CONCERNING HEAVEN:

The words in the Hebrew and Greek for Heaven are the following:

1. Shamayim, !ymV, in the Old Testament meaning Heavens.¹⁰⁰

". . . and I will make you swear by Yehovah, the Elohim of heaven and the Elohim of earth." (Genesis 24:3)

2. Ouronos, οÛρανός, in the New Testament meaning Heaven.¹⁰¹

"Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matt 5:12)

Jesus taught that Heaven is a real place not on this earth.

"In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2).

Jesus calls Heaven his Father’s house. Heaven is a place, a place more real than earth. Heaven is the destiny of all born again Christians. When the Christians temporary body on this earth dies, he immediately goes to heaven. While this Earth is temporary, Heaven is forever.⁸²

Why do I say Heaven is more real than this Earth? Because Jesus said that the galaxies and earth will pass away but that heaven is forever. In terms of eternity this earth is not even onetrillionth of one-trillionth of one-trillionth of a second. In terms of eternity this life and earth’s life spand cannot even be compared to the tremendous length of time of a blink of an eye. Concerning Jesus and Heaven, Jesus’ throne, God the Father states,

"Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.... And You, Lord, in the beginning did lay the foundation of the earth. And the heavens are the works of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; and they all will become old as a garment, and as a mantle you will roll them up, and as a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same and your years will not come to an end." (Heb 1:8, 10-12).

God the Father tells us that the earth and the heavens as we know them are only temporary, that like a garment they will become old, worn out and perish. But Jesus and heaven, the throne and dwelling place of Jesus, will remain forever. God the Father also calls Jesus plainly God. Jesus is God, Yehovah Elohim of the Old Testament, equal and one in substance and Divinity with the Father.

The Apostle Paul tells us about Heaven that it is ". . . righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."¹⁰⁷ Where as Hell is eternal torment, misery, guilt and total lack of any kind of peace, heaven is total peace and joy constantly and continually forever. It is just the complete absolute opposite of hell.

Other facts about heaven: A person’s first thought in heaven is to give pleasure to others which unites everyone. You never seek to gain reluctant consent for any pleasure. One never intrudes on another’s privileges or pleasures. There are rewards for faithful service. Nations retain their languages, but you instantly understand what is being said. There are periods, allotted times, hours, for duties, pleasures and for Holy praise; but all is harmony at all times in all conditions. You never lack time for social pleasures, feel no clashing of duties and have no unfulfilled desires. Joy and happiness are daily new and eternally progressive. You are freed forever from whatever can make you miserable. You are freed from the presence, power and desire to sin and the temptation to sin and from a corrupted sin nature and God’s wrath on sin. As our love for God grows so does our happiness. Everyone is perfectly amiable and perfectly enamored with each other. You understand the perfect harmony of every teaching of Scripture. We retain our sexual identity, but there is no marriage in heaven. Instead we are like the angels.⁸¹

Concerning our resurrected bodies, they will be cleansed of all gross alloys of corruption. The enjoyment of God, rather than food, sustains them. They are immortal and incapable of dying.^62/23

Paul said that heaven is peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. The joys of heaven are the following: 1) The sight of God himself. 2) Enjoying God without measure. 3) Communion of God without interruption or intermission. 4) Perfect love without any fear whatsoever and perfect love for one another. 5) Children of one Father and truly brothers and sisters of each other. 6) The perfect knowledge of God. 7) Our capacities enlarged to accomplish the tasks assigned us. 8) You see God as He really is. 9) The reuniting and perfecting of body and soul.^62/23

To have faith in Jesus means to make a willful decision to believe that Jesus loves you and that if you give your life to him and serve Him, even to the loss of this temporal world, that in the life to come not only will He give you what you could not have on this earth, but you will have it forever. Jesus said,

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matt 6:19-21)

If you are putting your trust in this temporal life, Jesus says that you are being a fool. "But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’" (Luke 12:20). You are being a fool because this life is temporary and will not last. You are a fool for a second reason: Jesus says that treasures on earth will not only not last but will be burned up with fire.

In another passage Jesus put it this way, He said,

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his soul shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to His deeds." (Matt 16:24-27).

What does Jesus mean by losing your soul? What is the Bible’s definition of the soul? Man’s Soul: vpn¹⁰⁹, yuch¹¹⁰ is his true self and the means by which he has self-consciousness. Second, it is the medium between the spirit and the body. Third, it is what man becomes and manifests through his physical body in personality, vocation, and lifestyle as a result of heart response to, one, what he has learned through his mind body, conscience, and emotions; two, through what he has received from God through his spirit; and three, as a result of those abilities and talents God has chosen to give him individually.⁷⁸ This is the reason for the resurrection: so man can continue to give expression of his soul-life through his body. In hell one continues to have self-consciousness, but opportunity to give expression of that soul-life is forever ceased which is what is meant by the destruction of the soul: no means to develop or give expression of the soul-life. Both the body and the soul are bound and burned with fire for ever.

When you reject Jesus’ reign over your life, the soul life you develop is of your own doing and Jesus says that the day you die not only will you lose the soul life you wanted, but neither will you ever know the soul life He created you to have. You will never know your purpose for being created. But if a man surrenders to Jesus as Lord and seeks and submits to the soul life Jesus has for him revealed through man’s spirit by the Holy Spirit, not only will he find out why God created him and the soul life Jesus wants him to have, but he will not lose the soul life Jesus gives him and it will last into eternity.

Heaven is not three people floating on a cloud playing a harp as is popularly thought. Heaven is a real place more real than earth. Heaven is not the discontinuation of this life, but the continuance of this life as it was meant to be. Heaven is the continuation and development of your talents and abilities to their fullest potential. There is labor in heaven, but it is a perfect joy, not the drudgery and evil competitiveness that we experience here on earth. The Psalmist wrote about being in the presence of God in Heaven, "In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Ps 16:11). Heaven is fullness of joy and pleasures forever. God’s nature is love, joy and peace all the time, continuously forever. The Bible tells us that when You receive Jesus Christ as Your Savior and Lord, you are made one spirit with Christ: "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him."¹¹¹ Because this is true, since the Nature of the Holy Spirit is love, joy and peace continuously, all the time and forever, therefore, in heaven we experience God’s love, joy and peace continuously, all the time and forever without ceasing.

Our relationships here effect our life to come. "Every gentle word, every generous thought, and every unselfish deed will become a pillar of eternal beauty in the life to come." When you die and go to heaven, you take with you your same tastes, desires and knowledge you had before death. This is why what you do in this life builds for the next.⁸²

When Jesus comes back, will he find faith on the earth? When you make your focus in life storing up the treasures of earth, you are saying to Jesus, "Jesus, I do not have faith that if I give up this world for service to You that You will give me greater reward in heaven that will last throughout eternity, than I can accumulate on this Earth now through my own efforts." You are saying to God and to the world, "This life is all there is. I better make the best of it." You are showing that you have no faith at all. "So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:21). Jesus said,

"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him God the Father has set His seal." (John 6:27).

Heaven is an ABSOLUTE reality.