Here are two contrasting cultural beliefs for you to consider:
- Sex is the best thing on the planet
- Heaven is full of the best things we can imagine
So if both of these things are true, why does the Bible tell us there won’t be any sex in heaven?
No Sex in Heaven?
In Matthew 22:30, Jesus says, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
I’ve expounded elsewhere how God designed sex to happen within marriage only, so we can naturally deduce here, as the original listeners would have automatically, that if there is no marriage in heaven, there is also no sex.
No sex in heaven? Many might ask what the other options are at this point!
One of the reasons this news shocks us is because we view sex and heaven selfishly. Culturally, sex has become a selfish act of consumption. And our view of heaven is typically a place of self-centered utopia. We picture beaches and paradise and all the pleasure for ourselves that we can dream of, often not with much thought about God being around at all. This me-centered paradise is a great match for lots of sex for all of eternity. In fact, several of the main world religions promise this (maybe a clue that those religions were made up by a man? But I digress…)
But thank goodness that’s not what heaven, or sex, is meant to be according to the Bible.
Sex is a one-flesh relationship that bonds a man and a woman together in every way possible. It’s why this one-flesh relationship can only function healthily within marriage. The one-flesh bond includes full acceptance and commitment to all a person is, not simply their body parts (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:4-6, 1 Cor. 6:15-16). You are one flesh, at all times, in all ways, which can’t be undone.
This sounds pretty amazing, and deep, and night-and-day different from what our culture calls “sex” today. But there’s more. This sex and this one flesh don’t exist for their own end. They aren’t the destination, they are simply another sign post. A sign post pointing to where?
What Sex Really Points To
After giving a treatise on marriage and sex, Ephesians 5 concludes with the following:
“’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:31-32).
Heyo! The whole time Paul was talking about husbands and wives and marriage and sex in Ephesians 5, it says here he was actually talking about Jesus and us! Marriage and sex are metaphors for the relationship we have with Jesus.
What is a metaphor? It is a sign post. It points to the real thing. It’s something tangible we can look at in order to understand something else. It’s a symbol we can learn from in order to understand and experience the real thing.
The real thing is the one-flesh relationship Jesus desires to have with each of us. It’s the relationship he has with those who call themselves Christians. It’s a relationship of intimate love and acceptance and support and trust, where Jesus is the groom and we are the bride. Earthly marriage and sex are symbols that can help point us toward the real thing.
This is why there is no sex in heaven. You don’t need sign posts when you’ve arrived at the destination!
It’d be like driving to Disney World and parking the car at the green highway sign with the white text of “DISNEY WORLD” and the white arrow pointing to the off ramp. Imagine parking your car there, taking a selfie with the family, and then driving home, telling everyone you’d been to Disney World!
The destination is always better than the sign post.
Heaven Is Not a Perpetual Fast
Some might disagree! But the reason for the disagreement is because we’ve been worshiping the sign post for far too long and we simply don’t have the full experience of the real thing yet. In talking of the perspective that heaven would be a “perpetual fast” from sex in the minds of some, C.S. Lewis had this to say:
“…or else of a perpetual fast. As regards the fast, I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure, should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer no, he might regard absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their carnal raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it.
We are in the same position. We know the sexual life; we do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it.”
-C.S. Lewis, as quoted in a 1947 Time Magazine article
A boy can’t understand if you try to tell him sex is the highest bodily pleasure, because he is convinced chocolate is and isn’t ready to understand sex. We can’t understand that pure intimacy with God in his direct presence is what makes heaven, Heaven, not that it’s some me-centered place where we eat Bons Bons on the beach, while watching Netflix, and of course, having sex. Nor can we fully grasp that intimacy with God is better than sex, both now and for all eternity. But the truth remains, which we are exhorted to believe and live by.
This is fantastic news. We worship sex on earth, but it’s also our place of deepest longing and brokenness. A single person feels unloved because they don’t have a sexual partner. A married person goes to pornography, an affair, or fantasy, because the sexual partner they do have isn’t satisfying them.
The Answer to Our Longing for Sex
The answer to our longing for sex is not sex! It’s intimacy with Jesus. We get to experience this intimacy on earth. This unconditional love where God adopts us as his sons and daughters and is well-pleased with us and we are fully accepted into his arms because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. But imagine this experience in a fully direct, physical way. Wow! That is heaven.
This gives us reason to not worship sex and it also reminds us we don’t need sex. Whether we experience the sign post or not is somewhat irrelevant. What is relevant is that we take God at his word that the destination will be much better, attuning all of our navigational tools toward that destination, not any metaphor, imitation, or sign post along the way.
Mr. Noah Filipiak, Please Respond, with all due respect, I disagree with your arguments against Sex in Heaven, I am a Mainstream Evangelical Protestant Christian myself , Non-Mormon , I am fairly certain for us Christians there will be Sexual Relations, Sexual Intercourse in Heaven, Myself and some other Christians believe the traditional mainstream Christian view “No Sex in Heaven” is false, and rubbish , even the late famous Evangelist Billy Graham had an open mind about Christians enjoying Sex in Heaven, see this blog by Mr. Tom Gruber, a Christian from Ohio, who gives arguments for Sex in Heaven, see the interesting intelligent comments myself & Other Christians gave, , the blog is here,
http://istheresexinheaven.blogspot.com/ , see also the 2008 book by Tom Gruber titled “Is There Sex in Heaven? A Biblical Case for Lovemaking in the Afterlife” it’s 153 pages paperback and can be ordered from the website, lulu.com , see also this article by Tom Gruber titled
“Sex After the Resurrection” on the blog What the Bible Really Says About Sex, the blog is here, wtbrsas.blogspot.com/2008/07/sex-after-resurrection.html
Hi Jeff, thanks so much for your reply. Transparently, I won’t have time to read Gruber’s book on this subject. My main point in this article is not to argue something that is pretty inconsequential, if there will be sex in heaven or not… if there is, great. If there’s not, great. We will be in heaven / the new earth with Jesus and won’t care. My intent in the article is to help celibate singles know right now on this earth that they aren’t missing out on the greatest intimacy in the universe, which is often how we posit sex. And to help married individuals who are struggling with their spouse and their sex life. To remind us that we have access to the deepest intimacy already, in Jesus, so we don’t have to look for it elsewhere, particularly in sinful places and/or in the way we get super down and depressed if this facet of life is missing.
As far as arguments against my point, if you can share book / chapter / verse with me from Scripture on there being sex in heaven, I would definitely want to listen to that and change my stance. The stance I’ve presented is just a straightforward conclusion to the Scripture passages I quote in the article.
Thanks again for the interaction Jeff.
