Will There Be Sex in Heaven?

[Lynx]

Most of the things I have to talk about are deeper than most people are able or willing to go (some people who don't understand what I'm saying will attack what I'm saying (or me) because they can't make sense of it and aren't calm enough to simply ask and keep asking, "What do you mean?" until they understand what I'm saying), but if I make time today, I'll start posting some of those topics. You can check in from time to time or follow to find them.

Interesting phrasing here...

So lemme get this straight: People who diagree with you are just not smart enough to understand your great wisdom?

 

[Runningman]

I think the husband/wife relationship, and any other relationship such as parent/child, etc. is over after death. Remember Jesus puts spiritual family over biological family.

I am not sure about that personally. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, it was written that Mary is Jesus’ mother and His brothers were praying. People knew them as the family of Jesus.

So I don’t see why marriage would end a family relationship post-resurrection; that doesn’t seem to be the mindset they had at all.

Acts 1:14
14With one accord they all continued in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

 

[Gojira]

We ultimately don't know, unless someone goes after God about it. When I look at the Bible and look at my life, I'm inclined to believe that there aren't many mysteries God is unwilling to reveal. The one I'm sure He won't tell anyone (and I'm still not 100% sure) is the exact time of Jesus's return. Basically every other mystery is there for the revealing.

However, not everything God reveals to one person is supposed to be published to everyone else. Psalm 107:3 says, "He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel" (KJV) or "He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel" (NLT). Someone wrote about this:

"What we see is that God made His ways known to and revealed His character to Moses. In other words, Moses got to actually know God Himself. On the other hand, the people of Israel only saw His acts and deeds- what He did. Israel saw His works, but Moses saw God." (https://www.jimandjanean.com/home/2019/6/2/his-ways-or-his-acts?format=amp)

Most christians, like most Israelis in Moses's time, are content to only know God's acts (ie. to be blessed, experience benefits from God, etc.) and don't want to get any closer to Him. People who want to know God's character, nature, or "ways" go after God for more. When He reveals things to them, some of those things are meant to be shared, but some are not.

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven... He was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2Corinthians 12:2‭, ‬4).

I believe God would be more than happy to reveal this mystery about sex in eternity. Afterall, when God hides things-- like Himself or things in the Bible and in Jesus's parables-- His intention is to reveal them. God is intelligent enough to make it so that the things He's unwilling to reveal never even make it into our consciousness (ie. we never even discover their existence). If there are colors, smells, animals in Heaven that we don't know exist, then we can't ask about them. But all the things that exist on earth (or the things we know about), we're allowed and encouraged to ask about and receive answers. If this wasn't true, then only christians would invent, discover, and solve issues. But God reveals earthly things to all people, not just christians. Therefore, He's willing to reveal even more things-- spiritual and secular-- to believers.

I've heard Christians say things like we're all going to be asexual in Heaven, neither male nor female. Others say we're going to worship non-stop forever. Others say we'll actually have more pleasure in this life, since Heaven's a purely spiritual existence. Sorry, but none of these sounds like a heavenly existence to me.

I'm of the mind that God's purpose for us is to live, have life to the full, as it were. I believe we may be colonizing planets after that gigantic jasper cube lands on Jerusalem. We'll be creating works of art dwarfing the aesthetics we see in this life. I believe we'll be building, creating, managing, sharing in God's rule of the universe, being His governors, property managers, architects, etc.

I can see us still somehow having families. I mean, no marriage, yes... but... and it is hard for me to express this thought here... I think that marriage is for this life because it is a way to contain the sinful sexual impulses of our fallen nature. Like government and other institutions that God created, all of these ways to control our sin nature are prone to corruption as they are dependent upon our commitment to what is right. But, they perhaps will not be needed when He's ruling and living amongst us here on the new, healed Earth with our new, eternalized physical bodies -- which Jesus had and in which He had a meal in.

If anyone wants me to get more specific or to reconcile these thoughts with this scripture or that, I cannot. People will pull specific verses out and lock onto them with their own interpretations. Nothing I say will alter their thought process. I think these interpretations are too limited and narrow, and limit God.

