02/09/2024/ “Chapter 32 excerpts: “What Will We Know and Learn?” (in heaven)
Ok, it is ok every once in a while to take a break from Christian warrior engagements! This is my eleventh post on Randy Alcorn’s book: “Heaven”. I would recommend that you : 1) logon so you can utilize the search tool. If you don’t have a logon, you can contact me at Semikkah7@protonmail.com. ; 2). Enter: “Randy Alcorn” in the search field . You should see around 19 posts. One of my favorites is a quote from Alistair McGrath dated 11/12/2021, with comments within the post.
Let’s get started with excerpts from Chapter 32: “What Will We Know and Learn?” (in heaven):
WILL WE KNOW EVERYTHING?:
“God alone is omniscient. When we die, we’ll see things far more clearly, and we’ll know much more than we do now, but we’ll never know everything.
The Apostle Paul wrote: ‘Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, emphasis added). The italicized words are based on two different Greek words: gingko and epginosko. The prefix epi intensifies the word to mean ‘to really know’ or ‘to know extensively.’ However, when the word is used of humans, it never means absolute knowledge.
In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Gruden says, ‘ 1 Corinthians 13:12 does not say that we will be omniscient or know everything (Paul could have said we will know all things, ta panta/ if he had wished to do so), but, rightly translated, simply says that we will know in a fuller or more intensive way, ‘even as we have been known’ that is , without any error or misconceptions in our knowledge.’ (Jimmy insert: see endnote on 1162)
… In Heaven we’ll be flawless, but not knowing everything isn’t a flaw. It’s part of being finite. Righteous angels don’t know everything, and they long to know more (1 Peter 1:12) They’re flawless but finite. We should expect to long for greater knowledge, as angels do. And we’ll spend eternity gaining the greater knowledge we’ll seek.”
WILL WE LEARN?
“I heard a poster say, ‘There will be no more learning in Heaven.’ Once write says that in Heaven, ‘Activities such as investigation, comprehending, and probing will never be necessary. Our understanding will be complete.’ (*238)
*238 – Colleen McDonnell and Bernhard Lang, Heaven: A History (New York: Vintage Books, 1988), 307.
Does Scripture indicate that we will learn in Heaven? Yes. Consider Ephesians 2: 6-7: ‘God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of His grace.’ The word show means to ‘to reveal’. The phrase in the coming ages clearly indicates this will be a progressive, ongoing revelation, in which we learn more and more about God’s grace.
…
Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards, who intensely studies Heaven, believed ‘the saints will be progressive in knowledge to all eternity.’ (*240). He added, ‘The number of ideas of the saints shall increase to eternity.’ (*241)”
(*240): Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Perry Miller, vol. 13, The Miscellanies, ed. Thomas A. Schafer (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994), 483.
(*241): Ibid, 275; I’m indebted to Andrew McClellan for several citations from his seminary paper “Jonathan Edward’s View of Heaven,” August 15, 2003
…
Consider how exciting intellectual development will be. Father Boudreau wrote, ‘The life of Heaven is one of intellectual pleasure… There the intellect of man receives a supernatural light… It is purified, strengthened, enlarges, and enabled to see God as He is in His very essence. It is enabled to contemplate, face to face, Him who is the first essential Truth. It gazes undazzled upon the first infinite beauty, wisdom, and goodness, from whom flow all limited wisdom, beauty, and goodness found in creatures. Who can fathom the exquisite pleasures of the human intellect when it thus sees all truth as it is in itself!'” (*248)
(*248): – J. Boudreau, The Happiness of Heaven (Rockford, Ill: Tan Books, 1984), 107-8.
…”
WILL WE EXPERIENCE PROCESS?
“The first humans lived in process, as God ordained them to. Adam knew more a week after he was created than he did on his first day.
Nothing is wrong with process and the limitations it implies. Jesus ‘grew in wisdom and stature’. (Luke 2:52). Jesus ‘learned obedience’ (Hebrews 5:8). Growing and learning cannot be bad; the sinless Son of God experienced them. They are simply part of being human.
…”
SolI Deo Gloria!