This testimony describes the eternal joy and freedom from sin experienced by the redeemed in Heaven. The prophet explains that glorified souls are forever delivered from sin, temptation, and punishment, and now live in perfect holiness and peace. They behold God face to face, filled with unspeakable joy and love, far beyond anything known on Earth. The vision of God transforms them into His likeness and gives perfect knowledge and communion. The testimony also reveals that the resurrected bodies of the saints will be spiritual, incorruptible, and immortal, sustained by the presence of God, not by physical needs. All of this is possible only through God's grace and the redemptive work of Christ.
THE HAPPINESS IN HEAVEN
The prophet continued, "I will briefly tell you about our happiness here, for ages spent on this delightful theme would only begin to explain it. That you may have the best understanding, I will first explain about what the redeemed souls have been delivered from, and secondly about the happiness which they enjoy here."
"Firstly, the souls of all the glorified are forever freed from everything that can make them miserable, which above all, is sin. It was sin which brought misery into creation. The blessed God at first made all things happy, like Himself. Had not sin defaced the beauty of His workmanship, angels and men would have never known what is meant by misery. It was sin which threw the apostate angels down into hell, and spoiled the beauty of the lower world. It was sin which defaced God's image in man's soul, and made the ones who were to be the lords of creation—into slaves of their own lust. It is sin which can also plunge them into an ocean of eternal misery from which is no redemption. It is an invaluable mercy that in this happy place, all the saints are forever freed from sin through the blood of our Redeemer. In the earth below, the best and holiest of souls groan under the burden of corruption. Sin clings to all that they do, and often leads them captive against their will. "Who shall deliver me?" has been the cry of many of God's faithful servants, who at the same time have been dear to Jesus. Sin is the heavy weight upon the saints, while they live in their corrupted flesh. Therefore when they lay their bodies down, their souls are like a bird loosed from its cage, and with a heavenly joy they rise up to heaven. But here their warfare is at an end, and 'death is swallowed up in victory.' Below their souls were deformed and stained by sin—but here their bright souls by the ever-blessed Jesus are presented to the Father 'without spot or wrinkle.'"
FREEDOM FROM TEMPTATION
"Not only are the saints here free from sin—but also from any temptation to sin. When Adam was in paradise, though he was innocent and free from sin—yet he was not free from temptation. Satan got into paradise and Adam fatally yielded to his temptations. Like a disease, sin has eaten into the human nature and corrupted all mankind."
"Here each soul is freed from this. Nothing but what is pure and holy can find admission here. That roaring lion who roams back and forth throughout the earth seeking whom he may devour, in respect to the saints in heaven, is bound fast in everlasting chains. The temptations of the world shall never again allure those who through faith and patience have overcome it, and safely arrived here. In heaven we look with contempt on all earthly enjoyments. There is nothing here that can disturb our peace—but an eternal calm crowns all our happiness."
FREEDOM FROM PUNISHMENT
"Since we are freed from all sin and its effects, we are also rescued from punishment. After death, hell confines the unforgiven sinner to eternal misery. Yet the redeemed are delivered from all these things."
"However, these things are but the least part of the happiness of heaven. Our joys are positive, more than just the negative that we have been redeemed from. What these are I shall try to show you."
THE SIGHT OF GOD
"Here we enjoy the sight of God, the blessed spring and eternal source of all our happiness. But what this is, I can no more fully explain—than can finite creatures comprehend infinity. Yet the sight of God continually fills our souls with unspeakable joy, and with a love so flaming that nothing but the blessed author of it can satisfy, nor eternity itself can end. It is that which makes us live, love, sing, and praise forever, while it also transforms us into His blessed likeness. Beholding God's face, we enjoy His love. His blessed smiles make glad our souls, and in His favor we rejoice continually, 'for in His favor is life.' And by this blessed vision of God, we come to know Him far above how any had known Him in the world below. For the sight of Him opens our understandings, and 'gives us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Here we all enjoy Him face to face. Below the saints enjoy God in a measure—but here we enjoy Him without measure. There they have some sips of His goodness—but here we drink largely and swim in the boundless ocean of happiness! Below the saints have their communion with God broken off many times—but here it is uninterrupted. Below love is mixed with fear, and fear has torment; but here love is perfect, and perfect love casts out fear. In heaven we love God more than ourselves, and one another like ourselves. Here we enjoy the perfection of all grace."
