Lovers of Self – Part 2

Posted on August 26, 2026 by Stephen Nielsen

From 2 Timothy 3:2 “…For men will be lovers of self.”

Is A Love of Self Ever Good? The answer to that question is yes. If our love for self is not a selfish kind of love, and if we use it to help us love others, then it is good. Here are eight scriptures that indicate that in some cases it is good.

Philippians 2:4. Paul teaches here, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” This verse definitely indicates that we naturally care for ourselves. But the teaching here, with verse three, is that we must also, at the same time, care for others. In fact, we must regard others as more important than ourselves. I think Paul is saying to the Philippians, love of self will always be there, but we must push it down so that we have room to love and

care for others. We must not let our self-love be selfish or to end there. We must move on with our love to include others.

Leviticus 19:18, 34. These are the very first verses in the bible that directly tell us that we ought to love others as ourselves. And the following six scriptures that we will look at say the same thing—that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves—assuming that we do naturally (in a good way) love ourselves. Verse 34 includes the teaching that they were to see and treat other strangers among them just as they wished to be treated when they were strangers in Egypt; hence, they were to love all people just as they love themselves.

Matthew 22:39. Here is what we may call the second to the greatest commandment. Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, and He said,

” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’

The thought that comes to my mind here is that these are commands from God. We are commanded to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and then also to love our neighbor. But how? Well, if God commands us to do it, I would think He would show us how, and give us the ability to do it. And really, I don’t think one is any harder than the other. He will give us the ability to love. And the love for our neighbor will come when we love ourselves.

Mark 12:31. This verse is of the same teaching as Matthew 22:39. Mark says nothing different. I will, however, add something more here. The reason why Jesus gave the scribe more than he asked for—that is, more than what the greatest commandment was—was because the second greatest commandment is tied to the first one. We can’t genuinely

love God without loving people. If we don’t love our neighbor, we won’t be loving God, because to love Him requires that we love our neighbor.

Luke 10:27-37. Here Jesus gives us the same two commandments, but with a teaching to a lawyer. The lawyer asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life. When they agreed that he should follow the two greatest commandments, Jesus next asked him who his neighbor was. If he was to love his neighbor as himself, he needed to know who he was.

Well, I think you know the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the story, which of the three men proved to be a neighbor to the man who was robbed and left for dead? It was the Samaritan who showed the man mercy. Here it is interesting that Jesus reversed the lawyer’s original question of “who is my neighbor,” to bring the idea that we are all neighbors to each other. We all have a responsibility to be a good neighbor—to care for others as we would want to be cared for, or as we would care for ourselves. And here also, we can see the idea of regarding everyone the same, with equal values, and treating everyone the same.

Romans 13:8-10. Here Paul explains that love to our neighbor (to anyone) is a fulfillment of the law. In other words, if we love others, we are fulfilling the law—we will not commit adultery with them, we will not murder them, we will not steal from them, and we will not covet anything that they have. Hence, love does no wrong to a neighbor. And the way we love them (treat them) is to think how we would want to be treated, and then we would love them just as we love ourselves.

Galatians 5:14. Here the idea is to show our love for others by showing them Chrisitan freedom in Christ; that is, we should not only love them if they keep our rules (read chapter 5); we should love them just as we love ourselves.

James 2:8. Here, much like the previous verse, we must love others without showing partiality. We are to love and care for others just as we do for ourselves.

Okay, we have pretty much outlined from scripture that we naturally do love and care for ourselves. The next thing we need to do is to discuss how we do that. Where does this good self-love come from?

We know, or we should know that all of us were born sinners. However, despite our sin nature, we all were created in God’s image. And since God always loves Himself, we discover that we do too. It is a natural God-quality that we have.

Now since God is perfect, with no flaws, His love is vastly different. In 1 John 4:8 it says that “God is love.” Love is central to His character. We could never have this kind of love, but we do have several qualities of love. For instance, we care for ourselves. We find that we are always watching out for our own danger. We instinctively want to be healthy, so we try to eat healthy foods (but we often fail in this). We set for ourselves firm boundaries when we discover things or people that are bad for us.

After we are saved, when we are made “a new creature,” (2 Cor. 5:17), our self-love will be better; that is, since we are in Christ (living for Him) we will care more for ourselves. But since we still sin, we often let ourselves go.

My next post will be on when our love of self becomes evil—or selfish.

