TOWARD HEAVEN

📖 The Scoop

It is common parlance to refer to a departed loved who has supposedly “gone up there”, as one who is now “looking down”, presumably “from heaven”. And no regard is paid to the rotation of the earth’s axis at that time, or the position of the earth in its orbit around the sun! So where is “up”? Or “down”?

Is heaven “up there”, or “out there”, or “down here”? These questions only confuse the issue because this is to think spatially instead of relationally.

We pray: Our Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9). That statement implies location, but where is that?

We further pray:

10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:9, emphasis added.

Implicit to this prayer is that we desire to have God’s sovereign rule (His kingdom) and His will operating in undivided application on earth as it is currently operating in heaven. This implies a future expectancy for this earth, as well as a particular location—both now and then!

If we glibly refer to heaven as being “where God is”, then since God is everywhere, we are already in heaven—because God is here!!

And if God is everywhere—spatially—then where does Satan fit in? No, we can’t argue spatially. God is sovereign and reigns supreme over all things—Satan included.

And if God is everywhere—spatially—then where is the lake of fire?

“God in heaven” is the being of God apart from sin—God in His perfect holiness, and where He reigns supreme.

But WE are not NOW in heaven as the bible understands—even though God is also here—or we have no future hope! There is nothing more to be achieved. Paul is clear:

19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  

1 Corinthians 15:19.

There is much more!!

Genre: Religion / Christian Theology / Eschatology (fancy, right?)