For those who believe in heaven: is it corporeal? What happens to bodies?

Asked by elbanditoroso (33577

) February 20th, 2016

I don’t believe in the concept of heaven, so I don’t have any teachings that help me answer this question.

For those who believe in heaven, were you taught it is a real place where you have a post-death physical existence? Do you have a body in heaven, or is all virtual (spiritual)?

If you believe in a corporeal heaven, how does that work if the death was violent? For example, a person was decapitated and died. In heaven, is that person’s body all together again? The same would go for stabbings or gunshot wounds, or for that matter bad burns.

If you believe in a corporeal heaven, how old are you in heaven? For example, a person dies at age 80 after living a good and long life. Is that person 80 in heaven, or is that person 40? Or perhaps a child?

Finally, in your religious teachings, what is said about how people are dressed in heaven? Robes? Tuxedos? Street clothes? Nudity?

[Contemporary film offers no particular insight on this last question, but films are fictional anyway. Some films show heaven as people with long, flowing white robes. Several films show people in heaven as being formally dressed. ]

I am putting this in as a General question because I genuinely want to know what your teaching has been. I’m not going to question your belief.

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4 Answers

I don’t; but I remember the words of the Apostles’ Creed, including this: “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

Jeruba (56106

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The teachings of the Catholic Church are this: When we die, body is buried, soul survives, is judged and the souls of the just go to heaven.

At the end times, when the Second Coming occurs, the bodies of the just will be resurrected in a “glorified” form, free from fault and defect, to live in glory with God for all eternity.

Strauss (23835

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I was led to believe Heaven was a place in the sky in the clouds where all the devoted get to go when they die…their bodies will be intact once again and get to reunite with all those who went before you. I imagined heaven to be quite crowded.

Cruiser (40454

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In what I was taught in the Christian faith, your spirit goes to heaven, leaving your earthly body behind. Your spirit isn’t wounded no matter how much your body was, so you don’t take your sickness/bodily injury with you. Your body was simply a vehicle. Age no longer matters, as you’re there for eternity, and eternity itself cannot be measured in our concept of time. I was never taught about dress while in heaven, nor have I seen it in the Bible as of yet. (Have not read every single word as of yet so that could change should I find it)

Clothing is simply a bodily thing as well. Adam and Eve, before the Fall to sin, were naked and didn’t require clothing. Only after they sinned did they feel the need to cover up their bodies in shame. I’m sure, because of the absence of sin in Heaven, our spirits won’t be ‘covered’, if there even is the appearance of a body.

Tea_Gryphon (517

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