HEAVEN

The Scriptures teach that there are three heavens:

A. First Heaven.

This is the region of the clouds where the birds fly, the atmospheric heaven.

B. Second Heaven.

This is the stellar heaven, where the stars are located.

C. Third Heaven.

This is the place where God lives; it is the place where Jesus came from.

The Lord Jesus went through the first and second heaven to get to the third heaven. “Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Heb. 4:14, R.V.). Heaven is just as real as the clouds and stars. It is the place where Stephen saw God; the place to which John was caught up by the Spirit. The first thing he saw, was the Lord Jesus. He is the heart of heaven (Rev. 1, Heb. 9:24). Paul, too, was caught up to the third heaven (II Cor. 12:2). Where is heaven? Does the Bible make it clear? Heaven is always in the north. “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). See also Isaiah 14:12-14; Psalm 82:1; 48:2. Is heaven foursquare? Is it a cube? What will man have for his future home? Will it be a small cubby hole in a square city? Is heaven only fifteen hundred miles square? While the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21,22) is foursquare, this is only a city of heaven, which descends as a present for the Bride.

Those who go there will live in perfect peace and perfect love for all time and eternity. “Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (Heb. 12:22).

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