If You Are A Believer, How Do You Think Heaven Works?

[bednobs]

I am interested because my friend who is catholic says that she will see deceased relatives again and will all be together. If you believe this is the case then what will happen about my stillborn daughter? She never saw what we looked like, so how will she know it's me, and how will i know it's her? Will i find myself looking after a tiny baby in the afterlife for ever and ever and ever (grr to all those 3 am feeds)?
If that's not how it works then what do you think happens?
(my friends most unsatisfactory answer was "you'll find out")

[helomas]

I have lost an unborn child and I would like to believe that I too will be reunited with my deceased family and that they have been taking care of the child whilst waiting for me to join them - your stillborn will have been loved by your departed family and friends for you - That is my belief and has kept me sane through some tough times!! (I am Church of england)

[Duncer]

I don't mean to sound callous, but the lack of any sort of cogent answer from your friend tells you all you need to know.

[chrisgel]

It would also be interesting to know which divorced wives or husbands go with which.

[woofgang]

I believe that soul knows and calls to soul.

[marval]

I like to believe that i will meet up with my loved ones who have gone before. I don't go to church very often, but was brought up C of E.

[ummmm]

And what happens if your darling husband dies young, you go onto remarry and are equally happy with your new husband, then he dies, then you die. Will get to keep both husbands in heaven?

[jim360]

or that matter, what about people whom you dearly loved but they didn't like you in return? Presumably your heaven would include you being together, but how could theirs?

In the end, for all that it's unsatisfactory your friend's answer is the closest to the truth, you'll just have to wait and see if it's all true and how it works. Certainly nothing we can imagine is ever going to be close to the truth.

[elliemay1]

Obviously no one knows, so it's better not to stress out about it. No one has come back to tell us what it's like.Better to forget about it and get on with living. Life's too short.

[BilSuth]

Easiest way is just to think of Heaven as anything good that you want it to be. Don't worry about the logistics and details. Don't worry either about what scoffing non-believers say.
Leave them to look forward to what they insist is their future oblivion. Wow! How exciting is that?

[jim360]

I suppose in the end it comes down to this:

either Heaven exists, in which case I think God knows how to sort it all out, so why worry about it? Or it's all make-believe, in which case there's nothing to worry about anyway. Either way, why worry? It will all work somehow, or you'll be dead forever and won't be able to worry about it anyway. Not that I look forward to that fate, but hey, it seems to be the fate of everything else, so why not us as well?

[Garibaldi2]

I am an atheist, so you should bear this in mind when reading my answer - however I was brought up a Christian (C of E).

Based on my C of E teaching, your still born child will have gone to heaven by default – bear in mind that you might go somewhere else.

You have to understand that a person’s age at death has no relevance in the afterlife – they/you are an entity in that world. If indeed heaven does exist, your still born child will be there and you may well meet up with her – as to whether your still born child will discuss with you anything relevant to your experience in the present world – I could not say.

I can understand your concern/feelings for a stillborn child and the life that never was - it must be especially hard on a woman to loose a child in this way, but as an atheist, it is the nature of life.

[modeller]

RC believed that if you were not babtised you could never go to heaven.
Instead you go into a state of limbo , therefore all stillborn children automatically ended up there., as did all human beings prior to babtisms .

However some Christian sects said this was not right and started to baptise
all stillborn babies . I believe RC have may now have adopted this practice . At one time you could pay the priest to baptise a stillborn which was a source of income for the church similar to buying indulgences.
Have you checked on Google to see what now applies , if you are concerned.

[hc4361]

In heaven there is no feelings of jealousy, inadequacy, comparisons.
You will know your loved ones and be content because you will be 'whole'.
Your daughter will be grown and healthy, as you will be.

It is just a matter of faith :)

[bednobs]

i just wanted to make clear that 1) i am not concerned because 2) i don't believe in all that mumbo jumbo :)

[goodlife]

To answers to the question about what happens when we die are as diverse as the customs and beliefs of the people giving them.

Jesus was having a discussion with some Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection like today. Jesus declared: “That the dead are raised up even Moses disclosed, in the account about the thornbush, when he calls ‘the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.’ He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to him.” (Luke 20:27, 37, 38) By saying these words, Jesus confirmed that from God’s viewpoint the long-dead Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still lived in God’s memory. Like Job, they await the end of their “compulsory service,” their sleep in death. (Job 14:14) In God’s new world, they will be resurrected.

What, though, about unborn child, or the billions of others who have died throughout human history? Will they too receive a resurrection?
Before you can obtain a satisfying answer to that question, you have to find out from God’s Word where people go when they die.


But you not get it from those who believe in all that mumbo jumbo.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Taking the irony bypass again, I see, goodlife.

Why can you not give the answer according to your beliefs, as requested in the OP? You're normally so good at cutting and pasting something from elsewhere. Haven't you got something that actually answers the question instead of just blethering?

[modeller]

I hate the pedantry that frequently ruins discussion on Answer Bank but
I found this thread interesting in the use of mumbo-jumbo . Your mumbo -jumbo may be my sound doctrine.

[keyplus90]

I am a Muslim and we believe that all of the children stillborn or born and died before reaching to an age where they start understanding the results of their actions (when they become adult, puberty plus maturity) will go to Heaven (or Jannat) as we call it. When a Muslim dies we do a prayer for the deceased before burying him/her. And the prayer wording is different for an adult and a child. For an adult word FORGIVENESS is there in the prayer but that same word is not in the prayer for a child as we believe that children are innocent and would go to heaven without any questions.

Now to your question, first and far more important thing is that to see each other you have to be at the same place, heaven or hell. Then afterlife is a bodily world according to Muslim belief as opposed to other beliefs where people believe it is entirely soul. However the body there would be somewhat different from what we have now. But people will know each other through their link with all of the others and according to Islam we all are related (near or distant) for being from same root Adam (pbuh). But your immediate relatives would be recognised through or more active soul and connection. But more importantly it would be through will to see someone.

[modeller]

goodlife#But you not get it from those who believe in all that mumbo jumbo. #
Could tou tell me which/what mumbo jumbo you are referring to.

You are quoting events from the bible. So I don't know if you are including
it in your term mumbo jumbo.

[bednobs]

i have given Jom best answer (although most of them are good) because i never thought about that point of view!