For many Christians, what we know about heaven comes from a few passages scattered around the New Testament. We know that being absent from the body means being present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). We know that being with Christ is far better than continuing in our present state here on earth (Phil 1:21–24). We celebrate that Jesus went to heaven to prepare a place for us (John 14:3). These are glorious truths for pilgrims journeying toward the grave.
But does Scripture offer more than a few scattered references to heaven? Even more, does heaven play any part in the Bible’s storyline?
When I first discovered biblical theology, I was struck by how I’d spent so many years as a Christian yet had missed the rather obvious fact that “heaven” wasn’t the Christian’s ultimate destination. Instead, God’s people are headed for restoration—resurrected bodies on a new earth. In that discovery, however, I struggled to see how heaven, the realm of the intermediate state for Christians between death and resurrection, fit within the biblical storyline. While still gloriously hope-giving and comforting in the face of my inevitable funeral, heaven still seemed disconnected from Scripture’s narrative arc: creation, fall, redemption,
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