As for this heaven thing, I'm not sure our common understanding matches what the Bible actually says.
Attributes like an absence of sadness, war, or sin are common knowledge, as are the pearly gates, but there are quite a few obscure elements which separate Christian heaven from other depictions. For starters, the ultimate heaven isn’t a place yet; the Bible says that a new Earth, where heaven will be, won’t be created until after Armageddon. Until then, the dead are just sort of waiting in an intermediate heaven, feeling no passage of time. The book of Revelation says that there will be a great city, unparalleled in beauty, with walls made of precious jewels and streets made of gold. God is said to dwell among the humans who make it to heaven, where they worship him for eternity. There is a lot of debate over whether or not those in heaven remember their lives, and the Bible is a little ambiguous on the subject, but Jesus’s promise to see his disciples there has been taken as meaning they do.
http://listverse.com/2013/10/02/10-heavens-of-world-mythologies/
It seems like Jesus will have lots of work for us to do, so we might not have much time to visit...
What Will We Do in Heaven?
In heaven, believers will worship God, judge and rule (I Corinthians 6:2-3), rebuild cities (Amos 9:14, Isaiah 61:4), compose music (Revelation 14:13), farm, raise livestock, and continue using their God-given talents they had on earth to honor God, according to Enns. But medical doctors and dentists will need to find new vocations, he noted, since the heavenly bodies will be perfect.
https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1353-will-heaven-be-on-earth
Heaven, as described in detail in the book of Revelation 21:4; 7:17 is 2,250,000 square miles (1,500 sqm X 1,500 sqm) which is roughly the combined surface area of the 16 largest states in America. With an estimated 1.5 billion dead Christians (and counting) it might be hard to find individuals.
Estimated number of Christians in total -
http://mb-soft.com/believe/txx/numberch.htm
Because the city is at least 1,400 miles in length, width and height, it could be shaped like a cube or pyramid. Does the height refer to the wall that surrounds the city or the tallest building? Rev. 21:17 says the wall around the city is about 200 feet, but ESV, NASB and KJV bibles don't specify whether this is the thickness or height. The NIV bible says this is about 200 feet thick, but the footnote says "or high". A cube-shaped city would make sense in the sense the Most Holy place in Solomon's temple(1 Kings 6:20) was shaped like a cube. However, scripture does not provide a definitive answer as to whether the city is cube or pyramid-shaped.
http://tourofheaven.com/eternal/new-jerusalem/size.aspx
Both books:
@frankbacon
Get the names write
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The publishers wont allow for Benjamin Franklin Bacon to be used. We had to settle with Frank Bacon. It's in the contract.
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i'd buy ten of these
I sure hope humans won't be raising livestock in Heaven the way we've been doing it on Earth. The experience of most livestock today is unnatural, scary, and painful. They are essentially in Hell from birth to death in our "factory farming" slave system. Even livestock kept "humanely" live in bondage, no right to have a natural and free life. So Heaven would be a place of peace and happiness for human animals, but suffering and sorrow for non-human animals. Doesn't sound like anywhere I would like to be! So I hope our understanding of it is incorrect.
yeah, i'm looking forward to being an eternal construction worker
It sure sounds like there will be a lot of building and repairing to do... unless there are cherubs for that or something.
Interesting look at that book. Having no religion - raised with lots of love and Ethics, but no religion - I do not take any religious texts as truth, seeing that religions seem always to enslave People, control Them.
it's interesting to me how many christians i know have an idea of "heaven" that doesn't match the actual description in the actual bible
I beg to differ. Religion in itself is not about enslavement and control.
One day I realized that I know almost nothing about my heritage, that is to say, the Christian influence by which you and I (if you are a westerner) grew up.
All of a sudden I found that strange. I was studying Eastern philosophy and religion, and quite intense. I did not do the same for Western theology and religion. I asked myself why that was so. It dawned on me that I had thrown out the baby out with the bathwater.
So, if someone intends to demoralize you and push you towards despair or nihilism or cynicism, he might be satisfied to find you ripped off your religion.
G. K. Chesterton
From what I can see, religion is used by the psychopaths to manipulate Us, get Us to do things They want Us to by appealing to the religion of the day, or adding to it in some way...
Spirituality, on the other hand, is something We each control within Ourselves.
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Hmmmm … actually, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is Within you. - Luke 17:21
And again in the Gospel of Thomas (30 AD)
Jesus says, "If those who lead you say to you, 'look, the Kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds will get there first. If they say 'it's in the ocean,' then the fish will get there first. But the Kingdom of God is within you and outside of you. Once you come to know yourselves, you will become known.
Heaven is here and now for those who can see it.
In the earliest Gospel of Thomas (30 AD) when asked when and where is the Kingdom of God Jesus says…
It is here on the Earth and many fail to see it.
His disciples said to him: On what day will the kingdom come? <Jesus said:> It will not come while people watch for it; they will not say: Look, here it is, or: Look, there it is; but the kingdom of the father is spread out over the earth, and men do not see it. - GT 113
ok, so is the book of revelation apocryphal or simply metaphorical ?
I would say it is metaphorical and delete the word "simply" ;)
Book of Revelation is Metaphor and symbols. ... The Gospel of Thomas is the very 1st record of what Jesus actually said ... Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Letter of Paul, were written after the Gospel of Thomas. The Early Church Fathers say it is "Gnostic" but they are written in Coptic and Aramaic and predate all other Gospels.
https://playgroundai.com/post/clo3ys3sd08xgs601dx276win