What is heaven described as in the Bible?

Heaven is regarded as God's dwelling-place — His throne; and whether the present or the future be treated of, heaven is only viewed as the source and depository of influences which affect the earth. That heaven should be in part peopled by inhabitants chosen from among earth's ruined race; and that in those glorious days to come, when the heavens shall so beneficially influence the earth, it should be by men, not angels, that these influences should be applied — these were truths, the revelation of which was reserved for another and brighter economy than the last. It is to us that it is now made known in the words of the Apostle: "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak" (Hebrews 2:5). (From an old magazine.)

The abode of God, where His throne is. Ps. 2:4; Ps. 11:4; Matt. 5:34. Whence the Lord descended and to which He ascended, and where He was seen by Stephen. Mark 16:19; Acts 7:55; 1 Cor. 15:47.

The abode of angels. Matt. 22:30; Matt. 24:36; Gal. 1:8.

Man's thoughts concerning heaven too often are fashioned from earthly moulds. We take of things around us, and, subjecting what we have gathered to a process of mental purifying, cast it into a shape, which our imagination has formed out of the clay of this sin-stained earth, and then we call that which we have fashioned heavenly! Vain are such thoughts! No mere man hath ascended up to heaven. Ideas of heaven without a divine revelation are only things of earth, painted with the colors of earth — the paradise of our inclinations, the fruition of the wishes of our fallen selves. Heaven is the dwelling-place of God, and can only be apprehended as God Himself is known; "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." What is known of them is by revelation: "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." (1 Cor. 2:9-10.) The earthly things of the kingdom of God may well interest true believers, but they do not directly pertain to us. Since Christ went to prepare a place for those who love Him, our place is where He is. We have to do with the heavenly part of God's kingdom, or we have no lot in the matter. A christian is not a Jew; he has not an earthly but a heavenly inheritance.

A positive description of such a scene is found in what the Apostle tells us in 2 Corinthians 12, of how he was caught up to the third heaven. The first heaven refers to the atmospheric heavens the home of clouds and winds; the second heaven is the stellar region, where there are hundreds of millions of stars; the third heaven is the dwelling place of God.

Just in the same way must I seek, supposing I want to gain a just idea of what heaven will be. What then is it? A place of gold and precious stones? Nothing of the sort. I know that these are employed as figures of the Bride or the glorified church in the Apocalypse; but it is to me certain that a man who has merely this as his conception of heaven is more a Mahometan than a Christian. All believers ought to know very well that such is not the meaning of the word of God; and God Himself, therefore, gives us divine landmarks that we may not be ignorant when He is using Scripture figuratively, and when He is using it symbolically. There is no such difficulty as unbelief affects to find. Men do the same thing in principle almost every day, as we meet with in the language of Scripture. Supposing you tell me that you "flew" down the street, we do not suppose that you borrowed wings, yet we know very well what you mean; you are only using a very intelligible and expressive figure. Supposing you tell me that another "crept" down the street, are we to suppose that he went on all fours? Thus, no matter what the figure that is used, there are landmarks by which one may learn whether the thing is intended in its literal import, or whether it is a strikingly figurative method of stating what is meant. This makes no difficulty at all. It is only uncommonly stupid or uncommonly wilful people who are stumbled by such expressions. If the Bible be accepted as God's word, He must look for docility, not wilfulness, in those who profess to believe in Him; but He takes account of everybody — the poorest and the lowest; and there is nothing that delights one more in Scripture than the manner in which God has respect even to the child or the feeblest soul imaginable. And Christ is the One who brings it all out. Thus I know what heaven is, because it is the place where God is displaying His own excellence by crowning the man that was rejected from and by the world. It is the place where Christ is glorified, where He is accepted in love, light, and glory, where God Himself puts honour on His Son.

