1. DID GOD CREATE US TO BE ETERNAL BEINGS?

Yes, when he created us he created a perishable physical body from the chemicals of the earth. He then placed in the perishable body an imperishable spirit that he had separately created. The perishable body will one day return to dust but the spirit will return to God who created it, Eccl 12:7.

Gen 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

Gen 2:7 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (i.e. a spirit living in a body).

Jesus made it clear to his apostles that they were eternal spirits living in a perishable tent of a body.

2 Peter 1:13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.

There is an extensive discussion about our perishable bodies becoming imperishable in the future in 1 Cor 15.

2. WHAT THEN HAPPENS WHEN THE PERISHABLE BODY CEASES TO FUNCTION?

This very situation happened when Jesus was hanging on a cross with two thieves, one on each side.

Luke 23:42-43 Then he (one of the thieves) said “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

3. WHERE IS THIS PARADISE THAT JESUS & THE THIEF WOULD ENTER THAT DAY?

2 Cor 12:2 I (Paul) was caught up to Paradise and heard inexpressible things that no one is permitted to tell.”

Rev 2:7 Whoever has ears let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: to the one who is victorious I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.”

4. WHERE IS THE TREE OF LIFE? (also see Rev 22:2 & 22:19)

Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates of the city (the heavenly city).

Thus we see that the tree of life is in both paradise and the heavenly city.

Thus paradise is in heaven since the heavenly city is in heaven at this time. It will be part of the new order, the reunited heaven and earth after the final judgments.

5. WAS PAUL ANXIOUS TO GET BACK TO THE PARADISE HE HAD SEEN IN A VISION?

Our current body is only a tent within which our spirit lives. Paul was obviously very anxious to leave his body and go to the Paradise in heaven. Paul had obviously really liked what he had seen in Paradise. He could not wait to get back.

2 Cor 5:1-5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

2 Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,3 because when we are clothed we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life.

5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

This passage also tells us the very reason why God created us, “That we might become eternal and live forever in heaven with him.” If we dig a little deeper we will find that we were created to be the Bride of Christ, and to live with him forever. Of course that is only those who choose of their own free will to become a follower of Jesus and make an effort to do his will.

6. DO OTHER SCRIPTURES CONFIRM THIS?

Phil 1:23-24 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Rev 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain, because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

7. SO WE SEE THAT THE VERY DAY WE DIE WE GO TO PARADISE IN HEAVEN.

HOW DOES THIS TAKE PLACE?

If you belong to Jesus an angel immediately takes you to paradise.

Luke 16:22 The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.

8. GOD SAYS THAT HE WILL FORGIVE AND FORGET OUR SINS? WILL WE FORGET THEM IN HEAVEN?

Looking forward to the time when the Jews return to him at the Second Coming, God said the following in Jer 31:34.

Jer 31:34 For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.

If God can forget our sins will we also be able to forget them in heaven. The judgment seat of Christ takes place at the rapture. We will not likely have forgotten our sins at that time because Jesus is going to weigh our good against our bad to determine the fullness of our rewards for service. After that time God can completely forget our sins. It is likely that we will also. In fact when we receive our glorified body at the judgment seat it seems likely that the mind of our new eternal body will have been purified of all past sins. We will only carry forward into eternity the good that we have done and been a part of.

Isaiah 65 starts out by pointing out to the Jews all of the terrible sins that they had been committing over and over. He then says that a remnant will return to him in the end times. They will finally recognize Jesus as their God and be given a new name, Isa 65:15. This new name was announced previously in Isa 62:11-12 and it is associated with the time of the rapture. It says to tell Daughter Zion, “See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.” The new name is four in number

The Holy People

The redeemed of the Lord

Sought After

The City No Longer Deserted

Isa 65:17 says of God’s people, “The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” From the context this applies to the period after the Second Coming and it goes on to describe the millennium.

I suspect that after a while things will be so fantastic in the millennium that life on the previously sinful earth will simply not come to mind. Other much more pleasant things will occupy our minds. With that said it may well be as we said above our sinful acts may be scrubbed clean by Jesus at his judgment seat.

