Heaven (6 page)

The Bible ends with yet one more invitation, suggesting that God wants to give every reader one last chance: "The Spirit and
the bride say, 'Come!'And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take
the free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22:17). It is Jesus—and Heaven—we thirst for. Jesus and Heaven are offered
to us at no cost because he already paid the price for us.

God invites you to come. The church invites you to come. As a follower of Jesus, I invite you to come.

Why would you not come? What reason could be good enough to turn away from Jesus and from eternal life in the new heavens
and New Earth? In the words of C. S. Lewis, "All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just be­yond the grasp of your
consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it
was within your reach and you have lost it forever."
⁴⁴

You are made for a person and a place. Jesus is the person. Heaven is the place. They are a package—you cannot get Heaven
without Jesus or Jesus with­out Heaven. We will explore Heaven's joys and wonders throughout this book. But we dare not presume
we can enter Heaven apart from Christ.

"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6).

Have you confessed your sins? asked Christ to forgive you? placed your trust in Christ's death and resurrection on your behalf?
asked Jesus to be your Lord and empower you to follow him?

Wouldn't it be tragic if you read this book on Heaven but didn't get to go there?

SECTION TWO

UNDERSTANDING THE
PRESENT HEAVEN

CHAPTER 5

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF

THE PRESENT HEAVEN?

Pippin: "I
didn't think it "would end this way
..."

Gandalf:
"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path . . . one that ive all must take. The grey rain-curtain
of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass. . . and then you see it."

Pippin:
"What? Gandalf? See what?"

Gandalf:
"White shores. . . and beyond. The far green country under a swift sunrise."

Pippin:
"Well, that isn't so bad."

Gandalf:
"No . . . no, it isn't."

Peter Jackson'sfilm The Return of the King

Using the euphemism "those who fall asleep," Paul speaks of those who have died. If we are alive at Christ's return, he assures
us we will be "caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Therefore encourage each other with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18).

Most of this book will be centered on the eternal Heaven—the place where we will live forever after the final resurrection.
But because we've all had loved ones die, and we ourselves will die unless Christ returns first, we should con­sider what
Scripture teaches about the present Heaven—the place Christians go when they die.

THE TEMPORARY NATURE OF THE PRESENT HEAVEN

When a Christian dies, he or she enters into what is referred to in theology as the intermediate state, a transitional period
between our past lives on Earth and our future resurrection to life on the New Earth. Usually when we refer to "Heaven," we
mean the place that Christians go when they die. This is what I am calling the
present
or intermediate Heaven. When we tell our children "Grandma's now in Heaven," we're referring to the present Heaven.

By definition, an intermediate state or location is
temporary.
Life in the Heaven we go to when we die, where we'll dwell prior to our bodily resurrec­tion, is "better by far" than living
here on Earth under the Curse, away from the direct presence of God (Philippians 1:23). Still, the intermediate or present
Heaven is
not
our final destination. Though it will be a wonderful place, the present Heaven is not the place we are made for—the place
God promises to refashion for us to live in forever. God's children are destined for life as resur­rected beings on a resurrected
Earth. We must not lose sight of our true desti­nation. If we do, we'll be confused and disoriented in our thinking about
where, and in what form, we will spend eternity.

WILL WE LIVE IN HEAVEN FOREVER?

The answer to the question, Will we live in Heaven forever? depends on what we mean by Heaven. Will we be with the Lord forever?
Absolutely. Will we al­ways be with him in exactly the same place that Heaven is now? No. In the present Heaven, we'll be
in Christ's presence, and we'll be joyful, but we'll be looking forward to our bodily resurrection and permanent relocation
to the New Earth.

It bears repeating because it is so commonly misunderstood:
When we die, believers in Christ will not go to the Heaven where we'll live forever.
Instead, we'll go to an intermediate Heaven. In that Heaven—where those who died covered by Christ's blood are now—we'll await
the time of Christ's return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens
and New Earth. If we fail to grasp this truth, we will fail to understand the bibli­cal doctrine of Heaven.