ENLARGED UNDERSTANDING
"In heaven our understanding and knowledge is enlarged according to the greatness of what we can observe and think. In the world below, light could only shine into our minds through the windows of our senses, so God had to condescend to our limited capacities when revealing His Majesty. Our purest ideas of God were very imperfect—but here the gold is separated from the dross and we can conceive the holiness and purity of God. We understand about His decrees and counsels, His providence and dispensations. We clearly see here that from eternity God existed alone—but not solitary, that the Godhead is neither confused in unity, nor divided in number. We see that there is a priority of order but no superiority among the persons of the Trinity—but that they equally have the same excellency and power, and equally are adored. Those ways of God that in the world below seemed unsearchable and beyond our comprehension, we understand so clearly here by His divine wisdom, that the truth could not be made more simple."
GLORIFIED BODIES
"These are some of the things which make our souls happy. However, the happiness of the saints in heaven will not be complete until their bodies are resurrected and united with their souls. I will therefore show you what the resurrection body shall be like:"
"First, the resurrection bodies of the blessed, will be spiritual bodies, like mine. You may better understand this not only by seeing but by touch. (After saying this, the holy prophet was pleased to give me his hand.) They will be bodies which are purified from all corruption—yet will have substance. They will not be like wind or air, as people on earth sometimes foolishly imagine."
SPIRITUAL VS. MATERIAL
Then I said to him that I always understood spiritual as the opposite of material, so I thought that a spiritual body must be immaterial, and not capable of being touched or felt as I found his hand was.
To this the prophet replied that their bodies were spiritual, not only because they were purified from all corruption—but as they were sustained by the enjoyment of God without needing food, drink, or sleep. Beholding the Lord is what supports both their souls and their bodies, and is what they live upon forever. "Have you not read," said the prophet, "that the blessed Jesus, after His resurrection, appeared in His body to His disciples when they were met together in a chamber and the doors shut about them? And yet He called to Thomas to come and reach forth his hand and thrust it into His side," which shows it had substance."
IMMORTALITY EXPLAINED
"Our bodies in the resurrection shall be immortal, and incapable of dying. Below their bodies are all mortal, perishing, and subject to crumbling into dust at any time. But here our bodies will be incorruptible and freed from death forever, for our corruption here shall put on incorruption, and our mortality will be swallowed up of life."
Here I desired the prophet to bear with me a little, while I gave him an account of my own ideas about these matter. "Speak, for I am ready to remove your doubt," he said.
"I have learned," I said, "in the holy Scriptures that immortality belongs to God only, and not to men. Daily experience tells us that bodies of men are mortal, and die. Therefore Paul told Timothy that God alone has immortality."
"When I say that the bodies of the glorified here are immortal, I am speaking about the bodies in their resurrected state, that then they are subject to death no more. Man in his corruptible state is mortal and subject to death. And there is nothing more evident to all who dwell in the world below. Even the bodies of all those glorified souls who are here in heaven, are at this time still kept under the power of death. At the resurrection day, when they shall be raised up again—then they shall then be immortal. And as to what you say from the Scripture, that the blessed God alone has immortality, it is very true. He is most essentially so in His own being and nature; there is no angel or man that can, in that strict sense, be said to be so. We are immortal through His grace and favor; but God is immortal in His essence and has been so from all eternity. In that sense He may well be said to alone have immortality. Whatever the blessed God is, He is essentially so in His own being. It can likewise be said that He alone is holy, and there is none good but God, none righteous but God, and none merciful but He."
This testimony reveals the unspeakable happiness and glory of Heaven, where the redeemed enjoy perfect communion with God, each according to their capacity to love Him. Saints shine with different degrees of brightness, not out of competition, but because of their love and likeness to God. They rejoice in seeing Christ as King, surrounded by friends and family in pure, selfless love. Heaven is also a place of perfect understanding, where even past afflictions are seen as mercies. The joy is inexhaustible, like drinking from a boundless river of God’s goodness. Though human relationships cease, all are united in eternal worship, peace, and joy in the presence of their Redeemer.
WE SHALL KNOW EACH OTHER
I remarked, "As I was brought here, I saw among the saints some who appeared to shine with greater brightness than the others. Are there among the blessed different degrees of glory?"
"The happiness and glory which all the glorified here enjoy is the result of their communion with and love to the ever blessed God. The more we see Him—the more we love Him; and love changes our souls into His nature, and from this results our glory. This makes a difference in the degrees of glory. Nor is there any murmuring in one to see another’s glory much greater than his own. The ever blessed God is an unbounded ocean of light and life, and joy and happiness, still filling every vessel—until it can hold no more. And though the vessels are of several sizes, while each is filled there are none who can complain. My answer therefore to your question, is that those who have the most enlarged capacity do love God most—are thereby changed most into His likeness. This is the highest glory which heaven can give. Nor let this seem strange to you, for even among God’s flaming angels there are diversities of order and different degrees of glory.