9. WILL WE RECOGNIZE FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS WHO ARE ALREADY THERE?

Yes, we certainly will and I expect Jesus will give us an app that has biographies of everyone in heaven, so we will likely recognize everyone there. This app might be one of our rewards. King David had a very young son who died and David had been deeply troubled as the child lay sick. However after the child died David took solace in the fact that he would again be with his son in heaven one day.

2 Sam 12:23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.

10. WILL WE HAVE BODIES WITH WHICH WE CAN MOVE AROUND AND FUNCTION NORMALLY WHEN WE ARE IN HEAVEN?

Yes we will, and as an example, at the Last supper Jesus said the following to his disciples:

Matt 26:29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

This reference may be referring to the millennium, and if so we will then have glorified, resurrected bodies. However, there is a reference that clearly takes place before the rapture. This reference is Luke 16:19-31 and it takes place in Hades. It was before Jesus’ death and thus no one’s spirits had yet been taken to heaven. Jesus had not yet died for the sins of the world and thus made believers purified and fit for heaven in God’s eyes. Hades was divided into two sections with a great impassable chasm between the two. We see that those in the two sections of Hades could recognize each other, communicate with each other and their senses were still working in some fashion. In the time between his death and resurrection Jesus took all of the spirits in Abraham’s Bosom to heaven; since that time when people on earth die their spirits go to either Hades or heaven, depending on whether or not they were followers of Jesus. Thus we have evidence that even before we receive our glorified bodies at the rapture we are still conscious, can communicate, are mobile, etc. This is one of many confirmations in the Bible that only those loving and following Jesus will be in heaven.

11. IF WE CAN STILL FUNCTION WELL IN HEAVEN BEFORE THE RAPTURE WHY WILL WE EVER NEED GLORIFIED, RESURRECTED BODIES?

We will need glorified, resurrected bodies during the millennium and the new order. Why? It is because spiritual bodies cannot function on earth. They obviously function quite well in heaven, but not on earth. In the millennium Jesus will be fulfilling many of his early promises to the Jewish people. These promises require them to be living in the whole of their promised land on earth. In their glorified bodies they will be able to do and enjoy anything that they did in their human bodies, but without the problems that entropy causes human bodies. Phil 3:10-11, 20-21 tells us that our future resurrected bodies will be just like the body that Jesus had after his resurrection. He could still function normally on earth, including eating and drinking, etc.

12. WHAT WILL WE LOOK LIKE IN HEAVEN?

We will likely look very much the same as we do on earth with one important exception. 1 Cor 15:38-39, 49 may be hinting that our DNA will be perfected and we will therefore look like the perfect version of ourselves, with the ravages of sin, disease, entropy etc. removed. This might be more the way we looked in our early 20’s but possibly much better. In this passage in 1 Cor 15 we might want to think of the “seed” being our DNA.

13. WHEN WILL WE RECEIVE THE REWARDS THAT JESUS PROMISED US?

In Rev 22 Jesus said that he was coming soon and that his rewards would be with him. When will Jesus next come to earth? It will be at the general rapture of the saints on the very first day of a seven year period of tribulation on earth. That means that there will be three phases to our heavenly existence. The first phase will be in heaven alone and we will be in our spiritual bodies. We will still be able to function perfectly well in heaven but can have no access to earth and could not function there. We will likely not even be able to see what is taking place on earth.

The second phase will be after the rapture when we receive our glorified, resurrected bodies. This glorified body will be one of the rewards that every saint will receive. We will then spend the next seven years in heaven with all of our crowns, our new body and all of our rewards for service to the Lamb, our King Jesus. This will be the seven year tribulation. At the end of the tribulation we will return to earth with Jesus as he defeats Satan, Satan’s angels and all humans who serve Satan by doing the things he wants them to do. Jesus will then throw Satan and his angels unto the Abyss and Satan’s human followers into Hades for 1000 years. We will then spend the next 1000 years back on an earth that Jesus will quickly renew into its former paradise like condition. This is the key reason for why we will receive the resurrected bodies, so that we can once more function on a physical earth, enjoy its many pleasures and serve Jesus in many wonderful ways as he will be King of kings on the earth. Jesus will fulfill all of his promises to the Jewish people during that period and they will be at the center of earthly activity.

