In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Perhaps no words are more famous in all of literature. The immediate focus of the first words of the Bible is on God, heaven, and earth. Three subjects: the Creator and the two realms He created, named together, created at once. Many would say we inhabit the latter and look forward to the former. Have you ever considered what you’ve always believed about heaven and earth? If you’re like me, you were raised to see heaven as a believer’s eternal destination, the final escape from earth, because, as the old song says, this world is not my home. Evangelical, Bible Belt Christianity has, intentionally or not, embraced a kind of escapism regarding heaven and earth. We will escape this world for a better place.
Because of this, you may be surprised to learn that the Bible doesn’t describe heaven in those terms. The Lord’s intended design is for heaven and earth to coexist in the same space, and He is working to restore that through Christ’s redemptive work. I have asked this question, and perhaps you have as well: Do you want to go to heaven when you die? It’s not a bad question. In fact, if I die before I complete this article, my spirit will depart from earth and enter the Lord’s presence, where I will worship and wait until the appointed time for Christ to return. Only then will I receive my resurrected new body, because the dead in Christ are raised at the last trumpet that announces His return. But heaven, as it is now, is not anyone’s final, eternal destination. Heaven and earth will both be renovated and then reunited.
Let’s think about this for a moment. Consider stories. Beginnings and endings always fascinate. Often, I watch a movie or read a book and wonder about the characters’ backstories. Or when I reach the end, I wonder what happens afterward. Movies and books often parachute the viewer or reader into the middle of a dramatic moment, explore the characters, the events, their responses, and the consequences, and, depending on the genre, aim to deliver a satisfying conclusion to the story’s tension. Many leave the prologue and epilogue to the audience’s imagination.
The Bible is a true story, a biography of the Lord’s work to redeem His creation. The story parachutes the reader in at a certain moment and likewise concludes at a certain moment. Take those moments together, and you can often grasp the big ideas of the story’s trajectory. We began at point A and are heading to point B. What are the conditions at those points? What are the differences and similarities between them?
In the Bible, Genesis chapters 1 and 2 and Revelation chapters 21 and 22 serve as the beginning and end, the structural bookends of the Lord’s biography. If you read those four chapters in succession, a picture emerges. You will see heaven and earth together. You will see the Lord dwelling with His people. You will see what began as one family – Adam and Eve – now expanded into a family covering the earth, filled with the Lord’s glory. These four chapters reveal the Lord’s intended design: heaven and earth occupying the same space, where He dwells face to face with the family He has created. His desires may be summed up in a single verse.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’” – Revelation 21:3
We know what God intended at the beginning and that in the end He achieves His desired outcome. But everything in between, from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20, is the story of His efforts to redeem what the rebellion of angels and men brought to ruin. The Bible is largely the story of the Lord’s war to reunite heaven and earth. He ultimately accomplishes that work through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Yet even that moment is thousands of years after Genesis 3. We receive a whisper of the promise of Jesus early in Genesis.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” – Genesis 3:15
From here, the theme is war. It is the Lord’s war to reunite heaven and earth through His only begotten Son.
With all that said, let’s take a moment to hit the reset button on our thinking about this matter. Not everything you and I were taught is completely wrong; it just needs adjustment to encompass everything the Scriptures teach. Up front, I’ll present three statements, unpack each one, and then discuss the ditches on either side of the path we must avoid.
- Heaven is not the believer’s final destination.
- The Lord has progressively been bringing heaven back to earth.
- Each believer is tasked with bringing heaven to earth.
Heaven Is Not the Believer’s Final Destination
This is the one that probably hit me the hardest. Not because it’s hard to understand, but because I couldn’t believe that something so obvious had escaped my attention for so long. Hear me: this is where I want to be most careful, because I don’t want to come across as arrogant or disrespectful. I don’t know this for a fact, but I suspect that many of the believers in my life have, at best, an incomplete picture of this, or, at worst, believe something completely wrong. So let’s examine the commonly held belief and see what the Word says about it.
This belief is typically presented this way. When believers die, they are immediately taken to the presence of Jesus. When we arrive, we will walk on streets of gold, have a new body, live in our own mansion or dwelling place somewhere in the heavenly city, and worship the Lord forevermore, enjoying His presence eternally.