It may seem strange to say that the Heaven we go to at death isn't eternal, yet it's true. "Christians often talk about living
with God 'in heaven'forever," writes theologian Wayne Grudem. "But in fact the biblical teaching is richer than that: it tells
us that there will be new heavens and a new earth—an entirely re­newed creation—and we will live with God there. . . . There
will also be a new kind of unification of heaven and earth. . . . There will be a joining of heaven and earth in this new
creation."
⁴⁵

Let me suggest an analogy to illustrate the difference between the present Heaven and the eternal Heaven. Suppose you lived
in a homeless shelter in Miami. One day you inherit a beautiful house, fully furnished, on a gor­geous hillside overlooking
Santa Barbara, California. With the home comes a wonderful job doing something you've always wanted to do. Not only that,
but you'll also be near close family members who moved from Miami many years ago.

On your flight to Santa Barbara, you'll change planes in Dallas, where you'll spend an afternoon. Some other family members,
whom you haven't seen in years, will meet you at the Dallas airport and board the plane with you to Santa Barbara. You look
forward to seeing them.

Now, when the Miami ticket agent asks you, "Where are you headed?" would you say "Dallas"? No. You would say Santa Barbara,
because that's your final destination. If you mentioned Dallas at all, you would only say, "I'm go­ing to Santa Barbara
by way of
Dallas."

When you talk to your friends in Miami about where you're going to live, would you focus on Dallas? No. You might not even
mention Dallas, even though you will be a Dallas-dweller for several hours. Even if you spent a week in Dallas, it wouldn't
be your focus. Dallas is just a stop along the way. Your true destination—your new permanent home—is Santa Barbara.

At the age of eighty-three I asked myself what knew about the home of God, and I was truly shocked to admit I knew very little....

Increasing age and the fact that I shall soon be making my own pilgrimage, have begotten within my soul an intense desire
to explore this fascinating subject.

IVOR POWELL

Similarly, the Heaven we will go to when we die, the present Heaven, is a temporary dwelling place, a stop along the way to
our final destination: the New Earth.

Another analogy is more precise but difficult to imagine, because for most of us it's outside our experience. Imagine leaving
the homeless shelter in Mi­ami and flying to the intermediate location, Dallas, and then turning around and
going back home
to your place of origin, which has been completely reno­vated—a New Miami. In this New Miami, you would no longer live in
a homeless shelter, but in a beautiful house in a glorious pollution-free, crime-free, sin-free city. So you would end up
living not in a different home, but in
a radically improved version of your old home.

This is what the Bible promises us—we will live with Christ and each other forever, not in the intermediate, or present, Heaven,
but on the New Earth, where God will be at home with his people.

DOES HEAVEN REALLY CHANGE?

Only God is eternal and self-existent. All else is created. Heaven is not syn­onymous with God, nor is it part of his essential
being. Therefore, God must have created Heaven. It is not a place where he
must
dwell, but it is where he
chooses
to dwell. Because Heaven is a place where angels live, where fi­nite beings come and go, it appears to be a finite environment,
a specific location.

Because God created Heaven, it had a beginning and is therefore neither timeless nor changeless. It had a past (the time prior
to Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection), it has a present (the Heaven where believers go when they die), and it
will have a future (the eternal Heaven, or New Earth). The past Heaven, the present Heaven, and the future or eternal Heaven
can all be called Heaven, yet
they are not synonymous,
even though they are all God's dwelling places.

Books on Heaven often fail to distinguish between the intermediate and eternal states, using the one word—
Heaven
—as all-inclusive. But this has dulled our thinking and keeps us from understanding important biblical dis­tinctions. In this
book, when referring to the place believers go after death, I use terms such as
thepresent Heaven
or
the intermediate Heaven.
I'll refer to the eternal state as
the eternal Heaven
or
the New Earth.
I hope you can see why this is such an important distinction. The present Heaven is a temporary lodging, awaiting place until
the return of Christ and our bodily resurrection. The eternal Heaven, the New Earth, is our true home, the place where we
will live forever with our Lord and each other. The great redemptive promises of God will find their ultimate fulfillment
on the New Earth, not in the present Heaven.