The third phase will start right after the final judgments. This will be the new order presented in Rev 21-22. Earth and heaven will re re-united as one. We will then be on a physical earth-like place and in a spiritual heaven at the same time for eternity. We will see a little more on this later in this study. I have written dozens of short commentaries on this subject and many are included elsewhere on this site. There are far too many topics and too much detail in this area to cover it all in this short study on heaven.

14. WILL SATAN AND HIS ANGELS BE IN THE SAME AREA OF HEAVEN AS BELIEVERS?

I certainly would not expect to see Satan and his angels when we get to heaven for a couple of reasons. First, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe the fall of Satan. This fall of Satan was a fall from God’s mountain or heavenly government. He was removed from his place of power in God’s heavenly government when he became prideful and wanted to be worshipped like God. As you will see me describe later, heaven apparently has at least 7 dimensions with God’s throne room being in the highest level. Satan obviously was not completely kicked out of heaven since we see him in Job coming to God with accusations against Job. Also we are told in the New Testament that Satan is our accuser to God and that he is the ruler of the earth. Satan is obviously not now physically on earth and that will not happen until shortly before mid-tribulation according to Rev 12:12. It seems that Satan was kicked out of the higher dimensions of heaven and down to the dimensions just above the three physical dimensions occupied by the earth and the physical universe. That would likely be the fourth and possibly the fifth and sixth dimensions. It may be that Satan’s access to God in the highest dimensions is now by permission or appointment only.

We see in Rev 6:9 that when those raptured to heaven in mid-tribulation arrived they were in the area where the altar of God was located. Thus it seems that we will be in the higher dimensions of heaven while Satan and his angels will be confined to the lower dimensions. God may have placed a barrier between the higher and lower dimensions of heaven at the fall of Satan just as he placed a barrier between heaven and earth at the fall of man. The spiritual warfare of Eph 6 currently taking place between God’s angels and Satan’s angels over the spirits of those living on earth is thus taking place in these lower dimensions and we may not even know that it is ongoing. This spiritual warfare stops during mid tribulation when Satan and his angels are thrown completely out of the heavenly dimensions and confined to earth. They are only on earth for a short time, because about three years later they are all thrown into the Abyss where they will spend the thousand years of the millennium.

15. WILL THERE BE A CHANGE IN HEAVEN AND EARTH AFTER THE MILLENNIUM?

Yes. Rev 21 tells us that there will be a new order after the final judgments which occur after the end of the millennium. The heavenly and earthly dimensions will be unified and we will then be in both at the same time. It seems that this was also the case before the fall of man. See my studies on God’s Plan for Man and my commentaries on Rev chapters 21 and 22 for details.

16. WHAT ELSE DO WE KNOW ABOUT HEAVEN IN THE NEW ORDER?

From Rev chapters 21 and 22 we know that there will be no death, no crying, no pain, no sorrow, YHWH will be our God and we will be his people, we will be Jesus’ companion forever.

There will be no sin, no impurity, no deceit, no curse. The throne of God and the Lamb, Jesus, will be in the heavenly city. Angels will still be there as fellow servants with us.

17. WHERE WILL WE STAY WHEN WE GET TO HEAVEN?

Jesus said in John 14:1-3 that there is a great mansion in heaven where the Father lives. Jesus said that it contained many rooms and that he was going back to heaven when he left earth to prepare one of the rooms for each of us. The eternal city in the new order described in Rev 21-22 gives us the size of the city. Apparently the city is a square surrounded by huge walls with rooms built into the walls. My calculations using the dimensions in Rev 21 show there could easily be 1,111,111,000 rooms in each of the walls with each room being 216 x 216 x 216 feet.

18. CAN ANGELS AND SPIRITS OF HUMANS IN HEAVEN SEE THINGS ON EARTH?

Angels obviously can see what is taking place on earth. We know from the situation involving an invading army surrounding Jerusalem. God had placed an army of angels in the same area to protect Jerusalem, but they could not be seen by humans.

However, I am not aware of any situations in the Bible where spirits of humans in heaven could see or be aware of things happening on earth. This will likely change, however, in the new order after the final judgments. Those in Hades in Luke 16 apparently could not see earth.

