In my last article I described three bodies. Body one is the one I'm living in now. Body two is the one I'll have after I die, while I wait for the resurrection. Body three is the resurrection body, the one that lasts forever. If there are three bodies, a question follows close behind: where does each one live? Body one lives here on Earth. Body three lives on the New Earth after Christ returns, which Scripture plainly says. But what about body two? Where does it live?
When most of us say "heaven," we mean one place. You die, you go to heaven, and that's the end of it. We hear it at funerals and read it on sympathy cards. For years I read Revelation 21's description of the New Jerusalem and the new earth and assumed that's where Grandma and Grandpa went. I hadn't noticed I had overlaid one place on top of another. As I said last time, I just didn't think it mattered enough to look closer. Once I did, a lot of Scripture started to make more sense.
So for the rest of this article I'll use two names to separate what I had overlaid. The current heaven is where believers go immediately when they die. The final heaven is the New Earth, made ready after the Lord returns, where all believers will live in the end. Same God and same people, but a different place and a different time.
The reasoning behind the difference isn't complicated. Scripture says the Day of the Lord will bring new heavens and a new earth (2 Peter 3:10-13). That doesn't happen until the Lord returns to Earth to put a final end to evil and remove everyone who is evil, angels and humans alike. God decides when that happens, and it clearly hasn't happened yet. The old Earth is still here. Meanwhile, people keep dying as they have since Adam, and they all go somewhere. Wherever that is, it can't be the final version. There has to be a temporary place for them until then.
In fact, there are two places people go when they die. Jesus describes both in the account of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:22-26). One is for those who belong to God, where Lazarus is. The other is for those who don't, where the rich man is. The two are separated, and both are temporary. Revelation 20:13 tells of Hades giving up its dead when the end comes. What I want to focus on here is the place where Lazarus is: the current heaven.
Scripture says more about the current heaven than I realized. Jesus spoke of it when He told the thief dying on the cross beside Him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). That man would be with Jesus before that day ended, in a place Jesus called Paradise. Paul said that departing to be with Christ is "far better" (Philippians 1:23), and that to be away from the body (his earthly body) is to be at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Paul expected to be with Jesus in that place, and he'd rather go there than stay on Earth.
Paul also wrote about being caught up to the "third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). Some people read that and wonder if there are three heavens. In a sense there are, but they're a different three from the three places this article series is about. Paul doesn't name the first two. A long-standing interpretation takes the first heaven to be Earth's atmosphere and the second to be the sun, moon, planets and stars. The third, then, is where God's people are with Him now. What I'm calling the current heaven. Look at verse 4. Paul calls that same place Paradise, the word Jesus used with the thief. So Paul's third heaven is the current heaven, not the final one. Others see the three heavens differently. Whatever the first two are, the third is a place where Paul heard things he wasn't allowed to talk about.
Then there's Revelation 6:9-11. John sees the souls of those who were killed for their faith. I take the scene literally, as one of several summaries of human history that Revelation gives. These souls are awake. They speak. They're given white robes. They cry out to God, asking how long until He judges the earth, and they're told to rest a little longer. Think about that: they speak, they wear robes, they are awake and they are told to rest a little longer. They're in a place of rest. They are not on the Earth. They are not on the New Earth. They are in a place of their own, where people from Earth rest and wait. They think, remember, talk and are clothed. That implies bodies in a real place that exists physically. The current heaven is physically real, and it's still waiting for something.
How I Picture It
From here I move from what Scripture says to what I imagine. Here's a scene that could take place in the current heaven.
Warm sun on Jim's face and the comfort of the thick lawn made it difficult to wake up. Half awake from his nap, he jerked when he noticed a woman standing next to him. "Sandy!" he said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands as he sat up. "When did you get here?"
"Not long ago, I guess. But that's hard to say. Time seems different here," she said as she sat down next to him. "How long have you been here?"
"A while, I guess. But like you said, time seems different here, and with the way I feel, I don't pay much attention to it," he said.
"I believe that. I can't imagine you could have felt much worse than you did at the end there."
"Oh. Don't you know it. No position relieved the pain. But now, that's gone. I can't get used to it. The air. Even the weight of my own body. I feel like I'm thirty again. I keep expecting something to hurt."