(V. 2). Second, for the comfort of our hearts the Lord discloses to us the new home, "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Not only have we Christ in the glory our unfailing resource, but we have the Father's house as our abiding home. For let us note that the word 'mansions' is really 'abodes' — a home which once it is reached will never more be left — there we shall abide. On earth we have "no continuing city." We are pilgrims and strangers here. Our abiding home is in the Father's house. Moreover in the Father's house there are "many" abodes. On earth there was no room for Christ, and little room for those who are Christ's, but in the Father's house there is room for all that are Christ's — the great and the small. If it were not so He would have told His disciples. He would not have gathered His disciples around Himself, and led them outside this world, were He not leading them into a scene of blessedness well known to Him as the Father's house. To this home the Lord was going. On the cross He prepared His people for the place; His presence in the glory prepares the place for His people. Thus we are lifted above the weakness and failure of all things earthly, carried beyond the changing scenes of time, to enter in spirit a better world, there to find a home prepared in the Father's house.

(Vv. 1-6.) Thus he passes on to speak of "visions and revelations of the Lord." He recounts a remarkable experience he had enjoyed 14 years previously. The carnally-minded Christian would doubtless at once, and again and again, have boasted of such an experience. But the Apostle, realising that it is not expedient to boast, had refrained from any allusion to this experience for fourteen years. He has just told us of a humiliating experience as in the body; now he tells us of a wonderful experience that had been his as "a man in Christ." The one who had known what it was to be "let down" in a basket upon earth, had experienced also the immense privilege of being "caught up to the third heaven." The third heaven speaks of the dwelling-place of God. There are the atmospheric heavens, then the starry heavens, and then the third heavens wherein is the throne of God. The Apostle speaks of the third heavens as paradise, indicating the blessedness of the third heavens as a scene of joy, and beauty, and glory — a garden of delights, where no shadow of death will ever come. He is careful to tell us that it was not as a man in the flesh that he was caught up, but as "a man in Christ." Of his natural advantages as a man in the flesh, he tells us, in another epistle, that he counts them but filth: but of position and privileges as a man in Christ he can rightly glory, for all the blessings of our place in Christ we owe to Christ. Caught up into paradise he was no longer conscious of the body, with its needs and weaknesses. There he had heard things of which it would be wholly out of place to speak, even to Christians while on earth and in these mortal bodies. Nevertheless, let us remember that though we have no such miraculous experiences, as being caught up into the third heavens, yet all that was revealed to the Apostle, when caught up, belongs to the simplest believer as being "in Christ."

But in the eternal state neither in the new heaven nor on the new earth will there be sin to be kept out. No tears, no sorrow, no cry, no death—all speak of the complete absence of sin and the absolute purity of the eternal state, where God shall rest in the complacency of His love.

The building of the wall is of jasper (or diamond). The divine glory is itself a safeguard of the eternal city. What can touch that which God has ordained for His own praise? The city itself is pure transparent gold, — pure, permanent, radiant, — not hindering, but welcoming the enraptured sight. The foundations of the wall are adorned with every precious stone, — all the attributes of God displayed in that upon which rests the salvation of the people of God. The stones, in their separate meanings, are again a mystery. The twelve gates are twelve pearls — the picture of such grace as has been shown in the Church (Matt. 13:45-46). These gates stand open all the unending day. The street of the city is, again, "pure gold, like transparent glass." The street — especially in the east — is the place of traffic, the meeting-place constantly of need and greed. But here, all circumstances, all intercourse, the whole environment, is absolute holiness and truth, fit for and permeated by the felt presence of God.

The last vision of Revelation is now before us: it is that of the city of God itself. But here, where one would desire above all to see clearly, we become most conscious of how feeble and dull is our apprehension of eternal things. They are words of an apostle which remind us that "we see through a glass darkly" — en ainigmati, in a riddle. Such a riddle, then, it is no wonder if the vision presents to us: the dream that we have here a literal description, even to the measurements, of the saints' eternal home, is one too foolish to need much comment. All other visions throughout the book have been symbolic: how much more here! how little need we expect that the glimpse which is here given us into the unseen would reveal to us the shape of buildings, or the material used! Scripture is reticent all through upon such subjects; and the impress to be left upon our souls is plainly spiritual, not of lines and hues, as for the natural senses. "Things which eye hath not seen" are not put before the eye.