The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope that even when we die, we will rise with Christ one day during His second coming. Some people think that resurrection is the resurrection of the soul only; we will become angel-like beings in heaven without any physical body. As I explained earlier, I don’t believe in mind-body dualism; the body and the soul are interconnected. Your behavior and mental state are affected by your body. A computer program is not “alive” until you run it on a computer. The tomb was empty, and when resurrected Christ appeared to His disciples in a physical body, they could touch Him and feel the wound. Therefore, I believe resurrection is physical, and the world will be transformed.
There is very little discussion on the science of resurrection, so I will make a lot of speculations here, knowing that our salvation does not depend on how we view our new body and what the new heaven and earth will look like.
How we get the new body is a mystery. I assume that when we die, God will preserve all our information on how all our neurons are connected, and when the day comes, He will restore that information to our new body. Many people with near-death experiences reported that their life flashed back to them; could it be the moment God downloaded their memories? This is like how we upgrade our old computer to a new one. You know that all the atoms in our current body are not the same atoms you were born with. Our body continues to rebuild itself. Where the atoms come from in your new body is unimportant. If all the neurons are connected similarly, you are still you.
The Bible tells us that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev 21:4)
The old world is Creatio ex nihilo, which means creation out of nothing, as we saw in the section on evil. Evil, pain, and death are all necessary conditions to allow free will to emerge, and it is all a packaged deal.
The new world is no longer Creatio ex nihilo; it is Creatio ex vetere which means creation from old to new. Therefore, continuous evolution will not need to allow free will to form. Therefore, God can remove those conditions in the new earth, and there will be no more death and weeping.
“The wolf will live with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the young lion and the young fat animal will lie down together. And a little boy will lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)
So, what prevents us from spoiling this new world and sinning again? Isaiah 11:6 gives us some clues. Everyone in heaven has chosen to believe in God using their free will, and God will purify us and eliminate all our sinful desires when we enter the new heaven and earth. Our innate behavior will be changed. We will no longer follow our animal instincts. Wolfs, leopards, and lions are no longer predators; they will not have the animal instincts to hunt other animals for food and will live peacefully with other animals.
Will we be given the body in our twenties, thirties, or forties? That I don’t know. But I know this new body will be different from our current body and will not age anymore. Scientists think there might be a gene in our DNA responsible for aging. In the new world, God will remove this gene and make DNA 100% reliable, and our body can regenerate perfectly without aging or death. Maybe there will be new technology to repair our bodies so we can repair our bodies and remain healthy all the time.
“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven”. (Mathew 22:30)
In the new world, there is no longer a need to procreate, as there is no need to bring out a new life for evolution. There will be no marriage; most likely, we will all be asexual. Human sexuality is a root of a lot of evils and sins. Without the sexual need, we might be able to concentrate better on worshiping God.
“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” (John 20:19-20)
Jesus was able to enter the room with a locked door. Does it mean Jesus’s new body is constructed differently, and He is able pass-through physical barriers? Will we be given a new set of physical laws enabling our new physical body to go through walls like a spirit? I believe that physical laws might be modified but not entirely new. I see that event as a one-off miracle with religious significance, showing His disciples that He is alive. In heaven, I believe physical barriers will still restrain us.
Physicists tell us that this world will end; gravity pulls everything together to form a big crunch (opposite to the big bang), or the sun will burn out, so the world will be too cold to support any life. We don’t have to worry too much about it as it will happen billions of years in the future. But the bible clearly states that we will be with God forever in the new heaven and earth. Forever means eternal, and it doesn’t mean billions of years. So, if the physical world has an end, what does it mean to be with God forever?
In Einstein’s twin paradox, there are two twin brothers. One stays on Earth, and the other travels in space close to the speed of light. When the astronaut brother returns to Earth, he will find that his twin brother has aged a lot while he is barely aged. In Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is relative too. When you travel close to the speed of light, your time will slow down, and you will experience time differently from other people who are stationary. In the new heaven and earth, if we all travel at light speed, then time will stand still, and our life will become forever.
“There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.” Rev 22:5
I prefer a more straightforward explanation: the new world will not be the same as the one we are in, a world not created through the big bang. We will be transported to a new world where our energy source will no longer be the sun. God will be our energy source, and we will live forever with God; amen.