Levels of Heaven?

Yesterday in Gathering, one of our guests raised the question about levels in heaven. Will people who have been more faithful as followers of Jesus on earth reside in "higher" levels of heaven? Are there degrees of rewards in heaven?

Here's a little insight I'll throw out there for you today. Let me know if you have any thoughts about it.

The idea of levels of heaven was not a distinctively first century, Christian idea. Paul hints at levels of heaven when he writes this to the Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 12:2-5 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know- God knows. And I know that this man- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.

Paul clearly means that "third heaven" is heaven itself. The "first heaven" in antiquity commonly meant the skies or the earth's atmosphere. The "middle heaven" if you will would be where the moon, stars, planets, etc traveled about. This doesn't really imply levels in heaven itself. It just means that heaven would somehow have to reside above the earth, above the skies, above outer space.

Later in church history, early fathers such as Justin Martyr, developed an entire cosmological system in response to Gnostic thinking about the universe, Satan, demons, angels and heaven. The diagram above represents some of the thinking on the part of early church apologists. Note the various levels and how they are grouped in a hierarchy starting with Hell building all the way to heaven. This is perhaps where we get ideas of levels.

Scripture itself never talks about levels IN heaven. The focus is on a place created by God in which God and his people will dwell eternally. There may be varying degrees of reward for the kinds of things people have done to serve God in their life-times. The bible speaks of crowns. Paul mentions our works being judged and found to be of varying qualities of significance (some will burn up, other will be refined like gold, silver, etc). No really "good seats" in heaven for really good Christians like Mark Ashton and the rest of us get so-so seating! In fact if it is a graded experience in any sense we might actually be surprised to find out what "the first shall be last and the last shall be first" is really all about.

Let me know what you think! In my next post, I'll give you a little more on Early Church Father cosmology....

What Happens to Me Directly After My Death?

A great question here sent in via e-mail:

First Name: Willie
City: Omaha
State: NE
ZIP: 68127

Question(s): I am a little confused about what happens to me directly after my death. Does whatever is the real me (my spirit) stay in the ground until the rapture (being a sleep) or does my spirit go directly to "Paradise". Then when Jesus comes does the spirit and body reconnect? If this is true where do I find it in the Bible?

This email was generated by a form on the Christ Community Church website

Willie,
Thanks very much for your question you posted on e-mail last week. Let me give you a brief answer with some scripture references. I’ll also post this question to my blog later in the week and answer it there…

The best indication we have, as to what happens to us when we die as believers/ followers of Jesus, is that we will be somehow present with the Lord (but without our bodies). Here are a couple of references:

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Paul seems to hint pretty strongly that being absent from our body means we’ll be present with the Lord and vice versa.

Luke 23:39-43 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

When Jesus is dying on the cross, he tells the believing thief that he will be with him in paradise (his spiritual part of his being, obviously not his physical part of his being.

You also asked when the spirit and the body reconnect. Paul seems to indicate that this will happen when the Second Coming takes place. Here’s a passage from Thessalonians that bears this out:


1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

So I think you’ve got if figured out, Willie! I’m a little fuzzy on some of the details – exactly what we’ll be doing till we’re reunited with our bodies is a bit of a mystery. When Jesus is coming back is not really spelled out anywhere either. But I think you have the second coming of Christ hooked up with the resurrection of the believers in the right way and here are the verses most theologians cite as pointing to those claims.

Thanks for your question!