Heaven? What is it? Where is it? #lovewins

The point of this series of posts is an exercise in how I would answer the questions Rob Bell is asking as if I were in an actual dialogue with someone. This series is not meant to be read as a critique, review, a medium to bash Bell, or a way to prove I am “right.” See the first three posts in this series here, here, and here.

Crucial to any helpful consideration of eternal life is our understanding of time and eternity. We cannot fully grasp fully how time is present to eternity. Nevertheless, two concepts mark our boundaries.

1. We dare not divorce eternity from time.

In doing this we make eternity a never-ending state of rest disconnected from time.

2. We dare not collapse eternity into time.

In doing this eternity becomes merely an endless succession of temporal units.

Hans Schartz in On the Way to the Future suggests that “eternity is . . . the fulfillment of time in perfection.”

Bell on heaven itself says this: “Jesus consistently affirmed heaven as a real place, space, and dimensions of God’s creation, where God’s will and only God’s will is done. Heaven is that realm where things are as God intends them to be.” Yet at the same time he contends that “Heaven for Jesus wasn’t just “someday”; it was a present reality. . . Eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts now. It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and survive even death.”

So heaven? What is it? Where is it?

The Bible frequently refers to the place God currently dwells as “heaven.” For example, Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9. See also Matthew 5:16; 6:1; 7:21; 10:32). Stephen at his stoning: “full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55-56). Heaven is the place from which both the Spirit (John 15:26) and the Son are sent (John 3:13; 6:33; 6:38). Heaven is also the place where Jesus ascended (Luke 24:51).

So in referring to this place, Christians often talk about living with God in heaven forever. But the biblical teaching is much richer than this. In fact the Bible tells us that there will be a new heavens and a new earth. Peter says, “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).

And John saw “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2). Then he heard “a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).

So there will be a joining of heaven and earth in this new creation, and there we will in the presence of God. However, in this present age, heaven is the place where the fullness of the triune God dwells; the place where God fully makes his presence known.

Therefore heaven is a place not just a state of mind. In the ascension of Jesus, the fact that he went to a place seems to be the entire point of Acts 1:6-11.

But what happens when I die?

Resurrection.

In seeking to discern what happens at death, we must always maintain the biblical emphasis on resurrection. The foundation and the goal of out hope in Jesus is the resurrection. The resurrection, not death, is the doorway to participation in the fullness of life.

Only the assurance of joining Jesus in resurrection unmasks the mystery of death and dissipates the terror of the unknown. This assurance alone provides the foundation for confidence in the face of death. This is why Paul could write:

So in this present age we declare the good news that we one day will share in Jesus’ resurrection. The primacy of resurrection reminds us that the dead are not annihilated, for all will appear at the final judgement. And it is to the negative side of this judgement we will turn to next – Hell.

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