Many christians say that they believe heaven is 'real'. By that they mean it really exists, somewhere, in an invisible, spiritual dimension. But even the most fervent believer in heaven probably doesn't think heaven is as real as the ancient Hebrews did. For them heaven existed up above their heads, on the other side of the sky. Heaven was the home of God and he lived up there where he could be close to his creation and watch over his creatures. Heaven was not far, far away in a place beyond space and time: it was very firmly located in space and time, just beyond the solid (if a bit see-through) blue 'firmament', its doors opened to let the weather through and it could be reached by ladders (well, if you were an angel). When the Hebrews said 'heaven is for real' they meant, (as Genesis tells us) that it is part of the creation, just as much a part of the creation as the earth on which we stand. Only if we understand this can we begin to understand what heaven is for and so begin to grasp how impossible it is for heaven to be 'our eternal home'. Heaven is God's home. Just like the earth, heaven was made, created. And one day, heaven will be destroyed a new heaven created. In the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament heaven is as real and physical as the earth beneath our feet. "This is the point. In the ancient world the spiritual and the physical were two sides of the same thing. The one could never be divorced from the other. God was as real as the ground on which people stood, and God's home was visible, 'up there' above the sky. God was near. Living life as a human being was to live under the watchful gaze of God. But in our age we have spiritualised religion, and therefore God, thereby negating the importance of God for daily life. Heaven belongs to a level of reality 'far, far away' and is somewhere we go when we die. Whether it's the 'popular' view of heaven as sitting on clouds holding harps or the view espoused by Colton Burpo and Don Piper of a far away land of make believe and wish fulfillment, we have pushed heaven as far away from our everyday lives as possible. And that's not good."
'Heaven is for Real', the title of this blog post, is also the title of a book and a film about the experiences of a young boy called Colton Burpo, who claims to have gone to heaven and come back to tell the tale. This happened during an operation when he technically 'died' on the operating table. I want to discuss this amazing story and others like it (for example the testimony of Rev Don Piper) another time (I know - the list of promised posts is stacking up!). Just as a 'heads up' (as you might already guess) I am not impressed by these claims but I think the title of the book Heaven is for Real provides a great way in to what I want to say in this post. For the writers of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament 'heaven' was absolutely 'for real'. In fact for them it was much more real than either the Burpo family or Don Piper could ever imagine. For the biblical writers, heaven was just as real as the earth, a physical place above the earth, where God and the angelic host lived. If you looked up you saw heaven. You couldn't see into heaven unless you were one of the favoured few for whom it was specially opened but you knew that beyond the clouds and the blue dome that covered the earth, as a bowl covers a plate, there lay the domain of God. There, on the other side, lay heaven. Colton Burpo's father and Don Piper don't believe that heaven is 'for real', not in that sense anyway. They believe that heaven is a spiritual space inhabited by believers who have died. For them heaven has no external reality, no impact on the physical world, no place in the day to day reality of everyday existence. They and others have individualised and spiritualised heaven. Not surprisingly their heaven can be (and is!) anything they want it to be. For the biblical writers nothing could be further from the truth. For them heaven was as real as the earth on which they stood. It lay above them within plain sight and was the home of God. It was not only real it was important, a constant reference point in the ups and downs of daily human experience. Heavens above!It's time to acknowledge the great debt I owe in my thinking on this subject to Paula Gooder and her book 'Heaven'. She has written the most helpful, clear, theologically informed book on heaven that I know of and I heartily recommend it to any readers. In fact nearly everything I say on the subject here will only be a potted version of what she says in the book. And the most striking point she makes is that heaven is as much part of the created reality of the cosmos as the earth itself. Heaven hasn't always existed. It was made when God made the earth. And it won't last forever - it will be destroyed and remade when God recreates the cosmos in the new creation. To follow this point it is essential to understand that in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, the heaven that we see when we look up, the heaven filled with clouds and across which the sun and moon and stars appear to move and from which the weather comes (as in the English phrase "the heavens opened" to refer to a deluge of rain) is exactly the same space as 'heaven' where God lives. In the bible they are always one and the same place. Rain snow and hail may come from the heavens but it is the God who 'lives' in the heavens who sends them.
