Recognizing others in Heaven

Please accept our sincere sympathy on the loss of your mother. With you, we are confident that the surpassing joy of knowing that she is now with her Savior in glory will allow you to focus on what she and you have, not on what you have temporarily lost. On the matter of believers recognizing each other in heaven, we admit that there is limited Bible information on this. But there is also ample evidence for us to hold this belief.

In our Savior’s account of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) we note that the rich man, in hell, looked up and saw Lazarus with Abraham. There was recognition, even beyond the citizens of heaven. The account of our Lord’s transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13) has Peter, James, and John seeing and somehow recognizing Moses and Elijah, although we are not informed how they were enabled to do so. But personal recognition remains real.

Other Bible sections may be cited. Among them is Matthew 8:11, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The language of our Lord seems to indicate that we will know and recognize the patriarchs by name. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 gives pointed comfort pertaining to Christ’s second coming and the reunion of believers who had been separated by physical death. “We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” The comforting assurance established by the context of the passage is that we need not worry about fellow believers who die before (or after) we do. Reunion will happen—and the ability to recognize each other seems to fit well with the point being made.

Finally, there are several Bible references to the “book of life” and our names being recorded there by our gracious Lord God. In Revelation 3:5, for example, we are told, “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” While our bodies will be glorified, and we will in some way be changed, our names appear to be unchanged and used for identification. And with regard to our transformed or glorified bodies, they will be patterned after the glorified body of our Lord Jesus following his resurrection (see Philippians 3:21).