REDEEMED SOUL SPEAKS OF THE SAVIOR
While I was talking with the prophet a shining form drew near. It was one of the redeemed. He told me he had left his body below resting in hope until the resurrection; and that though he was still a substance yet it was an immaterial one, not to be touched by mortal.
He said, "We here behold a sight worth dying for—the blessed Lamb of God, the glorious Savior! Here we see Him in His kingly office, on account of which He is called King of kings and Lord of lords. But all the glorious greatness of our blessed Redeemer does not make His kindness seem distant—but only more precious. It makes heaven more than heaven to me—to find Him reigning here, Who suffered so much for me in the world below! And our Redeemer’s great happiness increases our own, as He invites each faithful servant to enter into his Master’s joy."
HEAVENLY RECOGNITION AND PURE LOVE
"Here we see not only our elder Brother, Christ—but also our friends and relatives. Although Elijah lived in the world below long before your time, you no sooner saw him—than you knew him. And so you will also know Adam when you see him. Here we communicate the purest pleasure to each other—a sincere ardent love uniting our society. And oh, how happy is that state of love! Where there is love like this—all are filled with delight. How can it be otherwise, since in this blessed society there is a continual receiving and returning of love and joy."
MYSTERIES OF RELIGION REVEALED
"But besides, all the happiness which comes to us by our communion with God and with each other—it is to me a mighty happiness to understand all the deep mysteries of religion which the wisest in the world below could not fully understand. Here we discern a perfect harmony between those scripture texts that in the world below seemed to oppose each other. And here we are especially filled with wonder and gratitude at discovering the divine goodness towards each one of us in particular. In respect to my former life on earth, I have seen the mercifulness of those very afflictions which I once (when upon earth) thought to show His anger. I am now fully convinced that no affliction that I ever met with in the world below (and I have met with many) either came sooner, or fell heavier, or continued longer—than what was needful for my good. My hopes were not disappointed—but God used all things to prepare me for a better eternal reward than what I had hoped for."
INEXHAUSTIBLE JOY OF HEAVEN
"But I remember that you are still in the body, and may be tired with hearing what I could forever tell, so great is the happiness that I possess. I shall only add one other thing about our happiness: though a vast multitude of blessed souls partakes of this joy and glory, this does not make less of what each receives. For this ocean of happiness is so bottomless, that the innumerable company of all the saints and angels can never exhaust it. Nor is this strange, for in the world below everyone equally enjoys the benefit of sunlight. There is no one who can complain that they enjoy it less, because another enjoys it also. All enjoy the benefit of sunlight as fully—as if no one else enjoyed it but themselves. If a multitude of people drink of the same river—none of them is able to exhaust it, even though each of them has the liberty of drinking as much as he can. So whoever enjoys God—enjoys Him as much as he can contain, according to his capacity."
A GLIMPSE OF HEAVENLY CANAAN
"Thus I have given you a brief account of our heavenly Canaan. It is not the thousandth part of that which might be said—yet it is enough to let you see it is a land flowing with milk and honey. In this happy place, worldly relations cease. Nor are there male and female here—but all are like the angels. For souls cannot be distinguished into sexes, and therefore all relations are here swallowed up in God."
BRIGHTNESS OF THE REDEEMED
He had no sooner spoken than he took me by the hand. Then, far swifter than an arrow from a bow, we passed by several shining forms clothed in robes of immortality, who looked at me as I passed them. He said, to me, "Farewell, my friend, your guardian angel will shortly come and bring you back to the world below."
I drew near the shining form of a redeemed one who stood before me, who appeared extremely glorious, encircled with rays of dazzling luster. I hardly could behold her—for the exceeding brightness of her face.
She said to me, "For what I am—to Him who is on the throne, be all the praise and glory. The robe of glory which you see me wear—is only the reflection of His own bright beams!"
THE SONG OF DIVINE LOVE
"You appear to be one who feels the mighty joys that you speak of."
She replied, "You should not think this strange. The mighty wonders of divine love and grace will be the subject of our song forever! Here all human relations cease and are swallowed up in God Who is alone the great Father of all this heavenly family. As for the members of the family that I left behind in the world below, I have committed them to God. I would be glad to see them all heirs of this blessed inheritance. But if they should join with the grand enemy of souls and refuse the grace offered them, and thereby perish in their unbelief—God will be glorified in His justice, and in His glory I shall still rejoice!"
KNOWLEDGE OF EARTHLY AFFAIRS
Then I desired to know whether the saints in heaven understood and were concerned for what was happening in the world below.
To this she replied, "As to the affairs of particular people, we are not concerned with them and are ignorant of them. Only God is present in all places and sees all things. But the struggles and the victories of the church below, is told to us by the angels, who are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. From what they report we are excited to renew our praises to Him who sits upon the throne."