The 6 Heavens

Heaven - which of the 6 heavens are we talking about?

  People today use this word 'heaven' to describe at least 6 different things in the English language.The flagrant misuse of the word 'heaven' creates a lot of misunderstanding and confusion. The word 'heaven' has only three meanings in scripture but is 'intentionally' used today to keep you totally confused. Hopefully this section will help clear up that confusion.
  Scripture uses three references of heaven regularly...the sky, the stars, and the spiritual realm. But most people are confused about what Paradise is, and then you also have the "cloud 9" feel-good way we use the word in our speech.
  Your teachers typically use the word 'heaven' to set you up for their gimmicks and false teachings. While you are trying to figure out which heaven they are talking about they slip in some of their phariceutical** ideals. In your confusion many can lead you down the path of financial ruin and eternal destruction. Your teacher could just say what he/she means, but doesn't it seem strange that they really don't want to. What we typically have today is a generic all-inclusive, all confounding, use of the word 'heaven'.
  
  Let's do a little study of these "heavens". Do you know what you're talking about when you say the word "heaven"?
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  Genesis 1:1..."In the beginning Jehovah created the heavens and the earth". So the first thing we notice is that the word 'heavens' is plural. Here, in context of the passage, we are talking about the creation of the purely physical planets and stars (the cosmos). 
  Many Bible translations now purposely change the plural word 'heavens', to singular form to deceive you. But that begs the question,"if Jehovah created heaven...where was Jehovah before he created heaven?".  We are not stupid.  We  know that this reference to the beginning of all things did not include the creation of the "Realm of Jehovah" because that already existed. There was never any place, anywhere, that our Creator is not. The "Realm of Jehovah" has no borders or limits.
So let's break this down. What do we mean when we use the term "HEAVEN"?


1.  Air and sky--
          "The 1st heaven" (physical)

  It's the place where the birds and clouds are. There are many examples in scripture:

  • Gen 7:11... The windows of heaven were opened (the flood story)
  • Gen 11:4...A tower whose top is in the heavens (sky)
  • Deut 11:17... He shut up the heavens so there will be no rain (clouds)
  • II Kings 2:11...Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven (sky)
  • Luk 4:25...Heaven was shut up 3 years and 6 months and there was a great famine (rain)
  • Acts 1:11...Men of Galilee, why do stand gazing into heaven? (the ascension story, clouds, sky)


2.  Outer space --
      "The 2nd heaven" (physical)

  This is the place where the sun and moon are...planets and stars....the cosmos.
It is a physical place that we can fly spaceships in. We can do space walks, and orbit satellites. It is very real...but if you took away all the planets and stars it would still be there...its space...its real...


3.  The "Realm of our Creator" --
        "The 3rd heaven" is the spiritual realm (NOT physical)

  The "Realm of our Creator" is not a place... It's a thing. It has no beginning and no end. It has no boundaries.
  You tell me....do I go up, down, north, south, east, or west to get there? Does it depend on where you are standing on the planet? We surely know It is everywhere. The Realm of Jehovah has no limits. Our cosmos is a physical place created "IN" the realm of Jehovah. It cannot be any other way.
We are in the realm of our Creator right now.
  All physical and all non-physical things are in the realm of our Creator and Jesus said that our physical universe is not the only place in the Father's house (John 14:2). There is a place where Angels gather. There is a place for the dead. There is place for the eternal Lake of Fire. There is place where the New Earth is being prepared.  There is a place where the Bride of Christ (New Jerusalem) is getting ready for the wedding.
  We are all in this 'third spiritual heaven' right now.
  One place in the realm is an area that is referred to as "the throne". The angels (servants/messengers) are everlasting creations that gather before Jehovah for instruction and to praise, etc. These created beings are not omnipresent like our creator (the fallen angel Satan is not omnipresent). So obviously there has to be an area in the spiritual Realm that is dedicated to gatherings. But it is not as if we ever can find our Creator in just that one place...He has no limitations because he is omnipresent.
  This heavenly meeting place is not a physical place that we have access to, and never will. Read John 3:13 "No man has gone to the father except he which came from the father". So where did all the dead believers go? Not to that heaven...or Jesus was wrong. (see Death)
  We cannot get into our little space ships and fly over to it. It is in a non-physical dimension, and is only shown to us humans in visions and dreams. It is real, but is not a physical place where we can go. And, as we shall discover, it is not the place we were designed to exist, and it is not the place we are destined to be.
  The place for some redeemed humans will be at the throne of Christ on earth during the millennium (first resurrection Rev 20:4-6), and finally all redeemed humans will be on the new earth that is being prepared for us by the Messiah in a separate place in the realm of our Creator. (Depending on Greek or Hebrew, the titles Christ and Messiah mean exactly the same thing)
  We are right now in the realm of the Creator. Yes, the physical heavens (cosmos and our earth) exist right now in the realm of our Creator. The physical cosmos, where we exist, is a place "IN" the "Realm of Jehovah". The spiritual realm of the Creator is not a separate place somewhere else...we are in it.
  If you think that when you die you will go to exist in the "Realm of Jehovah" (3rd heaven)....well I have news for you...you are already existing in the "Realm of Jehovah". Used this way the context of the word is in reference to the spiritual realm, not the physical. The problem is that we were never meant to exist in the spiritual realm, so we will go to the place of the dead souls (sheol) which is in the spiritual realm. In that sense you will go to heaven (the spiritual realm) when you die, but you will not see Jesus face until the 1st or 2nd judgments, because he said we cannot go where he is.
  Think about it....can you describe in your own mind where it is, and what you could possibly be doing apart from your physical body? Or do you have a whole mish-mash of probable ideas that you were taught by all kinds of different people as you grew up? Ideas that seem like they should somehow make sense but you just can't explain them? It's just more phariceutical teachings leading you to confusion.
    
