Article — Heaven and Hell — Q & A

Popular culture says people likely can see us from heaven. Often times an athlete will make a gesture to a mom or dad in heaven after scoring a touchdown or goal. But, we also realize, many times those gestures are not to a person but simply a thank you to God or an acknowledgement to a parent for what they taught them about that sport.

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A key verse many rely on for people seeing us from heaven is Hebrews 12:1, which says,

“…we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”

 

These witnesses are the Old Testament heroes of faith such as Abraham and Moses. People then speculate that these witnesses must be looking down on us from heaven. However, commentators say a better interpretation is that the heroes of faith show us an example of how to live. How to be faithful. Their lives bore witness of their faith in God despite their trials and tribulation. Nowhere does it say people are spectating from a heavenly balcony.

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In John's vision of heaven during the end times, John saw the souls of those who had been martyred for their faith during the great tribulation. They called out to God to avenge their blood and judge those still on earth who killed them (Rev. 6:10). It appears they did have some type of knowledge of whether their killers still lived. But it doesn’t say whether the martyrs could see their killers or not. 

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The idea of loved ones watching us from heaven is more sentimental hope than scriptural fact. The Bible doesn't say people can look down from heaven and see us, so it is unlikely they can. But no one can be dogmatic about the answer to this question since the Bible doesn't explicitly say they can't.

 

Down here on earth our focus is not on gaining approval from people in heaven. Instead, our focus is above on Christ.

 

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:2).