Heaven
Whenever we think of Heaven, we think of the place where God lives.
It is a place which is invisible to us now but someday we will be living
there eternally. The Bible speaks
of several heavens and it is good to know the difference between them.
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke more about Heaven than many other subjects
while He was here in his earthly ministry.
Physical Heavens
The
scriptures speaks about three heavens.
The first two are physical which we can see with our very eyes.
The
first heaven – The first heaven is earth’s atmosphere where we will see birds
and airplanes fly. In the Bible it
is called the firmament and we find its description in Genesis 1:14-18 where God
created the sun to rule the day and the moon to give reflected light at night.
The word “firmament” actually means expanse which is the visible arch in
the sky.
The
second heaven – The second heaven would be the universe where we would see the
stars and the planets. We would
also see things like the Horsehead nebula or the Crab nebula.
We do not know if there is an end to the universe and if there was, what
would be on the other side? The
Bible records this second heaven in Job 22:12; Psalm 8:3; Matthew 24:29.
God’s
Heaven - The third heaven
The
third heaven is the place where God lives and that is where the Lord Jesus
Christ came from before He came to earth.
It is not a physical place like the physical heavens but is a spiritual
place which can never see any type of deterioration as we see in the physical
heavens. The Bible calls this place
the “Heaven of heavens” in Deuteronomy 10:14.
Three
times in scripture it is referred to as paradise – Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians
12:4; Revelation 2:7
There
is no night in Heaven – Revelation 22:5
Nothing sinful will ever enter into Heaven – Revelation 21:27; Revelation
22:14-15
A
place of eternal rest for the believers – Revelation 14:13
It is
the promised place for the believer to live eternally – John 14:2-3
We
will know each other in Heaven – Matthew 17:4 – In Matthew 17:4 we see the Lord
Jesus Christ and the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Peter in his impulsiveness asked if he could make a tabernacle for Jesus,
Moses, and Elijah. Moses lived 1500
years before Peter, Elijah live about 850 years before Peter and yet Peter
recognized both of them. This means
that we will know people in Heaven, even those we never met on earth.
Heaven is a place of holiness – Psalm 11:4; Habakkuk 2:20
No
sorrow, death, or crying in Heaven – Revelation 21:4
There
is joy in Heaven when a person becomes saved – Luke 15:7
Jesus
ascended into the third Heaven – Acts 1:11; Acts 7:55