Noah, your belief of this is from selective reading. In Luke 20:36 Jesus states one of the reasons for no more marrying is because the saved resurrected can’t die anymore but will be like the angels in heaven. The contrast to angels is not sexual desire, He contrasted mortality with immortality. Marry meant the male proposing for the woman to be his wife and being given in marriage meant the father giving her to the proposer. It’s customs to be married, not marriage itself. Adam and Eve were married without marrying or being given in marriage. The reason for the Sadducee’s question was that the levirate law required a woman to marry the next oldest brother of her husband if he died without children. They thought if the woman hadn’t fulfilled the purpose of that law, she would still need to be married to all the brothers or they’d be sinning. If she did that, she and the men would commit polygamy which is also a sin, so to avoid sin, God wouldn’t resurrect everyone forever. They thought all of God’s laws would be needed in a renewed world, not knowing that the reason for recreating is to restore creation to before those laws were needed. Keeping marriage does not contradict Jesus’s answer to the Sadducees because the woman they asked about is only required to marry any of those men with the levirate law. The law ending does not forbid her from being married to a different man. It’s a false dilemma. Jesus’s mention of not being able to die would make no sense unless he only meant legal customs to marry because death is not a reason for marriage. It says in Revelation 20:6 that those who are awakened in the first resurrection won’t suffer for eternity. These are the same people in the prophecy in Isaiah 65:17-25. If Jesus said that those worthy to attain the age of the resurrection won’t marry or be given in marriage and are also said to continue being married and reproducing, that’s proof that Jesus only meant legal marriage customs will be gone. Would any of the people who heard Jesus answer been amazed at it if he meant sexuality would be eliminated? I’m pretty sure Jews had as much sexual desire as most other people, so would have despaired if that was the context.
At the beginning of creation, God said for us to be fruitful and multiply with no indication it was to ever stop. There would need to be a bigger earth to fit all physical beings that have ever lived by the time of the resurrection. God expands the entire universe. doing the same to any planet shouldn’t conflict with his plans. Marriage was the only thing God said is not good to be without before creating it. After Eve was made and brought to Adam, it says for this reason shall people be united with a spouse to become one flesh. Jesus repeats this in Matthew 19:4-5 and Mark 10:6-7 and Paul does in Ephesians 5:31. “For this reason” means it’s the only reason. Reproduction and representing God’s relationship are not reasons stated anywhere in scripture. If gender remains, so does marriage. If Jesus’s answer meant no one will be married, then it contradicts us being male and female being the reason for marriage, and God’s promise to restore all creation in Acts 3:21 and 24:15, 2 Peter 3:13, Romans 8:20-23 and 32 and other prophecies. After God made marriage, He called everything very good. The beginning conditions of the creation don’t need improving because God doesn’t change.
Many Christians have claimed that something unspecified would be needed to make life better forever and would also make sexuality useless, ignoring the fact that marriage was something needed for creation to not be missing anything good. It’s contradictory and more akin to Buddhism than Christianity. If having something better is a reason to eliminate sex, it’s a reason to eliminate everything God made, and we should all just feel God’s presence, getting joy from that and never doing anything else for eternity. If simply having a sinless relationship with God makes marriage useless, then God would have had no reason to create gender and sex, because God had the kind of relationship with Adam and Eve that people will have with Him in the renewed creation. If God eliminated sexuality then the distinguishing shapes of the gender’s faces, body shapes for sexual attraction, parts used for sexual pleasure, and reproduction would all be wasted. Gender having other functions is no reason to get rid of any of them. They’re all part of what makes us the genders we are and God doesn’t create anything expendable. The human female figure is shaped the way it is to fit babies during birth, and sperm, egg cells, and wombs are used only for reproduction.
If Jesus’s answer to the Sadducees meant no one will be married anymore, no one can be married to Jesus as a replacement. God is described as a husband to people in Hosea 2:7, Isaiah 45:5, Jeremiah 31:32, Ezekiel 16:8, and other Old Testament texts. That didn’t replace marriage either, because they’re analogies just as the wife of the lamb is in Revelation. They are different types of relationships that fulfill different desires. If marriage is a representation of Jesus’s relationship with the church, then people would have to have sinned so Jesus would have to redeem us. God is not going to create something that requires what He hates.
If you are made unable to care about something you’re passionate about, it’s manipulation of free will. Sin is a selfish way to try satisfying a desire, that makes us less satisfied afterward. Removing sin doesn’t manipulate free will. That’s not the same as removing a basic desire for any sensation. They think that since they don’t think of the joy that would be gone from losing that passion for eternity, that wanting to keep something God said wasn’t good to be without is the problem. They’re so obsessed simply with being eternally satisfied that they don’t know it’s only hopeful because it’s by restoration of all God made, not a replacement for any of it. That would make anything God made for us irrelevant. There’s a book all about the joy of sexuality: Song of Songs, and doesn’t imply that marriage is useless without reproduction. There’s no bible book devoted to the joy of any other creation. Heaven isn’t the final destination, it’s the renewed earth. The only thing that needs to be gone is what sin did.
Billy Graham later said that there would be no marriage between people in heaven in 2005 and 2012. He incorrectly said there would be sexual intercourse in heaven in 1998 During an interview with Larry King.
https://billygraham.org/answer/my-friend-recently-lost-her-third-husband-all-of-them-by-death-and-she-asked-me-the-other-day-which-one-shed-be-married-to-in-heaven/
https://billygraham.org/answer/someone-told-me-that-i-wont-see-my-late-husband-again-in-heaven-is-this-true/
Thank you Jeff. I too, believe there will be sex in Heaven. I liken the argument to the opposite to telling Joni Erickson Tada that ” You will still be in your wheel chair in Heaven but don’t worry about it, your desire to walk will just be removed!! Wouldn’t that be great news!!! ” You will notice that all the other beauties of life are said to be way more intense in Heaven than here…..except the one, greatest pleasure here, will just be removed!? I find the utter lack of passion for sex is amazingly alarming! It is presented as if ” relationship “, as in emotional encounter, is the only thing of value. As a man who has not had the privilege, or seem to lack the ability for marriage, it is alarming how trivial people view someone in my state, is doomed to a sexless eternity; only, they would not view it as doomed, only no big deal. Honestly, how do they view sex at all? It is as if someone made the rounds on Earth and drained all the testosterone from all male Christians! It is common for women to not be too excited about it but, I think, also telling of their encounters; abuse and ignorance is rampant. Thanks for your post and for ” listening. ” Glenn
Hello dear Brother Jeff Winters, God bless you, i agree with you 100% that marriage, sex and procreation WILL be in Eternity!!! Matthew 22:30 and It’s parallels (Mk. 12:25, Lk. 20:34-36) have been MIS–understood by Most people, this Is because the phrase “Marry & given in marriage” isn’t about marriage in itself, It’s about ARRANGED Marriages. Men asked, paid or forced women to be their wives, and the parents would often give their daughters to men as a way to continue their families. Those things Will be done away with at the Resurrection, Adam & Eve were Married, yet Adam didn’t ask Eve to be his Wife, and Eve wasn’t given to Adam in a transaction.
