10 Things You Should Know About Heaven

This article is part of the 10 Things You Should Know series. 1. Heaven is temporary. Heaven is temporary—if by “heaven” we mean the place you go if you’re a Christian and you die before Jesus returns. Theologians call this “the intermediate state.” Paul called it “far better” to go and be with Christ in this way (Phil. 1:23). Better—but not best, because though we’ll be sinless, we’ll also be body-less (2 Cor. 5:6–8). And best, according to Scripture’s teaching, is to be on the other side of Christ’s return when we will still be sinless but we’ll also get our body back—permanently. In other words, our life as believers goes through four phases: bad, good, better, best. We start bad (sinful and in a state of condemnation). When we become Christians, we go from bad to good—forgiven and adopted! When we die, we go from good to better, leaving all sin and sadness behind forever. But that’s not the final phase. The final phase is in what Scripture calls “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1) when we will have physical bodies on this very planet, rinsed clean and renewed. And that is best. 2. The new earth is Eden 2.0. This permanent situation of God’s people, in new bodies on a new...