Whatever You Expect After Death
Requires Faith

Some people don’t accept heaven as a reality. They have never seen it, touched it or visited so they reject the idea.

But, the reality of heaven is not based on personal experience. Like the outer edge of the universe, a place no one has seen or visited, there is good reason to believe it exists. I’ve never been to either place but I have no doubt they are real.

And just like places closer to home, e.g., the north and south poles or the top of Mt. Everest, I have never been to or touched these places but I do believe the people who’ve been there and taken the pics.

Well, heaven is just like these locations. I haven’t been there yet either but others have and some have told us about it. The most recent case was four year old Colton Burpo whose story was told in Heaven Is For Real. Colton told the story and his father, Todd, did the writing.

Colton, however, wasn’t the first to talk about visiting heaven. The Bible mentions several who had similar experiences:

• Jesus came down from heaven and returned to heaven and while here He referred to it often.
• Paul, in one of his near death experiences visited heaven.
• John, who wrote the Book of Revelation, was transported to heaven and described a number of things he saw there.
• Stephen had a vision of heaven while being stoned to death.
• And following the completion of the Bible many martyrs had the same experience.
• Many others even at the threshold of natural death speak of heavenly visions only they can see.

Going further back in history, the Old Testament tells us:

• Enoch and Elijah bypassed death and were both transported directly into the presence of God, heaven.
• Jacob saw angels descending and ascending a ladder that reached down from heaven, implying that it isn’t very far off.
• Isaiah and Ezekiel both recorded visions of heaven.

So the concept is well established in the Bible and even though it is referred to as the third heaven – the first one being earth’s atmosphere and the second outer space – it obviously is very near. Some have crossed over and come back and several more have seen it.

Heaven is described as having physical dimensions but its proximity isn’t calculated only in geographical terms or hard measurements. It’s much closer than you might think. [Read more…] about Heaven Assumed In The Bible