On Heaven

Signs and images of heavenly glory:

1. Nature
2. Scripture
3. General providence
4. Special miracles
   

Human tasks in heaven:

1. Understanding our earthly life by "Godlight."
2. Sharing all other human lives.
3. Exploration into God.
   

Purgatory is...

1. Definitions:
1. ... part of Heaven, not a distinct, the place between Heaven and Hell-- thus the absolute antithesis between Heaven and Hell, and its infinite spiritual seriousness, is preserved.
2. ...joyful, not gloomy--thus not detracting from the joy and triumph of Christian death (in fact, one of the saints even says that the pains of Purgatory are incomparably more desirable than the most ecstatic pleasures on earth!)
3. ... a place of sanctification, not justification, where sin is not paid for but surgically removed.
4. ... a place of spiritual education rather than deeds; thus it is not a "second chance" to pay for sin or merit salvation but a full understanding of deeds already done during our first and only chance.
2. Psychology- to know and love ourselves.
3. Physics (bodies)- ethereal one.
4. History (kind of time)- kairos, lived time, or life-time, eternity. (Have an end).
5. Epistemology (light)- removes the reducing value of the body and its body.

The communion of saints:

1. Definition - getting to know people.
2. Psychology - to love and know others.
3. Physics- solid.
4. History- same as Purgatory.
5. Epistemology- removes the separation between individual egos, allowing us to get inside other lives.

The Beautific Vision:

1. Definition- contemplation of God. Dynamic, exploring.
2. Psychology- to love and know God.
3. Physics- glorified.
4. History- endless beginnings.
5. Epistemology- removes time itself.

Language- music.

Questions about Heaven:

1. Will we know everything in Heaven? No, because..
1. We will remain human in Heaven, therefore finite, therefore our knowledge will remain finite.
2. Knowing everything would be more like Hell than Heaven for us. We will be constantly learning in Heaven.
2. Will we all be equal in Heaven? No. Having no heroes, being unable to look up to anyone would be Hell, not Heaven. Flat, boring, repetitive sameness is simply not the structure of reality in a theistic universe, either on earth or in Heaven. Each of us will be or do something no one else will be or do as well. No one will be superfluous. Everybody has a part of the whole system and each part is important.
3. Do the blessed in Heaven see us now? Yes, the Bible says we are surrounded by "a great cloud of witnesses." The context is speaking of the dead.
4. Do ghosts come from Heaven? Scripture strictly forbids us to call them up as Saul called up the ghost of the prophet Samuel by means of the Witch of Endor's necromancy. Only the happy spirits of dead friends and family, especially spouses, who appear unbidden, at God's will, not ours, with messages of hope and love come from Heaven. The sad ones come back for their own sake. The malicious and deceptive spirits come from Hell. 
5. Will we have emotions in Heaven? Yes, but they won't be at the demand at the forces that presently condition us. 
6. Will we feel sorrow in Heaven for those in Hell? Sorrow from active feeling of caring. "How could you do this to yourself?" sorrow. 
7. Are we able to sin in Heaven? "Freedom to sin" is a self-contradictory concept. Sin is inauthenticity and freedom is authenticity; sin is our false self and freedom is our true self. Sin is part of Hell and freedom is part of Heaven. 
8. What will we possess in Heaven? Nothing and everything. Heaven is pure communism.
9. Will we wear clothes in Heaven? Yes, it is as if the clothes were part of the body, an organic growth. It reveals rather than conceals, and it is natural and necessary.
10. Are there animals in Heaven? Why not?
11. Is there music in Heaven?
1. The Bible says so. (Revelations 14:3)
2. Greater earthly music is particulary Heavenly, a sign or pointer beyond itself to Heaven.
3. It may well be in music that the world was created, and the music is the original language. Heaven is in music.
12. How big is Heaven? Big enough so that billions of races of billions of saved people are never crowded, yet small enough so that no one gets lonely. And we can travel anywhere in Heaven simply by will.
13. Is Heaven serious or funny? In Heaven, humor is seriousness. It is the inner secret of God and the blessed.
14. Why must we never have bodies in Heaven?
1. It is irrational to suppose we change our species. We are created to fill one of the possible levels of reality, one of the unique rungs on the cosmic ladder, between animals and angels.
2. For the fulfillment of our soul's primary need, the need for love, for I-Thou relationship, for meeting.
3. For freedom, for free expression.
4. It is fitting that just as bodily death was the effect of spiritual death at the Fall, so bodily immortality will be effect of spiritual immortality in the redeemed.
15. How will recognize each other in Heaven? By our mannerisms.
16. Will there be wounds in the resurrected body? The dead who appear to the living also sometimes manifest their marks of suffering. On the other hand, many of the resuscitatated patients Dr. Raymond Moody interviewed reported their wounds were healed and broken limbs mended. Many cosmetic features of the body that our imperfections when judged by human standards, especially the ones of Christ and the Christian, freely accepted and offer to God, are in fact badges of beauty.
17. What age will we be in Heaven? The heavenly age is no age and all ages.
18. Will we do magic and miracles in Heaven? Our heavely power over nature will be as great as our present power over our own bodies, because nature will then be our greatest body.
19. Will we have a oneness with nature in Heaven? We are separated from it and at the same time at one with it.
20. Why won't we be bored in Heaven? Because we are with God, and God is infinite. We never come to the end of exploring Him. Because we are with God, and God is love. 

Source: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven but Never Dreamed of Asking (2003) by Peter J. Kreeft.