Another thing about Matthew 22:30 Is that it’s talking about marriage CEREMONIES. Many people think of marriage as a ceremony, or a legal contract, but those forms of marriage were a result of the Mosaic Law, before that when a man and woman fell in love, they lived together and had children (Gen. 2:24, Mk. 10:8). Adam & Eve didn’t have a marriage ceremony because in God’s Eyes they were helpmeets, in the same way in Eternity you’ll be Married to your helpmeets without the Need for amy wedding ceremony—Furthermore, in the context of Matthew 22:30, the Sadducees were not asking the Lord Jesus Christ about Marriage itself, but about levirate Marriage (Deut. 25:5), which is a law for when a Husband dies. Marriage, sex and procreation were created by God BEFORE the Fall, NOT After It! (Gen. 1:28), so human mortality Is not a requirement for marriage (although in a post-fall state, procreation Is necessary for Mankind to keep going). Before the Fall sex was created by Almighty God for a man and woman to enjoy, and procreation was a way to exercise dominion over the Earth. So in Eternity we’ll have that too! Marriage, sex & procreation are eternal blessings from God! (1 Tim. 6:17, Jn. 14:13, Jn. 15:7, Jn. 16:22-24, James 1:17, Psa. 37:4, Psa. 36:8, Psa. 16:11, Psa. 84:11, Matt. 7:9-11, Rom. 11:29, Rom. 8:17, Rom. 8:32, Luke 12:32, Rev. 21:7, 1 Jn. 5:4-5). At the Resurrection we’ll put on Immortality (1 Cor. 15:53), that’s HOW we Will be “equal unto the Angels” (Lk. 20:36). In Eternity no husband will ever die, so no woman Will have to marry the Brother etc… In light of this, we know that Matthew 22:30 and It’s parallels (Mk. 12:25, Lk. 20:34-36) MOST DEFINITELY ISN’T saying there won’t be marriage in Eternity, but Rather no levirate Marriages (as well as ceremonies, legal contracts and arranged Marriages as i’ve explained).
💎SEX IN ETERNITY💎
Many people assert that Heaven won’t have sex because it’s going to be a spiritual Place, but that’s wrong because 1. They never specify what that means, 2. Spirituality isn’t Better than the Physical, 3. Sex Is spiritual as well as Physical, and 4. the Bible teaches that there will be both spiritual and bodily enjoyment in heaven. Psalm 16:11 tells us that in God’s presence there will be fullness of joy (this is spiritual, Rom. 14:17) and at His right hand there will be pleasures (plural) forevermore (pleasure is something experienced physically). In fact, various passages in Scripture imply that for believers all human faculties (spirit, mind, and body) will be actively engaged and fulfilled throughout eternity. In fact, we’ll even be superhuman with unimaginable powers because 2 Peter 1:4 says that we will be partakers of God’s divine nature. Eternity won’t be boring! Jesus Himself described His Kingdom as paradise (Luke 23:43).
💎POLYGYNY IN ETERNITY💎
Lots of Godly men in the bible had multiple wives and concubines, and It’s not a sin (2 Chro. 24:1-3, Judges 5:30, 2 Sam. 12:6-8, Deut. 21:15, Exo. 21:10). So i believe that in Eternity there will be polygynous Marriages and companionships—Another reason why polygyny (1 man having multiple wives) Will be in Eternity Is because according to Ezekiel 36:10 “all the House of Israel, EVEN ALL OF IT” Will have children in the Millennium Reign of Christ. “All the house of Israel” includes King David, King Solomon etc… Who ALL had MULTIPLE WIVES!!!! I’m not sure if Old testament saints will be Resurrected with Christians (during what many call the “Pre-trib Rapture”), or if Old testament saints will be Resurrected After the 7yr Tribulation period, at the 2nd Coming. Either way It still counts, Godly men Will be able to have multiple wives in Ethe Millennium Reign, and TEN TIMES the bible calls the Kingdom established at the 2nd coming ETERNAL (2 Sam. 7:12-16, Dan. 2:44, Dan. 7:14, Dan. 7:18, Dan. 7:27, Is. 9:7, Mic. 4:6-8, Psa. 89:35, Psa. 45:6, Rev. 11:1). Which implies that the rules and regulations established at the Beginning of the Millennium Reign will extend into Eternity in the NEW Heavens and NEW Earth, that includes Polygyny! Which will be reinstated in the Millennium, in the regeneration (Matt. 19:28), and the restitution of all things (Acts 3:21).
In Isaiah 3:24-26 scripture tells us that before the Millennium starts, Israel Will have a shortage of men, and widowed jewish women Will want to get married. And in Isaiah 4:1-2 It says:
“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. 2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” (Isaiah 4:1-2 KJV)
First of all, the Number 7 Here refers to a complete/perfect Number, the right amount of women for that man, then in vs. 2 It mentions “the branch of the Lord” which according to John 15:5 it’s SAVED CHRISTIANS, so at the 2nd coming when we come back with Jesus Christ on White horses, because we’ll have GLORIFIED BODIES by that point, we Will be WAY more Beautiful than we are now (hence vs. 2 of Isaiah 4 says we’ll be Beautiful, Glorious, excellent and comely)—And in Isaiah 13:12 The Lord declares that He will make “a man” more precious than fine gold, in the context It talks about Armageddon, so After the 2nd coming, men entering the Millennium Will be more precious than fine gold (obviously if a man Is more precious than fine gold, lots of women Will want to have sex with him), so what we’ve read in Isaiah 4:1-2 should apply worldwide in the Millennium Reign, and all this Will extend into Eternity too as i’ve explained!
💎REPRODUCTION IN ETERNITY💎
Christians are Married to the Lord Jesus Christ (Hosea 2:19, Rev. 19:6-9), and Malachi 2:15 mentions “Godly seed”, so in Eternity we’ll have children for the LORD (Isa. 9:7, Gen. 1:27-28, Gen. 2:18, Isa. 60:22, Isa. 65:23, Isa. 66:22). Jeremiah 3:14-19 says those Who are *Married to Christ* Will “multiply, increase, have families, and have children” in the Millennium and we won’t have the Law anymore. This includes Mosaic laws on marriage, which means marriage Will be like before the Law, that Is, when a man and woman love each other, they live together and have children. Also, that Chapter Is talking to Israel thousands of years ago, those people are all dead now, which means in the Millennium Reign when this prophecy Is fullfilled, they will have Glorified Resurrected bodies. And Ephesians 2:11-19 says Christians are fellow citizens with Israel, so It applies to us as well. Jeremiah 23:3-6 says God’s flock Will be “fruitful” and “increase” in the Millennium. It says His Flock from **ALL COUNTRIES** (saved people from all Ages).
