Introduction
There are few things cherished more strongly among true believers
than heaven—it is the confident assertion of just about all
that 'I'm going to heaven when I die'. However, the Bible itself
says very little on the subject. The reason is because Scripture
concentrates more on the Person than the place. Its
focus is on the Lord. Yes, as Christians, we are to "rejoice" that
our "names are written in the heavens" (Luke 10: 20), but we belong
there because we know the One who fills that place. The place is
nothing without the Person—heaven is only heaven because the Lord is
there.
Misinterpretation
If the Bible does not say much about heaven, then this is in
contrast to popular theology. While the Word of God lays great
emphasis on the Person, Christian writers and speakers place undue
emphasis on the place. And because they have much to say, they cast
around looking for verses and passages on which to hang their
doctrine. The end result is that Scripture is frequently interpreted
in a very loose way—misinterpreted in fact. For
example, Isaiah 51: 11 is erroneously taken to be a description of
heaven: "So the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come to Zion
with singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they
shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and sighing shall flee away".
It is the old problem of reading ourselves and our blessings into
passages that really refer to others. The context of the passage
shows that it is about Israel and the coming millennium—an
earthly scene. Indeed, it is common practice to confuse the
millennial glory—the public display of the kingdom of the heavens,
(or heaven’s reign over the earth)—and heaven itself.
Some people are
in the habit of quoting texts—so much so that the Bible seems only
to be a collection of texts rather than one whole. No one doubts,
for example, that the words "their heart shall be joyful in Jehovah"
(Zech. 10: 7) is a true reflection of how we shall feel when we are
in heaven, but the prophet was not writing about heaven!
Instead of
letting Scripture teach us, this is importing our own thoughts into
the Word (even if the thoughts in themselves are correct). If we are
not careful, the true message of the Bible will be rapidly lost
under a mass of so–called 'spiritual' applications. To learn about
heaven we need to turn to the Scriptures that actually speak about
heaven.
The Old
Testament
Concept of
Blessing
The OT concept of blessing was linked with
earth
rather than heaven. Thus when "Abram passed through the land to the
place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh", God appeared to Him with the
promise that "Unto thy seed will I give this land" (Gen. 12: 6, 7).
The apostle Peter makes use of the earthly character of the blessing
belonging to Israel to bring out the superior nature of the
Christian hope. Thus (speaking to Jewish Christians), he proclaims
"Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who,
according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope
through [the] resurrection of Jesus Christ from among [the] dead,
to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance,
reserved in [the] heavens for you" (1 Pet. 1: 3– 4, my
emphasis). Of course the truly godly among the children of Israel
looked for something more than what was merely outward. Thus Abraham
himself "waited for the city which has foundations, of which God is
[the] artificer and constructor" (Heb. 11: 10). However, this does
not alter the earthly character of what they anticipated—Daniel, for
example, was promised at the very end of his life that "thou shalt
rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days" (Dan. 12: 13),
his lot being his inheritance in the promised land.
Sheol, Hades
and
the Lake
of
Fire
The hope of the Jew was to be raised at the end of the age in order
to be a part of the Messiah’s glorious reign over the earth. What
lay between death and resurrection was Sheol or
The Grave.
Now Sheol (or
Hades, its NT equivalent—compare Ps. 16:
10 and Acts 2: 27) must not be confused with
The Lake of Fire.
The Lake of Fire
(or Hell) will not be occupied by
anyone until after the Lord comes in glory and power to judge the
earth (see Rev. 19: 20; 20: 11–15).
Sheol
and Hades are somewhat vague terms which refer to the
temporary state of departed spirits. In Hades, Lazarus was
"comforted" (Luke 16: 25) as being in "the bosom of Abraham" (v22),
while the rich man was "in suffering" (v25). The believing Jew had
no concept of going to heaven when he died but it would appear that
he had some understanding that he would enter a temporary state of
blessing prior to the "resurrection in the last day" (John 11: 24).
That state the Lord here describes as Abraham’s bosom (which, note,
has a personal touch to it: 'Abraham's bosom').
Death occurs
when the spirit is separated from the body (see James 2: 26). The
Lord Jesus, in that He "became dead" (Rev. 1: 18), entered
Hades—"for thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, nor wilt thou
give thy gracious one to see corruption" (Acts 2: 27). His soul, as
disembodied was in Hades, while the corruption (that He did
not see) refers only to His body in the tomb.
