Nathan Busenitz of The Cripplegate paints a picture of heaven as a place of: “vibrant color, good food, loud music, close friendships, as well as physical activity.”
But what will be missing from heaven? Busenitz puts forward a list of 17 items that the Apostle John reveals in the book of Revelation that will be missing in heaven. It’s reassuring to know that “Each of these represents some aspect of fallenness, rebellion, or divine judgment connected to this present world. And there will be no sign of corruption or judgment in the world to come.”
Ask your average man-on-the-street what he thinks about “heaven,” and he’ll probably describe a place where just about everything people enjoy in this life is completely missing.
In the minds of most, things like vibrant color,good food, loud music, close friendships, andphysical activity are all absent from heaven. They envision a place where everything is white, sterilized, and generally quiet—like a cosmic hospital or giant library in the sky. Heaven’s inhabitants float around like disembodied spirits with little halos, wearing white choir robes, sitting on clouds of cotton balls, and playing tiny harps for all of eternity. It’s like something out of a Precious Moments catalogue — the very opposite of anything exciting, enthralling, or eternally enjoyable. (No offense to those who collect small, winged, ceramic figurines.)
The sad reality is that too often, we as Christians can allow our own understanding of heaven to be tainted by the culture around us. But Hallmark must not define heaven forus. Hollywood must not define heaven for us. Centuries of monastic tradition must not define heaven for us.
Instead, only God’s Word can rightly inform our understanding of heaven. And when we go to the Scriptures, we find that our future home is anything but bland, boring, or quiet.
In particular, the eternal heaven (which Revelation 21–22 describes as a new earth) will be a place of vibrant color (Rev. 21:19–21
; cf. 4:3
The best this life has to offer cannot compare to heaven in any respect. The best thrills, the best joys, the best memories in this life are but shadows; our most wondrous, most profound, most heartfelt, most emotional, most fulfilling moments in this world, cannot hold a candle to the brilliant sun of heavenly experience.
Ironically, many of the wonderful things people enjoy in this life and assume will be missing from heaven, will in fact be part of life on the new earth—only in an infinitely better, eternally-perfected form.
So why write a post entitled “What Heaven Is Missing”?
Because there actually are some significant aspects of our current experience that will be absent from heaven. If we are to rightly understand just how wonderful heaven is going to be, we not only need to know what will be there … we also need to know what will be missing.
That’s why, in Revelation 21–22, the Apostle John spends as much time describing the new earth by telling us what will be absent from heaven, as he does telling us what will be present.
So what is heaven missing? Here’s a list of 17 items that John states will be absent from the new earth. Each of these represents some aspect of fallenness, rebellion, or divine judgment connected to this present world. And there will be no sign of corruption or judgment in the world to come.
1. No sea (Rev. 21:1
2. No longer any separation between God and man (vv. 2–3)
3. No tears, mourning, or crying (v. 4)
4. No pain (v. 4)
5. No death (v. 4)
6. Nothing that will not be made new (v. 5)
7. No spiritual thirst (v. 6)
8. No unredeemed sinner — whom John lists as the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murders, immoral persons, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars (v. 8); no one who practices abomination and lying (v. 27)
9. No temple (v. 22) — because God is the temple
10. No need for the sun or moon (v. 23; 22:5) — because God is the light
11. No need for a lamp (v. 23; 22:5)
12. No night (v. 25; 22:5) — and presumably no need of sleep for resurrected saints
13. No closing of the gates of the New Jerusalem (v. 25)
14. Nothing unclean (v. 27)
15. No one whose name is not written in the Lamb’s book of life (v. 27)
16. No curse (22:3)
17. No end to the eternal reign of Christ and His redeemed (22:5)
A short blog article does not permit us to go into detail on each of these items. But the point should be clear enough:
In order to underscore the wonder of the new earth, John contrasts the new earth with this one by emphasizing aspects of our fallen world which will be missing from heaven. Because sin and its corrupting consequences are such a normal part of this life, the apostle has to go to great length to emphasize the fact that absolutely none of that will be present in the life to come.
A Quick Illustration
There are times in our own experience, of course, when the best way to describe something is to contrast it with something that is familiar.
When I was in college, for example, I bought a used car. It was a small four-door compact, and it suited my needs perfectly as a college student. The car was already seven years old when I bought it and it had 80,000 miles on it. But it ran great, and I kept it for another ten years.
By the time I finally got rid of it, it was in (very) bad shape. The engine still ran, but everything else about the car was clearly worn out. The struts were totally shot, so that I could feel every bump in the road. The air conditioning was broken; the paint was peeling; the seats were ripped and scarred. The doors were scratched; one of the side mirrors was broken off and being held on with duct tape.
The car would constantly fail its smog check, and was categorized by the state of California as a “gross polluter.” On multiple occasions, I had to go to the DMV and get a special permit to drive it around. It was too old to have a CD player, and the cassette player was broken too. One of the hubcaps was missing. Both the front and back bumpers were damaged; and at times the power steering wouldn’t work. Needless to say, the car was a mess.
I knew I couldn’t sell it. So I finally took it to a wrecking yard and said goodbye. Then I went and bought a new car.
Now, if you had asked me to describe my new car, in the days after I bought it, I would probably have done so by describing as much about what it was missing as what it had:
“There is no longer any trouble starting the engine.”
“There are no more strange noises when I drive around.”
“I am no longer embarrassed when I see someone I know.”
Its paint was not peeling; its upholstery was not damaged; its hubcaps had not fallen off. No longer did I have to deal with a faulty suspension, a broken mirror, a damaged power-steering system, or the repeated frustrations of trying to pass a smog check.
Those were all things that characterized my old car. But they did not characterize the new one, because even though both are cars, the new car is exponentially better than the last.
Now that illustration is obviously limited. But it gives a sense of how the Apostle John uses contrast to describe the glories of heaven in Revelation 21–22. In the final two chapters of the Bible, he explains the greatness of the new earth by noting how different it will be than this sin-stained, broken-down, cursed and corrupt world system.
So what is heaven missing? A lot. But not in the way our popular culture thinks.
When we accurately understand the kinds of things that will be absent from our eternal home, it should only get us more excited to go there.
(Source)
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