If you haven’t already, you really should read Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven. He introduces the idea that despite hundreds of references in scripture to the hereafter, only a couple of them seem to point to some place up there. Most talk about a new earth. This idea somewhat conflicts with some of the things we were taught in Sunday School, and like other doctrines, we often find ourselves having to re-learn things as we get older.
If the book’s 530 pages is intimidating, allow me to recommend Randy’s shorter version of it, 50 Days of Heaven: Reflections Which Bring Eternity to Light, which breaks down the larger book into 50 6-page devotionals. (That’s still 304 pages, but more bite-size for some of us!)
Whenever Randy posts things on his blog at Eternal Perspective Ministries, I always want to learn from him more about how this view reshapes some of the earlier perspectives I held. One thing remains consistent however, whether (as comedy group Isaac Air Freight put it so well) it’s ‘here, there, or in the air;’ we will have glorified bodies. Randy dealt with this briefly on the blog yesterday, click the link to read this at source and then take some time to look at other subjects he covers.
Will our new resurrection bodies have new abilities?
The disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! —John 20:19
Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared! —Luke 24:31
He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. —Acts 1:9
He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. —Philippians 3:21
Christ’s resurrection body had an ability to appear suddenly, apparently coming through a locked door to the apostles. And “He disappeared” from the sight of the two disciples at Emmaus. When Christ left the earth, He defied gravity and ascended into the air. It’s possible that the risen Christ, who is man yet God, has certain physical abilities we won’t have. Appearing and disappearing could be a limited expression of His omnipresence, and His ascension might be something our bodies couldn’t imitate.
On the one hand, because we’re told in multiple passages that our resurrection bodies will be like Christ’s, it may be possible at times for us to transcend the present laws of physics and/or travel in some way we’re not now capable of. On the other hand, it’s our God-given human nature to be embodied creatures existing in space and time. So it’s likely that the same laws of physics that governed Adam and Eve will govern us. We can’t be sure, but either way it will be wonderful.
Our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. —1 Corinthians 15:53
Our resurrection bodies will never fail us. They’ll work in perfect concert with our resurrected minds. We won’t get sick, grow old, or die from either an accident or natural causes.
Christianity 201 
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