More On Eternity

Q

In several earlier responses, you’ve said that, in our next life, there will be no remembrances of past things because that would then introduce sin, or memories of it, into our lives and that isn’t in accord with eternal joy. My problem is that another Biblical scholar (unnamed, but solid), said that Jesus’ resurrection body was an example of what ours will be and since his body was able to move through solid objects ours will too, and that since Jesus could travel through time, we can too, and now it comes apart. If we went backward in time, then we would, in fact, be introducing sin or sinful memories into heaven. See my dilemma?

In a similar vein, others have said that, in heaven, we’ll have all of our questions answered. O.K, but how can a person have questions about things that aren’t remembered? I like the idea of time travel it seems proper, helpful that we could see the incidents of Jesus life. Why would the Lord not want us to remember that?

A

What I said was whether our memories of the past are good or bad, they would take away from our joy. Good memories could cause us to miss the past and bad ones could cause us to regret it. 1 John 2:17 says the world and its desires will pass away but we will live forever.

I don’t see any conflict between what I’ve said and what others have said, and I don’t see the connection between having our memories erased and time travel. Here’s an example. Just before Christmas I was involved in a serious car accident. No one was hurt but I hit my head so hard that I didn’t even know where I was for about 1/2 an hour afterward. My wife says that I walked around and talked with people, but kept asking her the same questions over and over. I still have no memory of the accident or the time just afterward. It’s like my memory has been erased.

If I become able to travel back in time during the millennium, I could visit the scene of the accident and discover what really happened. It wouldn’t cause my memories to return, but would enable me to see it as if for the first time. And being in my perfected state, I would see it as the Lord does because I’ll be like Him (1 John 3:2). Perhaps I would see how He dispatched angels to protect us from the injuries we should have suffered. I would experience great joy, seeing with my own eyes how He intervenes in human affairs.

I look forward to traveling through history after the rapture. And one of the great things about it is that I’ll be able to see it all from the Lord’s perspective, not my sin contaminated one.

As for having all our questions answered, the Bible says that we’ll know as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12). In other words, our knowledge will be complete. It’s not that we’ll have to ask a bunch of questions in order to learn things, it’s that we’ll already know all the answers.