All I know is, God said that He will restore all things. He said that there are things in Heaven, as you pointed out, that cannot even be mentioned here. There are things there that are so mind-blowing, they are incomprehensible to our minds in these fallen shells we live in. That leaves open some wild possibilities. Things that do not make any sense to us now (like the trinity: 1+1+1=1???), will make sense there. 4-dimensional space will make sense to us then, as we may be able to comprehend a fourth dimensional plane at right angles to the other three simultaneously (something only a handful of mathematicians claim to be able to understand on this side of things).

So, everyone who says there's nothing sexual in Heaven may be right. But, even in that scenario, I think then that there may be something better that takes its place. Holy moly. I cannot see how we can place such limits on God when everything will be made right and perfect, when we won't have a sin nature that now cannot handle God's full generosity towards us.

 

[Gojira]

I went to Lutheran schools.

As I posted earlier, no one argues more for the possibility of sex, ANY possibility of sex, than a group of hormone-laden teenagers. Especially when they are told no at every turn.

I don't think I ever asked it here because my school experience made it seem like such a been there, bought the T-shirt kind of topic.

My job is to find all the questions I hear talked about but no one cares bring them up, because they will be deemed unfit for Christian conversation.

And yet millions of Christians are suffering in silence, because of the very fact that the very mention of their issue is shot down.

I'm the mole that keeps popping up long after it's been whacked. 😁

As long as you got a helmet, you can keep doing it (and laughing at the dude with the hammer).

 

[JohnB]

I've heard Christians say the main reason for sex is procreation. Since there is no procreation in heaven there is no sex. Does that mean when a couple has a few children, do they stop having sex? I don't think so. Sex is not just about procreation. If sex is just about procreation, wouldn't that make using any contraceptive a sin? In Genesis chap 6 it says "The Sons of GOD saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. They took for themselves wives. These fallen angels had desires. Angels have desire. In heaven we will eat and drink, so I see no reason for not having sex.

 

[Lynx]

I've heard Christians say the main reason for sex is procreation. Since there is no procreation in heaven there is no sex. Does that mean when a couple has a few children, do they stop having sex? I don't think so. Sex is not just about procreation. If sex is just about procreation, wouldn't that make using any contraceptive a sin? In Genesis chap 6 it says "The Sons of GOD saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. They took for themselves wives. These fallen angels had desires. Angels have desire. In heaven we will eat and drink, so I see no reason for not having sex.

I thought you were JohnDB for a minute there.

Welcome to the forum JohnB.

 

[Amanuensis]

God gave us the Holy Spirit for issues like this. Commentaries can help you think more, but they don't have the ability to give you revelation. Jesus said that satan cannot prevail against a Church that is built on and functions on [the rock of] revelation. (He can prevail on those that aren't. Same principle as the man who built on the rock vs. sand.) Why can't satan prevail against a people founded on God's revelation? Because he doesn't have any holes or cracks: God knows all things, and to a people who depend on and receive from what God knows (which is everything), satan can't enter, break in, deceive, waylay, or influence because they are guarded on every side. I'll leave that there for now, but I brought up revelation because...

God created male and female. Men communicate more often directly, logically, and straightforward while women often communicate more indirectly, emotionally, and metaphorically/figuratively. God distributed His masculine and feminine nature to both parties and naturally would then communicate like both parties. As much as we might hate to realize this, God talks in the Bible more in a feminine communicative way than masculine. It would be nice to read the Bible and think, "What it says is what it means." This couldn't be farther from the truth. God's primary mode of communication is spiritual and figurative (ie. feminine). He gave us the Holy Spirit to interpret much of what He says because we can't understand them without an interpreter. If you suppose it isn't true that God (at least in the Bible) mostly communicates in the 'feminine way', then read this interaction in John 16 between Jesus and His disciples at the end of three years relating and communicating with them:

Jesus said, "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."

His disciples responded (in unison, lol), "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figures of speech! Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God." They couldn't understand all those things Jesus said to them because He usually spoke figuratively (or I'll say in the feminine tense).

