Summary:
Heaven is a place with streets, trees, rivers and dwelling places where people will spend time together in wholesome relationships in the presence of an all-loving and all-wise Heavenly Father. It is NOT us floating around singing hymns and playing harps!
A little more:
The most common misperception about Heaven: It is NOT a place where we fly around like angels for all eternity playing harps and singing hymns. This misconception comes from reading passages in the Bible about God’s Throne Room and not being aware of passages about the new earth (Heaven) also called the New Jerusalem. God’s final judgment will be in the Throne Room, but people that accept God’s gift of salvation will be spending eternity in Heaven (named The New Jerusalem in Revelation).
The “place”: The Bible describes the new earth in Revelation 21 & 22 with its streets, trees, rivers, etc. God also says that many dwelling places are there for us to live in. So, there is a Throne Room, but it is only talked about when the Bible is talking about judgment activities.
What actually makes it Heaven: The key to Heaven is not the physical surroundings, but the relationships we will have there. It is a place where people that have learned to trust God will spend eternity together with much more positive relationships because they have learned to trust in God’s loving and wise guidance and that He is there directly to help us when we are about to have issues.
Earth has a different purpose than Heaven: Another thing to understand is that this earth is not supposed to be a small snapshot of Heaven.
- This 80 +/- years in earth is less than a blink of an eye in our eternal existence where we get to see what happens when we get to run things our way. If we look around, we should see that creates a big mess.
- Our eternal life in Heaven will be full of healthy relationships because it will be full of people that decided to trust their loving and wise Heavenly Father who will be there to guide them.
Bible references:
Revelation 20:11-15 (Throne Room activities at the end of the current earth) Key points
- All will come before God for judgment. We often ask why God allows bad people to continue. He tells us it is because He is giving everyone full chance to change, but there will an endpoint to that.
- Everyone’s name will be in one of two books, The Book of Life or the book of our works.
- Those that have accepted God’s gift will be in the Book of Life and their sins will be covered by Jesus’ death on the cross. It will have nothing to do with “basically being a good person” just like loving parents don’t love their children only when they are “basically good”.
- Those that have not accepted God’s gift of Jesus, will be judged by comparing their works to God’s standards for life and all will be found inadequate because all have a tendency towards self rather than love for others.
Revelation 21:1 to 22:5 Description of the new earth physically (e.g. trees, streets, dwelling places). Some other things we know from what God has told us:
- Revelation 21:4 “God will wipe away every tear” We will no longer have the problems we encounter in this world that make us sad
- Philippians 3:21 We will have new, imperishable bodies. Jesus’ resurrected body could pass through walls, but could also be touched. John 20:19-20
- Nothing is said about pets/animals, pizza or any of the things in which we find comfort here. But if the parent that created you said they have something much better in store for you than what you are seeking today, could you move forward in trust of them…