Is there really a heaven? - Heaven/Eternal Life - TouchPoints

John 14:2“There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”

2 Corinthians 5:1For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven.

Not only is there a heaven, but Jesus is preparing for your arrival. Heaven is described most often in terms of being your home. It is not a paradise you will simply visit on vacation, but an eternal dwelling place where you will live in joyful fellowship with your heavenly Father and his family.

Ecclesiastes 3:11Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart.

God created you with an instinct for heaven, an inner longing to live forever. It is not just wishful thinking; it is God’s intended purpose for you.

1 Corinthians 15:20But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

Jesus’ resurrection gives you the promise and assurance of your own resurrection to heaven and eternal life.

Genesis 1:1, 9, 11, 20, 24, 27, 31In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. . . . Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” . . . Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees.” . . . Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” . . . Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal.” . . . [Then] God created human beings in his own image. . . . Male and female he created them. . . . Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

Revelation 21:1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

God originally created earth to be heaven—the place where he lived with mankind and walked and talked with them side by side. Sin changed all that when it separated us from God and corrupted the earth. But the point is that God originally thought of heavenly paradise as a very physical place, with trees and plants, mountains and waterfalls, fruits and vegetables. The Bible consistently refers to the new heaven—the place where we will be reunited with God—as the new earth. The place where we will live forever with God will be very similar to the place we live now. If God said the original earth he created was “very good,” then the new earth he is preparing for us will be similar and familiar to us.

Revelation 21:4-5“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”

The promise of Scripture is that God will remove all the sin and struggles of this fallen world and create a new heaven and new earth. The best this world has to offer can’t even compare with the glory to come!