"I'm so glad for you. I couldn't bear to watch you struggle even to breathe."
"Little sister, I can't say how much it meant to have you there. Not that I would have thought any less of you if you hadn't. Just knowing you took the time to be around was such a comfort. But look at you. You look like you're no more than twenty-five. Like I remember you when we were youngsters living at home," said Jim, reaching over and taking her hand in his. "How did you find me?"
"It took a little sleuthing. I was here for a while before I realized where you might be."
"You're so clever. That's my Sandy. Ever the detective. So you sniffed me out, did you?" Jim said, laughing.
"I did. Took a bit of work. But even though I had a pretty good hunch where you'd be, I wasn't sure you'd still be there. You know how everyone likes to explore the place once they get here," she said.
"Yup. Thought about doing that. But after what I went through there, it just feels good to rest and take it easy. I feel so much better, both inside and out. Even the memories of the pain have faded, thanks to numerous visits with Jesus," Jim said as he plucked a blade of grass and stuck it in his mouth. "But tell me, how did you get here?"
"Oh, nothing grueling like you went through. One morning I just didn't wake up there. Woke up here instead."
"Must have been a shock for Rich," Jim said.
"Oh my, yes. I've thought about him a lot since I arrived," Sandy said after a long silence.
"Well, if he's not here yet, he'll be along before you know it."
"I tell myself that. If he isn't here by the time the Lord returns to Earth, we'll meet up then," said Sandy. "By the way, have you heard anything about that?"
"You mean when He's going back?"
"Yeah. Just thought maybe..." Sandy said.
"It would be nice to hear something, but you know what Jesus told us. We aren't likely to know until it's happening."
"I know. Just thought I'd ask."
Jim’s nap on the lawn is how I picture the current heaven: something like a convalescent home, a place where people gradually recover their strength and health after difficult physical and emotional experiences. I don't mean to imply they still have broken bodies that need mending. Broken earthly bodies affect more than the body itself. The whole person is affected. Because of that, temporary bodies are given in which to experience inner recovery and heath in the place that provides that recovery. I can imagine that God could just wave his hand and instantly make all things perfect. But it seems to me that he uses a process of healing and recovery, even after broken bodies are replaced, as a way to bring about our long term growth and greater well being.
A place like that doesn't give its patients everything they'd want if they were well. It gives them what they need for recovery. I believe the current heaven is something like that: a smaller portion of what will be available on the New Earth, both physically and spiritually. It gives the residents time to transition from the trauma of a sin-stained Earth to the life-enriched New Earth.
I imagine a physical place similar to this Earth. Jesus made humans to be both spiritual and physical beings, forever. So it isn't hard for me to picture even the temporary place as real and physical. Whether it's carbon-based or not is irrelevant. It's physical in a different way than the final heaven, which will be everlasting and far more dynamic than the old Earth ever was. But it's still a physical place that will feel familiar. Think gravity, sky, stars, planets, ground, trees, flowers, animals, birds, air and clouds. With no sin there, recovery can actually happen. No more entropy. And through all of it, we never stop being who we are.
Some might ask whether it would be a waste for the current heaven to end when the New Earth is complete, since it's so nice. I don't think so. God's creativity, energy and resources have no limit. Nothing He makes is wasted, even if the whole place someday ceases to exist. Whatever He has next will be better. The present Earth is the same. Its complete remaking doesn't mean the first version was a waste or a mistake. In God's economy, every stage is worthwhile.
What This Means
Seeing more than one heaven has changed how I think about death. A future I can picture, one with a plausible reality to it, pulls me toward it. It feels less mystical and more like something close at hand. I'm beginning to sense that all of it is designed for my growth.
So if you're grieving a believer you've lost, that person is somewhere real right now, also waiting for something better. If you're afraid of dying, remember that the finish line is the resurrection. Death is one step on the way there. For a believer, leaving this phase of life through death will be the worst thing they ever go through. But in the bigger picture, it's more like a speed bump.
If you've never thought about any of this, I hope this starts you thinking. Each of us will take away something different from contemplating heaven. But all of us who love Jesus need a reality ahead of us to envision in order to draw us through this difficult stretch of life.
In the next article I'll look at what the first moments after death might look like for a believer. Start thinking about it now.
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