The Present Heaven

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leifq

Back to: Heaven: Alcorn

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Present with the Lord

Theologians refer to the period between the believer’s life on Earth, and our resurrection to life on the New Earth, as the intermediate Heaven. I prefer the term present Heaven, as most people find it less confusing. It’s the period and place in which we live, between physical death and resurrection.

alcorn, heaven

Relocating Heaven.

Alcorn advocates for an intermediate state in the presence of God, which he calls the Present Heaven and cites the following as support that when people die, they will go to one of 2 places:

  • Lk 16:22-31
    • Lazarus (Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom)
    • Rich man (Hell)
  • Lk 23:43 – The thief on the cross (Paradise)
  • Phil 1:23, 2Cor 5:8 – Paul (present with God)

He explains his position with a little Q & A

  • Will we be with the Lord forever? Absolutely.
  • Will we always be with him in exactly the same place that Heaven is now? No.

In the present Heaven, we’ll be in Christ’s presence, and we’ll be joyful, but we’ll be looking forward to our bodily resurrection and permanent relocation to the New Earth. It bears repeating because it is so commonly misunderstood:

When we die, believers in Christ will not go to the Heaven where we’ll live forever. Instead, we’ll go to an intermediate Heaven. In that Heaven -where those who died covered by Christ’s blood are now- we’ll await the time of Christ’s return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and New Earth.

alcorn

At the foundation of this concept is understanding that the Present Heaven will ultimately be relocated – or merged into the Future Heaven: The New Heaven & Earth, which will then go on for eternity. It is so critical that he goes on to say,

If we fail to grasp this truth, we will fail to understand the biblical doctrine of Heaven.

Word Study: Paradise.

  • The word paradise comes from the Persian word pairidaeza, meaning “a walled park” or “enclosed garden.” It was used to describe the great walled gardens of the Persian king Cyrus’s royal palaces.
  • In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Greek word for paradise is used to describe the Garden of Eden (e.g., Genesis 2:8; Ezekiel 28:13).
  • Later, because of the Jewish belief that God would restore Eden, paradise became the word to describe the eternal state of the righteous, and to a lesser extent, the present Heaven.

“The idea of a walled garden enclosing a carefully cultivated area of exquisite plants and animals, was the most powerful symbol of paradise available to the human imagination, mingling the images of the beauty of nature with the orderliness of human construction.

-Alister McGrath

A Personal Analogy: Ewing St, Orchard St, Plaza Square

We once sold our home on Ewing St, and then placed a downpayment to purchase a new home on Plaza Square that was still under construction. While waiting for our new home to be completed, we rented another place on Orchard. St for 6 months.

For this analogy:

  • Ewing St could be seen as this fallen world/life.
  • Orchard St could parallel Present Heaven, awaiting our final destination to be finished.
  • Plaza Square would be a picture of the New Heaven and New Earth

Alternate Analogy: A Major Renovation

Perhaps a more accurate analogy would be anyone who’s undergone a major remodel and has had to move out of their home or building temporarily while it was under construction.

  • The old or original house is this fallen world.
  • The temporary rental is the Present Heaven.
  • After Demo Day comes renovation and then the big reveal!

Discussion: What’s often the reaction of former owners once they move back into their ‘new’ home? How about a car restoration project?

Once we abandon our assumptions that Heaven cannot change, it all makes sense. God does not change; he’s immutable. But God clearly says that Heaven will change. It will eventually be relocated to the New Earth (Revelation 21:1). Similarly, what we now refer to as Hell will also be relocated. After the Great White Throne Judgment, Hell will be cast into the eternal lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15).

alcorn

Some Thoughts on the Present Heaven

For us to exist as human beings, we occupy space. It seems reasonable to infer that the space we occupy would be physical.

A Place or Realm?

If we’re talking about it relocating, then it must be a real place – not just an idea. So where is it? One idea is that it is still part of our world, but exists in a different realm or dimension. Alcorn mentions String Theory in physics which makes claims to the existence of multiple (infinite?) dimensions within our physical universe.

This is not only reinforced in New Testament passages like Ephesians 6, but also hinted at in the Old Testament. In Daniel, we get a glimpse of the angelic realm before the resurrection of Jesus.

Daniel heard of it.
Daniel 10:12-13 NIV
Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. [13] But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Stephen saw it.
Acts 7:55-56 NIV
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. [56] "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

Stephen “did not see mere symbols of a state of existence. It was rather that his eyes were opened to see a spiritual dimension of reality which God has hidden from us in this present age, a dimension which none the less really does exist in our space/time universe, and within which Jesus now lives in his physical resurrected body, waiting even now for a time when he will return to earth.”

-Grudem, Systematic Theology
    Elisha & Ghazi saw it.

    2 Kings 6:17 NIV
    And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

    Temporary bodies or disembodied spirits?

    The other major question surrounding the Present Heaven is whether or not those already there are there only in spirit or have some sort of temporary ‘glorified’ body. Alcorn argues against ‘Christoplatonism’ and that humans are designed -and defined- as body and spirit/soul together.

    God did not create Adam as a spirit and place it inside a body. Rather, he first created a body, then breathed into it a spirit. There never was a moment when a human being existed without a body.

    He goes on to say that neurophysiological studies reveal an intimate connection between the body and what has historically been referred to as the soul—which includes the mind, emotions, will, intentionality, and capacity to worship. So it appears that we are not essentially spirits who inhabit bodies, but we are essentially as much physical as we are spiritual.

    We cannot be fully human without both a spirit and a body.

    alcorn

    The best example and clue we have to answer this is Jesus’ body after resurrection, while still on earth. But other people worth considering are:

    • Enoch: Did not see death (Gen 5:24).
    • Elijah: Did not see death (2 Kings 2:11-12)/ Mount of Transfiguration (Lk 9:28-36)
    • Moses: God ‘buried’ his body / Mount of Transfiguration (above)
    • Rich Man & Lazarus: (Luke 16:19-31)
    • Martyrs in Heaven (Rev 6:9-11)

    By definition, an intermediate state or location is temporary. Life in the Heaven we go to when we die, where we’ll dwell prior to our bodily resurrection, is “better by far” than living here on Earth under the curse, away from the direct presence of God (Philippians 1:23).

    Still, the intermediate or present Heaven is not our final destination