05/12/2022 – Chapter 30 – “Will We Eat and Drink on the New Earth?”
Whoa, I think this is my 4th or 5th post on Randy Alcorn’s book: “Heaven”. And that I would be posting on this topic is funny. I took a Rice test about 30 years ago that assessed what my best career choices, given my gifts and interests. I won’t tell you the top choices, but I will tell you of all the occupations listed, what was at the bottom: “Chef”. In other words, don’t ever consider this. My bride has said on more than once in our married life: “Some people live to eat, you eat to survive.” I can never answer the question: “What restaurant did y’all go to?”
So yes, as to subject, I am looking more two chapters hence: What will we know and learn in heaven? But this chapter illustrates Randy Alcorn’s extensive research, logic, and bringing the God’s Word into support for his premises and even presuppositions. So, without further adieu, I will give y’all verbatim segments to the chapter to whett your appetite, no pun intended. I pick it up midsteam on page 302:
“Strangely, however, many people also believe we won’t eat or drink in the eternal Heaven. They assume the biblical language about eating and drinking and banquets is figurative and that we will eat only ‘in a spiritual sense.’ But how does one eat in a spiritual sense? And why is there a need to look for a spiritual sense when resurrected people in actual bodies will live on a resurrected Earth? Once again Christoplatonism (Jimmy note – see appendix A) lurks behind this understanding.
The resurrected Jesus invited his disciples, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ He prepared them a meal and then ate bread and fish with them (John 21: 4-14 ). He proved that resurrection bodies are capable of eating food, real food. Christ could have abstained from eating. The fact that he didn’t is a powerful statement about the nature of his resurrection body, and by implication, ours, since Christ ‘will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body’ (Phillipians 3:21).
Other passages indicate that we’ll eat at feasts with Christ in an earthly kingdom. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘ I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes’ (Luke 22:18). On another occasion Jesus said, ‘Many will come from the east and from the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matthew 8:11). Where will the kingdom of God come? To Earth. Where will God’s Kingdom reach it’s ultimate and eternal state? On the New Earth.
An angel in Heaven said to John, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ (Revelation 19:9). What do people do at any supper –especially a wedding supper? Eat and drink, talk, tell stories, celebrate, laugh, and have desert. Wedding feasts in the Middle East often lasted a full week. When we attend the wedding supper of the Lamb, we won’t be guests — we’ll be the bride!
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Yet another biblical passage gives us insight about eating in Heaven. One day while eating in the home of a Pharisee, Jesus said to his host, ‘When you have a luncheon or dinner, … invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous’ (Luke 14: 12-14) . When Jesus made this reference to the resurrection of the dead, a man at the same dinner said to him, ‘Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the Kingdom of God’ (Luke 14:15). Since they were eating together at the time, the obviousmeaning of ‘eat’ and ‘feast’ is literal. If the man who said this was wrong to envision literal eating after the bodily resurrection, Jesus had every opportunity to correct him. But he didn’t. In fact, he built on the man’s words to tell a story about someone who prepared a banquet and invited many guests. (Luke 14; 16-24) Clearly both the man and Jesus were talking about eating at actual banquests, like the one they were at. One tranlation has the man at the dinner state, ‘What a privilege it would be to have a share in the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15, NLT) But the Greek word do not mean ‘have a share in’ the Kingdom,; they mean ‘eat’ in the Kingdom..
I don’t always take the Bible literally. Scripture contains many figures of speech. But it’s incorrect to assume that because some figures of speeh are used to describe Heaven, all that the Bible says about Heaven, therefore, is figurative. When we’re told we’ll have resurrection bodies like Christ’s and that he ate in hsi resurrection body, why should we assume he was speaking figuratively when refers to tables, banquets, and eating and drinking in His kingdom?”
(Jimmy insert: Counselor , you can rest your case…)
Now, I may not be a “foodie” but I do love that cup of coffee in the morning! So let’s look at :
Will We Drink Coffee in Heaven?
“I’ll address this question not simply for the benefit of coffee lover’s but because it’s a revealing test of whether we’re more influenced by biblical teaching or Christoplatonism. Someone may say, ‘I sure hope there’ll be coffee in heaven.’ But it’s a statement that few would attempt to defend biblically.
But consider the facts. God made coffee. Coffee grows on Earth, which God made for mankind, put under our management, and filled with resources for our use. When God evaluated his creation, he deemed coffee trees, along with all else, to be ‘very good.’ Many people throughout history have enjoyed coffee — even in a fallen world where neither coffee nor our taste buds are at their best.
God tells us that he ‘richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment’ (1 Timothy 6:17). Does ‘everything’ include coffee? Paul also says, ‘ For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer’ (1 Timothy 4: 4-5) Again, does ‘everything’ include coffee?
Given these biblical perspectives — and realizing that caffeine addiction or anything else that’s unhealthy simply won’t exist on the New Earth — can you think of any persuasive reason why coffee trees and coffee drinking wouldn’t be part of the resurrected Earth?”
Soli Deo Gloria!