MY DOCTOR SAYS WE'LL HAVE BLADDERS IN HEAVEN

My physician here in Denton, an able osteopathic surgeon, has borne with my ailing bladder for more than a decade now. And he's done something that I am not likely to do: He's seen inside of it several times. I don't think he likes what he sees. And I don't like it without having seen! Since it is trabeculated, it is given to occasional infections; but the doctor thinks I am doing very well indeed. But the infections, when they do come, really drive me up the wall, and sometimes I despair of life itself. It is a very troublesome malady.

 I had my first infection in almost two years the other day, so this time around I insisted that the doc simply put in a new one. He told me of the surgeon that used the glands of goats as implantations, but that the authorities had put him out of business. So he had no new bladders in stock! It was then that I asked him about heaven, as to whether he supposed we would have bladders, for I was sure that he would be as good an authority on such a subject as the next guy. He was certain that we would, and he was kind enough to add that he didn't think mine would be trabeculated any longer and I would be free of infections forever. Next to getting to see Alexander Campbell, that is likely to be my greatest reward!

 Being the Mormon that he is, my physician friend may well believe that we will have much more of the mundane things in heaven than bladders. Joseph Smith, the prophet of Mormonism, not only had 50‑odd wives in this world, but he had (or will have) hundreds, if not thousands, of "celestial" wives in the next. One Mormon writer tells of how women still choose to marry him in some temple service, hopeful of having him as a "celestial" husband. When the prophet was asked about Jesus saying that in heaven there would be no marrying or being given in marriage, he explained that that didn't apply to his saints.

 This celestial marriage business is most intriguing. Why the Tempter did not think of this in Eden, I will never know, but he did indeed finally think of it, as late as it was. I often tell Ouida that I would like it fine if I could have her in heaven as well as on earth. Too pious to indulge in my frolicking, she responds by saying that we will surely in some way be special to each other. Well, the Mormons have this solved. A man can marry his earthly wife celestially in the temple and thus become sealed to her forever ‑ for better or for worse! If I were a Mormon, I would be tempted to be sealed to Elizabeth I, "the great Queen," who had everything she wanted in this world, including an empire, except a husband. She should make great company, for she could even read the New Testament in Greek. She might, however, have trouble reading the Book of Mormon even in English, as sophisticated as she was. Since she was an Episcopalian, one might not be marrying "only in the Lord," but that could be solved first of all by being baptized for her. Some religions really put it all together, don't they?

Wives aside for the time, whether queens or not, I am wondering if my physician might be right about our having bladders in heaven. It may be more than a fun question, after all, so I would like to look into it for a moment ‑ even if I can't look inside my bladder ‑ with a little more seriousness than I have shown thus far.

 Any question that touches upon what God has revealed, however meager be that revelation, is within the province of study. If God has said anything at all, it must be of some profit to us. To theorize is all right so long as we make it clear what we are doing, but even here it should be toward a better understanding of what God has revealed. Otherwise it will be vain speculation and of no value. And of course such opinions should never be imposed upon others as if they were matters of faith.

We may not have a bladder in God's tomorrow, but I believe the scriptures make it clear that each saint will have a body. I will venture the thesis that the believer will never be disembodied, not even temporarily. Paul appears to have believed this, for 2 Cor. 5:1‑3 says: "We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found naked." Not to have a body in which to dwell meant to the apostle that he would be naked ‑ a disembodied spirit. The next verse makes it clear that he was willing for the new, heavenly body to be draped over his old, earthly body rather than be without a body: "We sigh with anxiety, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life."

I conclude that if Paul's hope was realized that even now he has a body, an interim habitation of some sort, even before he inherits his redeemed earthly body in the resurrection. It would be difficult to conclude that he is now naked and disembodied, awaiting the last day so that he can have what he was so anxious to have, a house not made with hands. But this is a common view, that the saints are floating spirits of some kind, awaiting embodiment when Jesus comes again. Paul's language is rather clear. "We know," he insists, "that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we will have a building from God." Without some compelling reason to the contrary, the interpreter must conclude that the heavenly body is given when the earthly body is destroyed. Paul's earthly body, one that was probably beheaded, was indeed destroyed, and it has long since turned to dust in some dark chamber. That body awaits a resurrection and a transformation "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," but as of now it remains dust. Where then is Paul now? He is with Christ in heaven and he has a body, a temporary habitation, we might call it, until he gets his old body back again in a glorious resurrection. But it does not necessarily follow that he now has or ever will again have a bladder!

The scriptures also make it clear that we are joint heirs with Christ. I take this to mean that the blessings that are his in glory are also ours. That he now has a body in heaven is a biblical fact. Paul describes him as the Savior we wait for, "who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body" (Phil. 3:21), and John tells us that when he appears "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn. 3:2). 1 Tim. 2:5 describes Jesus not only as our one mediator in heaven, but as a man, even now. He is a human being in a body in heaven, that is clear. That is not to say, however, that he has a bladder, even though he once had one in the days of his flesh.

