Just finished reading Lisa Miller's article "Far From Heaven" on Newsweek. Quickly reviewing, I liked how she ended with a call to 'humble ourselves before all that we don't understand.' I didn't like how she did not go further into Jesus' answer to the Sadducees regarding life after death. (BTW, the article's got it wrong: the Sadducees were not asking about the man with seven wives; they were asking about the woman with seven husbands in succession). In the biblical passage, when the Sadducees (who did not believe in life after death) asked Jesus regarding whose wife the woman will be in the afterlife since she has been the wife of seven brothers in succession, Jesus answered, pointing out the ignorance of the Sadducees in knowing God's Word, "In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage." Jesus' answer sheds light on what Lisa Miller missed to include in her article -- the biblical view on heaven and hell.
The article includes various personal views of heaven: 'laying my head on my Grandma's lap', 'driving a yellow Cadillac in heaven', 'eating peppermint ice cream', 'enjoying the company of 72 virgins', etc. I wish the article would have contrasted those views to the view of the afterlife revealed in God's Word: Heaven is a real place where we spend eternity in God's presence, and hell is a real place where we are eternally separated from God's presence.
Therefore, the news that God has provided a way for us, through King Jesus' loving sacrifice, to be able to spend eternity with Him is indeed the Greatest News ever.
