Alan distinguishes between two types of soul development and shares his thoughts on which one we’ll experience in Heaven.
Transcript
I’ve been asked if our soul continues to develop in Heaven. Now, before we answer that we have to first answer the question, “What is a soul?” And I’d say human beings are, according to Scripture, a combination of a physical body and a non-physical self. And that non-physical part is your soul. And I would argue it’s kind of where your thoughts, your emotions, your will, your memories, and really all of your consciousness happens.
Now, people often talk about the brain, the physical part of humans, being responsible for thinking and learning, but I don’t believe that’s the case. Now, during our life on Earth, I think it’s pretty obvious that our soul develops in at least two ways: sanctification and knowledge. So sanctification is the process by which we are being conformed to Christ, and I would include moral character development in this category.
But our souls also develop in knowledge as we learn new things and we develop new skills. The question though is, “Do our souls continue to develop in Heaven or in the afterlife?” Now, I’m gonna do a little bit of speculating here, but I would say that our soul will continue to develop in knowledge but not in sanctification. In other words, for those people who God saves, their sanctification will be made complete in the afterlife. They will no longer be morally corrupt and won’t be capable of sin.
However, we will not become all of the sudden omniscient and know everything like God. We will still be finite beings, and that will mean we will continue to learn new things. We’ll be able to gain more knowledge and develop new skills. And in fact, to me, this is one of the most exciting aspects of the afterlife, that we will continue to explore creation and learn more about it with God forever.