Saints (in Glorified bodies) also won’t have the Law, only the Flesh & Blood people will have the Law, we’ll have the Law written in our Hearts (Heb. 10:14-16, Jer. 31:33-34). Also read Heb. 7:10 & Rom. 4:15. God did the same with the sabbath day, circumcision and the food laws. So there won’t be any marriages under the law (which is what Matthew 22:30-33 Is talking about).
💎THE “RESURRECTION” IN MATT. 22:30💎
Suprisingly, “the resurrection” Jesus mentions in Matthew 22:30 Is NOT the Resurrection from the dead, Jesus was talking about two separate Resurrections. In Matthew 22:30 Jesus said: “For in **the resurrection** they neither marry, nor are given in marriage…” The greek word for “resurrection” Here is ἀναστάσει (anastasei) and It means “a standing up, a resurrection, a raising up, rising”
Although this word is used for resurrection from the dead, we should always look at the context of the verse to understand what this word “anastasei” Is referring to.
📖Matthew 22:30-32 KJV📖
[30] For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. [31] BUT AS TOUCHING THE RESURRECTION *FROM THE DEAD,* have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, [32] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Abraham & Jacob both had multiple wives btw)
In Verse 30, Jesus was talking about when you die, your spirit and soul rise up to the Third Heaven to be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8), and THEN in verses 30-32 Jesus talks about the Resurrection from the dead.
So EVEN IF Matthew 22:30 said there’s no marriage in Heaven, It’s only speaking about saints in Heaven now (the intermediate state, as some people call It). And NOT about After the Resurrection.
If you want more information on Biblical Polygyny you can check out the website “biblicalpolygamy.com”
GOD BLESS YOU, AMEN.
Wow. I’m genuinely surprised at the strange interpretations of the Bible that I just read. Jesus was specifically dealing with how people would sort out former marriages when they got to heaven. He specifically said there will not be marriage in heaven. This isn’t about how you feel; it’s about what God said. He included that passage so that we understand that God has something bigger and better in our future.
False, In Luke 20:36 Jesus states one of the reasons for not marrying and being given in marriage is because the righteous resurrected can’t die anymore but will be like the angels in heaven. The contrast to angels is not about sexual desire, he’s contrasting mortality with immortality. Marry meant the male proposing for the woman to be his wife and being given in marriage meant the father giving her to the proposer, because she didn’t get a choice. It is actions done to be married, not marriage itself. Adam and Eve were married without marrying or being given in marriage. The question the sadducees asked was about the resurrection, not marriage. It was about a scenario where a woman was legally obligated to marry a brother of the previous husband if they had no children before one of the men died. She had children with none of them, so they thought that it was dissobeying God if she wasn’t married to the men after the resurrection, but polygamy is a sin, so God wouldn’t let there be a resurrection, to avoid a sin. They assumed the laws made after human sin would still exist when creation is restored to the conditions when those laws weren’t needed. Marriage remaining does not contradict Jesus answer to the sadducees, because the woman they asked about is only required to marry any of those men with the levirate law. The law ending does not forbid her from being married to a different man, It’s a false dilema. Jesus mention of not being able to die would make no sense unless he only meant legal customs to marry, because death is not a reason for marriage itself. Would any of the people who heard Jesus answer been amazed at it if he meant sexual feelings and relationships would be eliminated? I’m pretty sure Jews had as much sexual desire as most other people, so would have felt despair if that was the context.
At the beginning God said for us to be fruitful and multiply with no indication it was to ever stop. It is stated nowhere in the bible that there would eventually be no more room to fill. There would need to be a bigger earth to fit all people and animals, including insects, that have ever lived by the time of the resurrection. God expands the entire universe, doing the same to any planet shouldn’t conflict with his plans. Marriage was the only thing God said during the original creation that is not good to be without before creating it. He made Eve to complete humanity, brought her to Adam, and after that, it says for this reason shall people be united with a spouse to become one flesh. Jesus repeats this in Mattew 19:4-5 and Mark 10:6-7 and Paul does in Ephesians 5:31. If gender remains, the reason for marriage does. If Jesus answer to the sadducees meant no one will be married, then us being male and female is not the reason for marriage, and contradicts those texts, as well as the promise to restore all creation, because one of the creations would be missing. If God is the same forever and said it’s not good to be alone, then the opposite can’t also be true, or there’s a contradiction. God did not declare everything very good until he made marriage, because there was no longer anything missing needed to make anything better. The conditions of the original creation don’t need improving.
Many Christians have claimed that something unspecified would be needed to make life better forever and also make sexuality useless, ignoring the fact that marriage was something needed for creation to not be missing anything good. It’s contradictory and more akin to Buddhism than Christianity. If having something better is a reason to eliminate sex, it’s a reason to eliminate everything God made, and we should all just feel Gods presence, getting joy from that and never being with anyone else or doing anything else for eternity. If simply having a sinless relationship with God makes marriage unnecessary, then God would have had no reason to create gender and sex, because God and Adam already had the kind of relationship people will have with him in the renewed creation, before Eve was made. If God eliminated sexuality then the features that distinguish the genders faces and body shapes for sexual attraction, and parts used for sexual pleasure and reproduction would all be wasted. Gender having other functions is no reason to get rid of any of them. They’re all part of what makes us the genders we are and God doesn’t create anything expendable. The human female figure is shaped the way it is to fit babies during birth, and sperm, egg cells and wombs are used only for reproduction. keeping a libido is justified.
If people interpret Jesus answer to the sadducees as claiming no one will be married anymore, then they can’t consistently claim we’ll be married to Jesus as a replacement. God is described as a husband to his people in parts of Hosea, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and that wasn’t meant to replace marriage, because they are used as analogies, just as the wife of the lamb is in Revelation. They are different types of relationships that fulfill different desires. If marriage is a representation of Jesus redemption, then sin would have been necessary, so Jesus would have a reason to found church. God is not going to create something that requires what he hates.
If you are made unable to care about something you’re passionate about, regardless if you want to keep that desire, it’s manipulation of free will. There being people who dont care for it does not make it free will for those who want to keep it to have no choice but to not care. That’s a false equivalency. There being no disappointments isn’t teaching that the restored creation will automatically be satisfying even if God eliminates what produced the most pleasure of it. God created specific things to fulfill specific desires for creation to be complete. There’s a whole book devoted to the joy of sexual passion: Song of Songs, and has no indication that marriage is useless without reproduction. There isn’t a bible book entirely about the joy of any other creation. Heaven isn’t the final destination, it’s the renewed earth. The only thing that needs elimination is what sin did.
