Hello, My name is Anthony Crombie and i am 16 years old. I am doing a project on heaven for my Theology class and i would like to know some more info. on what heaven might be like. What it might take to get there, and if there really is a purgatory. Well if you might have some answers i would love to here them. I am just looking for more info. for this project, plus it is a nice thing to know. Thank you, Anthony Crombie

-- Anthony Lee Crombie (themrroboto87@hotmail.com), December 05, 2003

Answers

Heaven is a hard place to describe, just like God.

We can only really say what heaven isn't but not what it is.

Think of the most magestic, awe inspiring, thing you can. Heaven is then beyond that. To imagen heaven would put a limit on what it is. We don't know what it is because we are only human are we cannot fathem the greatness of heaven.

I am sorry that this probably isn't much of a help. Good luck and God Bless.

-- Scott (papasquat10@hotmail.com), December 05, 2003.

anthony, dont pay any heed to the first post in this thread. we have a nice imposter who likes to start trouble by posting malicious things...

on what heaven might be like

who knows? there are many descriptions in the bible. its safe to say, however, that heaven is outside the bounds of mortal time and physical dimensions. there are alot of illustrative comments found in your very own bible. just find a bible online and search it for the word heaven. i'd give you a link to it myself, but i just built a new computer so i dont have all my sites hooked back up

What it might take to get there

there are several things it takes to get to heaven.

First is faith. you must have faith to get into heaven. we are nothing without Christ and nothing we do on our own can get us into heaven.

Next is works. we know from the book of james that faith without works is dead. knowing that our works cannot save us we still live the life faith (doing good works is the life of faith) because we know that it is right. many verses in the bible indicate this, but perhaps my favorite is "whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me." how great an honor to serve the Lord through our works.

Baptism: Jesus tells us that we MUST be born again in baptism in order to recieve salvation. (there is one exception, baptism by desire, for those who would have been baptised had the chance ever come but for some reason were never exposed to the fullness of truth).

Communion: you MUST partake of the Body and Blood of Christ in order to earn salvation (there is one exception here too, for those who've never had any exposure to christianity or the bible).

Live in a state of sanctifying grace... Jesus tells his apostles that they have the power to forgive sins. what a grace it is for us to have the sacrament of reconciliation. go to confession and be forgiven (this only works if you are truly sorry and have the honest intention of improving, it is NOT a get out of jail free card so dont buy the anti catholic hype)

if there really is a purgatory

yes. purgatory is referenced in the bible in one of the seven books that the protestants removed from the holy scripture. logically speaking, there must be a purgatory as well. we know that to be impure (have sin) is to keep us out of heaven. we also know that to be human is to have sin. proper penance can relieve us of the sin we have, but there is little chance of dying having done a full penance only moments before. so, are these people doomed to hell? do they get a heaven for sinners free card? or maybe they get to come halfway into heaven... or just stand there at the gates?

NO to all of these options. they go to a place called purgatory, where they pray and humble themselves before God. no one who enters purgatory may go to hell, they are saved (in a sense) and will enter heaven when they have made proper penance for sins.

-- paul h (dontSendMeMail@notAnAddress.com), December 05, 2003.

Hi Anthony, this link may help you

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00BDTt

-- (csisherwood @hotmail.com), December 05, 2003.

Dear Anthony:

A simple answer to your question - heaven is living in the eternal presence of God.

However, scripture does offer some imagery regarding heaven.

In the Old Testament, the Tabernacle, and later the Temple in Jerusalem were considered physical reproductions of the spiritual place of God’s heavenly court. This is reaffirmed in the New Testament book of Hebrews.

St. John’s Revelation is also based upon the heavenly court of God which becomes the “New Jerusalem” from heaven.

A very good book dealing with Revelation (outside the apocalyptic genre) is “The First Christian Drama” by John Wick Bowman, Westminster Press, 1955. You can find a portion of his premise in the Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, p.58 book 4, edited by George A. Buttrick and printed by Abingdon Press, 1962.

-- Robert Fretz (pastorfretz@oldstonechurchonline.org), December 05, 2003.

Read the thread that was linked above, especially the link there to the Catholic Catechism. Also of interest may be:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07170a.htm

I hope this helps..... there is a lot here to contemplate.

In Christ, Bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), December 06, 2003.