Heaven? What is that?

Mike Hosey, Elder

Oh this ice cream is heaven! Oh what a heavenly voice! I think I’m in heaven! That person was heaven sent! I am in seventh heaven! This situation stinks to high heaven!

Just listening to our language is enough for one to realize that the concept of Heaven is central to our culture in a profound way. But what exactly is Heaven.  Some people liken it to a state of mind. Such a way of conceptualizing it, however, doesn’t do the biblical data justice at all. Others more accurately describe it as the place where God dwells in all His glory. The biblical fact that it is an actual place in space and time (1 Kings 8:49, Mark 16:19, Hebrews 9:4) isn’t an alien concept to Christians. After all, most of us tend to think of it as a place where you go when you die.

Most of us also tend to think of it as a very distant place. But is this an accurate way to think of it? Consider the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:55-56). Before he died he gazed into Heaven and saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.  It wasn’t distant. It was only separated from him until his death, and until his eyes were opened.

Ponder Stephen’s experience for a moment and think about the following speculation in light of some of the things we know:  We know that God lives in Heaven (Matthew 6:9), and we also know that He is omnipresent, that is to say, everywhere around us (Psalms 139:7-10, Proverbs 15:3). We also know that we as humans are separated from God because of our sin (Isaiah 59:1-2), and that God is far from the wicked, but close enough to hear the righteous (Proverbs 15:29), and that unless we are born again we can’t see Heaven (John 3:3). Perhaps . . . maybe . . .  possibly, Heaven is all around us and we are simply separated from it in spiritual ways that our carnal minds don’t have the capacity to understand.  

Now consider the New Heavens and the New Earth in Revelations 21:1-27. When all is said and done, and man is reconciled with God, there is no separation between Heaven and Earth, and God dwells with his people (Revelation 21:3) and His people dwell with Him!