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Christianity for Dummies - 4 - Heaven

by Michael Russell
January 2003

Based upon a sermon series by Pastor Jim Henry, senior pastor of First Baptist Orlando, and enhanced with my personal commentary.

Every religion tries to answer the question - is there a life after this one? Today's lesson is about the destination of believers.

1. Introduction

The following is a very brief summary of how some religions answer the question -- is there life after death?

• Jehovah Witnesses believe a very small number, about 144,000 people, will be in heaven, but other believers will live in a restored earth.
• Mormans believe in three levels of heaven.
• Catholics believe in a purgatory where believers are able to work off their sins before being permitted into heaven.
• Orthodox Jews believe in a paradise where they will reside in God's presence and that this is a reward for faithful obedience to the Law.
• Buddists believe in the highest state of being, a nirvona.
• Islam teaches that believers in Islam will go to paradise.
• Humanists believe that this life is all there is; there is no life after.
• Hindu and various new age religions have variations on an ongoing continuation in new forms, that is variations on reincarnation.

Christianity differs in that it teaches a very specific destination for believers.

Since today's discussion is about the destination for believers, it does not address all the Scriptural references about the destination for unbelievers -- Hell. Scripture is very clear in teaching that Heaven and Hell are very specific, literal, existing places. It is also very clear in its teaching that ALL humans are already on the path to Hell and that there is only one way -- salvation by the Grace of God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, not by works -- to enter Heaven.

2. Scripture

The following verses are the primary references for this study.

John 14:1-7 (NIV)
     “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
     Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
     Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Revelation 21:1-27 (NIV)
     Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
     He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
     He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
     One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
     The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia [1500 miles) in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits [72 yards] thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
     I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

3. Characteristics of Heaven

3.1. Prepared place

Heaven is a place specially prepared for believers by Jesus.

One interesting piece of trivia is how God always prepares a place for His chosen. God prepared Eden for Adam. God prepared the promised land and had it fully provisioned for Israel after the Exodus.

3.2. Particular place

Heaven is only for those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. It has nothing to do with our actions.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

3.3. Protected place

Heaven will be a place of security and safety. It is interesting that Heaven will have gates, but the gates will never be closed.

3.4. Permament place

Heaven will last forever. The current world and universe will be replaced by a new world. The stain of Adam's sin will finally be removed from Creation.

3.5. Palacial place

The description of Heaven is amazing. I'm not going to repeat what the quote from Revelation says.

Now, some commentators think this is purely an a symbolic description of something else. However, if it is symbolic, I wonder why John bothered to record all these dimensions?

3.6. Populated with people

Heaven will be for people. It will be a restoration of the original fellowship God wanted with mankind from the beginning. Just as God walked with Adam in the garden, so God will walk with believers in Heaven.

There will be believers from all of history in Heaven.

3.7. Providing rewards

Various verses reference that believers will be rewarded, to different degrees, in Heaven. Sometimes, these rewards are called crowns.