WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE TO LEARN IN HEAVEN?

Could God impart knowledge so we immediately know things when we get to Heaven: Certainly. Adam and Eve didn't go to school. They were created, it appears, with an initial vocabulary. But Adam and Eve are the exceptions. Every other person has learned by experience and study, over time. And Adam and Eve were learners the rest of their lives. Nothing ever came automatically again.

When we enter Heaven, we'll presumably begin with the knowledge we had at the time of our death. God may enhance our knowledge and will correct countless wrong perceptions. I imagine he'll reveal many new things to us, then set us on a course of continual learning, paralleling Adam and Eve's. Once we're in resurrection bodies with resurrected brains, our capacity to learn may increase. Perhaps angel guardians or loved ones already in Heaven will be assigned to tutor and orient us.

We will also study. Martin Luther said, "If God had all the answers in his right hand, and the struggle to reach those answers in his left, I would choose God's left hand." Why? Because it's not only truth we want, it's also the pleasure of learning the truth. God reveals himself to us in the process of our learning, often in bite-sized chunks, fit for our finite minds. The great preacher Donald Gray Barnhouse once said that if he was told he had three years left on Earth, he would spend two years studying and one preaching. Expressing a similar desire, Billy Graham said that if he had his life to do over again, he would study more and preach less.

Will we study doctrine in Heaven? Doctrine is truth, which is an extension of God's nature, and therefore also cannot be exhausted. We will have eternity to explore it. Truth will be living and vital, never dry and dusty. We will dialogue about truth not to impress each other but to enrich each other and ourselves as we discover more and more about God.

To study creation is to study the Creator. Science should be worshipful discovery because the heavens and all creation declare God's glory. God reveals his character in flowers, waterfalls, animals, and planets. God's name is written large in nature, in his beauty organization, skill, precision, and attention to detail. He's the Master Artist.

On the New Earth everything will be a lens through which we see him. Biology, zoology, chemistry, astronomy, physics all will be the study of God.

Will we discover new ideas? I believe we will. Jesus, the God-man, was sometimes "astonished" at what he saw on this earth (Matthew 8:10). If there was ever a man incapable of surprise, wouldn't we have expected it to be the "one who came from heaven" John 3:13) But if Jesus could be astonished on this old Earth, surely we will often be astonished at what we see in God, people, and creation on the New Earth.

There's so much to discover in this universe, but we have so little time and opportunity to do it. The list of books I haven't read, music I've never heard, and places I haven't been is unending. There's much more to know. I look forward to discovering new things in Heaven forever. At the end of each day I'll have the same amount of time left as I did the day before. The things I didn t learn that day, the people I didn't see, the things I was unable to do—I can still learn, see, or do the next day. Places won't crumble, people won't die, and neither will I.

I heard someone say, "There won't be any teaching in Heaven. There won't be any need." But that assumes we will be omniscient and that we won't learn, which contradicts both Scripture and the way God made us. I've benefited greatly from the stimulation of college and seminary courses I've attended and taught. Discussions among thoughtful students and teachers can be exhilarating. I see God in the insights other people share with me.

Learning is exciting. Education on this fallen Earth may sometimes be bland and can even undermine truth, but in Heaven all education will be a platform to display God's fascinating truth, drawing us closer to him.

Consider how exciting intellectual development will be. Father Boudreau wrote, "The life of Heaven is one of intellectual pleasure.... There the intellect of man receives a supernatural light... It is purified, strengthened, enlarged, and enabled to see God as He is in His very essence. It is enabled to contemplate, face to face, Him who is the first essential Truth. It gazes undazzled upon the first infinite beauty, wisdom, and goodness, from whom flow all limited wisdom, beauty, and goodness found in creatures. Who can fathom the exquisite pleasures of the human intellect when it thus sees all truth as it is in itself!'"  If seeing truth "as it is in itself" is that exciting for those of us who've had some education here on Earth, imagine what it will be like for those who never had the benefits of literacy and education.

Think of what it will be like to discuss science with Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and Thomas Edison or to discuss mathematics with Pascal. Imagine long talks with Malcolm Muggeridge or Francis Schaeffer. Think of reading and discussing the writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, or Dorothy Sayers with the authors themselves. How would you like to talk about the power of fiction at a roundtable with John Milton, Daniel Defoe, Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Flannery O'Connor?

How about discussing God's attributes with Stephen Charnock, A. W. Pink, A. W. Tozer, and j. I. Packer? Or talking theology with Augustine, Jesus in to clear things up? Aquinas, Calvin, and Luther? Then, when differences arise, why not invite Imagine discussing the sermons of George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and Charles Spurgeon with the preachers themselves. Or sitting down to hear insights on family and prayer from Susanna Wesley. Or talking about faith with George Mueller or Bill Bright, then listening to their stories. You could cover the Civil War era with Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Or the history of missions with William Carey, Amy Carmichael, Lottie Moon, or Hudson and Maria Taylor. You could discuss ministry ideas with Brother Andrew, George Verwer, Luis Palau, Billy Graham, Joni Eareckson Tada, Chuck Colson, or Elisabeth Elliot.

We’ll contemplate God's person and works, talking long over dinner and tea, on walks and in living rooms, by rivers and fires. Intellectual curiosity isn't part of the Curse-it is God's blessing on his image-bearers. He made us with fertile, curious minds so that we might seek truth and find him, our greatest source of pleasure. In Heaven our intellectual curiosity will surely surface and be satisfied— only to surface and be satisfied again and again.

In 1546, Philip Melanchthon gave a memorial address about his departed friend Martin Luther. In it Melanchthon envisioned Luther in Heaven, felowshiping with predecessors in the faith: "We remember the great delight with which he recounted the course, the counsels, the perils and escapes of the prophets, and the learning with which he discoursed on all the ages of the Church, thereby showing that he was inflamed by no ordinary passion for these wonderful men. Now he embraces them and rejoices to hear them speak and to Speak to them in turn. Now they hail him gladly as a companion, and thank God with him for having gathered and preserved the Church. "

Source: Heaven, by Randy Alcorn