In the beginningIn the beginning, says the book of Genesis, the very first book of the bible, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1.1-2). God created the heavens and the earth by a process of three separations. First the light was separated from the darkness allowing the beginning of day and night. Later, the sun moon and stars were created and appointed as the inhabitants and rulers of these new spaces of darkness and light (Genesis 1.3-5; 14-19). Next, secondly, the watery chaos was separated into waters above and waters below (Genesis 1.6-8) and God filled the waters below with living things (Genesis 1.20-23) as the appointed inhabitants and rulers of the waters below. Then, thirdly, God separated these waters below from the dry land (Genesis 1.9-13) and we read that God appointed the wild animals and human beings to rule over the dry land (Genesis 1.24-30). But if the animals and humankind inhabit the earth, if the sea creatures inhabit the seas and the stars and sun and moon inhabit the day and the night, who or what lives in 'the heavens'? The answer of course is God. As the earth is the intended home of humankind so the heavens are/is the intended home for God. The dwelling place of GodThis is brought out clearly in Psalm 33. According to the psalmist, God created the heavens (Psalm 33.6), by separating the waters above from the waters below, and this is the very same space from which he now looks down and watches the affairs of men and women, i.e. the very place where he now lives (Psalm 33.13). By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, It is from 'the heavens' that God created that God watches the affairs of mankind. God sits there on the divine throne (the symbol of God's authority and power as monarch and ruler of the heavenly realm) and "watches all the inhabitants of the earth". The reader gets the impression of the all-knowing eyes of God penetrating into him or her from above! Quite naturally if heaven 'up there', then God must look down when he observes the affairs of mankind. So in Psalm 53.2 we read God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. NRSV It is only in the light of this understanding of God 'up there' in heaven, looking down on the affairs of people, that we can understand a passage such as this from Job 22. Here one of job's 'friends' is talking about the questions that must have arisen in the minds of some as to how God could actually see everything that was going on on earth simply by looking down from heaven. Surely when it was cloudy or dark, God's ability to see would be severely limited! ‘Is not God high in the heavens? The physicality of the idea of God living above the earth in heaven is made explicit here. God walks "on the dome of heaven". His feet literally stand on the other side of what we call the sky. God looks down through the fixed boundary which separates the heavens from the lower world (presumably this works a bit like a one way mirror - God can see us but we can't see God). Understandably some people might think that if it's cloudy God will be unable to see what's going on. Similarly, if it's night-time and there is deep darkness they might think that God surely cannot see the details of human lives below. In the view of the 'friend', Job's thinking is a bit like this. Job thinks that God doesn't understand, doesn't know that he is a righteous man who has been treated unfairly. Surely then Job is just like those who think that the clouds obscure God's view! This seems ridiculous to us, but it is perfectly understandable if you assume, as the ancient Hebrews did, that God literally lived on the other side of the sky and observed human affairs through the boundary. Domes, vaults and firmamentsWhen we think of the sky we think rightly of gradually thinning atmosphere and we know that there is nothing firm or fixed up there, nothing for anyone, God or otherwise, to stand on. But that's not how the ancient Hebrews conceived of the sky. For them it was a thing, a material boundary shaped like a dome. You can think of it like a great bowl placed over the 'flat plate' of the earth. In Hebrew this thing, this boundary is called a raqia. This is translated in various ways by different Engish bible translations. The King James version calls it the 'firmament'. The NRSV translates raqia as 'dome' and the NIV uses the term 'vault'. They all translate the same Hebrew word raqia and they all mean the same thing - the blue thing we see when we look up (assuming the sun is shining and it's not covered by clouds!). Paula Gooder points out that
The 'windows of heaven'It is these very waters, kept at bay by the sky (or raqia), that are allowed to engulf the earth again when God responds to humankind's sinfulness by sending the flood. We read that the 'windows of the heavens' are opened to allow the waters to flow down and cover the earth again (Genesis 7.11). The flood is caused not just by heavy 'normal' rain but by the return of the waters which God had originally banished to the space beyond the raqia. Gooder writes Thus the raqia acted as a waterproof layer holding back the waters of chaos above The flood is as much as anything an act of un-creation, a reversal of the beautiful separation and ordering of all that existed which we read about in Genesis 1. The flood only comes to an end when the windows of heaven are closed again (Genesis 8.2). There are other references to the weather coming from beyond