RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN based on Luke 16:19-31
By Glenn Pease
F. W. Borham tells the story of the English cricket player who lost his sight in his old age. This was a cause for great grief, because he could not watch his own boy play the game in which he excelled. His son became the crack bat on his school team, but the father got small satisfaction from it. One day he suddenly died. The following Saturday and important match was to be played, and the team took it for granted that their best bat would be absent. But to their surprise, he was not only there, he batted like never before. He played with magnificent judgment, and rattled up a fantastic score that lead his team to victory. When it was all over, they asked him what motivated him to play the game of his life. He explained by telling them, "This was the first game where my father could see me at bat." Here was a young man who took literally the picture presented to us in Heb. 12:1. It says there, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses as we run the race of life. Many Christians through the ages have believed that the dead in Christ go on observing those left behind. They know what is happening to us and have a greater understanding of the future than we do.
Some feel this is only wishful thinking and is really to good to be true. Others respond by saying, nothing is to good to be true where God is concerned, and they go on to answer all objections. One of the strongest objections is that if the dead in heaven know what happens on earth, then they cannot be very happy, for they would know of all the sin, war, and sorrow. They would be conscious of the failing even of their own loved ones. This sounds like a powerful argument against it, but John R. Rice, who has a strong conviction on the subject says, this argument proves nothing. Jesus Christ and God the Father know the reality of sin and evil completely, yet they are not unhappy, nor is heaven robbed of...