The thief on the
cross also entered Hades, but that state (assuming he was a
Jew) is not now described as 'the bosom of Abraham' but "paradise"
(Luke 23: 43). Both the Lord and the thief were in the disembodied
state, and both are described as being in a sphere of blessing:
"To–day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Again, note the personal
nature of the blessing: 'with me'). Now after his
resurrection, the Lord was seen by his disciples for "forty days"
(Acts 1: 3) after which He was "carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:
51). So how could the thief be in paradise with Christ from the
start when the Lord did not ascend into paradise until many days
later? The mistake is to make too direct a link between paradise and
heaven as a place. The thief was in paradise because
his spirit was in the presence of the Lord.
Exactly
where the Lord was is not the point—the thief was with the Lord. The
Person, rather than any place as such, is what the Lord here
describes as paradise.
For the
Christian who has died, his state of blessedness is described as
"being with Christ" (Phil. 1: 23). Again, the focus is on the
Person. Of course Christ is now in heaven but the Scriptures do not
exactly say that this is the current position of those who have
"fallen asleep through Jesus" (1 Thess. 4: 14). If it was, then at
the rapture, when the Lord will "descend from heaven" (v16), shall
these spirits leave heaven too? To say so would be to miss the
point. The spirits are not said to be in heaven, but
to be "with Christ". It is a spiritual idea rather
than one about physical locality as such—a state rather than a
place. Some talk of "so
great a cloud of witnesses" (Heb. 12: 1) looking down from glory
on the
living saints but this owes more to imagination than Biblical fact.
As Christians, we "boast in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. 5: 2),
but glory is associated with resurrection and not the state after
death (see 1 Cor. 15: 43). Our entrance into glory will be at the
rapture (see 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17). Being "absent from the body and
present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5: 8), though blessed, is not an
identical thought to being in heaven as such.
The Witness
of
Paul
It has been said that no one knows anything of heaven from
experience because no one has returned to tell it. This is not true.
In 2 Cor. 12 Paul relates how he was "caught up to [the] third
heaven" (v2). Since he speaks of the third heaven, we are justified
in assuming that there are two others (see Eph. 4: 10; Heb.
4: 14), and also
that the third heaven is third because the writer was counting from
where he was—on earth.
It can be
implied then that the first or lower heaven is what we
breathe with our lungs and see with our eyes—the air and sky. Thus
we read of the "fowl of the heavens" (Jer. 4: 25) and the "clouds of
heaven" (Mark 14: 62). The writer of Genesis also refers to the
expanse between the waters on the earth and the evaporated waters
held above the earth as "Heavens" (Gen. 1: 8). Again, when the Lord
raptures his saints to glory, we shall "meet the Lord in [the] air"
(1 Thess. 4: 17). Using the Tabernacle as a divinely given figure of
the heavenlies, the first heaven would correspond with the Court,
which bordered the outside world in the same way as the first heaven
touches the earth.
Man always looks
up into the heavens. The limits of his natural eyes
are the stars and planets beyond the atmosphere of the earth. This
we take to be the second heaven, corresponding with
the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. The first verse in the Bible
refers to the establishment of the second heaven: "In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1: 1). The "present
heavens" (which refers to the physical heavens in their entirety)
will be "dissolved" at the end of the millennium. The "day of God"
(or the eternal state) will be marked by "new heavens and a new
earth" (2 Pet. 3: 7, 12, 13).
This brings us
on to the third heaven, the place where Paul "heard
unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter" (2
Cor. 12: 4). Man can appreciate the first and second heavens for
they are physical but here we are clearly beyond all human powers of
investigation, or even of thought or expression. This heaven then
corresponds to the Holy of Holies—the very presence of God Himself.
Paul was "caught up into paradise" which reminds us of that great
'catching up' which will shortly take place for all those who have
been made "fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light" (Col.
1: 12). We, in anticipation, wait for God’s Son "from the heavens"
(1 Thess. 1: 10).
The Witness
of
Stephen
If the third heaven is out of reach of the natural powers of man,
it is not beyond that of a man "full of [the] Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:
55). Stephen "fixed his eyes on heaven" but his gaze took in more
than normal for he beheld "the heavens opened" (v56). That which is
usually closed off to the eye of man was opened up to him.
What Stephen saw
in heaven was a man standing in the very presence of God: "Lo, I
behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right
hand of God". The rejected man on earth is crowned with glory and
honour in heaven. Men dream of going to heaven when they die, but
there will be no heaven for them then unless they prostrate
themselves before heaven’s Man now. Why? Because God has highly
exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Phil. 2: 9, 10).