the raqia, from the heavens conceived of as the other side of the sky that we can see. According to Job the rains are held in gigantic water containers in heaven (Job 38.37). Snow and hail are also kept in heaven in great storehouses (Job 38.22), and the thunder and lightening come from heaven (Job 37.1-3). It's not just weather that is kept in heaven. According to the Psalmist it is from the heavenly storehouses beyond the sky that the quail and the manna are sent to the Israelites in the wilderness (Psalm 78.23-28) when the 'doors' of heaven are opened. The sky, the raqia, is a physical dome-shaped boundary with gates and doors through which falls the weather and other gifts of God to earth. Pavements and chariotsIt is this idea of the blue sky as the physical boundary between the heavens and the world below, the thin waterproof barrier on which God sits or walks, that lies behind two of the most intriguing references to the vision of God in the Hebrew bible. The first of these occurs in the story of the appearance of God to Moses and the elders on mount Sinai in Exodus 24.9-10. There we read that beneath the feet of God they saw a blue 'pavement' as clear as the sky. Is this an attempt to describe how God appears in heaven i.e. with the clear blue raqia beneath his feet? Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. Exodus 24.9-10 NRSV In this translation the pavement seems to be made of sapphire. Other translations, perhaps more accurately, translate the term Lapis Lazuli. This is a beautiful semi-precious blue stone which was widely used in art works in the ancient world and whose blue colour could be extracted to form the pigment ultramarine. The appearance of God to Moses and the elders is not the only glimpse of God's throne in the Hebrew Bible. One of the most remarkable passages in the whole bible is the description of the strange and wonderful chariot-throne of God seen by Ezekiel at the beginning of his book (Ezekiel 1.4-28). In this amazing vision the prophet sees four 'living creatures' who move in perfect unison. They are (sort of - it's hard to describe) the chariot of God. They hold their wings above their heads when they move, and on these wings rests a raqia, i.e a dome or vault or sky, using the very same word used in Genesis 1 for the 'dome'. Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome (raqia), shining like crystal, spread out above their heads. Under the dome (raqia) their wings were stretched out straight, one towards another; and each of the creatures had two wings covering its body. Ezekiel 1.22-23 NRSV This raqia is clear and brilliant, like crystal. Another translation says that it was like 'glittering ice stretched out over their heads'. On the raqia sits a throne, the throne of God And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form. Ezekiel 1.26 NRSV Again, it is probably better to read Lapiz Lazuli instead of Sapphire and the reference is clearly to the same kind of vivid blue noticed by Moses and the Elders on Mt Sinai. This time however it is the throne of God that is brilliant blue. The throne rests on the thin membrane, the raqia, which in turn rests on the wings of the living creatures. Are we meant to imagine that the blue brilliance of the throne is what turns the raqia blue? Whatever the intention of the prophet, it is clear that for the writers of the Hebrew Bible when they describe the appearance of God they seem to refer to the heavenly situation of the throne of God. Either the pavement on which God's feet are placed or the very throne on which God sits, remind them of the beautiful, blue gem-stone Lapiz Lazuli. Why? Because the throne of God, or the feet of God, are planted above, on the raqia, which, from the human point of view, is the blue sky above. Heaven was for real. It was 'up there' and it was the place where God lived, where his throne was located (when it wasn't soaring around Ezekiel or descending on mountain-tops!). Lost in translation (again!)So far I have been arguing that in the Hebrew Bible 'heaven' or 'the heavens' refers both to the place above the raqia or firmament and to the dwelling place of God. They are one and the same place. The Hebrew Bible talks about God sitting enthroned in heaven, walking on the dome/firmament and looking down from heaven, sending the weather and other blessings from the store houses of heaven, and in at least two references to the appearance of God, God's feet or the feet of God's throne are firmly planted on something blue and clear, just as someone might imagine the sky to look from the other (i.e. God's) side. The heaven above our heads is the home of God. The one obvious problem with this view, of course, is that in most bible translations the place above us where the weather comes from is translated 'the heavens' (plural) whereas the heaven which is the home of God is translated 'heaven', (singular). So in Psalm 33 (quoted above) God created the heavens and looks down from heaven. The heavens (plural) declare the glory of God but prayers are made to 'our Father in heaven' (singular). In almost every case, in almost every translation this distinction is maintained. 