This is going to be a series that transcends time, yet includes all periods of time.  It will look to eternity past, the beginning of time, all of history, the present time, a look into the future/end of time, and into eternity future.  These 2 concepts, heaven, and earth will define and answer just about every question that anyone can ever come up with, at least in regard to value, meaning, and purpose.  Without a proper understanding of these 2 ideas, we are easily led astray, often into the deeper recesses of sin and depravity, causing great confusion, anxiety, depression, and hopelessness.

The first thing we need to do is define what we mean when we say heaven and earth.  Simply put heaven is the dwelling place of God and earth is the dwelling place of man.  Various cultures and religions have their own definition or understanding of heaven and often those can become intertwined as time and beliefs collide.

In Hinduism, with its emphasis on reincarnation, the concept of Heaven is not very prominent. While heaven is temporary (until the next birth), the permanent state that Hindus aspire to is Moksha. Moksha is seen as the soul's liberation from the repetitive cycle of life and death, a re-establishment in one's own fundamental divine nature and may include union with or joining God. Entry into heaven (swarga loka) or hell (Naraka) is decided by the Lord of death Yama and his karmic accountant, Chitragupta, who records the good and bad deeds of a person during his lifetime. It must be noted that Yama and Chitragupta are subordinate to the supreme Lord Ishwara (God) and work under his direction. Entry into heaven is only dependent on one’s actions in the previous life and is not restricted by faith or religion. The ruler of heaven, where one enjoys the fruits of one’s good deeds, is known as Indra and life in that realm is said to include interaction with many celestial beings (gandharvas).

The Buddha confirmed the existence of other worlds, of heavens and hells populated by celestial beings. In the early Buddhist literature, the Buddha himself was described as having gone to the heavens and meeting with the gods. Those scriptures also quoted instances of gods descending to the earth to witness some significant events in the life of the Buddha. In Buddhism the gods are not immortal, though they may live much longer than earthly beings. They also are subject to decay and change, and the process of “becoming”. The intensity and the way these processes take place however may be different and involve longer periods of time. But like any other beings, they are with a beginning and an end. However, all heavenly beings are regarded as inferior in status to the Arhats who have attained Nirvana. The gods were also from the lower worlds originally, but slowly and gradually graduated themselves into higher worlds by virtue of their past deeds and cultivation of virtuous qualities. Since there are many heavens and higher worlds of Brahma, these gods may evolve progressively from one heaven to another through their merit or descend into lower worlds due to some misfortune. The gods of Buddhism are therefore not immortal. Neither is their position in the heavens permanent. They may however live for longer durations of time. One of the Buddhist Sutras states that a hundred years of our existence is equal to one day and one night in the world of the thirty-three gods. Thirty such days add up to their one month. Twelve such months become their one year, while they live for a thousand such years.

While the concept of heaven (malkuth hashamaim מלכות השמים—The Kingdom of Heaven) is well-defined within the Christian and Islamic religions, the Jewish concept of the afterlife, sometimes known as "olam haba", the world to come, seems to have been disputed between various early sects such as the Sadducees, and never set forth in a systematic or official fashion as was done in Christianity and Islam. Jewish writings refer to a "new earth" as the abode of mankind following the resurrection of the dead. Judaism does, however, have a belief in Heaven, not as a future abode for "good souls", but as the "place" where God "resides". Jewish mysticism recognizes seven heavens. In order from lowest to highest, the seven Heavens are listed alongside the angels who govern them and any further information:

1. Shamayim: The first Heaven, governed by Archangel Gabriel, is the closest of heavenly realms to the Earth; it is also considered the abode of Adam and Eve.
2. Raquia: The second Heaven is dually controlled by Zachariel and Raphael. It was in this Heaven that Moses, during his visit to Paradise, encountered the angel Nuriel who stood "300 parasangs (3 miles or so) high, with an entourage of 50 myriads of angels all fashioned out of water and fire." Also, Raquia is considered the realm where the fallen angels are imprisoned and the planets fastened.
3. Shehaqim: The third Heaven, under the leadership of Anahel, serves as the home of the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life; it is also the realm where manna, the holy food of angels, is produced. The Second Book of Enoch, meanwhile, states that both Paradise and Hell are accommodated in Shehaqim with Hell being located simply " on the northern side."
4. Machonon: The fourth Heaven is ruled by the Archangel Michael, and according to Talmud Hagiga, it contains the heavenly Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Altar.
5. Machon: The fifth Heaven is under the administration of Samael, an angel referred to as evil by some, but who is to others merely a dark servant of God.
6. Zebul: The sixth Heaven falls under the jurisdiction of Zachiel.
7. Araboth: The seventh Heaven, under the leadership of Cassiel, is the holiest of the seven Heavens provided the fact that it houses the Throne of Glory attended by the Seven Archangels and serves as the realm in which God dwells; underneath the throne itself lies the abode of all unborn human souls. It is also considered the home of the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Hayyoth.

The concept of heaven in Islam is similar to Judaism and Christianity. The Qur'an contains many references to an afterlife in Eden for those who do good deeds. Heaven itself is commonly described in the Qu'ran in verse 35 of Surah Al-Ra’d: "The parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised! Beneath it flow rivers. Perpetual is the fruits thereof and the shade therein. Such is the End of the Righteous; and the end of the unbelievers is the Fire, wherein a person dwells forever." Since Islam rejects the concept of original sin, Muslims believe that all human beings are born pure and will naturally turn to God, but it is their environment and lack of will power which influences them to choose ungodly ways of life. In Islam, therefore, a child who dies automatically goes to heaven, regardless of the religion of his or her parents. The highest level of heaven is Firdaws (فردوس)- Pardis (پردیس), which is where the prophets, the martyrs and the most truthful and pious people will dwell.  There are also unlimited sexual rewards in heaven for those who kill what the Qur'an would call infidels.

Historically, Christianity has taught "Heaven" as a generalized concept, a place of eternal life, in that it is a shared plane to be attained by all the pious and the elect.  The Christian Church has been divided over how people gain this eternal life. From the 16th to the late 19th century, Christendom was divided between the Roman Catholic view, the Orthodox view, the Coptic view, the Jacobite view, the Abyssinian view, and Protestant views. Roman Catholics believe that entering Purgatory after death cleanses one of sin (period of suffering until one's nature is perfected), which makes one acceptable to enter heaven. This is valid for pardonable sins only, as mortal sins can be forgiven only through the act of reconciliation and repentance while on earth. Some within the Anglican Church also hold to this belief, despite their separate history. However, in Oriental Orthodox Churches, it is only God who has the final say on who enters heaven. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, heaven is understood as union and communion with the Triune God (reunion of Father and Son through love). Thus, Heaven is experienced by the Orthodox both as a reality inaugurated, anticipated and present here and now in the divine-human organism of the Christ's Body, the Church, and as something to be perfected in the future. In some Protestant Christian sects, eternal life depends upon the sinner receiving God's grace (unearned and undeserved blessing stemming from God's love) through faith in Jesus' death for their sins, his resurrection as the Christ, and accepting his Lordship (authority and guidance) over their lives. In other sects the process may or may not include a physical baptism, or the necessary process of transformation or experience of spiritual rebirth.

The concept of heaven/afterlife is not a new or a novel one. Many western religions, as well as south Asian and African ones, believe in some form of life after death. Its origins span from the ancient world and classical antiquity until today. Most often, the world of the afterlife is associated with Greek mythology, which was in line with Roman thinking at the time of Jesus and His ministry, where it is called the underworld, or Hades.

According to the ancient Greeks, at the time of death, the soul separates from the body and is transported to the underworld, where it is accepted into the realm by the governing god Hades, who is known to reside at the edges of the ocean and under the deepest depths of the Earth.