Lovers of Self – 2 Timothy 3:2

Posted on August 24, 2026 by Stephen Nielsen

Well, I think it is about time for me to start blogging again. I have taken a little break. Normally I like to blog on what I am writing about in a self-published book. For the last couple months, I have been writing a book which I will entitle, Difficult Times in these Last Days: 19 Attributes that Depict these Days. It is taken from 2 Timothy 3:1-5. I have written about 50 pages in the book so far, and so I will try to keep ahead.No problem, since I will only blog once or twice a week and no more than about 600 words. I will also include an unrelated photo—just something nice to look at. So here it is. The first chapter is on “lovers of self,” and you will probably get about five posts on that topic.

Lovers of Self – 2 Timothy 3:2

The Apostle Paul writes to his good friend Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 saying,

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

Generally speaking, the last days is that period from the first coming of Christ until His return—in which it reaches a climax shortly before He comes.[1] Hence there is no doubt that we are in the last days; and so, the list of nineteen evil attributes in this text are before us now in this present time; and they will get worse before the very end. In Paul’s day, he was looking at these evils as being in the future; but I think, for the most part, we may see them as being now correct to the text in intensity and maybe getting a little worse before He comes. Things were very different a thousand years ago, and a hundred years ago, and in some cases, even twenty years ago. I mean, the same evils were there many years ago, but not as bad as they are now. In these next upcoming blogs, I will attempt to show how they have gotten progressively worse. As Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse.” My purpose in these blogs (this book) is not only to show how evil these days are, but more importantly, to indicate by the progression of evil, how close Jesus’ coming is.

In these blogs, we will go through each point of evil and devote three or four blog posts to each one. I think this first point, that men (people) will be lovers of self, is particularly important as it sets a negative tone for all of them. As Matthew Henry states in his commentary, “Self-love brings in a long train of sins and mischiefs. When men are lovers of themselves, no good can be expected from them…”2 Therefore, in this first point on self-love, eighteen more evils will follow after it.

Stay tuned to more verses in the next blog post.

[1] John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible: (Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006), John MacArthur’s notes on 1 Timothy 4:1.

Our Worship in Heaven

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

In Revelation 7 (from the sixth seal judgment) John, in his vision, saw a great multitude of people praising God.

Revelation 7:9-12

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying,

“Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying,

“Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

This great multitude we know are the resurrected martyrs of the fifth seal (v. 14); and they are worshipping God around His throne with the angels, and also with the elders—who are actually the resurrected church (that will be us!). What a glorious group!

John tells us that this great multitude had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (v. 14); for this reason, they are before the throne of God (v. 15). Hence, they worship Him because they are so grateful to God and the Lamb for their salvation which He purchased for them with His own blood.

And in their worship, they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He spreads His tabernacle over them—which means that He covers them with His presence. And they will no longer hunger or thirst or suffer from the heat of the sun; for He, their Shepherd will guide them to the springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes (vv. 15-17).

This particular scene is during the Tribulation period in heaven. Of course, after the Tribulation and during the Millennial Kingdom and for all eternity we will still be worshipping Him, and for the same reasons—because He has saved us and is with us, and because He loves us and cares for us.

We will never stop serving Him or worshipping Him. In fact, our service (which includes our reigning) and our worship in some respects are the same. Our service is how we worship Him. And all that we will do in heaven forever will be for the glory of God and to bring Him worship. And that will also bring us pleasure.

None of our earthly pleasures can compare with the delight we will get in serving and worshipping Him. The Psalmist wrote, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Ps. 73:25).

Reigning with Christ

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Our reigning with God and with the Lord Jesus will be in heaven during the Tribulation, then during the Millennial Kingdom, and then on and on for eternity. There are four Scriptures that we will highlight.

From our first passage in Matthew 19:27-28, it happened that Jesus was traveling with His disciples to Jerusalem. And after Jesus had confronted a young man, telling him that he must sell his possessions and give that money to the poor in order to obtain eternal life, he went away grieving; for he was a rich man. Peter then came to Jesus and said to Him,

“Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” 28 And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Here in verse 28, the words “in the regeneration” refer to the regeneration of the earth in the Millennial Kingdom. Clearly, he was saying to Peter and all the disciples that they would sit next to Jesus, each on his own throne, reigning with Him. And their reigning seems to be specifically toward governing the twelve tribes of Israel. Hence, we have to conclude by this that the Jews will be the primary group of people during the Millennial Kingdom.

