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NASB | 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory]. |
Subject: Actual bodies in heaven? |
Bible Note: One important thing that is often over-looked in discussions of this topic is this: God created us to be physical creatures! This was his plan all along. He already had, according to the Bible, spiritual creatures. But he created us to be physical manifestation of his glory, not in "heaven", but on earth. And I doubt that that plan has changed. Christians sometimes get caught up in a sort of gnostic belief system whereby they think that what God truly desires of humanity is that we shed our physicality and go off to float around Alpha Centauri as disembodied spirits. :) But this is not the overall thrust of the scriptures that reflect, not a discard of creation and human physicality, but the RESTORATION of creation and a glorified physicality. After all, if all God wants is for us to "fly away" to heaven, then resurrection is unnecessary. But according to Jesus and Paul, resurrection is part and parcel of what God wants to accomplish in humanity, part and parcel of a NEW creation. It is not JUST a new heaven, it is ALSO a new EARTH and, guess what, according to Jesus the meek will inherit it. It is important to note that in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, we don't see disembodied people floating off to heaven. What we see is resurrected people living on a new earth with, guess what, HEAVEN coming to earth! Good news indeed! |