What is heaven?
Now what about this notion of ‘heaven’?
Ouranos is the Greek word for
heaven, most commonly used in the plural form ‘heavens’. The heavens (plural) are said to have been
created by God in Genesis 1:1. In Jewish
thought throughout ancient times as well as the time of Jesus, the heavens (according
to Dr Edward Robinson in 1837) are believed to be “the expanse of the sky, the
apparent concave hemisphere above us, which was regarded by the Hebrews as
solid.” (Robinson’s 1837 Lexicon, p. 599)
Robinson goes on to say, “In common usage, it included the regions above
the sky, where God is said to dwell (Psalm 2:4) and likewise the region
underneath and next to the firmament, where the clouds are gathered and birds
fly (Genesis 1:20, 26).
Consistent with the belief that Matthew’s gospel was written within and
into a Jewish context, Matthew uses this plural term often, Mark less often,
Luke hardly at all and John not at all.
It also occurs a few times in the apostles’ letters.
On the website www.crivoice.org (as at September 07,
2012), Douglas Ward writes well on the subject.
He says this:
Jews of that time did not have the scientific
knowledge that we take for granted, so they did not think of the world in
scientific terms or descriptions. Instead they attempted to conceptualize the
world in terms of what they knew, and usually described it visually. So, when
they conceived of the universe, they constructed a multi-layered world, sort of
like a large onion composed of various layers with the physical world in which
human beings lived at the center. These layers were called "firmament"
or shamayim (heavens or sky) in the Old Testament or "heavens"
in the New Testament era. There are many other non-Biblical books and writings
that also describe these layers. This model was still in use in the Middle Ages
(1400s AD) when Dante wrote of the various levels of heaven and hell.
Most often this model contained seven heavens
but in a few writings there were only three layers. Even though the number of
layers was different these models of the universe shared some common traits.
The lowest heaven, the core of the "onion," is the visible physical
world that all people can see. In most of these models the second heaven is
composed of water, a great sea, a firmament dividing the earth from the heavenly
beings. This water that surrounded the earth became a common symbol for chaos
and disorder that threatened to engulf the world (cf. Gen 6; see Speaking the Language of Canaan for a discussion of
the symbolism of the cosmic waters). So often, these waters were understood to
be gathered to await the coming day of judgment when they would once again be
loosed to destroy the unrighteous. However, the third heaven was beyond the
sight of human beings. It was the dwelling place of God and his attendant
heavenly beings whom he would send to protect Israel and the righteous. So when
Paul claims to have seen the risen Christ [see 2 Corinthians 12:2] he is
describing his experience in terms that he, and others, would readily understand.
In that cultural context, he would have assumed that God had taken him to the
region where it was possible to see spiritual beings, and the risen Christ.
Given that explanation, God’s dwelling place is up
through the heavens and out beyond the capacity of our sight and our
thought. If God comes to earth, it was
understood that He would have to come ‘through the heavens’. When Jesus ascended to the Father, it was
said that he ‘passed through the heavens’.
The New Jerusalem spoken of in John’s Revelation is said to come “down
out of heaven from God.” All of these
only make sense if one understands that the language used is not meant to
reflect scientific discovery but to communicate to and within the culture and
philosophy of the Jews of the day.
Historically, the Greeks had a view of these
matters quite distinctly different from that of the Jews. Modern Western thinking, culture and
philosophy drinks in large measure from a Greek spring and little if at all
from a Hebrew one. So using language and
thoughts that come from a Hebrew milieu in our communication in the otherwise
very Greek West of today only serves to create impossible fantasies and to open
believers to ridicule and confusion.
That’s a fairly accurate description of the stasis of what we call the
church today: fantasy, ridicule, confusion.
To me, it makes most sense to use the word heaven
and heavens to describe the world as we know it and the yet-uncharted realms
radiating out and away from the earth’s surface. Generally, we do not refer to the realm of
inner earth, beneath the earth’s surface, as heaven or heavens!
The eternal realm – the place scripture says God
inhabits – is best referred to as either eternity or the kingdom of God. But always bear in mind that it is not a time-based
thing and it is not something that begins when time as we know it ends. The time-space-matter continuum is the
temporary state; eternity, by definition, has no beginning and no end – hence
the two infinity symbols at the ends of the centre line in the diagram
above. Eternity has always existed and
will always exist. The heavens are a
creation of God for a time and a purpose that has a beginning and an end.
Perhaps you can see now what I mean if I ask the
question, what kind of a blessing and future is heaven when it is understood as
typically preached by church? It’s
hardly a blessing and it doesn’t represent any significant future because it
ceases to exist when earth ceases to exist.
What continues without end – consistent with the
God who invented it who has no beginning and no end – is God’s dwelling
place. And it is this place – His home, His
household, His dominion, His kingdom – that Jesus introduced in touchable
attainable form; and it is this kingdom that is the inheritance of the family and
household of God. And it is entered only
by a second birth.
Those who know me well have heard me say repeatedly
that the good news of the kingdom of God – indeed the New Testament itself –
nowhere offers humans the promise of heaven-when-you-die. The whole idea is a pathetic excuse for the
reality of inheriting the kingdom of God.
And that is a significant part of the good news that Jesus came to bring
and that the first apostles were at pains to proclaim. Most died serving it with their whole lives. God’s offer is not heaven-when-you-die but
inheriting the kingdom of God – both its ‘assets’ and its DNA.
The world of man most often thinks in terms of
reward and punishment for doing good or doing bad in the course of one’s life
on earth – or several lives if you believe in reincarnation. The ‘judgement’ is understood as putting all
our life on some celestial weighing machine and seeing which outweighs which. Is it any wonder intelligent people scoff at
such simplistic nonsense and fantastic myth.
That is nothing like what Jesus said and it is nothing like what his
apostles heralded as the good news of the kingdom of God. It is the stuff of religion – that which “binds
up again” otherwise free people.
Unfortunately, however, it has become a central plank
of the church’s gospel. Remember,
‘church’ is a creation of man and ‘gospel’ is church’s story of God, neither of
which has anything to do with ecclesia
or the good news of Jesus. And church has
travelled (and will continue to travel) to the farthest ends of the earth to
make a handful of disciples to this pretender.
Rather reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 23:15.
"Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and
land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much
a son of hell as yourselves.”
Next we look at what is hell?
Cheers,
Kevin.
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