What Will Heaven Actually Be Like?

The short answer: Not clouds, harps and endless church services. The Bible’s final hope is a new creation: a real, physical world made new, where God’s people live in resurrection bodies, with God Himself. Some details are hidden from us, and faithful Christians differ on a few of them, but what we are told is better than anything we can imagine.

Many people’s picture of heaven comes from cartoons: people in white robes sitting on clouds, playing harps, forever. No wonder some people secretly think it sounds boring. “Won’t I get bored singing for a billion years?” is a real question, and an honest one.

The good news is that the cartoon is wrong. (Book 1 answered what happens when we die. This chapter looks further ahead, to what life will be like at the very end.)

A new creation

The Bible’s story doesn’t end with souls escaping the world. It ends with God renewing it. “For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17). “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Not “all new things”. All things, new.

Isaiah describes it in earthy terms: “They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (Isaiah 65:21). Weapons will be turned into farm tools: “They will beat their swords into plowshares” (Isaiah 2:4). Creation itself is waiting for the day when it “will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Romans 8:21).

Real bodies

You won’t be a ghost. When Jesus rose, He said, “Touch Me and see—for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39). Then He ate a piece of fish in front of His friends. His resurrection body is the pattern for ours: physical, recognisable, but no longer able to get sick, grow old or die.

That means real things to do. The Bible speaks of a banquet, where people “will come from the east and the west” to eat together (Matthew 8:11). It speaks of the nations bringing “the glory and honor” of their cultures into God’s city (Revelation 21:26). It says God’s people “will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5), which suggests work, responsibility and creativity, not endless sitting.

With God

But the best thing about heaven isn’t the place. It’s the Person. “They will see His face” (Revelation 22:4). There is no temple in the city, “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22).

That’s why it won’t be boring. Boredom comes from things running out. God never runs out. Worship there won’t be one long service; it will be everything you do, done in the joy of His presence. Paul says, “Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

What we don’t know

Here the Bible is humble, and we should be too. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Some details are open questions.

Where Christians agree: God will raise His people bodily; there will be no more sin, death or tears; God will live with His people for ever; Jesus will be at the centre of it all.

Where Christians differ:

• Renewed or replaced? Many Christians believe this present earth will be cleansed and renewed, like a body raised from the dead. Others read verses such as “the elements will be destroyed by fire” (2 Peter 3:10) as meaning God will start again with a wholly new creation.
• Will we recognise each other? Most Christians have believed we will, since the disciples recognised the risen Jesus. Exactly how much of this life we’ll remember is less clear.
• Marriage and family. Jesus said that “people will neither marry nor be given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30). Christians differ on what that means for relationships we love now, though all agree nothing good will be lost that isn’t replaced by something better.
• Rewards. Some think there will be different rewards or responsibilities; others stress that everyone will be fully happy.

This book won’t settle those. What matters most is clear: you will be with God, and it will be good.

Think about it: If heaven is about being with God, what does that suggest about how to get ready for it now?

Go deeper: The Key Teachings of Augustine of Hippo — Augustine, who began the Confessions with a restless heart, ends with the rest that has no evening and pictures heaven as seeing God face to face: “there we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise.” Start with chapter 22, “The Sabbath Which Hath No Evening”.