OUR HEAVENLY HOME: 

Excerpt

                         Does Heaven Really Exist?

     In the absence of tangible evidence, how can we - prone by nature to question anything that is not sensory - make sure an unseen realm actually exists?  No astronomer has every sighted heaven's towering spires with a telescope.  No chemist has scrutinized its foundations with a microscope.  No mathematician has produced an equation that requires its existence as a logical necessity.   And no philosopher has been able to undergird his wishful premises with substantial proof.

                               The Dictates of Reason
     Nevertheless, sheer reason finds sufficient grounds in what we know intuitively, to postulate the existence of another, better world.
     What we know about the nature of God requires us to expect some such provision for His children.  The visible creation testifies not only that He exists, but also that He is infinitely wise, all-powerful, and inherently good.  Can we believe that such wisdom is thwarted by the enigma of death?  Should we think that such power is halted at the border of the grave?  Or that such goodness lures us with hope, that it may mock us with despair?  Pure reason needs no other proof than that exhibited by nature to warrant the rejection of such palpable absurdities.
     What we know about the nature of man compels us to look forward to something better, in a better world.  The marvelous constitution of the human personality implies an immensely higher and nobler destiny than anyone can realize in three-score years and ten.  Man is a wonderful creature, the connecting link between two worlds - one spiritual and invisible, the other natural and tangible - for, unlike all other earthly creatures, he belongs to both.  His body is natural.   His soul is spiritual.  Death separates the soul from the body.  But the soul - that is, the human ego - is elementary and, therefore, indissoluble and, hence, cannot be destroyed.  We all have an intuitive consciousness of this remarkable fact.   Sooner or later, all except a few inveterate agnostics admit that our destiny, in its fullest measure, must be realized beyond this present life.
     This is altogether reasonable.  Consider such endowments of human genius as those of Michaelangelo, Shakespeare, Handel, or Albert Schweitzer.   All exhibit far more resources than a single lifetime can develop or exhaust.   However mediocre some of us appear to be, this is true of all people.  If modern psychologists have done nothing more, they have conclusively demonstrated that every one of us has immeasurably more latent potential than we are normally conscious of.   Is it rational, then, to suppose that God has thus endowed us, only to resign such undeveloped powers and properties to the grave?  Can we believe that Michaelangelo has spent his genius and forever laid aside his brush?  Or that Shakespeare, who wrote so much, so well, will write no more?  Or that Charles Haddon Spurgeon will never preach, nor Ira D. Sankey sing again?  Why, the greatest of men have scarcely enough time here on this planet to advance beyond the kindergarten stage.
     It is unthinkable that the kind of God we have has made us the kind of creatures we are that the flame of our personalities might flicker for a few brief decades and then disappear forever, at the dissolution of our mortal frames!  Such an irrational hypothesis both mocks the Maker and ignores the demonstrable excellence of His handiwork.
     Again, the universal hope of immortality, felt and cherished by all kinds of people in every land and age, cannot be explained except through the assumption that it comes from God and will eventually be gratified.  The universe is so ordered that some special provision may be found for every requirement and some adequate supply for every need.
     For instance, there is water for thirst, food for hunger, light for the eyes, and sound for the ears.  On this principle, we may be assured that God has made ample provision for the ultimate satisfaction of our inherent hopes.  It is inconceivable that a benevolent Maker, being who and what He is, would endow us with an instinctive yearning for a more abundant life, while planning to requite our expectations with eternal nothingness!

                      The Testimony of the Scriptures

     Pure logic demands a larger opportunity, in a more propitious environment, for the people of God.  Our spiritual growth simply will not stop at death.  However, this felicitous opportunity will be forfeited by incorrigible sinners who persist in willful, suicidal unbelief.  Not that our hope is dependent on sheer reason, however; for we, indeed, have a "more sure word of prophecy," an infallible revelation from God, which is infinitely more reliable than even the most convincing arguments from any other source.  Such a revelation lifts us above the plane of fallible reason to the higher ground of moral certainty.  For the Bible everywhere assumes, and frequently asserts, the glorious reality of our heavenly home.
     The very first verse in Genesis mentions heaven and provides a pregnant introduction for the more extended treatment it receives in many subsequent passages: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."   Contrary to the rendering of our popular version, the word here is "heavens" - neither singular nor plural, but dual.  It indicates the two "heavens," the natural and the spiritual, produced by the original creative act.  However, after Jesus' resurrection, when "paradise" was moved from Sheol-Hades into God's own celestial abode, three heavens are alluded to in the record - the atmospheric, the stellar, and the paradise-like "third heaven."  But this is evidently a phenomenal usage, accommodating language to the human point of view.   In no way does it present a real contradiction to the Genesis account.
     The Old Testament abounds with allusions to heaven as the site of God's eternal throne and the dwelling place of a myriad of holy angels.  However, as we shall see a little later, it was not accessible to the souls of justified people until after the resurrection of Christ.
     The Scriptures, even the earliest of them, are replete with intimations of a future life: