We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Will people get married in heaven?

Question: I lead a Bible study group for teenagers. One recently asked a question: “Will there be marriage in Heaven? And if not, why? God created marriage when He created the perfect earth, so why won’t there also be marriage in the New Earth after the resurrection? Surely the New Earth will be a restored version of the old one – which had marriage!” I think they may be worried about living eternally without sex. How would you respond to this?

Answer: Jesus explicitly taught that there won’t be any marriage in heaven (Mt 22:30). Marriage and procreation seem to have been intended for this epoch only — a way of creating the beings who will populate and rule the eternal Kingdom. The original creation was “good” in that it was without evil, but it wasn’t yet perfect in the sense of complete, just like a child may be innocent, but this doesn’t make her an adult. For creation to attain the goal God has for it (which is centered on love), we have to go through a probationary epoch — which we are now part of. Part of this epoch includes marriage, sex and child rearing, but there apparently will be no further need of this in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But no one should worry that this will make heaven boring for lack of sex. Heaven will be so good sex will seem boring by comparison!

Category:
Tags: , ,
Topics:

Related Reading

What is your perspective on the classical view that God is above time?

In a major strand of hellenistic (Greek) philosophy, change was seen as being an imperfection. This idea was adopted by many early Church fathers and eventually became almost an assumed dogma of the Church. It was thus assumed that, since God is perfect, he must be above all change. Not only does his character and…

We Won’t Treat Your Questions This Way

Tags: ,

What is the significance of Jeremiah 38:17–18, 20–21, 23?

The Lord prophesies to Zedekiah, “If you will only surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon” the city and his family would be spared, but “if you do not surrender” the city and his family would be destroyed. He then reiterates, “But if you are determined not to surrender” even Zedekiah himself would…

Topics:

Why have you consistently stressed the need for the Western Church to learn from the African Church?

Question: I’ve heard you argue that the white Western church has a lot to learn theologically from African cultures. What is it specifically that you’re referring to? Response: I do strongly believe that the western church needs to humbly sit at the feet of our fellow Christians in Africa. My conviction is based on four…

Revelation 17:8 refers to people whose names haven’t been written in “the book of life from the creation of the world.” Doesn’t this conflict with open theism?

As in Revelation 13:8, the clause “from the foundation” (apo kataboleis) need not mean “from before the foundation” but simply “from the foundation” (= since the foundation). It’s not that names either were or were not written in the “book of life” before they were ever born. Rather, throughout history, in response to the choices…

Does the Bible teach total non-violence?

I wouldn’t say the whole Bible teaches non-violence, for you find Yahweh engaging in quite a bit of violence in the Old Testament. But I would say that the whole Bible clearly presents non-violence as God’s dream for humanity, and I would most certainly say this dream is realized in Jesus Christ and the Kingdom…