I don’t agree. I think the heaven referred to in the Bible is peace of mind. Look at Matthew 4:17.
We’ll have to agree to disagree. Have a great day!
Thank you.
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Hi,
Acts 1:9-11 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
So Jesus was physically taken up into peace of mind?
Why would Jesus have to go somewhere to achieve peace of mind?
He already had it.
Plus peace of mind just doesn’t fit the ascension scene as we read it.
Heaven by all New Testament accounts reads as a physical place.
Revelation gives us physical dimensions. (See Revelation 21-22.
So I have to disagree.
Heaven is a real place.
But I believe you will have peace of mind when you are there.
And it’s a peace that never ends.
Blessings
The Bible is full of figurative speech. Heaven is what happens to us when we repent of our sin, I believe. Read Matthew 4:17.
Bob
You have stated:
I get it, I understand (I think). I think I hear you saying “Peace-of-mind”, is “heavenly”, and so when peace-of-mind is lacking, one cannot be in heaven. Am I close? Are you feeling that “Peace-of-mind” is lacking in your life; are you saying you are not in heaven now but have a strong desire to be; you have a strong desire for “Peace-of-mind”? If so, I’m right there with you.
Technically, in The Bible, heaven is always spoken of as the expanse which is “over our heads”; above us in some way. The term heaven is used in the Bible as the place where birds fly and clouds float. Heaven is also used for the place where the sun, moon, and stars reside. Heaven is also spoken of as the place where God is seated on His throne, where holiness is the atmosphere, and all that is true and right surrounds the presence of God. In 2 Corinthians 12:2, the apostle Paul speaks of one being “caught up into the third heaven”, and we understand him to be saying, the third heaven is above the birds and clouds, and also above the stars. He is speaking of being caught up into the Holy throne room of God himself. Isaiah had this experience in Chapter 6 of his testimony. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1. Isaiah saw God in Heaven.
Genesis 1:1-8 tells us that God himself made earth and the heavens. God set a great expanse over the earth and God called the expanse “heaven”.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray to God, He told them “Pray like this: Our Father, who resides in heaven, HOLY is your name….”.
The Apostle Peter tells us that Jesus, through His resurrection has “…gone up into heaven, and is at the right hand of God (in heaven), angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 1 Peter 3:21-22.
The author of the book to the Hebrews tells us “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands (temples on earth), which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9:24
Paul also writes to the Thessalonians, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
John, recording his Revelation, speaks of many events that take place in heaven. Heaven is mentioned as a place where God resides in almost every chapter.
So, we can see from these, and other verses, that The Bible speaks of heaven as a holy place, the very residence of God, and of Jesus the resurrected son, and the very place Jesus will descend from to reclaim His rightfully own creation. Heaven is the residence of God, that through the resurrected Jesus, we are invited into to live in His presence, in heaven, for eternity. True eternal “peace-of-mind” as you say.
I agree with you that when we are in heaven, the holy dwelling place of God, we will have a perfect peace-of-mind; in the full presence of peace, our minds will also be at peace. If it is peace-of-mind one is pursuing, then heaven is surely where we will find it.
Blessings
KP
Hi,
Explain why Jesus would have to go (physically leave) and prepare a place for us if heaven is in the mind?
John 14:2-3 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (KJV)
Now house and mansions are figurative.
Many mansions inside a house, if you take the words literally, is grammatically incorrect as mansions are larger than houses.
But the need for Jesus to go and prepare a place for us, is not figurative.
Go means a physical change of location.
Jesus cannot receive us unto Himself until the place is prepared.
We will be there, wherever Jesus is.
Are we wherever Jesus is at this moment?
No.
So Jesus is in a physicals different place than we are.
We will get to go there when He returns.
We know it is not an etherical place as Revelation describes its physical dimensions.
Why would you need such a vivid description of something that is only in one’s mind?
Please don’t equate the Bible s heaven to Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Blessings
Joe
I agree with you strongly; we have fellowship in the idea that The Bible speaks of heaven as a real place and is understood as the expanse of God’s dominion. Whether it is built out of angel dust, something ethereal, or from atoms and molecules as we know them here on earth, or something else all together, I actually have more questions than answers. I am convinced that it is a REAL place, and if it can be imagined, I suppose heaven to actually be more real, more solid, more tangible, more immutable than anything we have ever experienced.
Not to put too fine a point on things we only “know in part”, I would like to comment slightly on the verse you quoted:
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know." Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” John 14:1-7
The events of this passage take place on the night before Jesus’s arrest, at what we call The Last supper. Knowing the imminent events about to transpire, Jesus is graciously reassuring His disciples that even though He is “going” away, He promises to “come again and receive them to Himself”. His “going” here, I’m fairly sure, refers to His going to the cross, i.e. to be arrested, to be falsely convicted, to die on a cruel cross, and to be raised in glory on the third day. The events of His death will actually open the way (prepare a place, reserve a spot) for them to follow; his resurrection will make it possible for Him to receive his disciples unto Himself. I think we do no damage to the text to read the above passage something like this:
“Relax, have peace of mind. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s vast estate there is plenty of room for many people; if it were otherwise, I would have told you. I am about to be arrested and I will be killed. I’m doing this willingly to reserve your place, so you can be with me forever. It’s the only way. But, don’t worry, when through my death I prepare a place for you, I WILL come again and receive you to that place; I WILL come again and receive you to Myself; so that where I am, you may be with me, forever.”
Even though it is a very popular interpretation of this passage to think Jesus is talking about preparing heaven for us, as if he is building apartments, placing furniture, washing the bedding and the like. I remember The Dixie Melody Boys used to sing a song, “Sending up Boards” in which they pined “I’m sending up some boards to build a mansion, going to have it built and finished when I die, I checked my blueprint just today, I sent another board away, up to that master mansion builder in the sky”
Unlike The Dixie Melody Boys, I am of the opinion that the throne room of God is, and always has been perfect. It therefore cannot be “prepared”, or made better in any way. It is, and always has been finished. The preparation work for our habitation there was all done on the Cross.
Just my 2 cents.
KP
The Bible speaks figuratively, from time to time. Example:
[2] if it had not been the LORD who was on our side,
when men rose up against us,
[3] then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
An interesting observation…
Does anyone know the main difference between the Saducees and the Pharisees?
Paul used it to his advantage when he was before court…
The Saducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead (This is why they were sad you see winks)
The Pharisees did believe in the resurrection of the dead (This is why they were fair you see winks)
It seems as though that same divider is being presented here only in regards to heaven.