Jesus responded, "Do you now believe me?" He then continued, abandoning the use of only plain speech and instead interspersing both plain speech and figurative speech. This is just a fact of life that many would do well to apprehend: God usually speaks in spiritual/figurative (feminine) language which cannot be apprehended like logical (masculine) language can. He does this for many reasons (I won't try to list the few reasons I know) but one reason is to 'force' christians to grow which doesn't happen when everything is easy to do or understand. For this reason, there are few things in the Bible you can look at and say, "Oh, this is 100% this way and that's the end of the story." Not even Jesus's disciples knew He was the Son of God until God delivered it to Peter by revelation. Without God's revelation, we don't know. We just believe. Believing isn't bad; but it isn't nearly as advanced as knowing. At the end of the day, God wants His people to not just believe Him but to know Him. Knowing God and His ways (the way He does things, the way He talks, etc.) takes time just like it takes in any relationship to get to know a person. The more complex a person is, the more patience you need to understand how the person thinks and functions. That's why I asked this question about sex in Heaven... because I don't know the answer, and I'm aware that I don't know the answer. I only believe what I believe until God reveals the truth about it to me. Then I'll know.

God gave us the Holy Spirit for issues like this. Commentaries can help you think more, but they don't have the ability to give you revelation. Jesus said that satan cannot prevail against a Church that is built on and functions on [the rock of] revelation. (He can prevail on those that aren't. Same principle as the man who built on the rock vs. sand.) Why can't satan prevail against a people founded on God's revelation? Because he doesn't have any holes or cracks: God knows all things, and to a people who depend on and receive from what God knows (which is everything), satan can't enter, break in, deceive, waylay, or influence because they are guarded on every side. I'll leave that there for now, but I brought up revelation because...

God created male and female. Men communicate more often directly, logically, and straightforward while women often communicate more indirectly, emotionally, and metaphorically/figuratively. God distributed His masculine and feminine nature to both parties and naturally would then communicate like both parties. As much as we might hate to realize this, God talks in the Bible more in a feminine communicative way than masculine. It would be nice to read the Bible and think, "What it says is what it means." This couldn't be farther from the truth. God's primary mode of communication is spiritual and figurative (ie. feminine). He gave us the Holy Spirit to interpret much of what He says because we can't understand them without an interpreter. If you suppose it isn't true that God (at least in the Bible) mostly communicates in the 'feminine way', then read this interaction in John 16 between Jesus and His disciples at the end of three years relating and communicating with them:

Jesus said, "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."

His disciples responded (in unison, lol), "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figures of speech! Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God." They couldn't understand all those things Jesus said to them because He usually spoke figuratively (or I'll say in the feminine tense).

Jesus responded, "Do you now believe me?" He then continued, abandoning the use of only plain speech and instead interspersing both plain speech and figurative speech. This is just a fact of life that many would do well to apprehend: God usually speaks in spiritual/figurative (feminine) language which cannot be apprehended like logical (masculine) language can. He does this for many reasons (I won't try to list the few reasons I know) but one reason is to 'force' christians to grow which doesn't happen when everything is easy to do or understand. For this reason, there are few things in the Bible you can look at and say, "Oh, this is 100% this way and that's the end of the story." Not even Jesus's disciples knew He was the Son of God until God delivered it to Peter by revelation. Without God's revelation, we don't know. We just believe. Believing isn't bad; but it isn't nearly as advanced as knowing. At the end of the day, God wants His people to not just believe Him but to know Him. Knowing God and His ways (the way He does things, the way He talks, etc.) takes time just like it takes in any relationship to get to know a person. The more complex a person is, the more patience you need to understand how the person thinks and functions. That's why I asked this question about sex in Heaven... because I don't know the answer, and I'm aware that I don't know the answer. I only believe what I believe until God reveals the truth about it to me. Then I'll know.

Luke 20:34-36
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

 

[Seeking-Christ]

I voted No. The way I understand it is, there will not be male or female in heaven. If you don't have the genders then you can't have sex.

 

[Amanuensis]

I've heard Christians say the main reason for sex is procreation. Since there is no procreation in heaven there is no sex. Does that mean when a couple has a few children, do they stop having sex? I don't think so. Sex is not just about procreation. If sex is just about procreation, wouldn't that make using any contraceptive a sin? In Genesis chap 6 it says "The Sons of GOD saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. They took for themselves wives. These fallen angels had desires. Angels have desire. In heaven we will eat and drink, so I see no reason for not having sex.

Luke 20:34-36
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

 

[Amanuensis]

I voted No. The way I understand it is, there will not be male or female in heaven. If you don't have the genders then you can't have sex.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

I think this is talking about equal standing before God. I doubt we will have sex organs or care anything about that. Saying that we will not be male or female in heaven might be going beyond what this text intended.

