What Age Will Everyone Be In Heaven?

What will our age be in heaven?

Babies in Heaven?

What about babies that die before the age of accountability, whatever that age is? What of special needs children or adults who are not able to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ? What if a child or an adult is not able to comprehend what it means to be saved or to confess what sin is? Do they even know the definition of sin (1 John 3:4)? Can mentally incapable individuals, young or old, “suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18) if they don’t know what that truth is? Are these also without excuse (Rom 1:20)? There is a hint from Scriptures that seem to indicate that indeed, babies do go to heaven. After David’s adulterous affair and subsequent murder of her husband, Uriah, God sent His judgment on him by taking the life of their child, however, David knew it wasn’t the end of the relationship because he said after the baby died, “But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam 12:23) which obviously means David has not seen the last of this child.

What age David’s child will be when he does go to him (presumably David’s already there with the child) is anyone’s guess, but we can see additional Scriptures to see what possibilities exist. One such possibility is that 30 years of age is the height of human physical and mental ability, although with age, comes the critical components of experience and wisdom, but this age seems to be a very common number when someone is to be used by God. For example, the age that the Levite could enter into the Levitical priesthood was 30 years of age. Thirty years of age is also the time that Jesus entered into His earthly ministry, where 30 years later, He would be nailed to the cross. Does this suggest that the optimal health or age of a person is 30 years of age? God seems to indicate in His laws that the age of 30 makes a person fully capable of knowing what they are doing and adequately mature enough to do it. his may mean that age 30 is when we reach the peak of our lives, therefore we can speculate that perhaps the very aged who died in the faith or those who were too young or unable to understand the gospel, may have a body about or at age 30 after Christ’s return. The Bible just doesn’t tell us but it does seem reasonable. Wouldn’t it seem strange if the person who died in the faith and after Christ’s return is joined with His “new” body but it’s an 87-year old body! That just doesn’t seem right to me nor does it seem right that a baby who died and who was incapable of knowing Christ would have a new body in the kingdom but it would be a baby’s body…forever.

New Bodies

Much of what we do know about receiving a new body comes from the Apostle Paul who, in explaining about the death and resurrection of the body at Christ’s return, went into great detail about the process. Paul wrote that “what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body” (1 Cor 15:37-38) and “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44). The person who has placed their trust in Christ has this great and precious promise, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor 15:49). Someday, perhaps soon, “the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:52b-54). Paul seems to be teasing or taunting death itself in writing, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting” (1 Cor 15:55). Death’s sting was taken by Jesus Christ and now death has no more sting and someday, death shall be no more (Rev 21:4).

Conclusion

We can only guess about what the age a baby will be or an elderly person will be in the kingdom. It really won’t matter because just being there will be utterly joyful. The fact that we will enter into the kingdom with a new body is good news for those of us who’s bodies are breaking down with age. Every year it seems I add one more thing that proves my body’s not cooperating with me anymore. That makes me yearn for the kingdom even more, but what joy it will be for those of us who are sick and tired of sin; we’ll be saved to sin no more…and that can’t happen soon enough for me.

Something else that might interest you: Will We Recognize Friends and Family in Heaven?

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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