Luke 22:29-30

And just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you 30 that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

In this setting, the disciples were partaking of the Lord’s Supper (the last one); and they began arguing among themselves as to which one of them would be the greatest in the coming kingdom. And it was during this clash that Jesus granted them to eat with Him in His kingdom, and also to rule with Him. How gracious Jesus was to forgive them of their selfishness and to speak to them of how they would reign with Him. Jesus must have thought it was pretty important to tell them what they would do. I think He was excited about it, and He wanted them to be excited and ready for it—instead of arguing among themselves.

Revelation 3:21

He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

This is the third time Jesus brought up the subject of reigning. But here it is not just His twelve disciple who will reign. It is he who overcomes,” which refers to all true believers. And it seems clear that at any time we are in heaven we will sit down with Him on His throne to reign. What a privilege that will be.

In the first two passages Jesus was addressing only His disciples which would rules over the twelve tribes of Israel during the Millennial Kingdom. But in this passage (Rev. 3:21) Jesus is addressing all resurrected believers—you and me. Hence, the disciples will have a special mission to rule over all Israel. But all others (who are resurrected believers) will have other duties. We don’t know what they will be; whatever Jesus assigns to us to do we will gladly do it. In general terms (as Revelation 3:21 indicates), we will reign from His throne—with Him. But more specifically, I think we will probably be assigned some region to rule over, or to do something else.

Revelation 22:5

And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

This passage (vv. 1-5) is clearly describing the eternal state of every believer. We are His bond-servants (v 4); there will no longer be any night, because the Lord God will illumine us; and we will reign forever and ever [with Christ]. So, we are more than servants, we are rulers over the earth and the universe. We are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Now before we leave this topic, I want to include a few other verses. This subject is too important to leave anything out.

Genesis 1:26-28

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Just before God created man, He commissioned him to rule over all the earth.” At this point man’s rule did not include other people, but in the end—in heaven—it would, as we will see. But clearly, from the beginning, God made us with the capacity, and a purpose to rule.

Matthew 5:5

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

The gentle can also be translated as humble or meek. They are true believers, followers of God. And I would say that the closer a person is to God, the more he will inherit from God.

Matthew 25:22-23

“Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ 23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

These verses are from Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30). We must be careful not to read too much into this teaching; but here we may definitely see that our faithfulness now will determine how much God will entrust us with regarding our leadership in heaven.

Luke 19:17

“And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’

This is a similar parable as Matthew 25, but it is a little different. In Matthew 25 the faithful servant was put in charge of “many things.” Here the faithful one is given authority over cities. Hence, we don’t really know what we will be given to do. But I’m sure we will be glad to do it.

Roman 8:16-17

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

I love these verses. We suffer now on this earth as He did. But soon we will be glorified with Him. And we will share all things with Him as fellow heirs with Christ. I like what Randy Alcorn said. “Ruling the universe is a family business.”5 Indeed, we are part of His family and we share all things with Him.

1 Corinthians 6:2-3

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?

Here the application is to not sue our brethren, but rather to seek the Lord for wisdom in resolving a case ourselves—since we someday will be judges over many and even over the angels.

2 Timothy 2:12

If we endure, we will also reign with Him;

If we deny Him, He also will deny us;

“If we endure” means that we prove that we are true Christians by our life. Then we will also reign with Him. But if we deny Him in this life, He will deny us when we see Him; and we will miss out on the great opportunity to reign with Him.

5 Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: Wheaton, Illinois, 2004). p. 211.

Heaven Will Be A Life Of Service

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Our service to God in heaven will be in three different time periods: during the Tribulation, during the Millennial Kingdom, and after the Millennial Kingdom in the New Jerusalem for eternity.We will start our conversation from Revelation 7, which is during the Tribulation period.

Revelation 7:13-17

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. 16 “They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” (bold for emphasis)

This passage (beginning at v. 9) provides us with a glimpse into heaven in which John saw a great multitude in white robes standing around the throne of God and before the Lamb (Christ), worshipping God with all the angels and the elders (the resurrected church). They are the resurrected believers of the Tribulation who were martyred for their faith.