Isaiah 65:21-23 reflects building houses in heaven and not bearing children in pain.
If Jesus said that in His Father’s house there are many mansions and ‘I go and prepare a place for you”, why would we build houses?
If Isaiah says we won’t bear children in pain- why wouldn’t he write that we won’t bear children? Why did Jesus say there wouldn’t be marriage in heaven? Why would Paul say we would “be as the angels”?
Let’s look closely at Gods Word and see that the Lord is good!
The Bible says that there were born eunachs, some forced and some made voluntarily. There are people here that have no sexual desire or by some trauma- do not desire those things. Let each person pray that the Lord restores them to His will and purpose for each of them.
Why would God bless them in Genesis and say “be fruitful and multiply”? Why would God say that children are a gift from God and a heritage? Why would God remove these blessings and gifts? In heaven- He wouldn’t!
Why else would we build houses I’d Jesus is already doing so? More families! But why would He say no marriages?
I agree with the other commentator that marriage (in itself) was a Gos-given institution ordained by God, but we have to look at Biblical times.
Adam and Eve weren’t “married”. They were joined together by God. Marriage was an event that was later mentioned. The marriage “event” was similar to the baptism “event”. It was an outward sign to others of a commitment.
In the same way a husband and wife commitment in a public ceremony shows their community that there is- in fact- a bond to spouse, so is the public ceremony of baptism showing ones commitment to Christ (our part of becoming a type of bride or becoming eternally bound). In the same way our community shall keep us accountable towards our spouse, so shall our community help keep us accountable to our commitment to Christ!
This also shows outsiders- don’t touch. What God joined together- let not man separate. The wedding rings- nose rings, hand rings or other markings- let others outside of the witnessing community know that we are bound- don’t touch- in the same way that some may wear a cross around their neck.
Those things being said- we know that God originally joins together, but because of our fleshly, fallen world- some of us are “given in marriage” (against our wills or God’s will) and some of us are “marrying” (against God’s will). Although some marriages are redeemed here, some are not.
Throughout my life, I’ve had desires and hobbies that I haven’t always been given time to do. I’ve had a calling on my life since a teenager that I don’t believe will be fulfilled in this age, but in the next. God has never removed those desires, callings or interests that I’ve always had! I’ve fasted and prayed that God would remove all desires that aren’t part of His plan- and yet they aren’t removed, but rather confirmed that He has not finished!
In heaven (and on the New Earth), we will continue to do those things that we love that God has ordained before the foundations of the earth! I don’t like to build homes, but I like to decorate, while others like to build! Would God take those pleasures away? No! Clearly Isaiah teaches us that there WILL be building and gardening!
If one like fast cars, perhaps there are cars in heaven! Will we need them to get to work? Nope. We will still work our hobbies for perhaps trade, but we will also have time for enjoyment!
Will I dance all day? Play music all day? No! I will do those things in service to the Lord, my family, my friends, etc- but I will still enjoy gardening, fishing, water sports, sand and sea and as Proverbs 31 states- my trading will be profitable!
If you list every blessing in the Bible given to mankind, you can expect that there will be more! Marriage “ceremonies” will not be necessary. God will join together without need for prayer or ceremony. Adam knew Eve was from God- brought directly to him. Cain knew his wife and many other men knew their wives after that- without mention of “marriage” in the Bible.
I will still want to take a nap in heaven, but I won’t be tired. I will just want to sit in the shade of a palm tree in my hammock and smile with the waves crashing nearby. It will probably be a catnap, because there’s so much to do and see.
The talents that men have had stifled will be stifled no longer. We won’t need gas, oil, electricity, etc. We won’t be in a hurry. Does this mean no television or video games? Not necessarily. They aren’t in themselves evil. Will there be fashion? Yes! These aren’t in themselves evil.
What you will find- and I am always possibly in err, but in my humble knowledge of a great and loving God who’s given men of the earth talents and desires- we will glorify God in all that we do!
We will not desire jewelry, because jewels and valuable metals will be the streets and walls of His kingdom! They will not be rare any more! Do you want diamonds on you when they are surrounding you? But yet these things will not make us evil to have what God gives us!
Will those who’ve been given design gifts no longer design clothing? Of course! The great thing is that clothes will not be designed to make one “sexy” (a term never coined until the last hundred years). A swimsuit will not cause one to lust. It will be designed for comfort and purpose!
People will have so much to see, do and enjoy in heaven that we will not be television gluttons or video game gluttons (or even mystery novel gluttons)! Does this mean there will be no arts and entertainment? No! For all things will glorify Him!
Will God leave the barren womb that way for all eternity? No! For Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7:7-11 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
Do we really need to convince ourselves that because Jesus and Paul spoke to the Pharisees and Saducees against “marriage in heaven”, that He nullifies His promises to believers? No!
Jesus told the rich man to sell everything he had and follow him. Does this speak against riches here or in heaven? No! Job was rich. Abraham was rich. Joseph was rich. Israeeft Egypt rich.
God speaks to the heart. Just as God tested Abraham with what he loved most (His son), so did he test the rich man. One was willing, one was not. Abraham trusted God’s promise to raise up his seed. The rich man did not trust Jesus for eternal salvation. He did not follow Christ or he would’ve followed him after selling all of his things. He would’ve learned later that he would’ve had a mansion in heaven. Jesus tested his heart and will do that for us. God would never ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do.
God gave up His son (like Abraham), God gives us an inheritance of riches in heaven that we don’t deserve. We are joint heirs with Christ without all of us giving up our lives. The question is, what are we willing to give up to advance his kingdom because we trust in the promises He has for us?
I’m looking forward to eternity and we are so close to it now that I look more forward to it than ever! Praise God for the revelation of His Word!
The more I study His Word- the more I know His heart and love for us.
I’m sorry, but the analogy of a boy who wants chocolate is a very flawed analogy, with all due respect to Mr. Lewis. No one is asking the child to give up chocolate as a condition for having sex. People can and do continue to enjoy chocolate long into their active love lives; in fact, it often outlasts it! The “canned” interpretation of Jesus answer to the Sadducees is that we *will* give up our sexual/romantic companionship with love partners as a condition for being “married” to Christ. That is a very different prospect. One that I don’t agree with.
I am also not convinced that Jesus’ words have been interpreted best to mean “no marriage in heaven.” Let’s not forget that God’s Word is eternal.
“And Jesus said to them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection'” (Luke 20:34-36 ESV).
