Three Heavens

A couple of months before we went to the feast, I said that I wanted to start to go back through some very basic doctrinal teachings. I had been going through once a month a sermon on prophecy. I still didn't finish the series. I still need a few. I wanted to go back and do a few of those. But in addition to the, you know, basic Christian living, different things we cover, I wanted to go through some basic, core, biblical teachings. So I've given a couple of sermons in the last couple of months. And I want to do this again today. A basic, core teaching that actually ties into what we just celebrated in the eighth day, or the last great day. Some of you might remember, I remember this even though it was many years ago simply because it was so stunning. It was the largest mass suicide in the history of the United States. It was 1977. And it was a religious cult that believed Jesus was coming back. And their teachings were a mixture of sort of Christianity, New Age, Paganism. It was just a mixed all these things together. Science fiction, they had all these references from science fiction books and movies. And they put it all together and the Hale-Bopp comet was coming by. And they thought that was a sign from God. And they had this beautiful mansion in California that they all lived in together as a commune. And nobody saw them for a while. And someone went in and there they were, all dressed exactly the same in black. Brand new tennis shoes on. I'm not sure why. All of them laid out in their beds. They had committed mass suicide. 39 of them. They thought that was a spaceship coming to take them to heaven. And God was going to take them to heaven. Now that's a bizarre story. And yet it's interesting. It's still based on a concept about heaven. And if you ask the average Christian today, they will say, when you die, you go to heaven.

That's where you go. I want to talk about heaven today. And at the end you'll see how we'll tie it in to what we commemorated when we kept the eighth day of the feast. When we look at what the Scripture says about heaven, it's interesting, especially in the Hebrew, the word many times is plural. There's actually more than one heaven in the Bible. So when you see heaven, or you'll see heavens, there's a distinction between how that word is used.

It's interesting, in the Jewish community, many of the rabbis teach, looking through that concept of heavens, that there are seven heavens. Have you ever... I heard this as a kid. I haven't heard this in decades, but people would say, oh, that person is so happy they're in seventh heaven. I never knew what that meant. How many of you have ever heard that saying? Oh, more than I thought. That goes back to the idea that seventh heaven is the absolute wonderful joy because you're with God. So when someone says, oh, you're there in seventh heaven, that meant they were as happy as they could be.

But they actually have some pretty detailed teachings about all these different strata's of heaven. The Old Testament doesn't say they're seven heavens. But let's go to Deuteronomy 10. This is going to be more like a Bible study than a sermon. We're going to go through a lot of scriptures to lay the groundwork for an understanding that is quite profound about the concept of heaven. Deuteronomy 10, verse 14. Just one verse here. It says, indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. So there's the earth and then there's a heaven and there's the highest heavens.

And it's plural. So there is a distinction in the Old Testament specifically. We'll see a place in the New Testament where it does this also. But there's a distinction between heavens. We have to figure out what that means. And that'll help us understand some other passages in the scripture. And in the Bible and in the Jewish tradition, the highest of the heavens is the very throne of God.

Let's go to 1 Kings chapter 8. 1 Kings chapter 8. Once again, just picking one verse here because the statement, you know, this statement has to be put into the context. What does this mean in the greater concept of the Bible? 1 Kings 8 and verse 27. And this is where, this is actually Solomon's prayer of dedication to the temple. So Solomon's temple was completed and he was making a prayer of dedication and he said, but will God indeed dwell on the earth?

Behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple which I have built. When we look at the concept of heavens in the Bible, it's not that God dwells in this heaven of heavens and is separate from everything else in the universe. God dwells everywhere in his creation. But there is a place, well, I don't know, what do you call it? There's a dimension. There's some place, what we would call a place. It's outside of our physical experience. It's outside of time and matter that we live in.

There is a realm in which God actually has a throne and where God and Christ and the angels are there. Now we also see God interacting with the earth and with human beings. We see angels going back and forth. There's this interaction. But there is this heaven of heavens and he said even this temple.

I remember when after he did this prayer, the presence of God came into that temple and people had to leave. A cloud came into that temple and the energy coming from that, they had to leave or they would have died. There was the presence of God and yet God didn't leave his throne. Christ didn't leave his throne. God, the Father or Christ. And yet their presence was there. So God interacts and that's why he says the earth, he's not contained in what we know and what we think contains God.

