Knowing others in heaven

There is little information in the Bible on our recognition of others in heaven. Many point to the account of Jesus’ transfiguration where Peter knew who Moses and Elijah were, even though he had never met them before in person (Matthew 17:4; Mark 9:5; Luke 9:33). Some have taken that to mean that we too will know who other Christians in heaven are and how we might have interacted with them during our earthly lives. Others point to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 where Paul comforted the Christians in Thessalonica with the assurance that they would see Christians who had died in the past and be with them together forever.

Any specific questions about our eternal life that the Bible does not answer now are addressed in general by these words: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).