No one seriously believes they can be found drifting about the sky or in outer space.
Obviously the deceased, Christian or not, are not floating around unnoticed in the first two heavens. The "third heaven" is different still-it is the location of God's majestic throne ( 2 Corinthians 12:2 2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows ) such an one caught up to the third heaven. Here we find the "stars of heaven"-the planets, stars, constellations and galaxies of this awesome physical universe ( Genesis 22:17 Genesis 22:17 That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies Īmerican King James Version × 26:4 Deuteronomy 1:10 Deuteronomy 1:10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, and, behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.Īmerican King James Version × Isaiah 13:10 Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. The second biblical heaven is the realm beyond earth's atmosphere, what we commonly call outer space.
It is in this heaven that birds fly and clouds give rain and snow ( 2 Samuel 21:10 2 Samuel 21:10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped on them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.Īmerican King James Version × Job 35:11 Job 35:11 Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven?Īmerican King James Version × Isaiah 55:10 Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: The first of these is simply the sky above us-earth's atmosphere, containing the air we breathe. In fact, three distinct "heavens" are mentioned in the Bible. Often the Bible refers to heavens, plural. To comprehend what the Bible teaches about heaven, we first need to understand that there is more than one heaven. When good people die, do they go directly to heaven as so many believe? Since life here is so short and eternity is so very long, shouldn't we want to clearly understand the truth on this crucial subject? Little did he know that what the Bible revealed about where his father went and his father's future were quite different from what he had been taught. Sometimes, thinking his father was up in heaven and could somehow hear him, William would try to talk to his dad-but, as always, there was no response. After a few years, he simply gave up in frustration with the thought that there was no answer as to why or where God took his father. This didn't help young William get over his anger. He sought answers from his pastor, but the minister said he didn't understand it either, that God worked in mysterious ways. "If God works this way, I want nothing to do with him," he lamented.
His anger turned him away from the God that he had learned about in Sunday school. He couldn't help but wonder why a loving God, if indeed there were such a Being, would allow his father to die prematurely, before his time. He remembered the times when he walked beside his dad with his little fingers clutching his father's much larger hand. He was devastated because he loved his dad. William was a teenager when his father died.