Why the Afterlife Bores Us
— Thursday, February 21st, 2013 —
I have long suspected that many Christians dread not just death but heaven. We won’t admit that, of course. Our hymnody, of whatever era, is filled with songs about the joy of the afterlife, and “what a day of rejoicing that will be.” We’re glad we’re not going to hell or to oblivion. But most of our songs and sermon mentions are about that first few moments in heaven: when we see Jesus, when we’re reunited with our loved ones, and so on. It’s like the happy ending of the story. And that’s the problem.
The gospel tells us that Satan keeps unbelievers bound by fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15). Believers, too often, dread death also, though not as much from fear as from boredom. We see the story of our lives as encompassing this span of seventy or eighty or a hundred years. The life to come is our “great reward” in “the afterlife.”
But just think about that word “afterlife.” It assumes eternity is an endless postlude to where the action really happens. It’s “after.” Our “reward” happens after we’ve lived our lives. Here’s why this language matters.
Imagine a couple referring to their marriage as their “after-love.” They explain to you that years ago they met, fell in love, and married. The years since are their “after-love” years, since they follow their falling in love with each other. You would, no doubt, ask whether they still loved each other and, if so, why they would relegate their lives together now as “after” anything, and why they seem to put their “love” in the past tense. You would think they were downgrading marriage and missing out on joy by talking like that.
And you’d be right.
Too many Christians see the hope of resurrection life as a capstone on their lives now. We implicitly assume that our focus in the new creation is a backward focus on our lives as they are now.
We talk about all the questions we’ll ask about why this or that happened. We never think about whether we’ll be too busy to care about that, just like we’re too busy in the prime of our careers to ask our kindergarten teacher why she had snack time after recess rather than before. We talk about our reunion with loved ones, but even they often implicitly have a past focus.
A high school reunion can be fun. You catch up with old friends, and remember good and bad times. But the focus is usually on “remember when” and “whatever happened to” conversations. That’s great for an hour or four, but four trillion years of that would be hell. That’s not what Jesus promised us. He promised us life.
If we miss this, then we become just like those with no hope. We talk about our “bucket lists” of what we have to do before we’re gone since “you only live once.” We worry about our future and we nurse grudges because we fear our lives can be ruined by circumstances instead of by sin. We essentially move into the same old “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you shall die” except that we cap it with “…and then you’ll stand around with your loved ones singing songs and staring at a light for a quadrillion years and then some.”
God forbid.
Your eternity is no more about looking back to this span of time than your life now is about reflecting on kindergarten. The moment you burst through the mud above your grave, you will begin an exciting new mission—one you couldn’t comprehend if someone told you. And those things that seem so important now—whether you’re attractive or wealthy or famous or cancer-free—will be utterly irrelevant in the face of an exhilarating new purpose, one that you were prepared for in this era but one that is far more than a mere sequel to your best life now.
Let’s talk about eternity. But it’s no mere “afterlife.” Instead let’s start thinking of this little puff of time, the next eighty or so years, as what it is: the pre-life.
For more on why I think our vision of the future life is important, see my article “A Purpose-Driven Cosmos” in the February 2012 issue of Christianity Today.
35 Responses to “Why the Afterlife Bores Us”
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I used to wonder the same things about life after death, but I learned about the God I serve. I think if more people focused on learning about our creator then they will find out that He is full of wonder and creativity. He created us to be curious and to explore, I don’t believe that He is cruel and spiteful and will punish our earnestly seeking Him by boring us for eternity. He never changes, so reason would lead us to believe that God will continue to entice and show us new wonders to explore.
Thank you so much! This brought together so many thoughts I’ve had over my life. I often think about what life after death will be like. I’ll be out on a walk, enjoying all the beauty and suddenly it will hit me…this is only the beginning; a “pre-life”, as you say. I’ll realize that I’ve been thinking I need to make the most of this, enjoy it now because it could end at any time. You reminded me how ridiculous this is. Would a God who created all this really have no clue about beauty in the continuation of our lives in heaven? Our Creator is Awesome; the only one who really deserves that description. Eternity will be so infinitely better than I can imagine. Full of LIFE. Thanks so much for such an encouraging post. I’ll refer to it again and recommend it to others.
Thank you for this much needed article! I have always been fascinated why the average Christian tends to remain more ignorant of Heaven than they would if they were planning a trip to Disney World or to go on a cruise. Sadly, it seems the first opportunity Christian parents have taken to teach their children of the joys and adventures of Heaven is when a grandparent dies. Some believe that we can become “too heavenly minded that we are no earthly good”. I have come to believe that Christians are not heavenly minded enough and I believe being heavenly minded is what fueled the Apostle Paul to accomplish what he did for the Kingdom. Whenever I am asked to speak at women’s events and not assigned a topic, Heaven is what I speak about and I always get more feedback on it than anyother subject. Yes, of course JESUS is who I want to see and He is the one that Heaven is all about but it is like Christians are afraid we are going to make Heaven an idol. This is the way I see it…if my husband were leaving the state to build our dream home, and were coming back for me when it was finished, I don’t think he would mind at all that I would be interested in the building plans and sharing about the details and beauty. After all, the home is not a home without the bridegroom and bride and Heaven will be Heaven for us with Jesus and His Church. Glory! So Dr. Moore, your title “Why the Afterlife Bores Us” is true and a sad commentary on the lie we would say we have not bought into …..”our best life now”.
Living in Light of Eternity,
Joie Rose
Word up! that’s the truth.