'Heavens', plural, is used to refer to the created upper world beyond the sky, and 'heaven' singular, is employed to refer to the dwelling of God. Surely the heavens (plural) must be a different place than heaven (singular)! But in fact there is no such distinction in the Hebrew. In Hebrew it is exactly the same word that is used for both. The word for heavens and heaven is sammayim. This is a plural form of the noun and so really should always be translated 'heavens'. In Hebrew, God created the heavens and he dwells in the heavens. For the original readers of the the Hebrew bible there was absolutely no distinction. The heavens were both the space above the firmament AND the home of God. They were plural because they were so vast. The distinction in our English translations is the product of a theological unease among bible translators with the idea that God lives above, in the sky. That seems naive and primitive. Heaven, God's home, must be somewhere else, somewhere more 'spiritual'. And so they have consistently translated 'heaven' (singular) when sammayim refers to God's abode, and 'the heavens' (plural) when sammayim seems to refer to the sky. But in fact, in the Hebrew bible they are one and the same place. For the Hebrews, heaven was as 'physical' as the earth. Not made of the same stuff of course but every bit as 'real'. Getting physicalOf course the problem we have with that is that our cosmology is radically different. We know that the sky is just an illusion. There is nothing solid above our heads, simply ever thinning atmosphere and eventually the cold nothingness of space. We know that God doesn't live 'up there' and that God's presence is everywhere and always. But it is important to realise that this was not the world in which the biblical writers lived and thought and wrote. For them heaven was, literally, up above their heads and they believed God lived there. Only when we realise that can we begin to rightly interpret some of the amazing language of the biblical writers use to speak about God 'looking down', 'coming down', ladders up to heaven, or people (notably the risen Jesus) 'going up', ascending, to be with God. But Paula Gooder makes another powerful point about this. She argues that by spiritualising heaven we have lost something very important. A real heaven, such as the one the Hebrews believed in, meant that God was real too. God in their view was literally 'up there', watching, helping, speaking and sending. Of course there are many references in the Hebrew Bibe to other places where the presence of God could be found, such as the Tabernacle and the Jerusalem Temple. But of course these were also physical spaces. The point is that the Hebrews didn't relegate God to a spiritual dimension beyond the physical as we do. God was real and God lived in a real, tangible place that could be seen every moment of every day. Paula Gooder writes In fact what has happened is that language about heaven has moved from spatial to spiritual reality. Heaven is now perceived to exist only in a spiritual realm and no longer in a physical realm. This is a very different view from that of the Hebrew Bible, which perceives heaven and earth to exist in the same kind of way. As Ulrich Simon puts it: ‘The Bible views Heaven and Earth as one world. If the earth is spatial, so is Heaven. If the earth is inhabited, so is Heaven.’ As a result, the change in our cosmology has also changed the importance that we accord to heaven. It is seen nowadays as having less to do with everyday existence and has become internalized, concerned only with the things of the spirit. Important though the things of the spirit are, this is very different from a belief in a reality that exists above our own, as spatial and as concrete as our own. Heaven p 33 This is the point. In the ancient world the spiritual and the physical were two sides of the same thing. One could never be divorced from the other. God was as real as the ground on which people stood, and God's home was visible, 'up there' above the sky. God was near. Living as a human being was to live under the watchful gaze of God. But in our age we have spiritualised religion, and therefore God, thereby negating the importance of God for daily life. Heaven is somewhere 'far, far away' and somewhere we go when we die. Whether it's the 'popular' view of heaven as sitting on clouds holding harps or the view espoused by Colton Burpo and Don Piper of a far-away land of make believe and wish fulfillment, we have pushed heaven as far away from our everyday lives as possible. And that's not good. Of course neither I nor Paula Gooder are advocating a return to a pre-scientific cosmology but I think both of us wish that in the church we could speak of heaven in a more biblical way, so that the original intention of talking about a physical dwelling place for God above us can be honoured. We need to use language which describes God as near and real and relevant to a physical world and to everyday living. We need to talk about a God who can see all that we do and who can be reached, (if not by ladders!). Gooder writes The biblical writers used the most sublime poetic imagination to describe a realm that existed alongside their own but was hidden from view. The challenge facing us is to find equally poetic, imaginative language that fits our own world view but which also communicates with equal power our belief in a God who is transcendent yet close to humanity, able to hear its voice, and involved in the heaven and earth he so lovingly created. Heaven p 67 You might also be interested in . . .
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Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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