Hades’ realm, as opposed to the kingdom of Mount Olympus, is virtually all gloom and darkness, solely inhabited by the dead. In Homer’s Odyssey, even the great warrior spirit Achilles in the nether world tells Odysseus that he would rather be subjugated as a landless slave than be the king of the underworld due to the dreary existence in the land of the dead.

Nonetheless, Greek mythology stresses respect for the dead due to the belief in the continued existence of the fallen after their spirit has passed on. In the 4th century, the Greek philosopher Plato asserted that the gods’ biggest reward to the dead is to have their memory remain in the minds of the living long after they are gone.

Once a Greek man or woman passed away, their families washed their bodies and placed a coin inside their mouth as payment for the spiritual ferryman Charon who carried the bodies’ spirits across the river Styx into the underworld.

During the burial, valuable objects such as pottery, coins, and jewelry were buried alongside them as gifts for the bodies to use in the underworld. Families of the deceased visited these tombs annually to make offerings and refresh the tomb decorations. This ritual stemmed not only out of respect but also from the fear that the dead brought bad luck if the family did not pay tribute to them regularly.

The Greeks believed that after the burial, Hermes (the god of trade, travelers, and merchants) led the soul to the entrance of the underworld to a ferry that carried the spirit across the Acheron (river of woe) or Styx (river of hate), depending on the source. These two rivers divided the world of the living from that of the dead.

Charon, sometimes called the Ferryman, row, row, rowed the boat. Only souls who paid him the boat fare with coins, placed on the eyes or under the tongue of the corpse during burial, could gain access to the ferry. Those unable to pay the fare remained trapped between the world of the living and the dead.

The gods that resided in the underworld were known as chthonic. Apart from major deities like Hades, Persephone, and Hecate, there were also other minor deities living in the underworld, including the Furies (Erinyes), the god of sleep (Thanatos), his twin brother, the god of sleep (Hypnos), the goddess of the night (Nyx), and more.

The underworld consisted of various realms ruled by Hades and his wife, Persephone. In some sources, Elysium resembled a Greek pagan version of the Christian Heaven where good spirits whose lives were etched into the memories of the living began a bright new state of existence. Wicked spirits were condemned to the dark pits of Tartarus. These spirits either overindulged in their carnal desires or lived more for earthly pleasures than spiritual fulfillment during their earthly life. Forgotten spirits who did not significantly impact the lives of others were sent to the Land of Hades, where they wandered for all eternity.

Needless to say, there is a wide variety of beliefs about what heaven or the afterlife is, who can get there, where it is located, how long we will be there, and what we will be doing there!  And many cultures and beliefs have mingled together various things as well, creating a literal hodgepodge buffet to choose from.  Even when I say the word “heaven”, there is most likely already a picture that comes to your mind of what that is, based on your accumulated beliefs with: books you’ve read, movies you’ve seen, people you’ve talked to, and whatever seems to make the most sense to you out of all that put together.

If only there was some way we could get in our own heads and hit the erase button!  Even when we learn new spiritual truths that can stretch our understanding, we so often put that alongside our preconceived notions and blend them together or disregard them.  This idea is taught in various ways in Scripture:

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Knowledge based on tunnel vision or limited experience is not always the right knowledge no matter how much sense it makes to us at the time – and it can change as we grow and change as well!)

Proverbs 14:15 The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. (a lot of our education systems seem to be focused on telling us what to think as opposed to how to think first – then comes knowledge)

Proverbs 1:22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? (Often, it’s easier to delight in ignorance than to acknowledge the truth or expand our minds)

1Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (Spiritual truth is based on a right estimation of who we are and who God is – something godless people will never accept or rightly evaluate)

Deuteronomy 12:29 “When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,

Deuteronomy 12:30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’

Deuteronomy 12:31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. (Israel was almost always in a constant state of assimilating the beliefs of the nations that they conquered or the ones who conquered them, leading them into idolatry and false beliefs.  Hanging on to a small portion of the truth mixed in with lies and false practices they wandered off aimlessly and endured judgment and exile because of it.  If the lies didn’t seem right to them, they wouldn’t have clung on to them!  The fact that they did adopt those lies into their beliefs shows how easily we can be led astray even when we have the truth laid out before us!)

How much of what we believe is based in part on God’s Word and in part on man’s word?  Or, let me put it this way: how much of what we believe is based on the parts of God’s Word we agree with, and the parts we don’t agree with or understand we go with whatever makes the most sense to us instead?

I’ll give you an example: Evolution, billions of years, and the Big Bang.  All of those ideas are foreign to the Bible and must be added and manipulated greatly to make them fit in any way, and even then they still don’t work!  Modern science would have you believe that all of these are well established facts, beyond question, not simply theories, and if you don’t believe in these things then you are at best ignorant - “If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worse than ignorant, they are deluded to the point of perversity. They are denying not only the facts of biology but those of physics, geology, cosmology, archaeology, history, and chemistry as well.” ― Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.

Intimidated into just giving up and accepting whatever the latest scientific fad is, countless Christians just adopt those beliefs and try to make them fit in the Bible somewhere.  The very thing all those previous Scriptures warned against – in fact this verse from Colossians speaks pretty much exactly about these 3 false beliefs that others will be persuaded by:

 Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Being made to believe things based on human reasoning, lies, and the uniform laws of nature)

Peter gives us some verses that seem to be pointed at the theory of uniformitarianism that dominates geology:

2Peter 3:3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

2Peter 3:4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

He goes on to talk about their ignorance of special creation and the effects of the worldwide flood on that creation, and he states that it is a deliberate ignorance!

Interestingly, nearly all of the founders of modern-day science were believers in God.  Biology is a discipline that recognizes laws that evolution has to violate numerous times and in numerous ways.  Such as life only coming from life, and no exceptions to that rule, along with genetic barriers between species that cannot be magically jumped over, as well as the fact that mutations are harmful and do not add new information but almost always result in a loss of information which is the opposite of evolutionary beliefs. 

The fact that God is logical, orderly, and does not lie or change gives us the foundation for science/knowledge at any level.  Without that foundation then everything devolves into chaos and meaninglessness.  Yet, people are willing to accept that chaos and meaninglessness based on the beliefs of others or what seems to make sense to them.  The Bible says (in Romans 1:20) that everyone knows that God exists, and no one has an excuse to believe otherwise – there is a suppression of that knowledge based on various factors, the chief of which is the love of sin plus whatever seems right to us.

We’ve gone over the scientific evidence for the Biblical account and how it makes complete sense of every single thing we see.  There is no need to rehash everything again here, but just enough to say that we can be just like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, along with every culture since the beginning of time!  Taking parts of God’s Word and parts of other people thoughts and our own thoughts and putting them in a blender to come up with what we would call our beliefs.

We find ways to think of small sins as though they are ok, as long as they serve a greater purpose in our eyes, we see some sins as though they aren’t sins at all, other people’s sins as more offensive than our own, and so on, you get the point…

Our concept of heaven and earth needs to be different.  We need to exclude all the preconceived notions we have in our brains and start from scratch!  If we let the Bible be our only foundation and source, it will clear out a lot of the clutter and misconceptions we carry around and make much more sense to us than any crazy combination of things we could ever come up with!

HEAVEN

Heaven is simply the place where God dwells.  It is eternal and uncreated.  When Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, it has nothing to do with the heaven that is God’s dwelling place.  The heaven where God dwells has always existed and will always exist.  It was never created and can never be destroyed.  The heavens that were created in Geneses chapter 1 are all part of the earth and its support system, the dwelling place of man.