Verse fifteen tells us that they serve Him day and night in His Temple. We don’t know much about this heavenly temple, but we know that it is where the throne of God is and where His presence is. And we can only wonder what they (and we) will do to serve Him day and night. But in their service they will be well cared for. They will not hunger or thirst. They will be out of the heat of the sun. The Lamb will be their shepherd and will guide them, and He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Our service during the millennial kingdom will also be quite a mystery in that we don’t know many details of it. But we do know that we will always be with God and with Christ. And our home will be in the New Jerusalem, which will probably, at that time, be somewhere hovering over the earth. I am also inclined to believe that while we are serving on the earth we will be invisible (most of the time), as are the angels.

As I have outlined in my book, The Coming Millennial Kingdom, there will be at least five great purposes of the Millennial Kingdom: 1) to restore harmony to His creation, 2) to demonstrate God’s perfect government on the earth, 3) to fulfill God’s eternal covenants with Israel, 4) to display the character and glory of Christ, and 5) to provide a final test for man.4 I’m sure that in some way and form we, with the angels, and also with all the believing mortal leaders, will be serving Christ to fulfill these purposes. It will be an exciting time.

Our service after the Millennial Kingdom will be equally, if not more exciting. Revelation 22:1-4 gives us the setting.

Revelation 22:1-4

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

Here John sees a crystal-clear river flowing from the throne of God. And it flows out into the golden streets of the heavenly city into every neighborhood, where on either side of the river will be the tree of life bearing fruit; and even the leaves of the trees will bring healing (or nourishment). And in this place (heaven) there will no longer be any curse. And the throne of God will be in it. I take this to mean that God will be everywhere showing us His presence.

This next part has to do with our service. It says that we are His bond-servants, that we will see His face, and that His name will be on our foreheads. In some respects, this sounds restrictive. A bond-servant is like a slave; and to have His name on our forehead means that He owns us and He is our master. Yet in other ways, this sounds very comforting and securing. Because we know that He loves us and cares for us, and He will never leave us. And we will never want to leave Him. Being very near Him and looking at His face is what we always desire. And to serve Him night and day will be our greatest joy.

And you think that is great, look at what Luke 12:37 tells us. In this parable Jesus tells us that “he will gird himself to serve, and have them [his slaves] recline at the table, and will come and wait on them.” Here Jesus is telling us that in heaven He will also serve us and wait on us. In so doing, He will demonstrate to us that He too will enjoy serving us. Yes, serving each other will be one of the great joys we will share together.

4 Stephen Nielsen, The Coming Millennial Kingdom (published by Stephen Nielsen, 2017), p.49.

Heaven Will Be A Life Of Glory And Honor

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Life in heaven will be glorious, that is, full of beauty, splendor, and magnificence. But that is just the outward sight of our heavenly home. We will at all times also feel incredibly happy, joyful, and full of love for God and all our friends. And we will no longer experience sickness, pain, sorrow, or anything negative; for we will be perfectly healthy and satisfied—with all our needs fulfilled. Indeed, we will have everything we ever needed or wanted. To put it in biblical terms, we will be joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). That means, everything that Christ receives from His Father by His divine right, we will receive as well, do to our adoption into the family of God. Romans 8:16-17 tells us,

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Our glorification it seems will be the final proof (or the indication) of our Christlikeness and of being joint-heirs with Him. For just as He is glorified, we also will be glorified—that is, having a new body of glory. And it will happen at the rapture when our dead body is resurrected (or when we are raptured alive) and when we see Him as He is (1 Jn. 3:2).

Our new body (our glorified body) will actually be our same earthly body glorified. But they will be a little different. We won’t have any wrinkles, or skin imperfections, or receding hairlines. We won’t have any health problems, or personality disorders, or depression, or bad attitudes, etc. And for that reason, a mortal person may not recognize us. (and that may be the case during the millennial kingdom). Oh yes, we will have supernatural abilities too—more than I can imagine.

These things (above) are the glory side of our heavenly life. But there will also be an honor side. Let me explain. All believers will be glorified and be joint-heirs with Christ. We will be perfectly satisfied and content and happy. And we will at all times drink of the water of life and eat of the tree of life freely. But there will also be honors given out according to each man’s earthly works—some more than others (read 1 Cor. 3:10-15). Daniel 12:3 says it well.

“Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

It seems from this text that those who are most rewarded (or honored) will be those who have a holy influence on others and those who “lead many to righteousness.” And it seems that their reward will be a greater capacity to reflect God’s glory. They will shine brighter as some stars shine and sparkle brighter than others.

