If we knew exactly what animal life was like before the fall into sin and knew what nature was like before the law of entropy invaded it, we would already be living in heaven.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.
If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.
But the issue is not only life and death but our existence before God and our being judged by him. All of us were sinners before him and worthy of condemnation.
We have always existed in different forms - carbon, oxygen, water, heat. Maybe Heaven is this brief period when the elements realize they're alive.
If heaven is understood more as God's space on earth than as an ethereal region apart from the essential reality we know, then what happens on earth matters even more than we think, for the Christian life becomes a continuation of the unfolding work of Jesus, who will one day return to set the world to rights.
The question of Heaven, the question of what happens after death, is one which a lot of people in our culture try to put off as long as they can, but sooner or later it suddenly swings round and looks them in the eye.
Seeing life from an eternal perspective helps us focus our limited mortal energies on the things that matter most.
If it were possible to have a life absolutely free from every feeling of sin, what a terrifying vacuum it would be.
In the end we discover the only condition for living is to die.