Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HEAVEN

In Hebrew cosmology heaven(s) (Heb. šāmayim), Yahweh’s dwelling place, and earth comprise God’s creation. Heaven depicts skies, the upper part of the created world, and denotes the firmament (a vault or roof of the earth). It may be used literally or metaphorically, and denotes fixed or material reality. It designates God’s unique home, a sanctuary, the throne of divine majesty, remoteness, and transcendence. Heaven is a space immediately surrounding the earth (e.g., atmosphere), a place of natural and supernatural signs, outer space. The firmament (Gen. 1:6-8), a solid mass (Isa. 45:12), rests on pillars (Job 26:11) and has windows (Gen. 8:2). Eschatologically, šāmayim concerns a new order that replaces the old or present imperfect order. Later, heaven means the destiny of and the spiritual apex of covenantal righteousness with God, as some Jewish groups supported the resurrection of the dead and final judgment.

In the NT heaven(s) (Gk. ouranós) and earth comprise all of creation, though the two are distinctive (Matt. 6:9). God spoke both into existence, but humanity cannot understand either (cf. Isa. 40:12). The heavens bring on drought, house the stars, and provide atmosphere for clouds. In the eschaton, new wonders will appear. The NT relates the heavens to God’s rule or kingdom on earth and to Jesus’ return. Heaven, the seat of redemption and reconciliation, is beyond time; it may appear as a series (three or seven); and is foundational for this world where one experiences happiness, praise, and service. In NT postexilic Judaism, heaven symbolizes God or the divine name and ascribes divine authority. Heaven is not an idyllic place of pure light and glory, but an arena of conflict, of divine wrath. The climax of God’s salvific acts occurs as an eschatological catastrophe via God’s judgment. A new heaven and a new earth emerge: eternal, pure, and free from God’s wrath (Rev. 21:1, 27; 22:3). Heaven, the dwelling place of God and Jesus, before and after his earthly journey, resurrection, and exaltation, produces voices, angels, the Messiah, and souls.

Theologically, heaven is God’s realm. Sometimes God and heaven are used synonymously, and the opening of heaven signals God’s nearness. Heaven is the dwelling place for Christ from before time with God, and also for angels, Satan, and evil spirits. For Christ, heaven is his place of origin before coming to earth, and his destination at the Ascension. It is the locus for Christ’s activity on behalf of the Church, and from which he comes at the Parousia. Soteriologically, heaven is the arena of the true Jerusalem of God’s mercy, blessings, and truth. The blessed reside in heaven via ascension. In the Prophets and the Psalms, heaven is the seat of divine sovereignty.

Heaven is the abode of God and of God’s angels, the just, and the holy. It is the real home of Christians on earth, the treasures of the faithful, and the arena of salvation — the ultimate home of Christ’s disciples. For Matthew, Jesus has authority in heaven and earth — a christological mediation from above and ecclesiological logical mediation from below. For some, the Matthean kingdom of heaven concerns a futuristic, imminent but other-worldly reality, where the present world will no longer exist. Others argue that the Matthean kingdom of heaven does not always refer to the future, as distinctive from the already begun kingdom of God. Matthew’s kingdom of heaven may be already begun in Jesus’ ministry, and if not recognized, shows one’s spiritual hardness.

In Revelation heaven wants to send messengers so Christians may understand heavenly things. Heaven seems to be an arena of activity where basic human, societal qualities are being restated, fought for, and determined. The heavenly, spiritual world has heavenly bodies, always maintained by the divine energetic presence that was, is, and will be.

For Christians, contemporary cosmology requires a heaven of faith not contained by a hemisphere above the horizon as God’s throneroom. God does not exist only in a spatial, localized sense of heaven above the world nor metaphysically, beyond the world. Our experience of heaven is not limited by infinity or finiteness of the universe in space and time. The heaven of faith is ontological, a way of being. God’s heaven is God’s arena of existence symbolized by the visible physical heaven, denoting an invisible, mysterious sphere of God’s rule, and it completes all that is good. Heaven symbolizes resurrection hope to experience a love for life prior to and after death, being interconnected and simultaneously grounded in heaven and earth. Heaven is both now and in process, not yet. Heaven embodies the vision of eternal life with God steeped in mutuality, mercy, and justice that accords a transcendent freedom, an eschatological love, and a liberating salvation of humanity.

Bibliography. D. A. Carson, “The Ðmoiov Word-group as Introduction to Some Matthean Parables,” NTS 31 (1985): 277-82; K. Grayston, “Heaven and Hell: A Door Opened in Heaven,” Epworth Review 19 (1992): 19-26; H. Küng, Eternal Life? (Garden City, 1984); J. Michl, “Heaven,” in Sacramentum Verbi, ed. J. B. Bauer (New York, 1970), 366-69; M. Pamment, “The Kingdom of Heaven According to the First Gospel,” NTS 27 (1981): 211-32; G. von Rad and H. Traub, “ouranós,” TDNT 5:497-543; K. Syreeni, “Between Heaven and Earth: On the Structure of Matthew’s Symbolic Universe,” JSNT 40 (1990): 3-13.

Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HEAVEN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)