Welcome back to Aspastor John. This summer Pastor John is out of the studio preaching in Belfast in Scotland before returning to the States for a 40-day writing leave to finish up a book on Providence on the sovereignty of God a book he started last summer and hopes to finish this summer I cannot wait to see it and all of it the travel the book writing in this very podcast is all made possible by you we are supported by the prayers and the funding of God's people so thank you for generously

investing in this important and eternal work so with Pastor John busy we're diving into our archive of 1500 episodes and this summer we're pulling out some of your favorites about once every 50 episodes we release one that touches a nerve and touches the 300,000 play mark these are the elite episodes in our six and a half year history we only have about 30 of them and here's one of them

here's a question that is not rare although because it's a little bizarre it may strike us as a little weird at first but it's sincere and important and it's not infrequent in our inbox this time it comes from a listener named Leslie Pastor John I'm not trying to drive personal comfort from this question I just honestly want to know can people who are in heaven look down and see us their loved ones on earth

well who of us would not like to know right exactly who has not asked this good question and wanted to know especially those of us who've lost loved ones and think about it personally that way as well as those who wonder whether

John of the Edwards is looking down or the Apostle Paul so let me say five things in response to this question number one

ultimately I think the answer is we don't know for sure at least we don't know to what extent they might be allowed to see and know all that goes on on earth there

there's at least one passage of scripture that some writers would interpret in a way that makes it quite clear that they do know what's

going on and I'll get to that in just a moment but I think I would not stake my life on a position on this because I don't

know for sure but I'll tell you what I think in just a minute number two I would say that if God grants

saints in heaven to see the suffering and misery as well as the good on the earth we may be sure that they see it

not with their old imperfect eyes and they understand it not with their old imperfect minds and they assess it

not with their old imperfect hearts rather we may be sure because the Bible says that they have been

perfected in heaven Hebrews 1223 that they will see and understand and assess all things in a perfectly spiritual way

that takes into account everything they need to know in order to make sense of it and to keep from making

any mistakes and so they will not in the least doubt the goodness of God in what they see or the wisdom of

God in what they see that may be as important as any surety of whether they can come and see a third

there is one text that may well I think probably does probably does suggest it God grants the

saints in heaven to witness the race that we are running on earth Hebrews 121 therefore since we are

surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which

clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us now the reason that

doesn't settle things for me completely like it does Henry Alfred he thinks that that just closes the

deal he thinks they definitely see us watch us cheer for us but the reason that doesn't settle things

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