 

[Seeking-Christ]

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

I think this is talking about equal standing before God. I doubt we will have sex organs or care anything about that. Saying that we will not be male or female in heaven might be going beyond what this text intended.

I don't know. And there is no reason to care. It won't change anything if I did care.

 

[MsMediator]

I've heard Christians say the main reason for sex is procreation. Since there is no procreation in heaven there is no sex. Does that mean when a couple has a few children, do they stop having sex? I don't think so. Sex is not just about procreation. If sex is just about procreation, wouldn't that make using any contraceptive a sin? In Genesis chap 6 it says "The Sons of GOD saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. They took for themselves wives. These fallen angels had desires. Angels have desire. In heaven we will eat and drink, so I see no reason for not having sex.

The reasons for eating and drinking in heaven are not to quench hunger and thirst, but so we participate in fellowship with other believers (such as the feast). I doubt there will be need to quench hunger or thirst in heaven. Sex is not an activity that one can conduct with a group of believers; I doubt sex is even a fellowship activity. If God has removed hunger and thirst, it may be possible that He also removed lust.

 

[JohnB]

The reasons for eating and drinking in heaven are not to quench hunger and thirst, but so we participate in fellowship with other believers (such as the feast). I doubt there will be need to quench hunger or thirst in heaven. Sex is not an activity that one can conduct with a group of believers; I doubt sex is even a fellowship activity. If God has removed hunger and thirst, it may be possible that He also removed lust.

Yet in Genesis 6, angels had a desire for companionship. They took wives. There is a spiritual part of sex.

 

[JohnB]

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. Genesis 6:4. Interesting angels were able to have sex and had desires. Angels can take human form.

"for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.".....Luke 20:36.

 

[JohnB]

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. Genesis 6:4. Interesting angels were able to have sex and had desires. Angels can take human form.

"for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.".....Luke 20:36.

we know the issue will be settled once we are in heaven. I do hope there is sex in heaven. From what I read about the sons of GOD, there is hope.

 

[Lynx]

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. Genesis 6:4. Interesting angels were able to have sex and had desires. Angels can take human form.

"for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.".....Luke 20:36.

we know the issue will be settled once we are in heaven. I do hope there is sex in heaven. From what I read about the sons of GOD, there is hope.

You're being redundant, and repeating yourself, and saying the same thing over and over.

And translating "sons of God" to "angels" is questionable at best. I know some people prefer to believe they were angels, but God never called an angel His son.

But whether they were angels or not... Do you have any other points to make? Or are you just going to keep hammering on this one?

 

[tourist]

I can see us still somehow having families.

Absolutely. In Isaiah it says that houses are going to be built and gardens planted. Sounds like family to me.

 

[Gojira]

I've heard Christians say the main reason for sex is procreation. Since there is no procreation in heaven there is no sex. Does that mean when a couple has a few children, do they stop having sex? I don't think so. Sex is not just about procreation. If sex is just about procreation, wouldn't that make using any contraceptive a sin? In Genesis chap 6 it says "The Sons of GOD saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. They took for themselves wives. These fallen angels had desires. Angels have desire. In heaven we will eat and drink, so I see no reason for not having sex.

Succinctly -- and well-put, IMO. You said in one short-ish paragraph what I tried to say in several long-ish posts.

 

[JohnB]

You're being redundant, and repeating yourself, and saying the same thing over and over.

And translating "sons of God" to "angels" is questionable at best. I know some people prefer to believe they were angels, but God never called an angel His son.

But whether they were angels or not... Do you have any other points to make? Or are you just going to keep hammering on this one?

"

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, " Job 2:1

 

[MsMediator]

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. Genesis 6:4. Interesting angels were able to have sex and had desires. Angels can take human form.

Note that Genesis 6 is titled "Wickedness of the World":

Wickedness in the World
6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Based on my reading, it does not seem that God was pleased with angels/"sons of God" having sex with women. Also, Genesis 6, if sons of God means angels (there is disagreement on this), "contradicts" with Matthew 22, where Jesus says angels do not marry. Online reading also suggests that these angels are fallen angels (i.e., demons).