose certain design strategies...
Oh, and I also plan to ask him to show me a bunch of his home movies... ;)
Hmmm that is indeed a deep question. At first blush, the math seems to get in the way of physicality.
Yeah, but read Stan's (and my) speculations about multiplexing.... :D