What if Earth
Be but the shadow of Heav'n, and things therein
Each to other like, more than on Earth is thought?
John Milton - Paradise Lost
I recently presented a couple of sermons on the topic of "Heaven" that generated some interesting reactions. The lack of clear imagery and definitive information about the nature of heaven in the Bible causes us to speculate, infer, and indulge in conjecture when it comes to our eternal destinies. Not surprisingly, there are disparate understandings among Christians with regard to the place we call heaven.
I thought it might be of interest to explore the topic of heaven a bit further with a three-part blog series that looks into one of the reasons for the hope that we have as believers--the hope of heaven.
Two Heavens
Although we'll cover this more thoroughly in the future posts, it's important to note that most scholars believe the Bible speaks of two heavens; the "present" heaven--a temporary place where Christians go when they die, and a final, eternal home--referred to as the "new heaven and new earth"--a place that will be provided for us on "the last day." The traditional understanding is that only those Christians who are alive on the last day will go immediately to the final, "new" heaven. Everyone else, upon passing, will go to the present heaven, often referred to as the "intermediate state."
Here's the question I want to examine today: Where is the present heaven?
Heaven Is Where God Is
In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus begins a prayer with these famous words, “Our Father which art in heaven… “
Jesus states that presently, heaven is the place where God, the Father is. Simple, right? Yet, the Bible also reveals that God is omnipresent, that is, he is everywhere at the same time--even dwelling in the hearts of Christians (John 14:23, Eph 3:17).
Hmmm... maybe locating heaven is not that simple. Suddenly we're confronted with the disquieting notion that perhaps heaven may not be a place as we define "place". Consider this; once there was nothing but God; no physical/material universe, no day, no night, no sunrise, no sunset, no up, no down--just God: God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit--who existed somewhere called heaven.
Then, "in the beginning," God created the dimensions that we know as time and space--day and night, the heavens and the earth, above and below. Although the Bible often tells us that heaven is "above" us and that God looks "down" from heaven, I suggest these expression may just be poetic, not intended to convey heaven's location relative to us at all. It is likely that heaven is not--despite songs to the contrary--beyond the galaxies.
Currently, it seems, God dwells in a realm apart from time and space in a "place" that is not usually visible to us called heaven, whose existence is not confined by our notion of a defined space or a defined place.
So, what are we to make of this head-scratching information regarding the location of the present heaven?
Heaven is Near
Lest we begin to imagine the present heaven as some distant, ethereal waystation filled with incorporeal beings where our Christian spirit goes to bide time waiting for the new heaven and new earth, here's a note of encouragement regarding the current location of heaven; wherever heaven is, I propose that it is not far off. There seems to be a proximity of heaven to us and to our earthly abode.
Throughout Scripture we're told of times when the spatial realms of heaven and of earth seem to overlap:
the angel of the Lord speaks to Abraham and to Hagar from heaven (Gen 21:17, 22:11)
God speaks with Moses from heaven (Ex 20:22)
God hears the cries of the people from heaven (1 Sam 9:16)
at various times, God sends bread, fire, and a dove to the earth from heaven
Steven looked into heaven and "saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55).
To shed some light on the nature of these heaven/earth connections, one of my favorite Bible stories is found in 2 Kings where Elisha and his servant, Gehazi, are surrounded by the Aramean army.
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
And Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-17 NIV)
It seems that the entire army of God's heavenly hosts was present, yet Elisha's servant couldn't perceive them until God, in answer to Elisha's prayer, pulled back a kind of "cosmic curtain" to expose the heavenly realm--a mostly invisible world that can, at times, overlap our own--in this case, revealing the reason for Elisha's confidence in what seemed to be dire circumstances.
And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven... (1 Chronicles 21:16 ESV).
This phenomenon seems to explain why things from heaven often simply "appear" on the earth. Perhaps the most obvious example is in regard to the various post-resurrection "appearings" of Jesus.
In the upper room, "although the doors were locked" (John 20:19, 26), the resurrected Jesus suddenly appears to the disciples. It seems that Jesus suddenly just became visible to them.
In reference to His second coming, we await "the blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13) – not the blessed “journey” or even the blessed “arrival”. It's simply the blessed appearing of Jesus.
And, amazingly, Paul tells us that at His second coming, those who have died in Christ will also “appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4 NIV).
Again, the implication is that, though not usually visible to us, heaven is near.
Final Thought
Wherever heaven is, it seems that, in some regard, presently, heaven is in our midst. And if heaven is where God is, this means that God is in our midst. This truth should cause our knees to tremble a bit as we reflect on the question asked by the apostle Peter in his second letter: If we know that God is always in our midst, "what sort of people ought [we] to be?" (2 Peter 3:11).
Next Post: What does a Christian experience when he/she dies? Here's a link:
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