13. Recognition and Relationship in the Spirit World
That which makes the other world attractive to most of us is the thought that we shall again meet our loved ones there. As this hope is universal, it must have been implanted in the human breast by God. God would never have paid such a costly price as the "Life" of His Son for our redemption, if it did not carry with it our happiness in the "Spirit World," and our happiness would be incomplete without the recognition of our loved ones. If the inspired Psalmist could say of his son, "He shall not return to me, but I shall go to him," he must have said it because he knew that when he should go to him he would recognize him. What comfort could there have been in the words of Christ to the dying thief, when He said—"This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43), if there was to be no recognition of each other there. Why did Paul say that he had a desire to depart and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), if he were not sure he would know Him. If the disciples recognized Moses and Elijah on the "Mount of Transfiguration," surely they will recognize them in the world to come. In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, as we have seen, the Rich Man recognized both Abraham and Lazarus. If we have not seen our friends for years, and their personal appearance may have changed, we shall recognize them by their voice, as we so often do in this life.
Some object to the doctrine of the "Recognition of loved ones in Heaven" on the score, that if we fail to meet them, we shall be made unhappy by the fear that they are lost. But is that concern likely to be more real and intense there than here? Is it not a sad fact that the lost condition of our loved ones does not concern us much in this life; at least not enough to make us unhappy? While we may not forget them, and may miss them, we shall be reconciled to their absence, and cheerfully acquiesce in what we shall see to be their just punishment for refusing the way of Salvation.
As proof of this we have the statement in Luke 16:25, of Lazarus that he was "COMFORTED," that is, was not unhappy or unduly concerned about the affairs of this world, as was the "Rich Man" about his brothers. Luke 16:27-28. The "Rich Man's" concern about his brothers was not so much for their salvation, as the fear that they would come where he was and upbraid him for their eternal undoing.
Another objection to the "Recognition of our loved ones in Heaven" is the embarrassing position it may put those in who have been several times married. The Sadducees in Jesus' day did not believe in the Resurrection of the dead, and sought to ridicule the doctrine by asking Jesus whose wife a woman would be in the Resurrection who had had seven husbands in this life. Matt. 22:23-30. The embarrassment is based on the supposition that the woman and all of the seven men she married went to the same place in the other world. If, however, the woman went to one place and the men to the other, there would be no embarrassing situation Jesus in a single sentence swept away the objection of the Sadducees by saying—"In the Resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God." This statement is no proof for the sexlessness of the angels. It simply declares that the angels do not marry. And the reason is evident, for angels never die. Therefore there is no need for them to keep up their numbers by procreation. Now as those who have part in the First Resurrection "cannot die any more" (Luke 20:34-36), there will be no occasion for the continuance of the "Marriage Relation" in Heaven. While doubtless we shall know each other in the same relation we bore to each other in the "Earth Life," as husband and wife, father and mother, son and daughter, the carnal nature will be swallowed up in the
RECOGNITION AND RELATION
Spiritual and we will be bound together by love and friendship, for jealousy and ill-feeling cannot exist in the atmosphere of Heaven, which is pure LOVE.
If angels and evil spirits recognize each other in Heaven, as they do, then we when we become like angels should recognize each other also. The torment of the lost will be intensified by their recognition of the righteous in the other world. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall SEE Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." Luke 13:28. If our Heavenly Father's house is a HOME, then it will have all the features of a home, and they include the recognition of the members of the family. "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." 1 Cor. 13:12.
XIV
The Final State
The Scriptures speak of two places, "Heaven" and "Hell," where the "righteous" and "wicked" respectively are to spend eternity. The one demands the other. There can be no Heaven without its counterpart Hell. If there is no Hell there is no Heaven, for the same Book speaks of both.