These are just thoughts from a flawed man. Nothing is exhaustive here, nor will anything ever be when it comes to heaven. Okay…here it goes.
It’s interesting to me that the picture that most Christians paint of heaven, is always somewhere “up there,” and it’s easy to think like this, because the Bible uses language like being “caught up” (1 Thess. 4) in the sky. There’s also a lot of strange scenes in the Bible where people , or angels, are robed in white in constant worship to God. However, when I think of heaven with angels constantly playing harps, that doesn’t intrigue me.
The hardest part about understanding heaven is being able to strip away an American Christian worldview (largely influenced by the Great Awakenings of the 19th century, which focused more on salvation for escaping hell.) The authors of the Bible had a three-tiered worldview of the universe. They knew the heavens (up), the earth (our reality), and under the earth (down). You see this clearly in Philippians 2:5-11. Up was always associated with the heavens, because that’s where life came from (rain and sun), so God must be “up there.” This helps us understand how the writers of the Bible viewed the world in which they lived, and why they talked about heaven the way they did
When Jesus came on the scene, He would constantly speak of the “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven”. He would say things like, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). He would tell parables about what the kingdom of God is like. People use passages like Matthew 24-25 to explain that Jesus was teaching about future events (mainly the rapture into heaven). But Jesus was speaking to his closest followers about what they should expect, as far as proclaiming the kingdom of God, and he implored them to be faithful. In other words, people are always expecting heaven to be about somewhere when we fly away, but Jesus was always concerned about how we live here on earth. I’m getting to my point about heaven.
There have always been expectations about the kingdom of Heaven and what it will be like. The Jews anticipated a Messiah who would come to restore the nation of Israel, and this Messiah would sit on David’s throne forever. You see it clearly in Acts 1:6 when Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” To which Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know.” In other words, Jesus was saying that there is a task at hand way more important than the last days.
But, we’re guilty of this too. We ask questions like, “Will I go to heaven when I die?” What is heaven like?” To which Jesus replies “It is not for you to know.” Jesus was more concerned about earth than about heaven. Which leads me to my next point.
There are a total of 4 chapters in all the Bible where sin is not present, kind of like heaven: Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22. They are both pictures of cities (see also Hebrews 11:16), and these cities are not somewhere other than earth, they are, in fact, heaven on earth. Genesis speaks of Eden and Revelation speaks about heaven crashing into earth (Rev. 21:2), where there is no distinction between heaven and earth. (A side note: In Genesis 28, Jacob’s dream about angels ascending and descending on a ladder from heaven leads scholars to believe that heaven and earth to be the same place.) So, the Bible doesn’t teach that heaven is somewhere else.
Well then why does Jesus ascend into heaven, and then he comes back? I believe this has to do with how we view time and space. The Bible is clear that God is “other than” His creation, while also being imminent within His creation. This means that God is not bound by space and time, as we know it. That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, I say, and willing to rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord.”
Remember, Jesus taught us how to be new creations here on earth. All throughout the Bible, God is always about setting apart a people for Himself, and this is good news for the whole world when Jesus comes on the scene. So, it seems as though God is preparing the earth to be His dwelling place. What is the church called? The Body of Christ. So, when we here language like “Jesus is coming again,” this has more to do with the work we’re called to do now so that Jesus has a proper dwelling place, other than some glad morning when we fly away.
Ultimately, we get glimpses of heaven in the life of Jesus. His miracles aren’t supernatural. Rather, they are a renewal of heaven on earth. His life isn’t random acts of power. Rather, He is God emptying Himself into time and space. His death was not final. Rather, it was just the beginning. His resurrection is the climax of all of history, and “we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Romans 6:5).
One final thing, Jesus was the initiator of the new covenant (New Testament). We learn about this in passages like Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” The New Testament speaks of believers having the Holy Spirit to guide them and intercede for them. So for Jesus, the spirituality of believers did not consist of outward works. Rather, God looks at the heart, through the regenerating work of the Spirit. Think spiritual not physical. Again, Jesus didn’t see heaven as physical, but he said, ” The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21).
So, if someone asks “Where do Christians go when they die?” The answer is found in the kind of life that they live. The better question is, “Do people see Jesus in the way I live my life?” The answer to that question has everything to do with where one goes when they die.
Ethan Waters
