The following is one section from Chapter 5 (“Heaven”) of my book The Ten Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible.
When I was on Staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, we used to sing a song at our weekly on-campus meetings. It was a chorus called, “Heaven Is a Wonderful Place.” We’d sing about how wonderful heaven is. Heaven, we’d sing, is filled with glory and grace. “I want to see my Savior’s face! Heaven is a wonderful place. I want to go there.” Students and staff alike loved the song. But, unfortunately, that song presents a flawed view of heaven.
Yes, heaven is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace. And, yes, my Savior is there right now. However, the song gives the distinct impression that we will spend eternity in heaven in the presence of Jesus. But neither the Lord Jesus nor believers will spend eternity in the third heaven. Jesus and believers will spend eternity on the new earth. The third heaven wasn’t made for humans. And humans weren’t made for the third heaven.
One simple way we know this is by reading the opening chapters of Genesis. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, then they and all their descendants would have lived on earth at least until they filled it. Think about that for a moment. God’s original design for human beings was not that they live in the third heaven forever. He didn’t design us for the third heaven. He gave us bodies and a planet on which to use those bodies. While angels arguably were designed to spend at least some of their time in the third heaven, humans were not.
What would have happened if Adam and Eve had not fallen and then had fulfilled God’s command to fill the earth? At that point either God would have cut off reproduction (remember, no one would have died, ever), or else He would have allowed humans to go out and colonize the planets, the second heavens.
Quite possibly before the fall of Adam and Eve, all the planets would have been not only capable of sustaining human life but would have been Edenic. But even if the situation before the fall was as it is now in terms of the percentage of inhabitable planets, there would have been millions of planets that could sustain human life. And the universe is ever expanding, so that new planets are coming into existence all the time.
Adam and Eve and their offspring, which includes you and me, were not made for the third heaven. Of course, God knew that one day we would fly in the first and even the second heaven. But He did not create us to live in the third heaven. We were created to be earthly beings.
“Ah,” some would say, “but after they sinned, that meant that humans were no longer destined to live on earth, but in heaven, that is, in the third heaven.” While God certainly could have changed His plans for humans, the Bible does not support this notion. Indeed, the last two chapters of the Bible are very clear that the place where believers will live is not the new heavens, but the new earth.
The Apostle John “saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2, emphasis added). Clearly the holy city, which is where the street of gold will be (Rev 21:9-27), will be on the new earth, not in the new third heaven where God the Father dwells. This is reinforced in the very next verse in which John says he “heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people’” (Rev 21:3). Note that He will dwell with them. John doesn’t say, Men will dwell with Him. Rather, He will dwell with us. He is coming to our place. That is one of the reasons He took a body, so that He could live among us. (Of course, another reason is that He had to be fully human to die on the cross to take away our sins and make it possible for us to have eternal life by faith.)
The first and last chapters of the Bible make it clear that God has come to earth to dwell with us on earth. If your aim has been to spend eternity in heaven, I hope you will give up on that ambition. That isn’t for you.
Bruce Bryan
Disagree. We will be revealed with him in glory (Col 3:4). The vision of heaven in Revelation 4-5 includes humans (Rev 5:13). Pau says we will ever be with the Lord following our rapture off of this planet (1 Thess 4:17). Our new home in Jesus’ Father is in the Father’s house–where we will be where he is (John 14:1-3). We will no longer have human bodies, but supernatural one (1 Corinthians 15:42-44), for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). In the future dwelling of the believer, “the old order of things will pass away”, and there will be no more “death or mourning, or crying or pain” (Rev 21:4-5)–so wherever Jesus is I will be with him, and wherever that it it will be heaven, as God surely dwells in Heaven. Very comfortable preaching to my people there divine truths. FYI. I am a strong believer in the Free Grace position, and appreciate the work of GES. I trust this does not mean we have to agree on everything!
Eric Thimell
This is exactly right but there remain a couple of points to be discussed: the destination of those believers who die now and are in the “presence of the Lord” and the immediate destination of those who are raptured and will “be forever with the Lord” unless you hold a post-tribulation position(!)
Steve Sorensen
Hi Bob.
I also received my ThM at DTS in 1987, the good old days.
Great article to get believers thinking and their mind inside the Word.
Perhaps something could have been said about when we die where we go, as in absent from the body, at home with the Lord. Of course temporarily before the rapture. Then about the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. You are correct in that our eternal home will be in the new city on the new earth in a new heavens. We will have to be transported off of this present earth before Christ destroys it at the end of his 1,000 year reign. I hope and pray more believers will also see the importance Israel and believing Jews play in all of this, too. But that emphasis on our eternal location; very good. God bless you.
Warm regards,
Steve Sorensen, Pastor
Community Bible Church of Highland, Maryland since 1993
EternallySaved
Amen Bob. Now, I will show you what has been revealed to me when reading Scripture on this:
1 God is going to supernaturally transform the entire space time universe into one gigantic earth like place. The perfect Edenic enviroment that God will restore in the Millenium will be extended beyond Earth in eternity. Outer Space is going to become one giant earth like breathable enviroment.
2 There will be endless reproduction of new children and they will reach the 30-33 year point and have to eat of the Tree of Life as shown in Revelation 21-22 and they will then live forever in a sinless body. Church Age and Old Testament and Tribulation Saints who got glorified bodies will administer the universe under God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ, along with the new ever-increasing infinite population. The universe will expand forever. There will never be an end of land.
3 God can create for us a kind of “adamant diamond plastic” that is millions of times stronger, denser, yet lighter than steel and cement. This can be used to build with there.
Tim Amoroso
The only hope for this dark, fallen world is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
EternallySaved
Amen Tim.
May I please ask you some short Bible questions brother?
1 Do you believe in Heaven and the new Earth, if it is in God’s will, He will allow us to somehow collect and enjoy things that we enjoyed on Earth, that are not sinful, such as eating pizza and ice cream, and collecting things that made us happy, like a Christian man I know who likes watches and collects various ones or another who is into making jewelry?
2 Do you believe God will somehow resurrect or remake our favorite pets in glorified bodies, so they can enjoy Heaven and the New Earth with us, and we can see them again?
Thank you and God bless you!
Florin Hiltz
Curtis H. Tucker, wrote an interesting book on this subject. The book is called Majestic Destiny.
EternallySaved
Thank you. I just looked up this book, “Majestic Destiny” and it seems good.
EternallySaved
I have to add something. While some of what Tucker said seems good, such as the believer being in the Kingdom of heaven, I went to his website and BEWARE! This man preaches a form of UNIVERSALISM where there is no eternal Hell. He has to twist Scripture to make his case.
Tom Barrett
I agree with Bob Wilken Life will be fabulous and fruitful!