Hot topic! Sex in Heaven???
Neotherm, former Jesus Loves Fellowship poster and current repliant to Gavin Rumney's Ambassador Watch blog gave his 2 cents on his views on sex, love and the afterlife on JLF a couple years ago. A very hot and even an explosively argumentitive topic, especially for conservative evangelicals:
Our ultimate destiny is to become fully human and glorified as God intended. C.S. Lewis noted that we would retain our gender and that we would be able to use all of our human qualities in a much more effective and enlightened way. Whywould we gain so much experience and expertise in being male and female, only to have these fundamental properties go away? He stops short of speculating that there will be actual physical relations but speculated that there would be some relationship that would exceed what we know as humans.
Hank Hanegraaf in his outstanding book "Ressurection" say much the same thing. But once again does not suggest actual physical relations would take place.
The fact these men shy away from physical aspects, I believe is cultural rather than theological. If any theologian ever advocated the idea of actual physical relations, he would be ridden out of town on a rail, given the state of our cultural views on sex. In our fallen world, all kinds of weapons have been used in the war between men and women, including sex. So sex has become highly politicized and many take an unreasonable view towards it.
Personally, I do not see any reason why there would not be a physical dimension to a gender based spiritual relationship. God made us male and female for eternity and for some reason.
I don not believe as Christ stated, that there will be marriage or reproductuon in the New Heavens and New Earth. I have noted that it is popular for Christian writers to extend this proscription also to sexual relations. But Christ did not say that. He said precisely that people would not marry or be given in marriage. Sex has other aspects beyond simple reproduction.
Marriage among humans is an institution designed to accomodate and make possible reproduction and family life. In the New Heavens and New Earth, it is easy to see how marriage would fall into disuse. In this world marriage is a fallen institution like other institutions and in the next world it is uneeded.
It believe it is likely that sex will be glorified in the New Heavens and New Earth like all other human capabilities and qualities.
---Neo
...and to that I say Amen!!! It is time for the Christian Church of all quarters to grow up (and I know I have angered some because of what I said) but that is my story and I'm sticking to it!
---Felix Taylor,Jr.
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