Where Is Heaven?

Heaven...Where is it? What is it? What can we learn from John's glimpse behind the veil into the throne room of God? This is week 3 of our 10 week exploration of the book of REVELATION. Thank you for being a part of COMMUNITYonline and journeying with us as we explore God's Word to the 7 churches of Rome.

Imagine There’s No Heaven

     Where has Heaven gone to? A few years ago John Lennon, in a famous song invited us to imagine it didn’t exist. In a dreamy voice, he sang...

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today 

     This song was very tempting for a generation tired of heaven being used as a carrot stick to get them to behave. Because this strange distant place exists, and because you might want to go there yourself some day, you’d better behave nicely here, or so the saying went. This was part of my story growing up as well. To me it meant, if you don’t drink, smoke or chew and stay away from girls that do, you might have a chance at Heaven.

     Today, our society is still as confused over Heaven as it was when Lennon sang his song. On the Christian side Heaven is central to the Gospel as a promise to those who put their faith in Christ. Given that Heaven is where Jesus went, we as followers of Jesus, better get our minds round it. Is it possible that the book of Revelation might just give us that fresh new insight we need to deepen our understanding of Heaven?

     So far, (our previous blogs) we have tried to understand John's apocalyptic tradition and the world of the Roman Empire in which he lived and wrote. Our next task is to come to grips with the questions of when and where John expected his visions to be “fulfilled.” Many people take Revelation's references to “the End” or to “heaven” as being about specific times or places that are “later” or “apart from” the time and place of first-century Roman Asia. There are then a few important questions we need to ask,

•  How would John's audience have understood his language about “heaven”? 
•  How did people in Roman Asia think of time and space? 
•  What did the concepts of “heaven and earth” mean to the inhabitants of the first-century Roman Empire? 
• What relationship existed between these “realms”?

Space

     One of the challenges of the common notion of “heaven and earth” found in our world is that it projects two distinct places between which there is little connection. Part of this perception was developed from the way ancient Israel understood YHWH as a “sky-father” god like other powerful storm gods around them. The literal meaning of the Greek term ouranos, which is translated “heaven,” is “sky,” that is, the physical space above the earth. The same meaning is also found in the Hebrew word for heaven as seen in Gen 1:1. Here the word for heaven is “She-maim.” What is fascinating is that “maim” means water and “She-maim” means water from above. This very ancient understanding of heaven as reflected in our biblical creation story shows the primitive understanding people had of time and space. For them the earth was flat and Heaven was a fixed canopy from where water falls. This was before the days of Galileo. It is this understanding that still captures many Christians’ imagination of heaven.

     However, in Revelation we find John describing heaven from a different perspective. Heaven in Revelation is more about describing two realities. In Revelation, “Heaven” is holy while “earth” is evil. Earth is the perspective of empire. Heaven, on the other hand, is where John sees that the truth is unveiled. In Revelation, John does not describe heaven as a place far away “way beyond the blue.” For John, Heaven is God’s space, which intersects our space but transcends it. As the veil was pulled back for John, heaven was experienced as only a further dimension of our world. N.T. Wright says: 

The Christian hope is not (despite popular impressions) that we will simply “go to heaven when we die.” As far as it goes, that statement is all right; after death those who love God will be with Him, will be in His dimension. But the final Christian hope is that the two dimensions, heaven and earth, at present separated by a veil of invisibility caused by human rebellion, will be united together, so that there will be new heavens and a new earth. Heaven isn’t therefor an escapist dream. Heaven is the extra dimension, the God-dimension, of all our present reality; and the God who lives there is present to us, present with us.

John expects his audience to be familiar with apocalyptic writings, which mean that “heaven” is not in the sky or after death, but co-present with daily life, hidden only by a veil. In being invited to “heaven” by a heavenly angel, John of Patmos is given privileged access to the truth of things. As Richard Bauckham explains:

John (and thereby his readers with him) is taken up into heaven in order to see the world from the heavenly perspective. He is given a glimpse behind the scenes of history so that he can see what is really going on in the events of his time and place.

Because John of Patmos had personally seen the apocalyptic truth of heaven and had communicated this through his book, the Christians addressed in the 7 churches were able to know that it is where God lives and reigns that constitutes the ultimate reality, not the illusory reality of the Empire of Rome.

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Questions to ponder:

1. Does this affirm or challenge your perception where and/or how you think of “heaven” as existing? 
2. How would this view of heaven affect how you live day to day? 
3. How do you see God's space intersecting with your daily life?

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Come be a part of COMMUNITY

• Join Us For Worship - Join us Sunday mornings at 8:30 or 10:45 as we continue our journey into the fascinating book of Revelation.
• Watch Live Online - Can't be with us in person? Be a part of COMMUNITYonline and join our live webcast Sunday mornings at 10:45. Click here.
• Watch Past Sermons - Missed this week's sermon? You can watch it here.
• Wednesday Evening Q&A - Join us Wednesday nights at 6:30 in the Gallery for a deeper look at Revelation
• Ask Pastor Tredoux a Question - Submit questions to Pastor Tredoux here.

Couldn't join us Wednesday night? Watch the Exploration Revelation Class - Week 3

Recorded Live on June 29th, 2016

Exploring Revelation with Pastor Johan Tredoux - Week 3

Posted by COMMUNITY Covenant Church on Wednesday, June 29, 2016