The Bible uses the word heaven in several ways, but I am guessing that the questioner has in mind heaven as the future home of all who trust in Jesus. One of the thieves crucified with Jesus said to Him “Lord, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”, Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43, ESV. Where did the thief go after dying?
- this heaven spoken of is the final home of all people who will embrace what Jesus has done, suffering in our place that we might be united with God forever.
- John the Apostle shows us this in Revelation chapter 21 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and so had the sea. Then I saw New Jerusalem, that holy city, coming down from God in heaven. It was like a bride dressed in her wedding gown and ready to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice shout from the throne: God’s home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” CEV
- It will be a real, physical place, a renewed Earth with a renewed and perfect people. The apostle Peter wrote “On that day the heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat. But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that!” 2 Peter 3:12 CEV. Just as Christians are promised a new body at the resurrection, so they are promised a new Earth which will be their home. As the new body will be better, more glorious, than the old ones, yet still recognisable, so the new Earth will be better, more glorious, yet still recognisable. For the details, we must wait.
- did the thief on the cross go there? We are not told, but the place where he went was Paradise, with all that means of joy and delight, and in the very presence of Jesus, now his Lord and Saviour. From this it seems that there is some intermediate place, where the souls of Christians wait in joy for the resurrection. Then Paradise itself will be fleshed out in the new Earth, all Nature then being restored to what God originally intended, the home of men and women re-made in God’s image. Speed the day!
Heaven in the Bible
The Bible speaks of 4 heavens. King Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the first Temple in Jerusalem illustrates the first 3; “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” ! Kings 8:27 ESV
- “heaven” is used of the Earth’s atmosphere, the “heaven” Solomon spoke of. E.g. Genesis 1 speaks of the birds flying in the heaven.
- “highest heaven” is the cosmos, the universe with its billions of stars and galaxies, e.g., Psalm 8:3 “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
- “heaven”, where God is. Solomon told us that the first 2 could never contain Him who made them. The Bible makes no attempt to explain where it is; probably the answer is incomprehensible to our finite, human understanding. Whatever, and wherever, it is beyond space and time, “outside” the Universe. The apostle John’s vision of this heaven is recorded in Revelation chapter 4, in vivid imagery, but keep in mind that they are images, not reality, not to be taken literally.
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