It is easy to jump to conclusions, but let’s delve into it. Notice He says no one will “marry” or “be given”, and that these are both verbs. Jesus doesn’t mention those who are married. Now, marriage is not an earthly thing but a spiritual thing: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Becoming “one flesh” isn’t something that can be explained physically, but the act of God. And we know that what God says is everlasting (Isaiah 40:8: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever). These explications should be enough to posit that what is commonly accepted about marriage in heaven is neither faultless nor final.
Even without these insights, there are questions justified by asking Christians who despair in the thought of losing their special relationship with their spouse upon going to heaven. Why would God establish marriage, to have it disestablished in heaven, when he can do anything? (I’m saying that he could of created a completely different structure for people to be born, for women to be provided for historically, for inheritances to be passed down, etc., then to completely disassemble Marriage between people in the later life). Many answers will also say we will have a special relationship with our loved ones while preaching dogmatically that there is no marriage in eternal life. If there is no spiritual union established by God between the saints, then on what basis is that belief founded? These questions and many more should lead Christians to look into Scripture and similarily evaluate it as I have.
But about sex. Will we have our seperate organs in heaven? What purpose will they serve? (it is entirely plausible that they will be like badges that glorify God, but the point is that the answer to this question isn’t certain). Sex is a good thing, made by God. Is it possible that sex will be in a higher form that we can’t understand now? Nowhere in the Bible does it say that there will no eating in heaven; it does say that the tree of life will be in the holy city. The opinion that there is no sex is only a conjecture. Rather than the Word rejecting sex in heaven, drawing parallels between it and other activities (as one way to search for truth), it leans toward the reality of sex in heaven, not like here on Earth, but transformed.
Let’s be aware of our sin nature and how we see everything through a broken lens. By surmising that “there is sex in heaven”, it is not asserting that we will have pleasure in each other and not God. One can believe in sex in heaven, and believe we will be married to Christ in heaven (if there is disagreement, then show me your texts). Sex, if in heaven, is doubtless not like sex here in a broken world.
We will live in a holy city, where the glory of God will fill every part. We will also be serving God (Revelation 22:3). If a city, I assume each one will tasked (and find joy in it) with something that God intends for them (perhaps similar to things we have passion for on Earth). There will be activities; it will not be like a hallucinogenic state of ‘maximum joy’, certainly not like anything induced by narcotics. There will likely be times of greater joy (Luke 15:7). If work, then something to devote oneself to; if a city, then likely events. It would seem at least plausible that sex exists, and that it isn’t idolatry, in the same way that focusing on work or events in heaven, is idolatry. These latter two don’t spark debate, but sex (in all its topics) has a way of creating a divide between people: (in this case) people who have a more open view, or people who have a more closed view, and neither is better than the other, but reflect different truths (i.e., God created sex as good so it must be also ordained in heaven, or, Christ alone satisfies us so sex is unnecessary and therefore must be absent from heaven, respectively). So taking the open view, sex is as weird as having jobs in heaven, in other words, not at all. And the points I’ve made shows that while the Bible doesn’t give us a clear answer, it leans toward sex, created by God, to be enjoyed some way in heaven (just as other activities are enjoyed).
It’s 2:30 in the morning here and my thumbs should rest, but I felt compelled to say this, as a reply to Germán and to open more discourse on this topic. I don’t discuss some things, for the reason that I do not have enough knowledge at the moment (e.g., what if you have had multiple marriaged or none at all?). I think these few points are enough to warrant consideration. As a fellow Christian I keep this in mind, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We will know there, but I have my hope here.
German, well said, while C.S. Lewis was brilliant, his analogy of a boy who wants chocolate is indeed a very flawed analogy, Tom Gruber pointed that out,
German, personally with me and food, Pizza, Chinese Food, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, etc. are much better than oatmeal, yet I still would never stop eating oatmeal , one does not negate another or render it irrelevant . I still eat oatmeal at times and enjoy it
Ezekiel 37:25
²⁵They will live int he land I gave to my servant Jacob; the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. ²⁶I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. ²⁷My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸Then the nations will know that I the LORD will make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.
Now, some might still argue that this is talking about unresurrected saints. However, it says forever; what does forever mean if it doesn’t mean what it says? “Forever” does not mean “1000 years” by any stretch of the definition! One could argue that God’s promise to Israel is for a world of unresurrected people to keep multiplying and producing children forever, who will then die and go to heaven, but this contradicts the Christian belief in the End Times. For a world like the present world to go on forever means the “End” would never come. It also contradicts the belief that death will be abolished. Death and a resurrected world cannot co-exist, so if death is a reason for marriage, then that statement in Ezekiel would not make sense. Finally, some could argue that people living there forever with their children and children’s children refers to children who were previously born on earth, but it also says God will 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀. How could God increase their numbers if it’s referring to a static place where the numbers of people are complete? Therefore, I think this is clear evidence that people are misinterpreting Matthew 22:30.
Thank you for this post. This is something that I have thought deeply about but of course never could articulate it so profoundly, eloquently and with such theological preciseness.
Very nice
There is so much good and helpful information on your website. I have found it truly helpful in my struggle against pornography addiction.
I do, however, believe this article is wrong in a very fundamental way. Marriage will exist in heaven. Families will exist in heaven. And sexual intimacy will exist as well. However, it will be coupled with a glory and intensity that we cannot now experience.
Can you really imagine heaven without the ones you love most? That to me seems completely foreign. I think God intends to preserve and exalt these relationships through the grace of Christ if we follow his laws. And that it is these family relationships that actually define heaven. God is our Father, the father of our spirits. He wants us to grow and be like him…like any good father would.
In fact to try to understand heaven without understanding the family centeredness of heaven is to completely miss the boat. I think many if not most Christians fundamentally understand this and that this is why we are the ones leading the fight against attacks on the family and for programs like “Focus on the Family”, “Family talk”, etc.
So, what about the scripture like the one in Matthew? Well, read it again. It doesn’t say there will be no married persons, only that there will be no marriages performed in heaven. And that is correct. Marriages have to performed in this life by God’s authorized servants. A civil marriage, while important for this life, has no validity in the next. It must be performed by God’s authority. Same as the ordinance of baptism.
The strongest motive for me to be clean and to fight temptation is to know that if I am true to my wife, she and I can be together with our children and continue to enjoy the intimacy and love that can only be found in marriage and family life.
I think Matthew 22:30 is very clear about no marriage in heaven, other than the marriage of Christ and his church. The doctrine of marriage in heaven is Mormon theology not Evangelical Christian theology.
