Is Heaven another dimension or is it Earth in the future?

[alligatorsky]

I grew up catholic and I was always taught that Heaven was a place in another dimension where your every wish was granted, and you were with God and all your dead relatives.

Is that really based in the Bible though? From what I can tell, Heaven is said to be Earth in the distant future after Jesus comes back and the Apocalypse war is over and evil is conquered forever.

the fact Jesus calls it the 'Kingdom of Heaven' also implies to me it's a physical realm in the future and not some place in another dimension you pass on to.

 

[fm107]

Hi brother,

There are 3 Heavens mentioned in the bible. These include the sky is the first Heaven. The second is space. Then you get the 3rd Heaven after that which we cannot see.

This link will provide the verses to prove this:

What does it mean when the Bible refers to the Third Heaven? | Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

......................................................................................

Heaven is not a place where every wish is granted - this is not biblical.

Heaven is not a place where all your dead relatives are but only those who genuinly believe in Jesus. Anyone (including relatives) who reject Christ will go to Hell.

John 3:18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

.................................................................................

Just now, dead believers are in Paradise.

Luke 23:43
Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

But will be taken to Heaven when Christ comes back and takes us to Heaven:

1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

1 Corinthians 15:52
in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Then 7 + years after this we will return with him and rule over the Earth for 1000 years. The seven years is talked about in revelation (over this time the anti christ reigns over the earth).

Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

After this period, the old earth and heaven will be done away with. This earth will be in total contrast to the old. No wars, no pain, no suffering etc.

Revelation 21:1
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.

Hope this answers your questions.


With love, your brother in Christ.

 

[Goinheix]

I grew up catholic and I was always taught that Heaven was a place in another dimension where your every wish was granted, and you were with God and all your dead relatives.

Is that really based in the Bible though? From what I can tell, Heaven is said to be Earth in the distant future after Jesus comes back and the Apocalypse war is over and evil is conquered forever.

the fact Jesus calls it the 'Kingdom of Heaven' also implies to me it's a physical realm in the future and not some place in another dimension you pass on to.

In our future, after our resurrection we will be living in this planet, only that renewed.
Adams Eden was in this planet, only that before the flood.
God is in Heaven wich in common talking we can say that it is another dimension. This is anly a way of talking. Definetly heaven is not where Gagarin (the first USSR cosmonaut) expected to see God.

 

[wayseer]

I grew up catholic and I was always taught that Heaven was a place in another dimension where your every wish was granted, and you were with God and all your dead relatives.

Is that really based in the Bible though? From what I can tell, Heaven is said to be Earth in the distant future after Jesus comes back and the Apocalypse war is over and evil is conquered forever.

the fact Jesus calls it the 'Kingdom of Heaven' also implies to me it's a physical realm in the future and not some place in another dimension you pass on to.

Jesus also said that the Kingdom is within you and that it 'stretches out before' you.

Maybe you need to see it.

 

[PaladinValer]

Hi brother,

There are 3 Heavens mentioned in the bible. These include the sky is the first Heaven. The second is space. Then you get the 3rd Heaven after that which we cannot see.

Only one of which is truly heaven, mind you.

This link will provide the verses to prove this:

What does it mean when the Bible refers to the Third Heaven? | Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

I'd avoid CARM like the plague...

Heaven is not a place where every wish is granted - this is not biblical.

Not really. It is the place where all we ever wish for will be God's Will anyway.

Heaven is not a place where all your dead relatives are but only those who genuinly believe in Jesus. Anyone (including relatives) who reject Christ will go to Hell.

Not necessarily. Only God knows who will and who will not experience heaven. It is our responsibility to spread the Gospel in word and deed and to live lives of living faith which is the best witness of all, but it is not our job to know who, even of ourselves.

There will be those of other nations who will be unknowingly Christian in their lives without even knowing it.

Just now, dead believers are in Paradise.

Correct.

But will be taken to Heaven when Christ comes back and takes us to Heaven:

Except heaven will no longer be just a separate, spiritual realm. It will envelope our own reality and all other physical planes of existence. In other words, like Belinda Carlisle sings, heaven is a place on earth.

Escapism is Gnostic, not Christian.

Then 7 + years after this we will return with him and rule over the Earth for 1000 years. The seven years is talked about in revelation (over this time the anti christ reigns over the earth).

This is chiliasm and Gnostic Escapism, not Christianity. Neither Apostolic Christians, Lutherans, Moravians, nor many 1st generation Protestants like Presbyterians and Calvinists accept this.

After this period, the old earth and heaven will be done away with. This earth will be in total contrast to the old. No wars, no pain, no suffering etc.

True, but it will be the exact same Earth. An Earth transfigured. To use Tolkien's language, Arda Healed. To use St. Clive Staples Lewis' language, the Real England and Real Narnia.

 

[fm107]

Only one of which is truly heaven, mind you.



I'd avoid CARM like the plague...



Not really. It is the place where all we ever wish for will be God's Will anyway.



Not necessarily. Only God knows who will and who will not experience heaven. It is our responsibility to spread the Gospel in word and deed and to live lives of living faith which is the best witness of all, but it is not our job to know who, even of ourselves.

There will be those of other nations who will be unknowingly Christian in their lives without even knowing it.




Correct.



Except heaven will no longer be just a separate, spiritual realm. It will envelope our own reality and all other physical planes of existence. In other words, like Belinda Carlisle sings, heaven is a place on earth.

Escapism is Gnostic, not Christian.



This is chiliasm and Gnostic Escapism, not Christianity. Neither Apostolic Christians, Lutherans, Moravians, nor many 1st generation Protestants like Presbyterians and Calvinists accept this.



True, but it will be the exact same Earth. An Earth transfigured. To use Tolkien's language, Arda Healed. To use St. Clive Staples Lewis' language, the Real England and Real Narnia.

Not one scripture to back up what your saying...I'm awfully disappointed.

 

[PaladinValer]

Nonetheless, it is all factual. If you need Scripture quotes for everything, you don't understand what sola scriptura historically means and are going to have the whole forum of Lutherans breathing down your neck...

 

[Habakk]

I think that the Kingdom of God and heaven are not the same.

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."(Luke 17:20-21 KJV)

Heaven is a place while the Kingdom of God has to do with a change in our lives and personality.

The Bible speaks of three heavens. The first being our immediate atmosphere, the second is outer space as far as it stretches, and the third is the place where God himself dwells. What Jesus called the “Father's house.”

First:
Gen 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night.” The first heaven consists of the clouds and the atmosphere, the heavens above us, until we come to the stars.

Second:
(Psalm 19:4,6) - “In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun... It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other;...” Jeremiah 51:15 “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.”

Third:
Heaven is the inheritance of all believers where there is “fulness of joy,” everlasting blessedness. The “place, of our inheritance where Jesus went ahead to “prepare” for us (John 14:2) that we may be with him, where he is.