I do think that this is true even now on earth. Those who have brought many to Christ and to the truth of the word do in fact shine brighter, at least in the eyes to true believers. However, God sees all; and even those who don’t have a large public ministry (they may have a ministry that is more concealed), God sees how they too have reached others. Hence, in the end, at the Bema seat, it will all come out; and all those who are worthy will be honored and will shine as the stars forever.

Yet we must not think that the honoring of some and the dishonoring of others will cause pride or bitterness. This will never happen. We will all be glad for each other and give glory to God for whatever happens. I see this illustrated well at the end of football games when certain deserving players receive a football to honor them for playing well at their position. I have never seen a player that didn’t get a football complain. Everyone is happy for all those who were honored.

Heaven Will Be A Life Of Endless Abundance

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

There is no doubt that the bible is full of Scripture that illustrates this point: that heaven will be a life of abundance. We will start with Ephesians 2:7, where Paul declares “that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

This grace is illustrated for us in Revelation 22:1-2, as the writer (John) speaks of a river of life flowing from the throne of God in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). But this grace of God is not just a symbolic illustration of His grace and kindness to us in the future. It is a vision as best John can describe of what he actually sees. We will start with verse one and the first part of verse two.

Revelation 22:1-2a

Then he [an angel] showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street.

So, John sees in his vision (as an angel points out to him) a river flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, “in the middle of its street.”First of all, I take this to mean that this river—the river of the water of life—will be flowing from the throne of God and winding around in the middle of all the streets of the heavenly city, New Jerusalem.

As for the streets of the city, they will not be like anything we know in our time. Our streets are mainly for transportation with gas-powered automobiles. But no such thing will be needed in heaven. We will be able to fly or go from place to place with just a thought. So, the mention here of “streets” is probably more like the public square—the place where neighbors will go to hang out, a place to fellowship. Oh, it will be a beautiful area where the streets are of pure gold (Rev. 21:21). These beautiful golden streets will be everywhere, in every neighborhood of the city. And in the middle of these places will be the flowing clear river of life with fruit trees all along its banks (v. 2). But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First, I want to talk more about the river.

Our text tells us that it is “a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God.” Hence, it is not like our H2O. It is of a divine substance and without any impurities; for its source is from God. It is no doubt the same water that Jesus spoke of to a woman from Samaria (in John 4:7-14). In this interaction Jesus asked her for a drink of water from a nearby well called Jacob’s well. And when she was surprised that He would ask her for water (since Jews had no dealings with Samaritans), Jesus boldly said to her,

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

So here, Jesus speaks of living water, and if we (or anyone) drink of it we will never thirst again. In fact, this water will become in us a well of water springing up to eternal life. Hence, I think we can say that when we were first saved we did in fact take and drink of this living water; and it has been our source of eternal life ever since. Yes, I am saying that every believer has this living water flowing in him; it is what makes him a Christian—one that walks by the Spirit of God.

In verse two John writes,

On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

I picture here beautiful gardens all throughout the New Jerusalem, where there will always be a sparkling, clear river nearby, and fruit trees on either side of the river, and golden streets to walk upon and pick the fruit. And though there is no mention of it, I think there will be beautiful flowers everywhere, and also vegetables of every kind to eat. And though we will have no needs of sustenance, everything in the garden and of the trees will have a beneficial effect on us when we eat of it—not for our health but for our pleasure and for the satisfaction in knowing that God continues to love us.

And for our variety we are told that each month for twelve months there will be a new crop of fruit. Thus, it seems that God is expecting us to eat all the fruit of the trees bare in one month. And then each month a new crop of fruit will appear. And I imagine that there will be many kinds of fruit: apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and many more.

And a side note of importance. I do undoubtedly believe that the river and the fruit trees are literal. But there is a deeper meaning here. The flowing of the river may represent the moving of God’s Spirit in me, continually living in me and empowering me. And the fruit on the trees no doubt represents the fruit of God’s Spirit always flowing in me. Hence, each time we see and hear the river and taste of the fruit, we will be reminded of what God is to us and is doing in us.

