Friday, October 8, 2010

Can joy and knowledge coexist in Heaven?

After reading "Hell," I remembered that growing up I was taught that those in Heaven do not think about who isn't in Heaven with them (meaning those who went to hell). Because thinking about those condemned would cause the souls to be sad and souls can't be sad in Heaven.
I wonder if souls in Heaven really are completely unaware of those or anyone going to hell, and if so, are souls in Heaven completely unaware that hell exists? Do we somehow "forget" or lose the knowledge of hell we possessed on earth? I don't know how else to explain the co-existence of complete joy in Heaven and the knowledge of those lost.
This ties into a question I thought was raised in the chapter about whether humans are more compassionate than God. How I interpreted what was said is that we would be compassionate for those lost and thus sad in Heaven (which isn't supposed to be possible). And it led to asking the question if we would feel this way, why doesn't God? Are humans more compassionate than God?
I believe this isn't that case though. God gave us emotion; he gave us compassion. I believe instead that God has more compassion than us even, but he has the capability of being perfectly happy and perfectly sad because he is perfect. I don't think God ever promised he wouldn't have sorrows in Heaven, just us--but again it raises the question whether that occurs through the lack of knowledge of hell when we go to Heaven.

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