The Garden of Eden was created to be perfect, but then sin entered the world. Will our sinful human nature follow us into heaven? Professor Mark Muska from the University of Northwestern speaks to the reality of our sinful nature on earth and the promises of complete transformation in heaven.
“The new heavens and new earth are described in the Bible in several places, but there’s a whole lot more of this left out than what is actually said. There’s absolutely no mention of any kind of sin or anything evil in the new heavens and new earth.”
He refers to Scripture to describe the perfect nature of the new heavens and new earth.
“In Revelation 21:4 John says, ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no longer any death, there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, the first things have passed away.’”
“That is just a spectacular thing to look forward to. But how is it possible then for any sin to take place or evil, if all the years and pain and everything have been permanently removed? Do we still have the freedom to worship God or are we now robots that must worship Him?”
“We have to come back to the fact that we are transformed into the likeness of Christ as we grow as Christians, and then finally when we are resurrected.”
Professor Muska reminds us that we not only will have new bodies as resurrected Christians, but our minds will be transformed as well. In the new heavens and new earth, our sinful nature will have already fallen away.
“This idea of sinning and doing something evil is going to be so foreign to us that we will see the foolishness of it and we’ve settled that with God; we are going to follow Him unreservedly.”
The same was not true for Adam and Eve while they were living on earth. They struggled with the same temptation and sinful human nature as we do today.
Ask the Professor: On the third Thursday of every month we invite Bible professors from the University of Northwestern into the studio and open the phone lines for your questions on the Bible, faith, and the church. Call in during the live show, or submit your questions via email on Connecting Faith’s show page.
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