What is Heaven?
Introduction – Part 1
Where is Heaven?
What’s it Like? Who will Go There?
The Story of Heaven and
The Glory of God.
(Part One)
Some people imagine Heaven as a place filled with babies
Clothed in diapers playing harps,
Floating on their own clouds.
But is this an accurate Picture of Heaven?
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What is Heaven?
A brief introduction.
Where is heaven? Why is heaven? Who gets to go to heaven?
As It has been stated in the introduction to What is Hell? —Heaven is the place where God dwells.
Heaven is the place of God’s home, and his family. One day, God has promised that heaven and earth will come together and be one; even as the father and the son are one; even as God has called all his disciples to be one in him and one with each other; even as the bride and the groom are one.
One day, we will all be one, even with God, and his angels, and the living creatures, and all the saints all around his throne, we will all be one.
This is the promise to all who have prepared themselves, who have cleansed their garments, and made themselves ready for the kingdom of God.
On that day, there will be no division. There will be no strife. No more sickness. No more death. There will be no fear, and no evil. No more jealousy, no more insecurity, no more dead religion, no more false teachers, no more human trafficking, and no more human hierarchies of men.
On that day we will all see God as he truly is. We will see that we were made for him, and for each other. We will all give praise and glory, and honor to God in perfect unity, without any false agendas. We will all rejoice in harmony thankful that together we overcame the Liar, the Thief, Murderer, and Defiler.
We will all enjoy God’s Great majesty and heavenly holiness. “We will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
We will not be able to stop rejoicing with gratitude before his majesty and his holiness. We will be glad and finally healed from all our lies, all our deceptions, all our accusations, all selfish ambitions. All lust and greed will be eternally removed from our lives, forever and ever. Only goodness and kindness, mercy and grace, truth and love, only compassion and beauty, shall fill our hearts from that day on.
The Word of God testifies that on the day that God is going to reveal himself, the heavens are going to be rolled back like a scroll (Revelation 6:14), like a curtain, they are going to be split asunder. And God is going to part the heavens and come down. On that day, “every eye shall see him.” While some will rejoice, many will weep, mourn and wail, because of Him.
Revelation 1:7-8 (KJV)
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
In order to avoid some confusion about where heaven is and what heaven is we need to understand that there are actually three heavens described in the Testimony of God, the Bible.
- The first heaven is the Immediate sky and air we breathe, and clouds we see with our naked eye. This first heaven also includes: the sun, moon, planets, stars, galaxies, and the whole universe in all of its vastness, which all declare the Glory of God, and prove his greatness and sovereignty, and prove his ability to mastermind, and maintain all of the necessary LAWS of Physics, Chemistry, Light and Vibrations, Sound waves, and orbits of the stars and planets, the intricate synchronizations of atoms, and celestial bodies, The DNA written code in virtually every of of our 3.5 billion living cells in our bodies. in or b chemistries, patterns, laws, of precision movement at precise dimensions, And all the laws that govern it, sing and bring glory, honor and majesty to The Creator Who created them.
. - The second heaven is said to be the domain of The Demonic Realm, Like a Spiritual Cloud of Darkness surrounding the Earth, there are apparently dark webs, dark strongholds, evil authorities watching over the affairs of men and beasts. And yes, there is a continual war between those inviting the Darkness to Rule and those inviting the Light to Rule. And rulership of men are the ones who invite evil agreements between men and demons, so that men actually become like demons with minds of hatred, bent on evil, violence, lust, greed, selfishness, immoral pleasure, and much worse. When there is strong agreement between men and devils, wickedness will take up residence and predominance in any one community, city, nation, culture, religion, or government. Such is what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah, it also happened in Jerusalem, and other cities, that have been destroyed, disciplined and some have be rebuilt, others have been cursed to never exist against, like the cities of Sodom and Babylon.To study this subject further read:
Daniel 10:10-21
Ephesians 6:10-20
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
Romans 8:37-39
Isaiah 14
Ezekiel 28These are eye opening, eye popping Scriptures. I hope you will grow in wisdom and insight by reading them.
. - The third heaven which is out of sight and apparently in another dimension just beyond the sky is also called the highest heaven (or the heaven of heavens). This is where the home of God abides.
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This third heaven, a.k.a. the highest heaven, is where we shall encounter God‘s kingdom, God’s Throne, and God‘s authority, in a sort of physical/spiritual/real sense where God‘s throne is visible us.
There we will encounter God‘s Throne room, God‘s court room, God‘s Hall of judgment, the God‘s seat of judgment, and the altar of God. That is where many will hear the Voice of God (maybe for the first time) in the great white throne judgment of God.
Revelation 20:11-15 (KJV)
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
There, we will encounter all of God’s servants, and his army of angels (Revelation 7:11) also known as “the host of heaven,” there before the throne of God are the four living creatures (Ezekiel 1:5-19; 3:13-14; Revelation 4:6-9; 5:6-14; 6:1-6; 14:3; 15:7; 19:4) who worship the Lord God, day and night, abiding and God‘s presence, and have specific roles to play, especially in the Book of Revelation, dispensing the Judgments of God. There, we encounter the 24 elders (Revelation 4:4), who throw their crowns before the king. There we encounter all the saints of men, who have overcome the evil one and have received as a reward a place, their place before the Throne of God. (Revelation 13:7)
Revelation 19:6-10 (KJV)
6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. 10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
It is also there that we will encounter the new Jerusalem, city of God, that has 12 gates, made of great pearls. There you will see high walls and streets of made of gold, that are translucent like glass.
In that city, there is no need for sun or moon to give its light, but the son of God is the brilliant light That illuminates the entire place.
All these images, symbols, pictures, visions and promises — we Believe by faith and receive from the testimony of God.
Now we see through our mirror darkly, but then we shall see face to face. Now we understand like a caterpillar, but then we shall understand like a butterfly transformed into its entire new reality.
And it is the God of heaven who put these testimonies here on earth, these marvels of his creation, to give us insight into his heavenly kingdom, to give us physical visual pictures of his glory, and windows in which to see into the future, and his mind of his majesty, and his plan of salvation, so that we can build a bridge between our world and his. By faith we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17:28 (KJV)
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being;
as certain also of your own poets have said,
For we are also his offspring.
This concludes the introduction to what is heaven.
Reference to the Third Heaven:
2 Corinthians 12:1-4 (KJV)
1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
References for “The Heaven of Heavens”:
Heaven of heavens means in Hebrew the Highest Heaven, similar to “The LORD of LORDS” which means the Highest LORD, or the LORD above every other LORD.
Deuteronomy 10:14
Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
1 Kings 8:27
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
2 Chronicles 2:6
But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?
2 Chronicles 6:18
But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
Nehemiah 9:6
Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
Psalms 68:33
To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.
Psalms 148:4
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
Reference: “heaven departed as a scroll”
“The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up” NASB,
Revelation 6:12-17 (KJV)
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?