Q. How old do you think we will be in heaven? Is there anything in the bible about it? If you die old will you still be old in heaven? What about babies who die? Will they still be infants in heaven?
How Old will we be in Heaven?
Maturity in Heaven
“He (Christ) is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ . Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth” (Ephesians 4: 11-14, NLT).
Aquinas’ theorized that because Jesus attained the “fullness of Christ,” then we will too as we become mature Christians.
Bodies like Yeshua’s
Many teachers point to these verses to hint at our heavenly ages:
“We know that when He appears, we will be like Him…” (1 John 3:2, NASB).
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body…” (Philippians 3:20-21, ESV).
The theory here is that Jesus’s earthly body reached the age of about 33 when He was crucified, rose back to life, and ascended into heaven. Since, Jesus’s body was 33 years old when He went back into heaven, they say, our bodies will also be 33 years old, because we will be like Jesus.
33 years old is also thought to be the optimal age for our bodies here on earth, and so, some people believe that we will all be about 33 years old in heaven. These teachers feel that since Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) was about 33 years old in His resurrection body, then age thirty will be the approximate state of our resurrected bodies, too.
DNA Code
Others, such as Jack Van Impe, suggest that our DNA stops aging around thirty years of age. Since that is an optimal age, and because Yeshua was crucified at around 33 years of age, perhaps this is one more reason to assume a resurrected body of about 30 years of age.
Because of these truths that we see in Scripture, our ages will not be important. A 90 year-old body will be just as strong and vigorous as a nine year-old body. The things we associate with old age will be gone.
Wrinkled skin, hair that turns grey or falls out, and eyes that become weak are all things that happen here on earth when the body begins to age and lose its strength. Nearly everything we associate with old age here on earth will be gone in heaven, because our bodies will not weaken or wear out.
In other words, nobody will be hobbling around in heaven, hunched over walkers with wrinkled skin and hearing aids. Those who are elderly when they go to heaven will have their old bodies made new.
Babies
And some think that all of the children and babies who died will be allowed to grow up in the midst of believing family members until they attain their optimal age in the city of New Jerusalem.
Why not? Everything else seems to be literal concerning our future home in New Jerusalem. Why not that, too?
To be sure, many children who die young, perhaps due to miscarriage, the tragedy of abortion, or other very early childhood deaths, will be in heaven. God, in His mercy, allows for this because these children have had no opportunity to understand their need for a Savior and have therefore not had a chance to commit their lives to Christ. To demonstrate this truth, please see this passage:
His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”
22 He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 samuel 12:21-23)
In this passage, David has just lost his baby boy (a punishment from God for David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah her husband). David’s repentance was genuine, but the consequences of his sin took place nonetheless.
But as David explains to his attendants why he has stopped fasting and praying now that the child has died, David gives a matter-of-fact reply. “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
David knew that he would be reunited with his child in heaven, and this truthful statement was recorded, with God’s inspiration in the Bible.
Exactly at what age a child becomes old enough to be held responsible for his sin is a topic for another whole study in itself, but we can take comfort in knowing that the very young and the unborn will be in heaven.
Will children remain children in heaven? Again, we don’t know. But since young babies are unable to walk or do many things for themselves, it seems unlikely (in my opinion) that anyone’s resurrected and perfected bodies would be in such a helpless or vulnerable state. Yet, the possibility is there.
100 Year-Old Kids
Not to be forgotten, people are considered young when they are 100 years old during the Millennium. While the 1000 year Millennial rule of Christ occurs prior to the New Jerusalem, verses about it say,
“No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old…” (Isaiah 65:20, ESV).
Supernatural Men & Women
Last, we suspect “age” will become an irrelevant topic in Heaven. We will be supernatural men and women, filled with new power and new duties to perform in the magnificent universe of our Lord. It will be a busy, fulfilling time. Don’t forget that we will be given the task of “governing” angels, for example (1 Corinthians 6:3).
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (philippians 3:20-21)
The way in which the Bible describes our new bodies is as a transformation of our current bodies. That is, our new bodies will be a resurrected, renewed, perfected version of our current bodies.
The same God who originally created Adam from the dust of the earth will effortlessly resurrect our earthly bodies, regardless how decayed or scattered their parts might be. It would seem, then, that our appearances will be recognizable as how we appeared on earth, although our bodies will be the ideal versions of themselves.
Not only will our bodies be transformed, they will be immortal. Our current perishable bodies will be transformed, in glory, to immortal bodies, as these passages remind us:
But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 corinthians 15:35-56)
Living within new, extra Dimensions
We will also function in new dimensions which enable us to appear and disappear (Luke 24:31), float through the air (Luke 24:51), visit parallel universes (Matthew 18:20), and master other areas where Yeshua demonstrated superior abilities.
Super IQs
Our IQs will likely be much higher – some have theorized as high as 100,000 rather than 100 for mortal men. Angels, for example, are thought to possess IQs superior to man’s due to their ability to manipulate several dimensions (Heb. 1:14, Dan. 10:12-14, 2 Kings 6:16).
Ultimately, it will not matter what age our minds or our bodies appear to be when we are in heaven. Our bodies will never weaken, decay, break down, or die. Our minds will be full of wonder, continuously learning and discovering new things with childlike wonder. Age will be irrelevant. The point is, we will be with God, and what a glorious life to look forward to!
