Not long after I first started here at FR I posted a thread I called “Hell, the Worm and the Fire” and one of the things I roundabout suggested is that unknowableness (as we might call it from this thread these posts as a reference point) is more on the heaven side of things than the hell side.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1736726/posts
I reasoned that the simple absence of sin, not knowing about sin as if the perfected saints will develop amnesia but the flat out absence of it nonetheless, would mean that the new heaven and earth could be virtually the same as this one but that absence alone, or rather the unfettered presence if Holiness, make that world unknowable in the sense of neither eye has seen nor ear has heard sort of thing. That we simply lack any valid frame of reference to understand what that will be LIKE.
In the meantime we do have sin and fall short of the glory of God, and if we are mindful of it we may even be able to sense hell’s metaphorical heat radiating and encompassing about people that we actually know and care for.
Simply, we can comprehend (have a valid frame of reference for) having a want for Holiness. The still mortal saints are reckoned holiness ... but we’re still the ones who, when they fall down, they get up. Yes, of course that’s getting lots of help to “get up”. That should go without saying. Folks who think “I’ve got this” can be in for a world of hurting before they start to learn to trust the Lord to guide their steps.
You make some very valid points.
I always think about this world and how everything depreciates.
Buy a new home, new car, new shirt, get a pretty girlfriend, eventually with time stuff starts to break, dent, fall apart and get crabby with age.
In Heaven, I imagine things “appreciating”. Everything getting better.
The lack of dust, dirt, mildew, mold, contaminating particles, corrosive elements - it’s all gone.
Personally, I also believe the New Earth will be much much bigger as well - like Saturn or Jupiter size (no Biblical evidence, just my little guess).
Within the last year, I’ve had three friends pass away all unexpectedly and very young. And I truly fear for all three of them in the eternal realm. Scary doesn’t even begin to describe it.
I get treated like kook here on FR because I actually believe in this stuff, but if you truly love folks - you’re going to tell them about Heaven & Hell.