  The modern thinking would have you believe that your conscious mind will be floating around like Casper the Ghost and living in a sparkling ghost city in outer space somewhere. Maybe you are convinced that you will be able to go back and forth from heaven (which one?) to earth like a god. Or maybe you will ascend to live with the gods and be able to watch and help the pitiful earthlings from the throne of the Almighty, or from the stars, or from the clouds, or from a spiritual paradise. One those heavens maybe?
    
  Is heaven a confusing concept to you? Just stop using the word "heaven" in your speech. It is a meaningless, generic, confusing, word. Say what you mean...PLEASE.
  Nowhere in the Bible is there any promise, or indication, that mankind will ascend (except temporarily at the harvest and judgments) to dwell at the "throne of Jehovah" in his spiritual realm, or with the angels, or live in a make-believe spiritual "Celestial" city in the stars. These are fables designed to placate children and to tickle your itching ears (II Tim 4: 3-4)
   
  Numerous times Jesus told people that he was leaving and going to a place where we cannot go (John understood this). 
  • John 3:13  No man has gone to the Father but me (not even king David...Acts 2:34)
  • John 7:35  Where I am you cannot come
  • John 8:14  You don't know where I am going
  • John 8:21    Where I am going you cannot come
  • John 13:33  Where I am going you cannot come
  • John 14:3    I go to prepare a place for you, and "AFTER" I come again, I will receive you to myself that where I am you will be also. (He's talking about his promised Kingdom on Earth, and ultimately the New Earth Paradise were Christ will be our god and we will be his children. Rev 21:3 and 7).
  • Daniel 2:44  And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall that kingdom be left to another people (first a kingdom on this present day earth and then the final New Earth Kingdom to come).
  The spiritual "Realm/Heaven" was never even remotely promised in scripture as a dwelling place for mankind. Man was created on the earth, from the earth, for the earth.  (see Why You Exist)


4.  Paradise--
       "The 4th heaven" (physical)

  Now to make things more confusing your leaders will use the word "heaven" to replace the word "Paradise". 
  The word Paradise is often confusingly used to describe the ''Realm of Jehovah", and the "Bosom of Abraham", and the "Kingdom on Earth", and a nice beach in the South Pacific.
Let's talk about that now.
We have at least four wrong teachings for the word 'paradise'.
a) It is not where the throne of Jehovah is today. 
b) It is not where we go when we die (Abraham's bosom).
c) It is not a "Celestial City" in outer space where we float around in ghost bodies...and live in a ghost city.
d) It is not the Kingdom of the "1000 years" millennial reign of Christ on earth.
"Paradise", according to the Bible, is the new physical Earth described in Rev 21 and Daniel 2:44. It is the place we will inhabit after this old corrupted earth is gone. The word is actually a Persian word used to describe a protected garden. This gives us even more reason to trust that it is in reference to a literal place where we will live. The throne of Yahweh will be on earth and that will be the gathering place for all angels and mankind forevermore. Just like the original creation story we will have things to do, and things to discover, and our Creator will walk with us in the garden and hold us in his arms. 
  No sitting on clouds playing harps. No floating thru the heavens in ghost bodies. No spirit city.
Scripture clearly distinguishes Paradise as being a being a specific place in the realm of Heaven.
  The Apostle Paul spoke of a man (probably himself) who was taken up to heaven (the spiritual realm) and then he was taken to see Paradise. He was rewarded with a vision of Paradise as he relates to us in 2 Cor 12:4...He couldn't even begin to describe it.
  The thief that was crucified with Jesus asked that he be remembered when Christ received his kingdom. In Luke 23:42-43 ...Jesus assured him that when that day came the thief would be with him in Paradise. 
  Christ assures us that if we overcome we will eat of the "tree of Life" that is in Paradise.  Rev 2:7 
  The true wedding of Christ is described in scripture as his union with his eternal righteous kingdom on the New Earth, and his bride is New Jerusalem where the throne of our Creator will be on the earth with his children and he will be their god. John learned all of this in his revelation from Christ.


5. The Throne of The Creator--   The spiritual meeting place of angels and heavenly beings

The throne is not in and of itself heaven. This is a specific location "in" the spiritual realm of heaven.