And now, what of the vegetables? Do we eat them raw or cook them? I don’t know. But we are told that the leaves of the fruit tree (or trees) will be for our healing. What does that imply? John MacArthur writes that since the Greek word for healing is translated therapia from which we get our English word therapeutic that the leaves “somehow enrich the heavenly life—if only through the pure joy of eating.”3

Yes, there is much to look forward to—endless pleasure and abundance. It is definitely true that we will enjoy Him forever.

3 John MacArthur, The Glory of Heaven (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1996), p. 115.

In Heaven We Will Have Perfect Glorified Bodies – Part 2

Posted on December 26, 2024 by Stephen Nielsen

Here are three things, in regard to our new bodies, that will be different in heaven.

There will be no marriage. There is only one Scripture passage that addresses marriage in heaven; it is in Matthew 22:30. There Jesus addresses the Sadducees, telling them that in the resurrection we will not marry, because we will be like the angels. Angels, as we know, do not die and do not propagate. Therefore, they have no need for marriage. This then will also be true of us. And if you are thinking that there are other reasons for marriage; yes, that is true. But in heaven we will all have perfect relationships, even better than our marriage relationship now. We will all love and encourage each other with a perfect fellowship. I guess we will just have to trust God on that.

As for our gender, the gender we have now is part of who we are—it is in our DNA, and so it will be transferred into our new body. We will remain that way. Also, if you remember all the occurrences of Jesus after His resurrection, we know that He remained as a male. When Mary saw Him shortly after He arose and supposed that He was the gardener—a man’s occupation—she spoke to Him as “Sir” (Jn. 2 0:15). Also, the two men who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus did not see Him as not being male (Lu. 24:13-27), nor did Peter see Him any differently (Jn. 21:15-23).

We will have perfect knowledge. In 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

The Greek word here for knowledge, epiginosko, is used several times in the New Testament; but I think here in 1Corinthians 13:12, we really get the feel of what this full knowledge in heaven will be like. It will be perfect, or full. There will be no more confusion or ignorance about our understanding of things. When God speaks to us about something, we will understand Him. In fact, I will hear and understand Him (what He says to me) just as He understands me.

And I think we will also have this kind of knowledge/communication with angels. What great conversations we will have together. I have always been a slow reader. How great it will be to not only speed read with comprehension, but to very quickly hear and understand everything.

But we will never have absolute knowledge (omniscience) as God has. Yet it will be as complete as we need it to be or ever desire it to be for eternity.

We will have supernatural powers. I think the best way to look at this is to look at what Jesus did after His resurrection, because we will have the same kind of body and the same supernatural powers. So, I looked at three of the gospels, Mark, Luke, and John for this information. In Mark 16:12 it is recorded that “He appeared in a different form to two men walking.” I take it that they were going to a village named Emmaus, as Like 24:13 records. I also noticed that in Luke’s gospel it says that “their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” So, we have a bit of a difference in the way Mark and Luke heard of the occurrence. Either way, they were prevented from seeing who He was.

I’m not sure that we would have any occasion to have this kind of power in heaven, but maybe we will during the Millennial kingdom—if we didn’t want a mortal person to know who we were. This particular power may suggest that we will be much like the angels; for we know that they occasionally have appeared in a different form as mere men (Heb. 13:2). We will see.

In Luke’s gospel (Lu. 24:31), after the two men invited Jesus to their home, as they were about to eat, and after Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and passed it to them, they suddenly recognized Him and He vanished right before their eyes. So, this was the second power we see.

The third power is in John 20:19 and 26. On two different occasions, the disciples were in a room together with the door having been shut, and Jesus appeared to them and stood in their midst. Apparently, locked doors could not keep Him out. He simply walked right through the walls, or He just appeared! Hence, like Jesus we will be able to move through solid matter as if we were just a spirit—yet with a visible and supernatural body. And like in the earlier story, we will be able to also disappear at will.

In John MacArthur’s book, The Glory of Heaven, he brings up the fact that our home in the heavenly city will be 1500 miles cubed and we won’t be using an elevator to get to our residence—if it happens to be on the top floor. He said that we will either have the ability to fly or to simply be transported in an instant at will.2

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to explore the heavens. I wonder if it will be anything like our solar system today. I just wonder if we will actually be able to travel through the heavens by the speed of thought, millions of miles in a second. And what will we see?

