Austin's Blog

I say often, “My son lives in Heaven” or “My son is in Heaven with the Lord.” How can I believe this? Why do I believe this? What is Heaven? Heaven is God’s space, wherever He is. John MacArthur notes, “To say that God dwells in heaven is not to say that He is contained there. But it is uniquely His home, His center of operations, His command post. It is the place where His throne resides. And it is where the most perfect worship of Him occurs. It is in that sense that we say heaven is His dwelling – place.” Why should you believe a place like Heaven exists? Is it just wishful thinking? Is it just a shot in the dark? I tried to sit and wrote down reasons why one ought to believe in Heaven.

Argument from Desire

This is an argument made famous by writer and apologist C.S. Lewis. He is not saying Heaven is real simply because we can imagine it. We can easily imagine all sorts of thing that don’t exist in reality. He argues that we experience a desire for Something or Someone that is greater than the sum of what we find here. There’s a strong sense of transcendence, a yearning, and an ineffable desire for things beyond our grasp. Lewis writes, “A man’s physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation in a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will. A man may love a woman and not win her; but it would be very odd if the phenomenon called “falling in love” occurred in a sexless world.” Elsewhere, he writes, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Argument from Religious Experiences/Near-Death Experiences

“A near-death experience (NDE) is the conscious, semi-conscious or recollected experience of someone who is approaching or has temporarily begun the process of dying.” NDEs appear to be widespread, appearing recently as well as throughout human history. Dr. Gary Habermas who has studied NDEs writes, “Many readers appear to be enamored by the supernatural sound of the reports themselves: claims of floating above one’s dying body, traveling down a dark tunnel, encountering or even being welcomed by a loving Being of light, perhaps meeting deceased loved ones, hearing beautiful sounds and seeing wonderful colors, and then afterwards losing the fear of death.” Naturalistic explanations of such phenomena aren’t satisfactory. Again, Habermas notes, “Studies of NDEs are valuable for a number of reasons. Initially, as human-interest stories, they are absolutely fascinating reading; few accounts make better reading. Beyond that, these accounts purport to address what is arguably the principal mystery of life, that of the nature of death and the possibility of an afterlife.”

Argument from the Reality of the Soul/Spirit

The soul is the immaterial and invisible aspect of what it means to be human. It seems to me that if souls are real then Someone had to create them. God. Why believe in something like a soul? Christianity and most of the world religions obviously teach it. Most human beings in world history have believed it. We possess intentional states of consciousness. We have a basic awareness of the self through introspection (sensation, thought, belief, desire, and volition). We possess a personal identity through change and time that is not strictly physical. We experience first-person, privileged, and subjective experiences that cannot be reduced to a third person perspective. We have private access that no one else possesses. Free will, morality, responsibility, and punishment depend upon dualism. Human value, worth, and dignity are connected to non-physical realities. We experience both primary (weight, shape, size, solidarity, motion, etc.) and secondary qualities/qualia (colors tastes, sounds, smells, texture, etc.). Material or physical understandings of human beings are self-refuting and undermine rationality. If souls exist, God exists. If God exists, Heaven exists.

Argument from Scripture and Other World Religions

The Bible unabashedly teaches that Heaven exists. Moreover, Islam, Judaism, and many other religions affirm that human beings persist beyond death, there is more to life than the here and now, and that we were made for another world. The arguments for the Scripture’s reliability and truthfulness would then lead to an argument for Heaven. The Holy Spirit illuminates and self-authenticates the Scriptures. God’s character as the standard of truth vouchsafes the Bible’s integrity. The Bible possesses inherent qualities that highlight its divinity—its unity, the morally transforming effect upon its readers, the moral excellence of its teaching, the glory of God which skins from its pages, its ability to survive attacks throughout human history, and other qualities. The Bible contains prophecies in the Old Testament which were fulfilled within the New Testament. Oftentimes, Christians were even willing to give their lives for the Bible and its teachings. Furthermore, it can be shown to be reliable when one examines archeology, the manuscript evidence, or the history within its pages. If Scripture is reliable, true, and authoritative, this amounts to an argument for the existence of Heaven.  

Argument from Jesus’ Resurrection

It can be shown with great probability that Jesus bodily rose from the dead. The facts surrounding the resurrection are agreed upon by most New Testament scholars across the globe: 1) Jesus died by crucifixion under the Romans, 2) He was buried in a known tomb, 3) The tomb was later found empty, with the first witnesses being women, 4) Numerous and diverse people thereafter reported seeing a resurrected Jesus, 5) Jesus’ disciples were radically transformed, 6) The early church worshipped Jesus and used practices which symbolized the resurrection in doing so, and 7) Many people today claim to experience victory in their lives through Jesus’ resurrection. The best explanation for all these realities is God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, vindicating Him and accepting His work upon the cross. If Christ is risen, then any argument against Heaven seems pointless. You ought to listen to Jesus on the topic. Dying on a cross does not automatically make you a reliable voice when it comes to the afterlife. The Romans crucified thousands. Dying on the cross and rising on the third day adds a lot of weight to your case that you ought to be listened to when it comes to such weighty topics such as Heaven and Hell.