Spousal Relationships in Heaven

Question: You (and Joe) make statemnets about us retaining our personalities and memories in Heaven. What about spousal relationships? I understand there is no pro-creation in Heaven, but what about the husband/wife marriage relationship, dependancy, friendship, etc?

My wife says that if we can't share a 'mansion right over the hilltop' can we at least get ones next door to each other...

Lee's Answer: Acts 3:21 says God is going to restore everything and Romans 8 talks about not just the "redemption of our bodies," but of creation as well.

It seems to me that the original intent that God had for man will also be restored. So we will go back to Eden in many ways which would include a restoration of the God-designed male and female relationship.

The Bible tells us that we will not "marry or be given in marriage" (Luke 20:36) in Heaven. I think it's interesting to point out that the Bible never tells us Adam and Eve were married. It appears that marriage came along later, after the fall as a means of protection from the evils and dangers of the post-Eden fallen world. The female needed to have some legal protection so that she would not be unfairly tossed out on the street without some responsibility from the man. Also, when it came to heirs, a man was commanded by God in the Old Law to impregnate his brother's wife if that man died before they had a child. So again, to protect her in terms of providing some "family" for her and to continue the Jewish linage for that man. It was marriage that placed that responsibility on the brother.

So marriage has had many purposes that would have been unnecessary in the perfect world of the garden of Eden.

In my opinion, because the Bible tells us God will be restoring, not deleting us, the male + female relationship of God's original intent will be brought back, redeemed and restored rather than being destroyed as some suggest. Clearly that relationship involved romance. To what extent I will leave to your own study and thought.

It appears, however, that the "new" humans will have a choice in Heaven on the New Earth in terms of whether or not they are romantically involved and with whom. After all, bets are off on the New Earth and in the Heavenly city. Some people will want to be romantic with the spouse they spent their first life with. Others might want to go their separate ways. The bottom line is that it was God's idea to create a romantic capabilities for humans. Heaven is a restoration of God's original intent (Acts 3:21, Romans 8) and, therefore, that capacity will be restored and perhaps even stronger than the present life.

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