There’s nothing about this that is invented. The problem is that it’s a theological mashup that unhitches these truths from their context within the timeline of redemption. Eschatological events anchor each of these descriptions in real time. When we repeat the mashup again and again, it gradually becomes accepted and embraced very matter-of-factly. Let’s break these truths down and place them with their proper eschatological moment.
First, when a believer dies, they are taken into the presence of Jesus. This is unequivocally true. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.
“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 5:6-8
We also see this reality in the book of Revelation. Revelation 6 offers a clear window into the state of believers after they depart from their earthly bodies.
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” – Revelation 6:9-11
Our existence in heaven before Christ’s return is not in a body. We are disembodied. We haven’t received new bodies yet. Why? Because the dead in Christ – those who died before His return – have not yet risen. John saw the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar. Their spirits were there; they were recognizable, but they hadn’t yet received the redemption of their bodies.
Now, I make no claims to understand what that disembodied existence is like. I only know what I read. And what I read tells me that if I die before Christ returns, I will remain in His presence in spirit – no physical body – until the resurrection. So every time I hear someone say that so-and-so is walking the streets of heaven, the little theology nerd in my brain corrects: “How you gonna walk if you ain’t got no actual legs yet?”
Some may object, pointing out that in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says we will have spiritual bodies. Yes, he does say that, but that describes the body we will have AFTER the resurrection, not before (the resurrection body, despite Paul’s descriptor, is physical – another day, another article). To maintain a Biblical perspective, we must acknowledge that before Christ’s return, our heavenly existence is not physical. We remain in Christ’s presence in spirit until He returns and our bodies are resurrected.
Second, when we arrive in heaven, we will walk on streets of gold. This one is easy. The streets of gold are part of the description of the New Jerusalem that comes down to the new earth from the new heavens. All of that is, again, after Christ returns. There’s nothing in Scripture that indicates the heaven that exists now has streets of gold. It might be true, but our basis for that belief comes from a description of something else entirely.
“And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.” – Revelation 21:21
The belief about mansions or dwelling places is closely tied to this. Jesus mentions this in John 14.
“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” – John 14:2-3
Christ’s construction project seems tailor-made to fit right into the New Jerusalem. He’s building that new city, room by room, making it ready for our habitation. Now, I will concede that this could mean something in the current heaven, but I can’t unsee the connection between what He said here in John 14 and what John saw coming down to the new earth in Revelation 21. This also seems to be something that doesn’t happen until after Christ returns.
Third, we’ll worship the Lord eternally, enjoying His presence forever. This statement is completely correct. I would only add the context of where. The current heaven, where Christ is interceding and where the Father’s throne is located, will be remade, along with the earth. Why? If heaven is perfect, why does it need a renovation? Actually, Scripture says otherwise. Later, we will reference verses in Hebrews 9 that speak of the need for the heavenly temple to be purified. But why is it so? If you consider that sin was first conceived in Satan’s heart as he stood in the very presence of the Lord, then sin has left its stain even in heaven.
“You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created,
till unrighteousness was found in you.” – Ezekiel 28:14-15
Though these verses were addressed to the king of Tyre, they have long been understood to speak beyond that human king, directly to Satan himself. The war against the Lord began with one of His most perfect creations, right in heaven’s throne room. The renovation of heaven seems to be the Lord’s work to wipe away all reminders of that rebellion, making all things, even heaven, brand new. Even Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, understood the impurity of the heavens.
“Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;” – Job 15:15
That brings us to the answer about our final destination. Today’s heaven is more of a place to wait. I don’t want to call it a waiting room because it seems too casual. Believers die, and their spirits enter the presence of Jesus, where we wait with Him for His return. Then we receive new bodies, and (I know I’m skipping some things) heaven and earth will be renovated and made completely new. The new heaven and new earth will dwell together; they will not be separate domains. It will be as it was in the beginning. Heaven and earth will live together, and the Lord will dwell with us face-to-face once again.
The Lord Has Progressively Been Bringing Heaven Back to Earth
Perhaps the easiest way to track this progression is to examine the concept of the tabernacle or temple. Although it doesn’t leap off the page in Genesis 2 and 3, if you gather all the biblical references to Eden, a picture of a temple emerges.