2 John MacArthur, The Glory of Heaven (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1996), pp. 133-134.

Heaven Will Be A Life of Rest

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Stephen Nielsen

Our rest is written about in Revelation 14:13, where John says,

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

From this verse we may affirm that the souls of all those who die in the Lord (and also, all those who are raptured) will be at rest from all labor and strife of being in an ungodly world and of the sins of the world. But, in contrast (from verse 11), all those who are not believers will have no rest day and night for eternity. Here, in the context, it speaks of those unbelievers during the Tribulation who receive the mark of the beast; but it will be the same for all unbelievers—they all will have no rest, only torment and strife. Therefore, this rest we speak of here (in verse 13) is a serenity of the soul, a peacefulness of a life made perfect in holiness by the blood of our Savior. And it is even that way now when we confess our sins and resolve to obey Him. He lets us rest in Him and we are at peace; thus, for all of eternity in heaven we will have that same rest—and an even greater rest.

In Heaven Everything will Be New and Different

Posted on December 11, 2024 by Stephen Nielsen

I suppose, when we arrive in heaven in our new bodies, the first thing we will notice with great joy and thankfulness is that everything is new and different. All the old things of the flesh and of the old world will be gone—or will we even give it a thought? There will be no more sadness, only joy. There will be no more death, only life. There will be no more mourning, only joy and rejoicing. There will be no more crying, only laughing and praising God. There will be no more pain, only peace and pleasure.

I think it will be worthwhile to go through all of these five points (from Revelation 21:4) and try to get a better grasp of the changes.

No more sadness. All through one’s life there is always some degree of sadness. Some people seem to be sad all the time for one thing or another. Others appear to be happy most of the time; but perhaps they have found ways to hide their deep-down sadness. Nonetheless, when we see Jesus and we are instantly made like Him, all our tears will disappear. He will wipe them all away. And then we will say with Paul, “He has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). And we will know that He has accomplished it by His own suffering and death on the cross. As the prophet Isaiah has written, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore. And our sorrows He carried…and by His scourging we are healed” (Isa. 53:4-5).

No more death. The impending death of a loved one and news of our own death is always grievous. We can do nothing about it. We may delay it for a while, but soon it will come. But Christ has abolished that enemy forever. By His death and resurrection, He has established victory over death—for Himself and for all who believe in Him. Now we may say with Paul, “Death is swallowed up in victory. “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YUR STING” (1 Cor. 15:54-55)?

This victory will be absolutely confirmed for us in heaven. We will forever not feel the doom or the pain of it. It is no more.

No more mourning. Mourning is a deep-down brokenness over our own sin and failure. Because we are all sinners, we all go through mourning. But mourning is particularly prevalent with those that want to be closer to God, with those who regularly humble themselves when

they feel pride creeping up in themselves. Hence, in their obedient humility they will be miserable and mourn over their sin (Ja. 4:8-9).

Though mourning is something we ought to do now because of our condition, in heaven we won’t have to mourn since we will have no sin. In fact, the absence of mourning will be a constant reminder that God has removed our sins from us, having forever cleansed us of all sin and put us on the wonderful path of light and joy forever.

No more crying. Crying is not necessarily bad for us. It is a very natural way a baby expresses his or her needs when feeling hungry, tired or feeling discomfort—since they can’t communicate any other way. For an adult, it isn’t a matter of communication, but more of an outlet of strong emotions in times of sadness or feelings of rejection or pain—but sometimes even of happiness.

I don’t know if there will be absolutely no crying in heaven. We may cry out of extreme happiness or thankfulness to God. But never out of sadness or pain or discomfort. All that will be gone. Christ will have taken care of that on the cross. It will have all been paid for. We will be free from it all. All our emotions then will be only of joy, and laughter, etc.

No more pain. Certainly, Christ bore much pain on the cross for us. He bore all the pain in payment for our sins. We still have pain now since we still sin. But when we see Jesus and He turns our body into glory, our pain will vanish. Where sin is present there is pain. But when sin goes away, so does pain. It will be forever gone.

These are the five things that are listed in Revelation 21:4 as being “no longer.” But I wonder if maybe there are other things that would be included. Yes, I’m sure that in addition to these five things that are at the top of the list, there are many things that are from the flesh, from sin, and from the devil that will be no more. And we won’t ever have to worry about them popping up into our minds ever again; for as the prophet Isaiah has written (in Isaiah 65:17), “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.”

Stephen Nielsen

My life story, my work, my views, my interests, my writing, my struggles.

Category Archives: Bible prophecy