By Will GreenThere's a common perception out there that heaven (or eternal life in the new creation) is just a place. There's a common view that all God has to do to let people into heaven is put them in heaven. And that God doing this would instantly make hell empty.
The Bible also talks about heaven as a state of mind rather than a location:
Romans 14:17: For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
Psalm 16:11: You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Psalm 36:8-9: They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
Luke 17:20-1: Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."
In the Bible, heaven and eternal life also involve one's mind or self being deeply and intimately connected to God.
So heaven isn't just about going to a heavenly location in a spiritual dimension, it also involves a state of mind. Judging from the verses above, this state of mind involves experiencing whatever happiness or contentment God feels through being reconciled fully to God.
The question is: how do you get reconciled to God to experience a state of mind heaven? The problem is that our wrong actions (sin) separate us from the kind of closeness to God that is heaven. The Bible's answer to this problem is that God/Jesus Christ "bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness" (
1 Pe 2:24). This meant God could "[make] [us] alive with Christ" dealing with the problem (
Col 2:13) - meaning that although we can't avoid sinning in this life (
1 John 1:8), our fundamental orientation has changed.
This analysis says that going to heaven isn't simply a matter of God letting someone into heaven. Intentions, thoughts, desires, and so on need to be different as well, and a two-way loving relationship needs to exist between us and God.
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Comments (13)
Given the abundance of verses that imply heaven is a location, I would suggest that these verses talk about the kind of environment that is contained within heaven, rather than it being a state of mind. I would caution against suggesting it is a state of mind, as I've come across some people who believe that is ALL heaven is (they have clearly not read all of the Bible), and some people take suggestion as doctrine.
> our wrong actions (sin)
The cumulative, Biblical view on sin (and the only one that jives with what Jesus himself said) is that sin is not about action, but about intention. You don't sin when you break the law, you sin when you intend to break the law for your own selfish purposes, no matter if you are successful or not. Your heart is what matters, because it drives everything you do. If your heart strives to be Christlike, your actions will follow - actions are only a symptom of the disease itself.
I was unsure where you were going with this, but I like the way you brought it down to being one with God. Unless God changes our hearts and minds, we would not be happy being "stuck" with Him for eternity. Our sin has separated us from the One who made us for Himself. He has provided the way for us to be reconciled to Him and to enjoy Him. Thanks for this!
There are many elements of heaven, that I can agree with, but I do not agree with the concept that heaven is a state of mind in which you experience happiness.
In order to arrive at that conclusion it requires that you take the Holy Spirit figuratively and not literal. The Romans 14 passage does not direct your thoughts towards a state of mind as much as it does towards a manner of existence in God.
I agree that Heaven has an element of unity with God as given through the Holy Spirit, but the teachings regarding Heaven and it's counter part, Hell, should not be figuratively understood to the point of rendering them into the realm of the imagination.
Of course I do agree that Heaven is not as simple as "God just letting you in". He is explicitly clear that only those who are born of His Spirit will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. NO one can enter into Heaven except through Christ.
So I definitely accept the point that Heaven is not as simple as "just being let in". Your faith, or state of heart/mind, are important.
Heaven in essence, is the presence of God, whatever that may mean. God is believed to be everywhere, it seems, except where or when She decides to withdraw. Therefore, Hell is the complete absence of God. Mortality is somewhere between, possibly with a foot in each camp. That is all I can draw from my speculation and to continue is to argue how many angels can congregate on a pin head. The point is not where but how. The point is to steer towards the one and away from the other, whether figuratively or literally is another argument. The way to do that is not to draw maps but to love mercy and to pursue justice.
Here's a possibility: as humans we can never know what heaven awaits. But we can know and be changed by the heaven that is here and now (indeed the hell, as well). Perhaps all our best dreams and poems of an afterlife-heaven are expressions of the glimpses which we have tasted from living in unity with God here. And so we might do this: live gratefully this life steeped in the abundance here, and gladly enter the hells which this world contains so that we might help others come away from that death and into life - all of this resting in the simple joy that whatever God reveals after is whatever God would have me have. Why would I want more? I can do nothing to earn what God gives - neither now nor in any time to come. But I do know that God gives now and it is more than enough.
@Lovegrove@xanga - That's really interesting.
@poosywhistle@xanga - Jesus warned us of literalism...
@nowayout001@xanga - That's a bit vague. Care to elaborate?
@AncoraImparo@xanga - it's true. Most theology it seems to me, is whistling in the wind.
@nowayout001@xanga - He did ? They Bible is to be taken Literally
@poosywhistle@xanga - Their is three Heavens. According to the Bible.
@Christianonly - Umm... unless you're a poet, there's a very good chance that you don't call the sky "heaven", or outer space "heaven" - when the majority of us talk about heaven today, it's pretty much assumed that we're referring to the third heaven (the afterlife one). The other two heavens have their own more common terms nowadays.
And as far as which one is used when/where, you usually have Biblical context to identify that, but all three are technically locations in the Bible, so it's still not really a state of mind unless you're trying really hard to confuse the issue.
@quest4god Some people have a very poor understanding of the bible,they have knowledge of it but no understanding of it.So i say to most of you out there,get knowledge,but above all get an understanding.Knowledge and understanding are two different things because you can have knowledge of something but if you don't have the understanding of it, you're still in the darkness.It just a sound good thing to you. And most of all, an emotional feelings