Think of it this way: You might say you want to go to Europe, but that's a region. You will ultimately be at a more specific location somewhere "in" Europe.

  Notice that when Jesus paid our debt for sins Satan was no longer allowed to stand before Jehovah's throne as our accuser. But where could he and his demon hoard go? They didn't want to go to sheol (the pit). They definitely didn't want to go to the Lake of Fire yet. The new place being created for us is off-limits to them forever. And Satan and his rebel angels still want to prove that mankind is not worthy of the Father's love so they had no other place to go but to this physical world. Satan cannot escape from the "realm of Jehovah". (Rev.12) 


6.   Emotional heaven--   Not really any kind of heaven at all. 

  Sometimes we also use the word "heaven" to describe a state of emotional being....like how we feel. (I think of Fred Astaire dancing with Ginger Rogers singing ,"I'm in heaven, I'm in heaven"....as he proclaims how wonderful he feels at that moment). It is also referred to sometimes as being on "cloud 9". Heaven will be ultimate joy and happiness.
  So, everybody wants to go to heaven. A common phariceutical statement might be, "Heaven is the ultimate goal of mankind".
But...which heaven?
A beach? The clouds? The stars?  The spirit realm? A happy feeling? Paradise?
So why the continued confusion? Because it keeps you guessing, and keeps you coming back for more information. It sells books and CDs. And it's very likely your teacher/leader has no clue what he's talking about.
  Our modern spiritual leaders want you to think there are many hidden secrets in the Bible. If you ask the wrong question they tell you "it's a mystery". They want you to accept, and believe, the ancient teachings of "The Universal Church".
  I don't know if they truly believe that making things confusing gives them more control over you...but it sure looks that way to me. It's the same issue that a catholic priest named Martin Luther had with his superiors. Perhaps our spiritual leaders today are trained to believe it's just a good way to keep everyone under control, and involved, and coming back. So they are inclined to continue.
  There was a time when it was a universally accepted concept that the earth was basically flat and if you sailed too far you would fall off the edge. It's where we get the terms we still use today like, "the four corners of the earth" and "to the ends of the earth". It was believed that the spiritual dwelling place of the gods was up, and that under the earth was a spiritual underworld of demons, darkness, lava pits, fire and brimstone, and all kinds of bad stuff....it was not desirable to go to the realm of Hades (the Greek god of the underworld).
  It was a pagan belief that when life left the physical body the soul (the conscious self) ascended or descended immediately at death into a realm of the gods and acquired a god-like spiritual body. Some souls would live in the glorious city of the gods, and some would suffer for eternity under the dominion of the god Hades.
  Most of today's leaders now teach this same ancient mythology knowing full well that there is no scriptural basis for it, and it is, in fact, contrary to what our Creator has told us is the truth.
  Today's modern thinking is now trying to teach you that Heaven and Earth are two separate places, and that there is another separate place they mistakenly call 'Hell'. (Find out more about that by clicking What Hell?).
  We now know that if everyone on this round earth were to point to the Realm of our Creator at the same time they would most likely point up. They would all be correct. That would be conclusive evidence that our planet is actually surrounded by, and exists within, the Realm of our Creator. Our whole physical universe of planets and stars exists "within" the Realm of our Creator.
  Have you ever thought about that when you say you want to go to heaven? Do you realize that you are already in the Realm of our Creator? Is that what you mean or does it make you more confused? Do you understand what you are saying?
Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper that he was leaving and going to a place they could not go. He said that in his father's house there were many rooms and was going to prepare a place for them and return to get them. We live in houses and understand what this simple description from Jesus meant. Our homes have different rooms used for different things like; kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, garage, living room, etc. The realm of our Creator is like that in some ways except there are no exterior walls. Here is my rendition of how this might be portrayed in a drawing to help you understand what Jesus was talking about. 
There are designated locations in the realm of our Creator that are used for different things. The meeting place of the angels (angels are not omnipresent), the place our physical universe is today, the place the new earth and universe is being made, the location of the eternal Lake of Fire, the place where all souls now exist waiting for judgment day, and who can say how many other places exist in the father's house.
Does it serve any practical purpose at all to use the word "heaven" in teaching?  Not really.
  Why? Because the word is utterly confusing and has become a completely useless generic term. I don't think that very many of our trained leaders really know the difference.
The word "heaven" is one of most misunderstood terms in the Bible, just like the word "Jew".
It just confuses everyone because nobody will tell them the truth. 
 - Your wise teachers could use the term "realm" when describing things outside the physical creation. Or at least say that's what they mean.
  -The terms "cosmos and outerspace" could be used when talking of planets and stars, and the terms "air and sky" could be used for our inner atmosphere. Is that so hard for these guys to do?
  -The word "heaven" should be seriously clarified when used to describe how we feel...happy, peaceful, loved, safe, carefree, etc. Are we talking about floating like a bird, lost in love, relaxing in the cool shade, standing on the top of a mountain, etc?
  Why don't you just say what you mean and stop confusing everybody?
So now that we are able to decipher how to use the word "heaven" lets go to the beginning of Mankind and see how it started.