And every knee will bow, for Christ now sits "at [the]
right hand of God, waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set
[for the] footstool of his feet" (Heb. 10: 12, 13).
The Witness
of
John
Traditional belief as regards the Devil is that he is the king of
hell, but the Bible teaches quite the contrary. Instead he is "the
ruler of the authority of the air" (Eph. 2: 2) and not only that, he
accesses the very courts of God Himself. The present position is
that hell is empty and that Satan moves freely in and out of heaven.
John calls the
Devil the "accuser of our brethren …who accused them before our God
day and night" (Rev. 12: 10), and we get a remarkable illustration
of this in the OT. The verses speak for themselves: "And there was a
day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah;
and Satan came also among them … And Jehovah said to Satan, Hast
thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the
earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and
abstaineth from evil? And Satan answered Jehovah and said, Doth Job
fear God for nought?" (Job 1: 6, 8, 9). Why God allows such things
is a mystery for which Scripture does not supply an answer.
However, it was given to the apostle John to make known how this
intrusion is brought to an end: "And there was war in the
heaven: Michael
and his angels went to war with the dragon. And the dragon fought,
and his angels; and he prevailed not, nor was their place found any
more in the heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient
serpent, he who is called Devil and Satan, he who deceives the whole
habitable world, he was cast into the earth, and his angels were
cast out with him" (Rev. 12: 7–9).
Many Christians
would turn to the book of Revelation when seeking verses that
describe heaven, but careful examination shows that many of these
are misinterpreted.
In chapter 4, the apostle John has a vision of "a door opened in
heaven" and a voice saying "Come up here, and I will shew thee the
things which must take place after these things" (v1). However, much
of what John saw does not relate directly to heaven itself, but is
heaven’s view of events transpiring on earth. Even chapter 21, which
is commonly taken to be a description of heaven itself, is not all
that it seems. Verse 4, "And he shall wipe away every tear from
their eyes …" etc. has as much to do with earth as with heaven. This
is because there will be saints on earth as well as in heaven—the
idea that all believers will be in heaven is widespread, but it is a
misconception nonetheless. The immediate context is "the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down out of the
heaven
from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (v2, my
emphasis). It would be more accurate to say that v4 does not
describe heaven as such, but the blessed conditions into which all
God’s people are introduced irrespective of whether their portion is
heavenly (in the new Jerusalem) or earthly.
The Witness
of Christ
Speaking reverently, there is no one who knows heaven better than
the Lord Jesus. The first man was "out of [the] earth, made of
dust", but "the second man, out of heaven" (1 Cor. 15: 47). His own
testimony was "I am come down from heaven, not that I should do
my will, but the will of him that has sent me" (John 6: 38).
Furthermore, while
Elijah was
carried up into heaven by a whirlwind (see 2 Kings 2: 11), and Enoch
"was not, for God took him" (Gen. 5: 24), Christ was the only one
who went up of his own volition. Hence "no one has gone up into
heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is
in heaven" (John 3: 13).
The Lord Jesus inhabits
heaven because of who He is for "the Christ … is over all, God
blessed forever" (Rom. 9: 5). Yet He also has a place there as Man
by right, because of what He has done. No other man has place or
portion there. Nonetheless the Lord distinctly promised His
disciples while with them on earth that "I go to prepare you a
place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again
and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be"
(John 14: 2, 3)1.
How could it be that we, sinners by nature, could have a place where
He is? The wonder of the Gospel is that "as we have borne the image
of the [one] made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the
heavenly [one]" (1 Cor. 15: 49). Christ has brought this about by
His death on the cross, and as "raised up from among [the] dead by
the glory of the Father" (Rom. 6: 4) and "received up in glory" (1
Tim. 3: 16) our place with Him is all prepared. Heaven is heaven
because He is there.
Conclusion
If our idea of heaven is personal happiness, meeting departed loved
ones or a place of peace and rest, then we have rather missed the
point. Heaven is indeed a real place with definite and blessed
features, but it only becomes heaven because Christ is there.
Long ago, a true disciple of the Lord enquired of Him "where abidest
thou?" (John 1: 38, my emphasis). For him, the place
was only as good as the Person. May you and I have the
same outlook!
1: Strictly speaking, the subject of John 14: 2, 3 is the
Father’s House, although heaven is clearly included in the thought.
As Christians, our abode is in heaven, but the "many abodes" (v2)
may embrace blessing on earth.
