Why Leave When Paradise Is Here?

Thoughts on Heaven

Ryan King

One day I was lying on my couch talking with my mom about the Left Behind® series when she started rambling on about how she thinks the new Jerusalem will float over the earth. I was just like, “What? Where the heck did you hear that?” But it got me thinking a lot about different theories about heaven. I’ve come to a few conclusions…

First off, some people say that when we die, we lay in a waiting room of sorts until Jesus comes back. We die and we don’t really go to heaven right away. Our souls kind of go into a state of rest. We wait for the second coming when Gabrielle blows his horn and everyone rises together. Well what about the thief that is crucified with Jesus? In Luke 23, the two criminals that are executed with Jesus get into a slight argument. The first one tells Jesus to save Himself and them. The second one basically says, “Shut up idiot.”

Verses 42-43 say this: “Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.””

Jesus says ‘today’. Not, “tomorrow” not “next week” not “in a few thousand years” but “today”. I feel this passage in itself rebukes the theory of resting until Jesus comes back. I realize there are other passages that say I’m wrong…but I’m over it.

So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way and established that we go to heaven pretty much right away after death, but is that all?  I would say no.  

Now let’s go all the way back and find out how I got to this radical conclusion.

First, what is heaven? All theories aside, heaven is the perfect unseen home of God and spirit beings. It is perfect because it’s where God’s will is done 100% of the time. It is not a place for bodies. So where do bodies belong? Let’s think. Where are bodies now? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say earth.

What?! Earth?  Yes…the big planet we’re on now. God created the earth for humans to dwell with Him in his paradise.  When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, this creation was broken.

Dr. Mike Wittmer, a professor at Cornerstone Seminary says this in his book ‘Heaven is a place on earth’, “Contrary to popular opinion, the Christian hope is not that all believers will die and go to heaven. Indeed the only reason anyone goes to heaven is sin. If Adam and Eve had never sinned, they would have continued to live in this planet in close fellowship with their Creator.”

Ok, so what? Big deal, sin allows us to go to heaven because without sin, we would not die. When we die, our bodies begin to decay, but our souls are eternal, they live on forever. Where do our souls go when we die? Our souls go to heaven. But just because we’re in God’s presence, doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re happy. God’s original programming is still there though.

Dr. Wittmer goes on to say, “Those of us who make it to heaven have not yet achieved our perfect state. The saints who are there still long for something more. They long to be whole again. Not merely to bow before God as a disembodied soul, but to praise Him as a fully restored person possessing both a renewed soul and body.”

In 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 Paul talks about the resurrection. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to Him.”

Our souls never stop being. It’s hard to resurrect something that never stops being. What then is Paul talking about in this letter?

Because our souls never stop existing, he can’t be talking about resurrecting a soul. What else did Christ resurrect? When Christ conquered death, He also resurrected His body. He resurrected His body first, and when He comes back, He will resurrect our bodies too! To those of you who are thinking, “Great, I get to keep this old thing forever.” NO! Our resurrected bodies will be perfect, they will not decay like the ones now, they will not grow old, they will not die. I also believe we will be restored to how God originally intended His creations to look. Not obese, not anorexic, but healthy. They will be perfect.

We’ve got our perfect bodies, but what to do with them?  Let’s come back to this thing about earth. John says in Revelation 21, “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 like a bride beautifully prepared 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 He will be their God.”

The old earth has passed away, but there is a new earth with a new capitol; the Holy City, Jerusalem. The voice from the throne says that God will now dwell with people, not the other way around. God comes to us!

When it says the old earth had passed away though, it doesn’t necessarily mean destroyed. In 2 Peter 3:10, Peter says this, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a road; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”

The Greek word that we have as destroyed is actually not so…destructive in nature. The original connotation is a cleansing flame. Like a refiner’s fire. Metal is thrown into a refiner’s fire and the precious gems survive. God will burn away all the bad in the world, the good will survive.

After this is when John’s vision becomes a reality. Once the earth is laid bare, God brings the new heaven and new earth and new Jerusalem down.

So do we spend eternity just singing our praises to Christ, like a church service that never gets out? I don’t think so…that sounds like hell to me. I think that we will enjoy creation as was originally intended. To dwell with God in His kingdom like we would have had sin never entered the world. Isaiah says this in Isaiah 65:21-23, “They (humans) will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat for as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.”  We will build houses! We will eat what we grow! And drink wine! (What else would a vineyard be for?? Sorry Baptists) Also…and this is pretty radical…maybe sex? We’ve concluded that without sin we would have continued living on in the world as God intended. Well did God really want just Adam and Eve to worship Him? That seems pretty wasteful for God to give the whole earth to two people. In Genesis 3:16, Moses says, “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband. And he will rule over you.’” CRAZY! “…with pain you will give birth to children.” Is this insinuating that there was no pain in childbirth before the fall? What is the first process in childbirth? Conception! What do you do to conceive? SEX! I mean…Adam and Eve were naked after all…did they never stop and say…”Hey I wonder what this is for?”

My hope is this cleared some things up about heaven. There are so many speculations and theories surrounding heaven that I firmly believe we will never know for sure. My mom thinking that Jerusalem will float above the earth sounds crazy, but it will be God’s kingdom. Nobody knows for sure what God has in store for us. The best we can do is read His word and make educated guesses.