The Bible uses a very simple cosmological descriptive pattern – and it is based on phenomenological language (which is a fancy way of saying, “it’s how we observe something naturally”) – it is based on whatever is above us, at ground level, and below us.  An example would be the sun rising and the sun setting – that’s how it appears to everyone throughout all of time, even though we know that the sun doesn’t really rise or set, but the earth simply rotates on its axis causing the illusion of a rising and a setting.

Ecclesiastes 1:5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

The Bible does not use deceptive language, but rather a language that everyone can understand regardless of whatever the latest scientific claims are for that place and time.

Isaiah 11:12           He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

We have four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west – and the earth appears to be mostly flat from whatever vantage point we can see it at while we are here on the earth.  Those 4 directions, along with all the different variations and degrees between them, encompass the idea of covering the entire surface of the earth.  Again, not a deceptive or primitive verse, but rather one we can all relate to whether we are in 1^st century Jerusalem or 21^st century America.

Isaiah 40:22           It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

As we have gotten the technology and ability to move out of what would be considered the 1^st heaven (our atmosphere where the birds fly) to the 2^nd heaven (which is outer space where the sun, moon, and stars are placed) then and only then would this verse make sense in Isaiah.  Looking back at the earth in space it appears as a circle in a vast ocean of stars and backdrop of space that seems to go on forever, like a curtain that is stretched out endlessly.  Regardless of the scientific accuracy of the exact relationships and phenomena that are going on, it is exactly what it looks like to us from that vantage point.  Science seems to be forever changing and adapting its views, but what it looks like to us has never changed!

God is also described to us in anthropomorphic and anthropopathic ways.  Big words to describe Him in ways we can more easily understand – anthropomorphic is a way to describe God with human characteristics as if He had a body, and anthropopathic is a way to describe God with human feelings we can relate to.

Through many verses we can see that God is omnipresent – having the ability to be everywhere at once:

Psalms 139:7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

Psalms 139:8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

Psalms 139:9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Psalms 139:10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

God also does not possess a body at all, let alone hands or a face:

John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Luke 24:39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

God is not just missing a body, but He cannot even be seen at all!

1Timothy 6:15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

1Timothy 6:16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Moses begged to see God’s glory, face to face:

Exodus 33:18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”

Exodus 33:19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Exodus 33:20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

Perhaps the best way to understand God is that He is an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present Spirit whose glory is manifested as an all-consuming fire and living water.  Yet, He is described in human terms to give us an idea of His power and majesty like the Psalmist writes here:

Psalms 33:13 The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;

Psalms 33:14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,

Psalms 33:15 he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.

God is pictured as if He is a king sitting on a throne looking down upon us.  Able to see from His vantage point all the people on earth who like a master designer has created their hearts and sits back to observe what they are all doing.

When in reality God is below us, around us, and above us – filling all time and space with His glory, yet He has withheld some of His glory because of the effects of sin.  Heaven is where God’s glory does not need to be veiled.  It will not be restrained and will fill everything with His light and majesty, which is the picture we are given at the end of Revelation regarding the New Jerusalem which comes down from above to dwell on the earth:

Revelation 22:3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

Revelation 22:4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

Revelation 22:5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

So, heaven is the place where God dwells and His glory is not held back.  There is no sin there but only holiness and purity.  Only the perfect blend of power, grace, love, and His majesty.  Get rid of whatever pictures of heaven you have stuck in your mind that don’t line up with what God reveals in His Word.  Don’t add to it or take away from it.  Get rid of clouds and harps and pictures of lazy, boring days!  We can get excited about some of the simplest things here on earth, an unexpected gift or gesture, a new hobby, starting a new job, or making a new friend – you cannot imagine the excitement of heaven, which is why God does not reveal a great deal about it in Scripture – the full glory of God empowering a sinless perfect place, radiating and permeating it all with His presence, walking with Him along with countless other people of which we will be recognizable.  Surrounded by and filled with love, enjoying the newness of life and endless possibilities eternity has to offer with the creative genius who has unlimited abilities.

Any other idea of heaven you can come up with or compare it to is quite literally a joke…

Let’s pray…