Hence why it’s “the age to come” and “new heavens and a new earth.” It’s not an epilogue; it’s a sequel. And praise God that He has prepared “what eye has not seen and what ear has not heard” for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose!
@Kenton Slaughter,
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived the things the Lord has prepared for those who love them.” We cannot even imagine the beauty the God is preparing for us. I don’t understand why so many people, including Christians, believe that this life is so wonderful. Sin is present, all around and within us, which definitely inhibits our ability to know God’s glory. Sin does not exist in Heaven. That aspect alone will make our life with God more glorious than anything we have ever known. I REALLY look forward to that.
If God’s Word says it can’t be compared to anything we know now, why are we trying? God, who is big enough to speak everything we now into being. God, who made man in His image from the dust of the groung and breathed into him His breath of life. God, who became the created creature, lived among His creation, accepted the complete punishment for our failures and yet LIVES!!! I think if we just realize this to be the “fallen” or “deformed” creation and He is about to “remake” it into His perfect original plan. We’ll never be concerned about being disappointed, bored, or frustrated. Wow!!! This is God of Creation. He is without beginning or end. Living with Him will be with unspeakable joy and “heaven”. I’m JUST saying…..
So true!! And it is very natural that people would not be excited about something no human has ever reported on, and about which scripture has no literal descriptions. But what is hidden behind Russell’s words is the fact that few people really know God and spend time treasuring him. Because when you do, your spirit is overwhelmed with what you have begun to instinctively sense: We are in the waiting room of something so staggering, exhilarating, mesmerizing, titilating, heartwarming, intriguing, satisfying, jaw-dropping, and euphoric, that it will make every love story, action thriller, geographic wonder, supermodel, heroic saga, electronic invention, rock concert, sunset, sensual experience, family Moment and hard-fought victory forgotten in a nanosecond! God, help our brothers and sisters have “the eyes of [their] understanding enlightened that [they] might KNOW what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…”!!!
For this reason I sometimes speak of one who died that he or she left the land of the dying and is gone to the land of the living. The best is yet to come.
You might find some interesting thoughts on heaven here.
http://www.ingodslovebyjanethurlow.com/book-say-about-heaven.php
One minor gripe. It seems as if you have treated heaven (the afterlife) and resurrection as the same thing. Whatever one’s thoughts are on NT Wright, his teaching on Paul’s view of resurrection as “life after ‘life after death’” can’t be overlooked.
Paul’s greatest hope was not heaven. He said very little about it. His greatest hope was resurrection in the age to come. To conflate the two is to squash the awesomeness of Paul’s teaching on resurrection.
I think C.S. Lewis hit pretty close to the target in the seventh book of the Narnian Chronicles when he described heaven as the real world and this current existence as “The Shadowlands”. Death is not the end for the believer, it is the awakening, when life truly begins.
Due to the fact that this earthly existence is the only experience we have with “Life”, it becomes easy for us to forget the truth that this world is not what God had originally intended. When Adam and Eve sinned it changed the course of human history, more than any other event since that time. Sin is in this world and in us, both nonbelievers and Christians, alike. That fact alone makes this life so much less than what would have been possible. With sin in our lives, we are limited so very much in our understanding of Love and true life. This is what makes Heaven and the New Earth so intriguing to me; there will be no more sin, which will allow us to see, hear and understand all that God has in store for us. We will be alive to a height and depth that we have never believed possible. COME LORD JESUS!!!!
Dr. Moore - one of my favorite and most influential seminary professors - has done it again: written on a topic that many of us have thought about but few of us have honestly and accurately articulated! Bravo, brother! You’ve helped this pastor get more fired up than he already is to preach the gospel tomorrow! Thank you!
This is the single most blasphemous and selfish article I’ve ever read. Who are we to think that God doesn’t have all this figured out already and why are we thinking we might get bored after a while. Our ways are not His ways. He conquered death and gave us a free gift of eternal life with Him and all we can think about is we might not be happy? This author should be ashamed of himself and needs to pull this article from this website. No wonder our world is lost and going down the tubes. We are pathetic human beings for even having this idea.
@Derek, This cannot be a serious response to this blog post. What exactly do you think Paul was doing when he was writing his letters to the Christian Church? He was encouraging, teaching and correcting. Are you so astonished that there are Christians who still need to be corrected and discipled? Who are young in their understanding of who God is? Who may have been taught bad doctrine? “This is the single most blasphemous and selfish article I’ve ever read.” you said. Your response may the single most naive and utterly ignroant thing I have ever heard a Christian say.
I love Psalm 84:1 How lovely are Your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts ! 2 My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD ; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3 The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God. 4 How blessed are those who dwell in Your house ! They are ever praising You. Selah.
Psalm 84 makes me long for Heaven. But in our secularized society movies like “Tuck Everlasting” make eternal life look boring and a curse not a blessing. We need to pray that our society will look into the Bible and learn the truth.
Russell: I like this line–”The moment you burst through the mud above your grave, you will begin an exciting new mission—one you couldn’t comprehend if someone told you”–but you’ve left me wondering: what will our “exciting new mission” be? Is the purpose of this life to make a decision for Jesus, so that when we begin our afterlife we can get busy with the mission he’s going to give us? Why not start here and now? I believe that God wants to redeem all of creation, and that Jesus has invited us to help. I don’t wait until I rise from the dead to get started. I want to start now. I want God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven, and I’m rolling up my sleeves to do whatever I can to make earth more like heaven now. Your thoughts?