Physically, Eden was located on a mountain. How do we know? First, water runs downhill. Four rivers flowed from Eden: the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates (Genesis 2:10-14). Also, the verses quoted from Ezekiel a moment ago reference the Lord’s dwelling as a mountain. Finally, the Lord’s sanctuary would later be located on a mountain, and Eden was entered from the east, as was Israel’s sanctuary.
Temporally, the Lord created the world in six days, just as He gave six commands regarding the temple’s construction, and He rested on the Sabbath, just as He rested by dwelling in the sanctuary.
Verbally, the Lord walked in the garden, using the same language as His presence in the temple (“I will walk among you,” Leviticus 26:12). Adam worked in the garden, and the same language is used to describe the priests’ ministry in the sanctuary.
When all this data is brought together, it becomes evident that the Lord created Eden as a sanctuary, a temple, for His presence. Heaven and earth intersected in Eden. The mission given to Adam and Eve was to multiply and spread the image of God across the earth, making the whole earth an intersection with heaven, not just Eden.
Of course, that was broken when Adam and Eve sinned. But when the Lord gave instructions for building the Tabernacle, those instructions were patterned after His dwelling in heaven. The author of Hebrews called the earthly Temple “copies” of the original.
“Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” – Hebrews 9:23-24
The construction of the Tabernacle and later the Temple was essentially phase one in bringing heaven back to earth. The Lord’s presence rested in the Tabernacle and the Temple. It wasn’t the same as Eden, where He could walk with Adam and Eve in person. Because of sin, priests had to undergo rigorous ceremonial cleansing just to enter the Lord’s presence once a year. Even this, with its rules and regulations for worship, was the Lord prescribing a way for His people to have fellowship with Him.
“And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” – Exodus 25:8
However, that was only phase one. Phase two came much later.
“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’” – John 2:19
No one truly understood what Jesus said here until after His resurrection. This was an audacious claim. Jesus declared that His body was the temple. How? Again, the concept is simple, but the claim was hard to accept. The “fullness of Deity” indwelt Jesus (Colossians 2:9), making His body the temple. Wherever the Lord’s presence indwells and rests, that is His temple.
Phase three is happening right now. Ever since Pentecost, we who have believed and been born again have all received the Holy Spirit, making each believer a temple.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” – 1 Corinthians 3:16
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Phase three of the Lord’s bringing heaven back to earth is to make each of His people a living, breathing, mobile temple of His presence.
Phase four is pending. We wait for phase four, the new heavens and new earth, where the whole earth once again becomes the Lord’s dwelling place. In that day, there is no need for a temple.
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” – Revelation 21:22
Each Believer Is Tasked With Bringing Heaven to Earth
It stands to reason that if every believer is part of phase three, then the responsibility of every believer is to bring heaven to earth in as many ways as possible. This is where all of this theologizing becomes real.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:20
The word “ambassadors” has real punch. If you are appointed as an ambassador to a foreign land, you go there to represent your sending nation’s interests. You act with the full authority of your homeland’s ruler or government. You are the head of state’s proxy.
In context, believers are Christ’s proxies. We are sent out under all His authority. Just as an ambassador isn’t the actual king, we are not the actual Lord, but we are His ambassadors, and as such, we act within the authority He shares with us. So when we act, our actions should bring heaven to earth. When we speak, our words should bring heaven to earth. Everything we do should serve this goal. Bring heaven to earth.
How? Here are four ways.
- Share the faith. Spreading the gospel is the primary way to bring heaven to earth. The more temples of the Holy Spirit that dwell here, the more heaven on earth we experience. But we aren’t in control of who believes the gospel. What we can control is our own conduct.
- Pursue holiness. The pursuit of holiness will bring heaven to earth, starting with you. As we do so, we’ll find our conduct aligning more and more with Christ’s teachings, which is even more heaven on earth.
- Work and keep. We continue the priestly mandate given to Adam to tend the world around him. This has broad ramifications, but simply put, the mandate is to bring order to chaos. Everything we do should be done well, from tending and shepherding your relationships to putting your shopping cart away in the provided bins in the parking lot. Work and keep means to take responsibility for the world around you by doing the priestly work of creating and protecting godly order in the chaos.