When we speak about the future New Earth, as we'll do in most of this book, much of what we say about it may not be true of
the intermediate Heaven. (For instance, we will eat and drink in our resurrection bodies on the New Earth, but that doesn't
mean people eat and drink in the present Heaven.) And when we describe the present Heaven, it will not necessarily correspond
with what the eternal Heaven, the New Earth, will be like. Once we abandon our assumptions that Heaven cannot change, it all
makes sense.
God
does not change; he's immutable. But God clearly says that Heaven
will
change. It will eventually be relocated to the New Earth (Revelation 21:1). Similarly, what we now refer to as Hell will also
be relocated. After the Great White Throne Judgment, Hell will be cast into the eternal lake of fire (Reve­lation 20:14-15).

DISTINGUISHING THE PRESENT AND FUTURE HEAVENS

The questions, What is Heaven like? and, What
will
Heaven be like? have two different answers. The present, intermediate Heaven is in the angelic realm, distinctly separate
from Earth (though as we'll see, likely having more physical qualities than we might assume). By contrast, the future Heaven
will be in the human realm, on Earth. Then the dwelling place of God will also be the dwell­ing place of humanity in a resurrected
universe: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . . I saw the Holy City the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
G o d . . . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwell­ing of God is with men, and he will live with
them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God'" (Revelation 21:1-3). Heaven, God's dwelling
place, will one day be on the New Earth.

Notice that the New Jerusalem, which
was
in Heaven, will come down out of Heaven from God. Where does it go? To the New Earth. From that time on, "the dwelling of
God" will be with redeemed mankind
on Earth

Some would argue that the New Earth shouldn't be called Heaven. But it seems clear to me that if God's special dwelling place
is by definition Heaven, and we're told that "the dwelling of God" will be with mankind on Earth, then Heaven and the New
Earth will be essentially the same place. We're told that "the throne of God and of the Lamb" is in the New Jerusalem, which
is brought down to the New Earth (Revelation 22:1). Again, it seems clear that wherever God dwells with his people and sits
on his throne would be called Heaven.

I concur with theologian Anthony Hoekema, who writes, "The 'new Jerusa­lem' . . . does not remain in a 'heaven' far off in
space, but it comes down to the renewed earth; there the redeemed will spend eternity in resurrection bodies. So heaven and
earth, now separated, will then be merged: the new earth will also be heaven, since God will dwell there with his people.
Glorified believers, in other words, will continue to be in heaven while they are inhabiting the new earth."
⁴⁶

That God would come down to the New Earth to live with us fits perfectly with his original plan. God could have taken Adam
and Eve up to Heaven to visit with him in his world. Instead, he came down to walk with them in their world (Genesis 3:8).
Jesus says of anyone who would be his disciple, "My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him"
(John 14:23). This is a picture of God's ultimate plan—not to take us up to live in a realm made for him, but to come down
and live with us
in the realm he madefor us.

Most views of Heaven are anti-incarnational. They fail to grasp that Heaven will be God dwelling with us—resurrected people—on
the resurrected Earth. The Incarnation is about God inhabiting space and time as a human be­ing—the new heavens and New Earth
are about God making space and time his
eternal
home. As Jesus is God incarnate, so the New Earth will be Heaven incarnate. Think ofwhat Revelation 21:3 tells us—God will
relocate his people and come down from Heaven to the New Earth to live with them: "God him­self will be with them." Rather
than our going up to live in God's home forever,
God will come down
to live in
our
home forever. Simply put, though the present Heaven is "up there," the future, eternal Heaven will be "down here." If we fail
to see that distinction, we fail to understand God's plan and are unable to envi­sion what our eternal lives will look like.

Several books on Heaven state that the New Jerusalem will not descend to Earth but will remain "suspended over the earth."
⁴⁷
But Revelation 21:2 doesn't say this. When John watches the city "coming down" from Heaven, there's no reason to believe it
stops before reaching the New Earth. The assumption that it remains suspended over the earth arises from the notion that Heaven
and Earth must always be separate. But Scripture indicates they will be joined. Their present incompatibility is due to a
temporary aberration—Earth is under sin and the Curse. Once that aberration is corrected, Heaven and Earth will be fully compatible
again (Ephesians 1:10).

Utopian idealists who dream of mankind creating "Heaven on Earth" are destined for disappointment. But though they are wrong
in believing that hu­mans can achieve a Utopian existence apart from God, the reality of Heaven on Earth—God dwelling with
mankind in the world he made for us—will in fact be realized. It is
God's
dream. It is God's plan. He—not we—will accomplish it.