This makes us wonder about the nature of Jesus' resurrected body. We do have some information. The bewildered Thomas, understandably skeptical, vowed that he would not believe that Jesus was again alive without corporeal evidence, unless he could see and touch, like a child wants to do in a department store. He cried out, "My Lord and my God", when Jesus appeared behind locked doors and invited him not only to look but to put forth his hand into his wounded side. Luke tells us even more. The apostles were together, hearing the report of the two disciples who had seen (and dined with) the risen Christ on the Emmaus road, when Jesus appeared in their midst. They were startled and frightened, supposing that they saw a spirit. "Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." (Luke 24:38‑40)

Notice that he was "I myself", which means that he was as real as before, and yet he was very different. He was now in his resurrected (not merely resuscitated) body, and yet he had hands and feet. He was not merely a spirit, he said, for a spirit is without a body. I take it that once the eternal Christ became man in Mary's womb, where he grew a body, that he was never again disembodied, and that for all eternity. So it is with us as joint heirs with him. We will never simply be spirits, but we will always have a body.

There is more. Jesus moved about in his risen body, and this seems to be different, for he appeared and disappeared, with locked doors being as if they were not there. He apparently moved from Emmaus to Jerusalem or to the sea of Tiberius or wherever timelessly, which he did not do in his old body. He spent several days walking from Nazareth to the Jordan to be baptized. Throughout his earthly sojourn he yielded to time and space along with all men. But this changed with his resurrection. This tells us something of the nature of the resurrected body.

He also ate and drank. He even conducted a fish fry and ate of the goodies right before their eyes. He walked and talked, indeed he instructed the disciples for some forty days before he ascended to heaven. I surmise that he did not sleep. Perhaps he hovered between two worlds, appearing and disappearing. He would not need sleep as he did before, and I presume that he had no body waste as before, even if he did eat and drink.

He seems to have withheld his identity to those disciples on the Emmaus road. They took him for a stranger, another ordinary human being like themselves. When the three of them arrived at the village, Jesus acted as if he would walk on further, without them of course. They constrained him to stay with them. He stayed for supper. All this and still they did not know who he was. Since they had previously been with him, they would have easily recognized him at once. Was his appearance that of someone else, and his voice? Apparently. Then suddenly, at the breaking of bread, their eyes were opened, and just that quickly he disappeared. He might have been recognizable, the miracle being the blinding of their eyes. But then there is Mary's confusing him with the gardener, and this after Jesus had talked to her. Only when he spoke her name did she recognize him. (Jn. 20:18) Was he unrecognizable and then recognizable, or did he control her power to discern?

In God's tomorrow I take it that we will be like Jesus. He ascended into heaven in his resurrected body. We too shall be embodied in glory. In the new earth wherein righteousness dwells we may very well move about as he did, with no regard to time or space. We will drink from the fountain of the water of life and eat from the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, one for each month. That indicates there will be time, but it will not end and there will be no night (Rev. 22:1‑5). Surely we will continue to love, to learn, and to serve.

I would presume that Jesus' resurrected body needed no rest and did not grow tired. Things like glands and a digestive system were no longer relevant, for he was now a transcendent being. He was as earthly and he needed to be in order to complete his ministry. Yes, he ate and drank as he had before, but only for the sake of witnessing to his bodily resurrection and not out of any need. Digestion of food was thus beside the point, even if he did eat. Forty days in the flesh between his resurrection and ascension were therefore dramatically different from before, for they could as easily have been the thousand years that are like a single day to Deity. He was still on earth and yet he wasn't.

But it is too much for us to contemplate. We see only "puzzling reflections in a mirror," as the New English renders 1 Cor. 13:12. Paul likens it to the wonder of humble seed being transformed into a majestic stand of wheat. One would have to see it to believe it. And we run the risk of being the foolish man he refers to if we venture too far from what is actually written.

Alexander Campbell was wonderfully impressed by the few reflections we do have of our future glory, and that of our earth, especially as he grew older. I pass along to you the last article he ever penned, only a few months before he went home, on that Sunday afternoon in March, 1866. Here is the last thing he ever wrote:

"The present material universe, yet unrevealed in all its area, in all its tenantries, in all its riches, beauty and grandeur, will be wholly regenerated. Of this fact we have full assurance: since he that now sits upon the Throne of the Universe, has pledged his word for it, saying, `Behold, I will create all things new;' ‑ consequently `new heavens, new earth,' consequently new tenantries, new employment, new pleasures, new joys, new ecstasies. There is a fullness of joy, a fullness of glory, and a fullness of blessedness, of which no living man, however enlightened, however enlarged, however gifted, ever formed or entertained one adequate conception."

Now if in the new heavens and new earth we find ourselves lined up at some elegant latrine alongside the river of life you will know that I was wrong, that we do have bladders as well as bodies. And I will apologize to my physician. But since we all agree that there will be no surgeons there, I am not sure I could find him, with or without his celestial wives! ‑ Editor

All this, and heaven too! — Matthew Henry

A robin redbreast in a cage puts all heaven in a rage.  — William Blake