The Myth Of Heaven Part 1 Series

Urban Legends, Tall Tales, Myths, Hoaxs,

Have you ever received these emails?

1)Email Beta Test - Microsoft will pay for every email you send.

2)Nigerian needs you to allow 30 million dollars to be put into your account from his father’s to be placed into your account from a confidential security company.

God / Bible Myths

1)Foot prints poem - I asked someone if they have ever read the Bible or knew of anything in the Bible. Oh Yeah, I remember that part when life is too difficult there is only one foot print in the sand - that God was carrying me.

2)Gate called Eye of the Needle

Mt 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

It has been taught that there was a gate in Jerusalem and for a camel to get through this gate - it has to unload its cargo and get down on it’s knees and squeeze its way through. That is what it is like for a rich man to get into heaven. MYTH - this is not true.

Like the Nigerian money scam, one of the worst myths portrayed to believers and nonbelievers alike is the Heaven Myth.

No not that there isn’t a heaven – it’s what we think it is like.

John Elderidge wrote in his book The Journey of Desire

“Nearly every Christian I have spoken with has some idea that eternity is an unending church service… He goes on to write – We have settled on an image of the never-ending sing-along in the sky, one great hymn after another, forever and ever, amen. And our hearts sink. Forever and ever? That’s it? That’s the good news? And then we sigh and feel guilty that we are not more spiritual. We lose heart, and we turn once more to the present to find what life we can."

Have you ever thought – man I hope Jesus doesn’t come back till after the honeymoon. I sure hope I can at least stay in this new house for 3 months and really enjoy it before He comes.

Like a pastor once shared with a fellow minister – Whenever I think about Heaven, it makes me depressed. I would rather just cease to exist when I die.

When asked why He said

I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp… it’s all so terribly boring. Heaven doesn’t sound much better than Hell. I would rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that.

Though you may be shocked to think a Bible-believing, seminary educated pastor could say such a thing – at least he is more honest than most. Many Christian share the same view of Heaven as he.

Medical Science has proven that the death rate among humans is 100%

1 John 3:2 (NIV)

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

When Heaven is your hope, when the myth is destroyed and you can’t wait to go there. You may see it like Charles Spurgeon as he was dying. To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes.

If you can’t say like Paul did in his book to the Philippians – My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better…

Otherwise we are like the

1n 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She had already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for 15 hours. When she begged to be take out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she was close and that she could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out. It wasn’t until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next days she said, “All I could see was the fog… I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”