Torch, Spring 1992

eaven is a place where every resident will bow down and worship the Christ who redeemed him. It is and will be a place of reverence, a place of profound awe, respect, and worship. A young seminary student was once called to the deathbed of a faithful old soldier of the Cross. The young man sought to comfort the aged saint as he faced the last and inevitable hour. He read to him from chapter 14 of John, verse 2: "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." The young man stopped reading and began speaking to the aged Christian about the glorious mansion in the sky. As he spoke, the old pilgrim placed his hand on the young man 's arm and said, "No, no, my son, read on. Read the third verse." So the young man continued, " If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." The aged saint said, "Son, that is it! That is it! It is not a mansion in the skies or streets of gold beyond pearly gates that these old eyes are longing to see. It is my Savior I want so much to see. It will be heaven enough to love Him and to be with Him." J. Dwight Pentecost said, "There is the danger that the redeemed one will become so occupied with the anticipation of his own experience of glory that the supreme glorification of the Godhead is lost. Our occupation in the eternal state will not be with our position or glory, but with God Himself' (Things to Come [Findlay, OH: Dunham Publishing Company, 1958], p. 582). As glorious as the radiance and riches of heaven will be, the sight of the Redeemer will make the sight of all we shall view around us to be of less importance to the believer. We shall see Him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen" (Revelation 1:7). We anticipate that the first One we shall see in heaven will be the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall see Him as He is described by John in Revelation 1: 13-15 : "And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of