Phantoms

In 3:2, John writes that we're already Children of God, even though we haven't seen or experienced this completely.

In the original Greek--οὔπω ἐφανερώθη (not yet apparent)--the word for apparent has the same root as the word phantom.

For people who are not yet Christians, that's what heaven and hell are like. They seem no more real than a children's story about ghosts and goblins.

But that doesn't make them any less real.