What is heaven?

[Joel]

My oldest child (3 year old) recently asked me "What is heaven?"
And I realized I didn't really know how to answer.
I recall, growing up, being taught that heaven is where God lives and is where we go when we die (or will go if Jesus comes back during our lifetime), vs hell if we aren't saved.

Since then I've been led to believe that God is the only self-existent necessary being, and that everything other than God is created, so God exists apart from any place/realm/etc. (though is immanent in Creation) So it seems incorrect to say that heaven is where God is (implying "not here"--e.g. another dimension). Unless one takes that as a definition in which case everywhere is heaven because of God's omnipresence. On the other hand, what to do with "Our Father, who art in heaven"?

Since then I've also been led to believe that we don't go immediately to our ultimate eternal state of life immediately upon dying but that there is a resurrection of our bodies, and some intermediate state in between. And that life after resurrection is on Earth (perhaps renewed or replaced). Is heaven the post-resurrection Earth? Or the intermediate state? Or is it a state one can be in in this life?

Is it different from the "kingdom of heaven" Jesus talked about?


Maximum points will be awarded only if your answer is easily understandable to a 3 year old.

[seanD]

Higher dimensions?

Whoops, read your whole post. Disregard.

[thewriteranon]

For you: When it comes to Christian confessions, like the ones you find on a church website, when you see "heaven" as in "we will be in heaven" they are generally just shortening the phrase "new heavens and new earth" that happens after the Resurrection. I find it kind of irritating because "heaven" alone seems to mean the place God has created where he sits and reigns. But I usually let it go as long as they affirm a final bodily resurrection. The problem comes when the layman refers to "heaven" as a the intermediate state where we go to be with God, often without any consideration for the post-resurrection state.

Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God speaks to the reign of God after the apocalyptic event of Jesus' incarnation, death, and resurrection. God has broken into this world to enact his ultimate grace and justice. The Kingdom of Heaven is already and not yet. That won't go over well with a 3-year-old, so I wouldn't introduce that subject yet.

If I was talking to my child, I'd probably just go with it's the place God made to sit and watch over us or something like that. That fits nicely with the concept of "our Father, who art in heaven" and can begin the dialogue later of what Kingdom of Heaven means, since naturally God commences his reign from somewhere.

[robrecht]

Maximum points will be awarded only if your answer is easily understandable to a 3 year old.

Heaven is like being thrown up in the air by your Dad.

[mikewhitney]

I like much of what thewriteranon has mentioned.

The most essential concept of heaven is that realm of God's power and presence -- his 'place' of existence. It is a place we can't travel to. It is unseen by us.

We may the borrow the term 'heaven' in the sense that when we die we know, as Christians, we shall be with God. So we usually call this 'heaven'

I assume your 3 year old has a Master of Divinity already.

[One Bad Pig]

Heaven is where God is fully and immanently present (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12, 2 Cor. 5:1-8). I like to think of the sacraments as points where heaven and earth intersect. After the Resurrection, heaven will be on earth (Rev 21).

After death, it seems that martyrs are present in heaven (Rev 6:9-11). There isn't much indication for people generally outside of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16), where it seems that soul are in a place of relative peaceful repose or torment based on what they (did? believed?)in life. Whether or not this fixes one's fate at the White Throne judgment is unknown.

[Joel]

As an experiment I searched for the word "heaven" in the New American Standard Bible.

There are of course many usages that seem to mean simply sky, stars, etc.

There are lots of references in both Testaments to "heaven" as the place where God is, God's "dwelling place", place where God's throne or temple is. Especially in the words of Jesus.

On the other hand there are some passages that say that heaven cannot contain God. (2 Chronicles 6:18) (Thus indicating that it is created and isn't essential to God's being?)

And some references seem maybe metaphorical/poetical, e.g. Isaiah 66:1 saying God's throne is in heaven, in the same sentence it says the earth is His footstool. Or Psalm 102:19, God gazing upon the earth from heaven. Sometimes "heaven" seems to be just a metaphor meaning "God".

There are various references to heaven as the place where angels and Jesus are (and Jesus is at the right hand of the Father). Where angels come from and return to. Everyone in heaven will bow the knee. The "host of heaven".

The place where some humans have been taken (perhaps temporarily): Elijah, Paul (2 Corinthians 12:2), John (Revelation).
(And what is the "third heaven" or second heaven for that matter?)

The New Testament refers to heaven as a place we want to get to, a place where we may have reward, the place where we should store up treasure.

There's Jesus' teachings and parables about the "kingdom of heaven".

And of course in Revelation there is the "new heaven". And the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven.


And then my search would not have found references to similar concepts that didn't use the word, such as One Bad Pig cites, e.g. being absent from the body and present with the Lord, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (in that case Lazarus is taken to wherever it is that Abraham is, far away from Hades), Jesus and the thief being today in paradise.

[Christianbookworm]

The first heaven is the sky, the second one space, and the third one is what people mean when they say their dead loved one is in heaven right now or the part of reality that isn't in our universe.

[thewriteranon]

I should probably clarify that it seems to me that the intermediate state is in heaven, as well. I'm just irritated when that's the end of the conversation with most laymen.

[Christianbookworm]

Right! If they think you spend eternity in the same place you go when you die, you may want to remind them of the final Resurrection. And maybe bring up Paul's words on the Resurrection also.

[Adrift]

I should probably clarify that it seems to me that the intermediate state is in heaven, as well. I'm just irritated when that's the end of the conversation with most laymen.

Yeah, I really appreciate Wright's work on this. The idea of the intermediate state upon death does seem like something other than what we will come to know as the new heavens and earth upon Christ's return and the general resurrection. Wright describes that intermediate state as restful repose (which perhaps goes with the Rev 6 passage OBP cited), and Paul says in Philippians 1:23 that upon death one will be "with Christ". I imagine those believers who live to see Christ's return will miss this intermediate state, and will find themselves directly in the new heaven and earth in their glorified bodies.

I'm not certain I agree that the type of Sheol described in the Lazarus and the Rich Man parable will still be around. I go with the idea that when Christ descended into hell that he took the dead pre-resurrection saints with him out of that part of Sheol. That leaves the damned, who I suppose remain in Sheol until judgement day when they will be cast into hell/removed (in a somewhat metaphorical fashion) from the presence of God's Holy nature.

I think for a child, it might be of more value to take robrecht's tack and talk about what heaven is not. It is not some place in the clouds with winged angels playing golden harps. It is not a place where we'll all hang out doing nothing for eternity twiddling our thumbs. It is not a place with literal mansions and streets of gold and pearly gates. It will be a place without fear, filled with joy, worship, and perfect love.

[One Bad Pig]

I really need to get around to reading Wright's work. So many books, so little time...

[KingsGambit]

I'm somewhat undogmatic about the intermediate state but lean in a soul sleep direction, mostly because of Daniel 12:2-3, which I find difficult to interpret in any other manner. Scholars seem to think that Luke 16 was Jesus adapting and inverting a widely known folk tale of that time so I don't think it's a strong source of data concerning the specifics of the intermediate state (not to mention that it seems unlikely that the saved would be able to communicate with the damned given the focus on exclusion from the kingdom). Revelation is apocalyptic literature so it is possible that the mention of martyrs in Revelation 6 is part of the overall symbolism. It is true that these passages provide difficulty for the soul sleep position which is why I am not particularly dogmatic, but I think the Daniel passage is the clearest of any of these.

[Rushing Jaws]

According to Jonathan Edwards, in his addresses on 1 Corinthians 13, Heaven is "a world of love". Says it all, really.