No it’s not, it’s referring only to legal customs to regulate marriage. The reason for the sadducees question was that the levirate law required a person to marry someone if another died without children, so they thought if the woman hadn’t fulfilled the purpose of that law, she would still need to be married to them or they’d be sinning. If she did that, she and the men would commit polygamy which is also a sin so God wouldn’t resurrect anyone for eternity. They assumed that all of Gods laws would still be applicable in a renewed world, not understanding that the entire reason for recreating is to restore the conditions before those laws were needed, which included sexual passion. This is why Jesus mentions no death as a reason for not marrying and being given in marriage. Marriage is the only thing God said wasn’t good to be without before creating it and was needed for everything to be very good. After Adam and Eves first meeting it’s written that us being male and female is the reason people shall become one flesh with a spouse. Jesus quotes this when asked about divorce in Matthew 19:4-5 and Mark 10:6-7, and Paul does in Ephesians 5:31. If gender remains the reason for marriage does. Eliminating marriage would also waste sperm, egg cells and wombs, and the human female body shape is made to fit babies during birth and feed them afterward. It’s also for attracting males. Keeping sexual passion is justified, or else not everything will be restored, contradicting Gods promise that is stated in Romans 8:20-22 Acts 3:21 as well as the explicit reasons for marriage existing. It’s also a manipulation of free will to forcefully eliminate a passion for something God created us to have.
WILL THERE BE PHYSICAL RELATIONS IN HEAVEN BETWEEN PEOPLE?
Excellent post, Noah! Thank you. Very helpful.
This is an amazing article Pastor Noah! Mind-boggling. I mean intimacy with Jesus is EVERYTHING.
“This gives us reason to not worship sex and it also reminds us we don’t need sex.”
There are many ways to worship sex that often don’t get recognized as such. Sexual licentiousness, otherwise known as “reducing it to body parts” may be one way. But how about some other ways:
1. Extreme asceticism, or the worship of sex avoidance: I know of a man who said he married his wife specifically because he considered her so physically unattractive that it would help him with his battle with lust. I don’t think he told HER that, fortunately, because what wife would ever want to hear that. Another form of this asceticism is what the Spiritual Friendship movement advocates for same-sex attracted Christians, which is the creation of a marriage-lite alternative for gays and lesbians. They say it will be celibate but also bonded for life. Under this scenario, two gay men can adopt children and live together in a family-ish structure, as long as their physical contact is limited to hand-holding and an occasional closed-mouth kiss.
2. The perfect as the enemy of the good: Holding sex in marriage hostage to the perfect expression of it as an excuse not to engage in it at all. Al Mohler said “Consider the fact that a woman has every right to expect that her husband will earn access to the marriage bed.” So what does it take for him to earn access? So if he doesn’t earn access then sex is cut off? Now who is “worshipping sex”? We have taken a gift from God to be shared in marriage without restrictions and now created a whole list of legalistic restrictions to apply even in marriage. Sexual legalism is another aspect of worship.
3. Sexual anger/paranoia: Chris Taylor of https://forgivenwife.com/ says that she came to hate sex because of her mistrust of her husband and believed that the only reason he wanted sex was because he was selfish. So to give her husband something he wanted was, by definition, a loss for her.
4. My body, my choice: Julie Siebert said she lost her first marriage because of sexual withholding. It was a control issue. To have sex with her husband was to give up control of her own body. Even though 1 Corinthians 7 says our bodies belong to each other, modern feminism says “my body, my choice” whether it regards having sex in marriage or carrying a baby to full term.
Saying “we don’t need sex” is true as it regards physical survival. But a marriage covenant is not really marriage without it. If you’re saying you don’t need to have regular sexual relations within a marriage, then you might as well say you don’t need conversation, trust, sacrifice, etc. You’re not going to die without those either. But sex is the one thing in marriage where some so-called marriage experts in the church can say we don’t need without pushback. Why sex and not the other aspects of marriage?
I had a marriage counselor say exactly that – “You don’t need sex. Sex is a desire not a need. You’re not going to die without it.” Then my wife got to list all of her marital “needs” with no contradiction from the marriage counselor. The message was: Sexless marriage is A-OK. And if you want something better, husband, you’re going to have to earn it.
Well said. Sex is the glue that holds marriage together. It’s a special gift for each spouse to give to the other. And in giving, we receive. Sometimes we have to go very slowly and learn together. BUT the point of the article is not about this physical life. It is about how much GREATER will be the spiritual life with God forever. “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor. 13:10). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). I think it could also be said that the wonderful things of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. I realize that is not the context and that I added to Scripture. But if the earthly experience was the pinnacle of existence, we would have no reason to “desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:” (Phil. 1:23).
Pouple will not need affection and nearness?
If so we be like dolls!
That will not be lifegiving!
What kind of crazy new age psychobabble nonsense, theological claptrap is THIS??!!!!
This description of a “marriage” is a very powerful grenade with the pin pulled waiting to explode with devastating spiritual psychological relational destructive force.
This needs to be condemned in the blackest terms!
‘Lest you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven’ – children don’t develop sexual urges until about 8 years old, so when in heaven we simply won’t have those urges. You can’t miss what you don’t know.
How ignorant can people be? God already told us His will is for what He made to be restored. That’s why He’s going to recreate. He made everything He did for pleasure and His glory. Eden means pleasure. That’s why God recreating is something to hope for. It wouldn’t matter that God gave us desires for what He made if He was going to do something to make people not desire some of it anymore. That’s manipulating free will. 1 Samuel 15:29 Also the Glory of Israel will not lie nor change His mind; for He is not a man, that He would change His mind. God called His creation very good when he finished. God’s standard for good and evil doesn’t change. He’s going to restore everything because He’s sovereign. What sin did to creation is what needs to be gone, not anything it ruined. It would have been pointless for God to warn Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit if He was going to eliminate anything anyway.
Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Isaiah 65 17-19 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness. 19 I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying. 22-23: They will not build and another inhabit, they will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They will not labor in vain, or give birth to children for disaster; For they are the descendants of those blessed by the Lord, and their descendants with them. 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm on all My holy mountain,” says the Lord. Acts 3:21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. Romans 8:20–23 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
The belief being so popular with Christians that you should only care about having a restored relationship with God and being with many other people for eternity makes me wonder if I hate God if that isn’t enough to satisfy me. They imply that wanting everything God called good restored is no different than the prosperity gospel: the belief that God is just a source of material gain to make someone happy instead of the greatest satisfaction Himself. I’m still more sure God will restore everything good and that we should hope for that. God wouldn’t prophesy it if we’re not supposed to care.
Of course, the child who loves chocolate before he discovers sex, would still love chocolate. They are not mutually exclusive.
But if the chocolate was no longer available and sex was, the satisfaction level would still be complete, would it not? I venture the chocolate would not be missed!
