Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | What's Heaven? | 2 Cor 12:2 | Kwigger | 105821 | ||
What is "heaven?" I get the sense that folks believe in a supernatural plane of existance to which a ghost-like being goes after death. The ghost-like being seems to be a translation of an human being sharing memories and aspects of personality with the deceased. After the return of Christ, those disembodied beings will be given glorified bodies, right? Where will they live? The Scriptures seem to me to indicate that the Earth will be made whole again as it was prior to the fall, so why do we hear so much about "going to heaven?" Are not the reconciled to Jahovah destined for a perfected Earth rather than to Heaven? Is the new Earth really the Heaven we hear people talk about? |
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2 | What's Heaven? | 2 Cor 12:2 | Makarios | 105822 | ||
Greetings Kwigger, I wrote a post a long time ago about the 'three heavens' stated as such in the Bible.. Let me expand on that, and write a little bit better of an answer now (using the KJV).. Actually, the Bible speaks of three "heavens." One of these is the earth's atmosphere, the "open firmament of heaven" in which "fowls fly above the earth" (Genesis 1:20). Another is the vast region of the sun and moon and stars. Of these the psalmist said: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:3,4). But there is, of course, a "third heaven" (2 Cor. 12:2), sometimes also called the "heaven of heavens" (2 Chr. 6:18; Neh. 9:6; Psalm 148:4; etc.). This is the heaven of God's presence, the location of the throne of God. It was to this heaven that Jesus Christ ascended after His resurrection (Mark 16:9). The Bible teaches that heaven is a real place, and not some intangible, imagined spiritual concept.. Jesus said: "In my Father's house are many mansions: ... I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). Christ ascended bodily into heaven (in his glorified body). So, right now, Jesus Christ is in heaven, in His physical glorified body! (Eph. 4:10) The third heaven is just as real and physical as the heaven of the clouds and the heaven of the stars, of which we can observe with our own eyes. Dwelling in heaven with Christ are "an innumerable company of angels" and "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. 12:22,23). When a believer dies, his spirit "departs to be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23), possibly directed there by angels (Luke 16:22). "For we know that if our early house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a buliding of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). But we actually await our 'glorified' bodies when "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven ... and the dead in Christ shall rise" (1 Thess. 4:16). At that time, He "shall change our body of humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory" (Phil. 3:21). At the present time, the angels (or 'ministering spirits' - Heb. 1:14), can cross easily and quickly from the 'third' heaven to earth (note Luke 1:19; 1:26). Ultimately, the "heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22; Gal. 4:26) will descend from heaven to earth (Rev. 21:10), which will have been "made new" (Rev. 2:5), to serve as the perfect home for redeemed men throughout the eternal ages to come. For the present, although we may understand very little as yet concerning the actual nature and structure of heaven, we can be confident that it does really exist. Blessings to you, Makarios |
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3 | What's Heaven? | 2 Cor 12:2 | Kwigger | 105826 | ||
Thank you for your response, Makarios. Here's a follow-up: Where do we get the idea that the rank and file believers will occupy the third Heaven? Isn't that a bit of Hallmark and Hollywood that has crept into the beliefs of many? Also, do I take it from what you wrote that you believe that departed saints are currently in the third heaven? I have wrestled with this. Was Lazarus called out of Heaven or out of the grave? In the OT we hear dying called sleeping with our fathers. Hmmm. Kharis and shalom, Hoss |
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4 | What's Heaven? | 2 Cor 12:2 | Hank | 105904 | ||
"Slept with his fathers" is a common Hebrew idiom. It is common English usage to speak of one as having "passed away" or "gone to rest." All these expressions, Hebrew and English, mean one thing. They simply are idiomatic euphonisms for death. I believe it is a mistake to read any other meaning into the Hebrew idiom "slept with his fathers" than the simple declaration that someone died. --Hank | ||||||