 | The Reverend Doctor Cathy Northrup was born in Ft. Meade, MD, and was raised in a variety of places in the United State and Germany, as her father was in Counter Intelligence with the Army. She graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, with a double major in English and Religion. She graduated from Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC, and practiced law with the Federal Reserve Board for a number of years before attending Union Theological Seminaryin Richmond, VA. She graduated from Union, and served several churches in North and South Carolina, at the same time obtaining her Doctor of Ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Northrup is currently the Pastor/Head of Staff of First Presbyterian Church, Wichita, KS. She is married and has two black Labrador dogs who were rescued from abusive situations. You can contact Dr. Northrup at cnorthrup@firstpresbywichita.org or by phone at (316) 263-0248, ext. 26. |
Religion
2011-04-01 10:42:00
Honoring God enough fulfillment for eternity?
Question: The other day my friend and I were talking about Heaven and what it will be like. She said you praise and honor God all day. It’s difficult for me to understand how that’s all one will do… and do it forever. I have an even harder time imagining my husband enjoying it. While we both go to church regularly, it’s not something he looks forward to. Is there more to Heaven than this… or will this be enough?
Answer: Your friend asks a question that many people ask. We want to know what heaven will be like. As human beings, we are always curious. Her remark that people will spend time praising God is not an uncommon one; many persons of faith, including our Presbyterian forebear John Calvin, spoke of heaven as a place of praising God, and worshiping and working in God’s service, something we will do joyfully.
Most of us will admit that we do not know exactly what heaven will be like, even those of us who have done great study of the Bible. That means that we need not and should not speculate very much about it, for there is no profit in that. What is clear, however, is that being in heaven means being in the presence of God, which will mean great joy, whatever we are doing. Further, because we don’t completely understand what the resurrection of our bodies will be like, it’s difficult to say much about what we will be “doing” in this state. Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 15 about the mystery of what is to be in this sense.
Given what the Bible does say about heaven, we can say by faith, as our Westminster Catechism puts it, that Christians “shall be received into heaven, where they shall be fully and forever freed from all sin and misery; filled with inconceivable joy; made perfectly holy and happy both in body and soul, in the company of innumerable saints and angels, but especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Spirit, to all eternity.”