19. CAN ANGELS APPEAR ON EARTH AND BE VISIBLE TO US?

There were many situations in the Old Testament where angels visited earth and were visible. They generally looked like humans and did not have wings. Since this happened so infrequently it is likely that angels in heaven do not have free access to earth in a physical sense. Since Gabriel made so many appearances on earth in both the Old and New Testaments and he was an archangel, it may be that only archangels have the ability to visit the earth physically. An arch is a connector between two areas, so this may be how those angels got their descriptive name. They were an arch between heaven and earth. I will cite a few examples from the Bible about angels coming to earth. Gabriel appeared on earth several times in the New Testament announcing the coming birth of Jesus. The apostles were arrested in Jerusalem and thrown into jail but an angel appeared, opened the doors of the jail and let them out, Acts 5:17-20. Heb 13:2 lets us know that these types of things may still be happening today. We may see angels and not even know that they are angels.

20. DOES HEAVEN HAVE A PHYSICAL ASPECT TO IT?

It certainly seems to have a physical aspect to it. There are many clues that this is the case. For instance, we see in Hebrews that many things on earth are copies of things in heaven; the Ark for example, Heb 9:4, 23.

In all of the visions of heaven recorded in the Bible, the pictures being painted look like they have a physical aspect to them. However, from a scientific perspective from currently widely accepted theories, the particles making up the heavenly spaces are likely different from those making up the physical dimensions. I refer to closed vs. open strings from string theory.

21. WHERE IS HEAVEN?

I have heard respected and well schooled Bible scholars say that heaven is trillions of light years away. I believe that is nonsense. It is someone quoting information about the size of the physical universe without really understanding what the latest science teaches about the universe. The currently most accepted theory about the composition of the universe is string theory. If I understand it correctly it theorizes that our universe has at least ten dimensions, plus a time dimension. The first three are obviously the physical universe that we occupy. That would leave the other seven to be the place where heaven is located. We do not have to go anywhere to get to the other seven dimensions. They are all around us, we just do not currently have access to them. We cannot currently experience them. That was likely not the case before the fall and will not be the case in the new order.

To get to heaven we go up in dimension, but do not have to travel anywhere in the physical universe to get there. It is all around us and right next to us but we cannot see it.

22. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET THERE?

When we die it is instantaneous. Our spirit is not physical in the normal sense of the word. It is already composed of the material that makes up the higher dimensions. From string theory, the particles that make up the higher dimensions are different from those that make up our physical universe.

23. HAS MODERN SCIENCE DISCOVERED THE LOCATION OF HEAVEN?

It certainly may have, without even knowing or understanding what it might have found. There have already been scientific probes trying to penetrate the higher dimensions. That may be the modern version of the Tower of Babel. When men attempted that over 4300 years ago God confused mankind by confusing the languages and making it much harder to communicate. Will he do something to confuse mankind again because of what we are trying to do? Only God knows.

24. WHAT LANGUAGE WILL WE SPEAK IN HEAVEN?

We would have to take a guess at that. I can think of a couple of possibilities. They are from the passages in Acts on tongues. At Pentecost everyone spoke in their native language but others heard them in their own language. Another possibility is that we will all speak in tongues, which is called the language of angels. A third possibility is that one of our rewards will be an app downloaded into our minds which allows us to translate any language that we hear being spoken into our native language. I suspect we will be able to text others in heaven mentally. We just think the text and it appears in the minds of others, even God himself. See John 16:23, 1 Cor 2.

25. WILL THERE BE THINGS IN HEAVEN THAT ARE JUST THERE FOR OUR PLEASURE AND FUN?

I recently heard a sermon titled, “Why did Jesus go to the wedding at Cana?” The pastor’s conclusion was that it was just for pleasure or fun. Jesus had just come back from a very difficult time of 40 days of testing and temptation in the wilderness. Soon after that he walked the 90 miles to Cana. The pastor may have been right. Jesus was on earth to walk a mile in our shoes according to Hebrews. He would have to experience pleasure and fun as a part of that. I suspect that there will be pleasure and fun in heaven beyond our wildest dreams.

Let us ponder some possibilities. How about huge Imax theaters, musical concerts in huge stadiums with perfect acoustics, sporting events without referees or umpires, cruises to fantastic places, tours of the universe where the beauty is beyond belief, having the Bible to read in its native heavenly language. Can you think of other possibilities? I am like John and Paul, I cannot wait to get there!