Heaven by Randy Alcorn provides a tour of Scripture’s vibrant images of what the new earth will be like. We explore the culture, art, music, beauty, wonder, and civilization that Christ will bring in the new earth.

Heaven contains all the greatest joys of this life in a purified state, along with intimacy with God.

This is a story of the place that Christians will experience after death, and the reader finds here a conscious attempt to make that a more compelling story than the one Christians generally believe. So many novels portray heaven, and we may wonder whether these pictures are accurate. But Scripture gives us plenty of information about the way that heaven is going to appear.

There are new skills and objects that didn’t exist in the garden of Eden but that will be on the new earth. Resurrection permeates history; it doesn’t restart history. We will be ourselves but better and in a better environment. Spending time with angels, exploring the natural world, and laughing with friends doesn’t mean that we have missed the point of the new earth. Christ created us to enjoy those things and is pleased with us when we enjoy all the things that He has created.

In this summary, you will learn:

  • why your eternal future should excite you;
  • what heaven is like; and
  • what we can know about the new earth from Scripture.

Heaven is the destiny of Christians.

A surprising number of Christians are not looking forward to a new life in heaven. When asked about heaven, many people might even display a certain amount of fear regarding heaven and eternal life. We generally picture heaven as a place where we float around endlessly and sing all day, and for many of us, this is not a compelling picture of eternal life in heaven with God. There are a good many misconceptions about heaven. If it is simply one hymn after another with no time and difference, then we might do well to fear the kind of destiny that awaits us.

Part of the misconceptions come from the fact that we don’t know a lot about heaven. It is difficult, as human beings, to desire things that we cannot imagine or are not even aware exist. That’s probably why God has filled the Bible with references and clues to what eternal life is going to be like because it helps us change our conceptions and help us desire to go to heaven.

Satan wants to attack our imagination and direct it to things in this world and destructive ends. But God wants to give us a love for heaven that allows us to exist in such a way on earth that we are enthusiastic about where we are headed. If God didn’t want us to dream and imagine about heaven, then He would’ve hidden it more. Scripture, however, has a multitude of images and references to heaven. God has given us all these images and ideas so that we can begin to understand what heaven is like and how we might be able to pursue it. God wants us excited about heaven!

Of course, there is a counterpart to heaven that sits just beyond the shadows, and that place is hell. Hell is also something that God gives us information and images about in the Bible, and we can see that hell is a place where God’s judgment comes down on people who have not taken up Christ and the gift of redemption. Jesus frequently spoke of this place of eternal torment.

Hell and heaven both are images that should motivate our actions and life on earth. In particular, we should make sure now that we are going to heaven when we die. The way to do this is to accept Christ’s gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life through His death.

God’s ultimate plan is to redeem all creation.

When Christians die, they enter a state that we call the “intermediate state,” which means that they are in transition between earth and the new earth. When we talk about someone dying and going to heaven immediately, we are talking about this intermediate state. Presently heaven is a place where Christians are currently awaiting the restoration of all things. When we die and go to heaven, we go somewhere that is prior to the resurrection of the body that we are awaiting.

Because of Plato and old conceptions of eternity, many Christians resist the idea that the new earth is going to be a physical place. But the ethereal heaven of the intermediate state is only a place that we go to await the resurrection of the body. One of the big images of eternity for the Christian is the resurrection of the body. Jesus had His body raised, and we are going to be raised bodily as well.

But currently, what is the intermediate heaven like? The place where the Christians who have died currently await the resurrection? We can turn to Revelation 6 to see a few things about this heaven.

When Christians die, they go to intermediary heaven. There is continuity between identity on earth and in heaven because when we go to heaven, we remember our personal history on earth. People in heaven maintain knowledge of what happened when they were on earth and even of what is happening on earth now. People in intermediary heaven can still speak or express themselves in some way. They can raise their voices and have passion.

So what is the ultimate plan for salvation and resurrection after the end of this world and after intermediate heaven has served its purpose? Well, in Christ, God has extensive goals. God is not only planning to redeem humanity but also all of the earth and the universe. God is in the process of redeeming all of creation. In its original state, the earth was untouched by sin. In our current state, the world is wrecked by sin. Yet there is a new earth that God has planned. God doesn’t give up on creation, and this salvific plan extends far beyond mere human beings. God is making all creation alive again and is restoring all creation to the design that He originally had for it.

The new earth that God has planned is the redemption, or the return, of the old earth that He had created in the beginning. The new earth is the old earth restored. And the restoration of creation has as its aim the glory of God – which was the same aim of the first creation.

The redemption of the present earth will include a uniting of heaven and earth, with believers reigning with Christ as joint-heirs with Him in His inheritance.

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