Bitcoin, yes it would because it fulfills a different desire than sex. It makes experiences we can have less than before. Simply because something is better does not make anything else not desired anymore. That’s manipulation of free will.
Of course in heaven marriage would be something that endures regardless of whether someone did a ceremony and murmured some Mumbo jumbo.
Sex is unlikely because we will be something more. It won’t bother us.
If we returned to Earth then we would likely want sex again. But it is just a taste of something bigger.
Richard Lawrence and Patti Mercado, In Luke 20:36 Jesus states one of the reasons for no more marrying is because the saved resurrected can’t die anymore but will be like the angels in heaven. The contrast to angels is not sexual desire, He contrasted mortality with immortality. Marry meant the male proposing for the woman to be his wife and being given in marriage meant the father giving her to the proposer. It’s customs to be married, not marriage itself. Adam and Eve were married without marrying or being given in marriage. The reason for the Sadducee’s question was that the levirate law required a woman to marry the next oldest brother of her husband if he died without children. They thought if the woman hadn’t fulfilled the purpose of that law, she would still need to be married to all the brothers or they’d be sinning. If she did that, she and the men would commit polygamy which is also a sin, so to avoid sin, God wouldn’t resurrect everyone forever. They thought all of God’s laws would be needed in a renewed world, not knowing that the reason for recreating is to restore creation to before those laws were needed. Keeping marriage does not contradict Jesus’s answer to the Sadducees because the woman they asked about is only required to marry any of those men with the levirate law. The law ending does not forbid her from being married to a different man. It’s a false dilemma. Jesus’s mention of not being able to die would make no sense unless he only meant legal customs to marry because death is not a reason for marriage. It says in Revelation 20:6 that those who are awakened in the first resurrection won’t suffer for eternity. These are the same people in the prophecy in Isaiah 65:17-25. If Jesus said that those worthy to attain the age of the resurrection won’t marry or be given in marriage and are also said to continue being married and reproducing, that’s proof that Jesus only meant legal marriage customs will be gone. Would any of the people who heard Jesus answer been amazed at it if he meant sexuality would be eliminated? I’m pretty sure Jews had as much sexual desire as most other people, so would have despaired if that was the context.
At the beginning of creation, God said for us to be fruitful and multiply with no indication it was to ever stop. There would need to be a bigger earth to fit all physical beings that have ever lived by the time of the resurrection. God expands the entire universe. doing the same to any planet shouldn’t conflict with his plans. Marriage was the only thing God said is not good to be without before creating it. After Eve was made and brought to Adam, it says for this reason shall people be united with a spouse to become one flesh. Jesus repeats this in Matthew 19:4-5 and Mark 10:6-7 and Paul does in Ephesians 5:31. “For this reason” means it’s the only reason. Reproduction and representing God’s relationship are not reasons stated anywhere in scripture. If gender remains, so does marriage. If Jesus’s answer meant no one will be married, then it contradicts us being male and female being the reason for marriage, and God’s promise to restore all creation in Acts 3:21 and 24:15, 2 Peter 3:13, Romans 8:20-23 and 32 and other prophecies. After God made marriage, He called everything very good. The beginning conditions of the creation don’t need improving because God doesn’t change.
Many Christians have claimed that something unspecified would be needed to make life better forever and would also make sexuality useless, ignoring the fact that marriage was something needed for creation to not be missing anything good. It’s contradictory and more akin to Buddhism than Christianity. If having something better is a reason to eliminate sex, it’s a reason to eliminate everything God made, and we should all just feel God’s presence, getting joy from that and never doing anything else for eternity. If simply having a sinless relationship with God makes marriage useless, then God would have had no reason to create gender and sex, because God had the kind of relationship with Adam and Eve that people will have with Him in the renewed creation. If God eliminated sexuality then the distinguishing shapes of the gender’s faces, body shapes for sexual attraction, parts used for sexual pleasure, and reproduction would all be wasted. Gender having other functions is no reason to get rid of any of them. They’re all part of what makes us the genders we are and God doesn’t create anything expendable. The human female figure is shaped the way it is to fit babies during birth, and sperm, egg cells, and wombs are used only for reproduction.
If Jesus’s answer to the Sadducees meant no one will be married anymore, no one can be married to Jesus as a replacement. God is described as a husband to people in Hosea 2:7, Isaiah 45:5, Jeremiah 31:32, Ezekiel 16:8, and other Old Testament texts. That didn’t replace marriage either, because they’re analogies just as the wife of the lamb is in Revelation. They are different types of relationships that fulfill different desires. If marriage is a representation of Jesus’s relationship with the church, then people would have to have sinned so Jesus would have to redeem us. God is not going to create something that requires what He hates.
If you are made unable to care about something you’re passionate about, it’s manipulation of free will. Sin is a selfish way to try satisfying a desire, that makes us less satisfied afterward. Removing sin doesn’t manipulate free will. That’s not the same as removing a basic desire for any sensation. They think that since they don’t think of the joy that would be gone from losing that passion for eternity, that wanting to keep something God said wasn’t good to be without is the problem. They’re so obsessed simply with being eternally satisfied that they don’t know it’s only hopeful because it’s by restoration of all God made, not a replacement for any of it. That would make anything God made for us irrelevant. There’s a book all about the joy of sexuality: Song of Songs, and doesn’t imply that marriage is useless without reproduction. There’s no bible book devoted to the joy of any other creation. Heaven isn’t the final destination, it’s the renewed earth. The only thing that needs to be gone is what sin did.
Sex is a temporal occupation and it only happens here and nowhere else in the universe. We are the only beings created in God’s image in entire universe…Lucifer himself envies our privilege because he is NOT created in God’s image. Sex completes us because we actively participate in creation. Satan and other heavenly beings cannot reproduce in this or any other fashion.
Since sex’s primary objective is to populate the earth no one from our world will enter eternity by being born into it. Once redeemed reproduction will cease eliminating the need/use for sex.
Unity with God as one entity will preoccupy us with joy and objectives that are beyond our comprehension. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, it has not even come to mind the things that God has prepared for His Children. My naughty self says eternity feels like a perfect, constant, energising and eternal orgasm experienced through your entire being. Like I said thinking about eternity and our future state will drive you mad.
Bitonicon, wrong! Sex would not make chocolate redundant. But I’m guessing heaven will be filled with great pleasures that make marriage and sex redundant. Gender will never be redundant though.
What is “chaste sexual love”? Appreciating the beauty and outward attractiveness of the opposite sex without actually wanting to have sex with him/her. Sexual appreciation?
To say that romantic relationships and sexual activity are redundant because we have Jesus is like saying that food and beverage is redundant, like saying that trees, animals, rivers, mountains, possessions, and such are redundant. But many of those things will still be in Heaven, so they are obviously not redundant.