Will we recognize one another in heaven?

Question: Often, when someone dies, the survivors say, “We’ll get to see him/her again in heaven.” Is there any Biblical support that Christians who knew each other on earth will recognize or know each other in heaven?

Answer: It appears that whether we knew each other on earth or not we will know each other in heaven and in the kingdom. I base this on the account of the transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17. Peter says in verse 4, “If you wish, I will put up three shelters – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Now unless Jesus specifically told them who the two standing with him were when He was transfigured, Peter just somehow knew this. I get the sense that whatever identifiers we now use (outward physical appearance, voice, etc.) will be communicated more immediately to our spirits once we are confronted with each other in spiritual form in heaven or in our spiritual body/spirit forms on earth in the kingdom.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that in the kingdom we shall “know fully” even as we are “fully known.” Certainly this would include knowing one another. But even in the most unlikely event that we don’t immediately recognize one another, we will certainly be able to identify ourselves to one another. I can tell you who I am and you can tell me who you are and we will be able to reminisce.

Randall Johnson

Is it possible the kingdom has already come?

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Question: Can you explain Matthew 16:28 to me. Is it possible that His kingdom has already come and we are really living out the end-times?

Answer: Most likely Jesus was referring to what happened immediately after that (ch. 17), the transfiguration, which was a kingdom expression of who he really is, the God/Man, whose glory shines forth. Peter, James and John got to witness the “kingdom” in those moments with Christ and Moses and Elijah.

The Corinthians seemed to have bought into a current teaching of false teachers at the time that the kingdom had already come. Paul sarcastically, though with pain and concern for the Corinthians, writes, “I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!” (1 Corinthians 4:8). As a result, they had begun to question the resurrection (ch. 15) being a bodily, future event, and posed the idea that it had occurred in a present, spiritual sense. But Jesus made it clear that when he comes again and resurrects believers, no one will be able to miss it. “As lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27).

Randall Johnson