By Bobby L. Graham
What does the Bible say about knowing each other in heaven?
This question is one that people interested in heaven have long discussed. I believe the Bible teaches personal recognition in heaven, based on some very convincing principles of divine truth. According to 1 John 3:2, we will be like the Lord, seeing Him even as He is. We shall know Him, and therefore, be knowable.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2, NASB).
Though incomplete in our knowledge of the afterlife (“it has not yet been revealed what we shall be”), John affirmed our confidence in being like the Lord when He is revealed at the resurrection of all and the return of Jesus. When the resurrection occurs, our bodies (whether dead or alive) will be changed (1 Cor. 15:50-54). It follows, therefore, that the same spiritual state will remain in the judgment and the heavenly state.
David’s statement concerning being with his son who had died: “But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (cf. 2 Sam. 12:23), also implies that personal recognition shall exist. This meaningful and confidence-instilling affirmation becomes meaningless without the understanding that we shall know each other in heaven.
The Lord’s description of the kingdom—both in its temporal phase and its heavenly phase—in Matthew 8:11ff, further implies personal recognition in heaven. That the eternal phase of the kingdom is here included can be easily seen by contrasting the state of the “sons of the kingdom” who are cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, which is a picture of the final punishment of the wicked (v. 12), with the blessedness enjoyed in the kingdom with saints like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were not part of the kingdom of Christ when they walked the earth. It is the extension of this enjoyment to the eternal kingdom, which is necessarily implied in this passage.
That individuals retain their identity and power to recognize others, as well as their consciousness and mental powers, is seen again in the rich man depicted by the Lord in Luke 16:24. He obviously recognized Abraham when he called him by name.
When Lazarus had died, his sister, Martha, expressed her hope of being with (i.e., seeing and knowing) him in the resurrection. Jesus told her that she could see Lazarus immediately, because He (Jesus) is the resurrection and the life (John 11:21ff). Herein lies the real and profound hope of knowing each other in the future world.
Likewise, Jesus’s teaching about the resurrection in Matthew 22:32 involves the survival of individual personality. Along with individual personality also comes personal identity and personal recognition. Long after their deaths, God continued to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not just of the beings who used to be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This provides a very strong basis for believing that we shall know each other in heaven.
The chief objection raised to what I have here taught is based on emotion, not on a discussion of the passages cited or the argumentation used. Some have objected: “If we reach heaven only to discover that our loved ones are not present, we could experience no happiness or joy, knowing that they are lost. Therefore, there must be no personal recognition in heaven.” Will such considerations mar the perfect happiness of the eternal city? I try hard to understand why eternal happiness depends on who is present or absent, but I do not comprehend it. We ought to recognize that we do not love those relatives any more than God does. Appreciating God’s eternal plan will help us be content in letting Him work out the details of that plan. It might also prove helpful to ask, “If there is no personal recognition in heaven and if no one will recognize anybody, how could we experience any joy or bliss in the presence of non-entities and non-personalities?” The thought of joy in our present state depends entirely on present experiences, as must its anticipation in the next world, if the assurances of the Bible are to be accepted. The truth is that we should not limit our concept of heavenly joy based on present experiences. After all, we still enjoy life even when we now know that loved ones are living their lives apart from God. Heaven is a place without sorrow or sighing. God will take care of this matter in heaven, when our joys shall exceed all that we have known (or anticipated) while still in this world (Rev. 21:4).
There is marvelous comfort in the assurance of the Scriptures along this line. Why do you think God gave us such assurance, if not to instill comfort for the soul? Even Paul’s statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 should comfort us. They necessarily incorporate the idea of personal recognition in (1) the reunion that is here affirmed, (2) the joy that will occur at such a time, and (3) the comfort that is made possible. Truly, let us both find comfort and lend comfort in these words.