- Practice the embassy. This is the hard work of reconciliation. We are reconciled to the Father through Christ, and we share that message of reconciliation when we evangelize. But we must also be a people who practice horizontal reconciliation among brothers and sisters. One of the greatest testimonies to our reconciliation with the Father is our practice of the same reconciliation with one another. We reach out to the hurt. We embrace the downtrodden. We acknowledge our own failures and seek forgiveness. These actions stand in stark contrast to the world, which is increasingly returning to the old idea that mercy and forgiveness are weaknesses, not virtues.
By themselves, these four things will set every believer apart from the world, creating space for heaven to break into earth through us.
The Ditches to Avoid
Whenever you handle this subject, there are ditches on either side of the road that you can fall into. These ditches represent two categorical errors: escapism and over-realization. I’ll briefly detail each one, then leave you with some closing thoughts.
Escapism is the more prevalent of these two errors. Honestly, it’s relatable. What believer in their right mind doesn’t acknowledge the appeal of being at home with Christ? That means no more sin and no more wrestling with the flesh, which wears us out in this life. I get it. However, merely pining for escape creates theological problems. Here are just a few.
- Treating heaven as the destination — “going to heaven” as the goal, rather than heaven and earth reunited under Christ.
- Framing the intermediate state as the end of the story. Being “with Christ” at death is real and good, but it’s where we wait, not the dwelling place. Resurrection is the hope, not disembodiment.
- Implying the earth gets discarded. Whatever 2 Peter 3 means by fire, it isn’t annihilation — the language elsewhere is renewal, liberation, birth pangs (Rom 8:19–23).
- Treating the body as a shell. This is Platonism, not Scripture, and it quietly warps everything downstream — sexuality, sickness, aging, anything related to the body.
- Making the present age spiritually irrelevant — “it’s all going to burn anyway.” The practical fruit fosters indifference to creation, to neighborhood, to work, to the pursuit of justice.
- Reading Revelation as an escape narrative rather than a descent narrative — the direction of travel in chapter 21 is downward, heaven coming down to earth.
The ditch on the other side of the road is the error of over-realization. It’s often called an over-realized eschatology. Essentially, an over-realized eschatology means we’ve applied future promises too heavily to the present. It’s accurate to say that the Kingdom of God is arriving, but inaccurate to say it has fully arrived. Here are a few possible ways over-realization can be problematic.
- Suggesting we build or bring the kingdom. Babel and the exile both settle the question of whether humans construct the overlap of heaven and earth from below. We don’t.
- Collapsing the “already” into a “fully.” This implies that faithful effort will progressively heaven-ize the world until Christ’s return. The New Testament expects opposition and suffering right up to the end.
- Letting the theme flatten into a social-program agenda, where the whole point becomes activism, and Christ’s return loses its punch.
- Losing the “not yet” pastorally. People are grieving, sick, and dying. If the message overemphasizes the kingdom’s arrival at the expense of real suffering in the present, it’s not pastoral.
Am I Bringing Heaven With Me?
Let’s close with a few convicting questions. Recognizing that no one does this perfectly, can I honestly evaluate my life and say that, on the whole, I am bringing heaven with me wherever I go? Am I acting as an ambassador of the King of kings and Lord of lords? Does my conduct bring the light of Christ with me? Am I an active participant in the Lord’s campaign to bring heaven to earth?
If you’re like me, every one of those questions stings. The answer I have to give is always the same: Not as well as I’d like. But there’s hope in that. If your answer is the same, the “I’d like” part means you’ve been fundamentally transformed at the core. The unregenerate heart, still hard as stone and lost in sin, cannot desire to bring heaven to earth. At least not in the way the Lord desires it. But the heart that has been made new has core desires to accomplish the Father’s work. You may not know how, but you cannot deny the urge within to do whatever He asks.
I hope this lengthy article has opened your eyes to the greater truth of heaven and earth. The Lord is working to reunite them. Right now, you, believer, are on the razor’s edge of that campaign. He is using you and me to establish embassies of heaven until Christ returns. We occupy until He comes and bring as much heaven to earth as we can.
