Is heaven real?

Before you even try to answer this question, you have to be on board with a whole bunch of assumptions. You must remember that science deals in facts and observations. Science can tell us about what happens in the physical world where we live, but it can’t tell us anything about what happens after death. It can tell us about our bodies, but nothing about things like our minds or our souls. For understanding these things, we need to explore them in a different way. So let’s assume that we agree that God exists, and that he is a good God.

This is the kind of God that the Bible describes: a God who created people for the purpose of a community of love. He wanted to enjoy our company and he wanted for us to enjoy his. But his original plan was messed up, and as a result, people die.

However, God came into the world in the person of Jesus. Through him, he made a way for us to be reunited with God and to enjoy eternal life. Heaven is what we call the place where we will spend that eternal life with God. If you have accepted God’s gift of eternal life, the end of your life on earth is not the end. Heaven and eternity await.

So yes, I believe that heaven is real. But I can’t really know anything about where heaven is and how it is made up. It’s literally out of this world!

When the Bible talks about heaven being a spiritual place, it’s not what we commonly think it means. It doesn’t mean that in heaven we’ll all be like transparent ghosts, floating from cloud to cloud, playing on harps. If that were the reality of heaven I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to go.

The Bible describes heaven as a real and solid place, filled with real and happy people with proper bodies, and engaged in real and purposeful activities. When the Bible talks about “spiritual,” it just means that heaven belongs to another reality, another dimension, if you like, that’s not accessible through our present senses and in our present bodies. We’re probably not even talking about carbon-based life forms!

So when we’re talking about whether heaven exists or not, for me it’s not really about astro-physics, or scientific or eye-witness evidence, or that kind of thing. It’s about believing that God is a good God and that he has a purpose for your life beyond your time here on earth. If that’s true, then as I see it, certainly heaven is real.

But that’s ultimately not the issue. The real big question here is whether you’ll be there. If so, look me up when you get there, and we’ll have a chat about whether heaven is real or not.

Radio Version:

Is heaven real?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply