Sharing a Beer in Heaven, Among Other Myths

"We need to look up, where he is undoubtedly perched on a crescent moon, and we need to smile."

This is a quote from Brooke Shields, delivering a eulogy for her late friend, Michael Jackson, at his service in L.A. yesterday. You can see her tearfully recite the above quote, and she does it with so much conviction that I am almost hurt for her loss...until I take a moment to digest those final words, scratch my head bemusedly, and cringe at the mental image of Jackson spending his eternal nights watching us all from the sky. This is, however, one of the countlessly liberal interpretations of heaven.

It is common for people of a particular crowd to, when lamenting the recent death of a friend, rejoice in the idea that one day, they will share a beer in heaven (or a vintage Merlot, for those of a different class). As funny as that may sound, doesn't it also sound to you, believers, like a gross perversion of God's promise, and when did heaven start allowing guests to write what they want on comment cards? We are living in a world so in love with pleasure that even heaven is romanticized and reduced to a first-class luxury resort in the sky.

At the beginning of the third chapter of Galatians, Paul says:

"O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?"

I'm not here to make any assumptions about Michael Jackson's eternal fate. What concerns me more than anything is the confusion about heaven that overshadows the truth. It seems in Hollywood, and everywhere else in the land of Pop-Psychologia, that life is for living up; eternity is for the dead. Just like the Galatians before us were bewitched by dangerous legalism, we are captivated by a scintillating world in which we naively assume our actions at night will never reflect upon our days. In a world without consequence, heaven, is effortlessly attained, and I can eat all the caramel apple swirl cheesecake I want and, for that matter, never toil over the risk of morbid obesity.

By assuming that heaven is the place for all who die, we must assume that Christ's death on Calvary was an inconsequential thing, for why would we need blessed assurance if assurance is guaranteed to anyone? As a believer, I know that anything that tries to dim the light of the Savior's sacrifice is of Satan, whether or not it is intentional. There is no shortcut and there is no bypass that will lead you to the throne of God.

The reality is this: heaven is reserved for followers, those who have been washed in the blood and born again. There is no easy button, because salvation is easy enough, yet not so simple that we can hell-raise all our years without repentance and then expect to don the white robes of eternity. This is not the Titanic: There are enough lifeboats for every passenger, but not every passenger will choose to board a lifeboat.