That's why, by the way, you can pray anytime, anyplace and God hears it. You can pray in your mind and God hears it. So this is the greatness of God and the concept of these heavens. Paul tells us about heaven and actually gives us a number here. 2 Corinthians 12. And this is a little bit interesting how Paul does this. It's sort of typical Paul. He's a little sarcastic in what he's going to say, but he's teaching a very important truth.

2 Corinthians 12. Verse 1, It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. In other words, if you want to boast about visions from God and the times God has actually revealed something to you or talked to you, he says, I can tell you all about that. Of course, that's not the average.

That's not what most of us experience in life. We experience God's interaction, but not in the way He did. So he's being a little sarcastic here. He says, I know a man in Christ. So he puts this into the third person. He says, I can tell you about visions, but let me just tell you about this guy who had one. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a one was caught up into the third heaven.

So he starts with this sarcasm and he says, well, let me tell you about a guy that actually went to the third heaven, the heaven of heavens, the place of God's throne. He says, I can tell you about a guy who did that. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.

He says, I don't know if this person actually went there or got a vision of it, but it sure was real. He says, I can't tell you whether I was there or not. I can only tell you what I experienced or what this man experienced. How he was caught up into paradise, which is another, you'll see that reference of paradise, meaning the throne of God, and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Of such a one I will boast, yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmaries. He says, I'll brag about a man that got that kind of vision, but me, you know, I just have all kinds of troubles in life. So it's that sarcasm going through again. He's talking about himself. But he goes to the third heaven. He has a vision of the third heaven, which is the throne of God. Now this heaven of heavens, which the holy of holies, you know, on the day of atonement, we went through the holy of holies in the temple.

And then it was in the tabernacle, then in the temple. And how that place represented this actual place in heaven. Well this is in the third heaven. In this realm where this exists, there are all kinds of things going on. They're going on right now. And we have limited interaction with that. Our interaction is directly with God through Christ and His Spirit that comes down into this realm and interacts with us, the Spirit of God.

When you really start to understand this, it's a little overwhelming, the greatness of God. We, our understanding of the greatness of God is extremely limited. Extremely limited. And we couldn't, if He explained it to us, we couldn't understand it. Even Paul says, I can't even tell you some of the things I heard, some of the things I were told, I can't even tell you. Because it's not proper for a human being to say those things to other human beings in terms of God's will and what God was showing to them.

Now we get a glimpse into that realm where He went to, this heaven of heavens, because John got a vision of the heaven of heavens. So let's go to Revelation 12. So I'm just setting up the idea to realize this heaven of heavens, this realm in which God, only Spirit beings, dwell in this realm. People try to figure out where is it. I've heard people say, well, it's in the norths of, you know, beyond the earth, way out in outer space in the north.

And they take this one verse to come up with that. I don't know where it is. Einstein said, no, we know, we talk about four different dimensions, right? He said there's at least ten. In other words, matter and energy live in different dimensions. The important thing is if there are ten, or if there's only four, it doesn't matter. God lives in all of them. He lives in all the dimensions at the same time. There's no place in the universe that God says, well, I don't know what's there.

I wonder what's there. I guess I better go figure out what's there. He lives in all dimensions. And so this is a description of what Paul tried to, or what John tried to describe, what he saw. John chapter 4. And I don't know if I'll read all this, but you try to visualize this and you can't. After these things John says, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. Okay, so this would, now we know from the context, this is that third heaven.

And the first voice of what you heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, come, come up here and I will show you the things which must take place after this. Immediately I was in the Spirit. He said, so immediately I went someplace where I, you know, I was there but not there. I'm taking someplace beyond my experience, beyond what we experience as human beings.

And behold, a throne set in heaven and one set on the throne. And he who sat on was like a jasper and a sarda stone in appearance. And he tries to describe, just, okay, here's someone sitting on this throne, this is God, and he looks like precious stones. You know how light hits precious stones? I mean, people just love the, you know, I don't have precious stones. I looked at my watch, but no, I don't have precious stones. But we watch the light come off even this face of my watch, which is just cheap. You know, this is a time axe, right? There's light that comes off of it and creates different reflections, refractions and stuff.

Okay, this, this is this being. He says, this is all I can tell you. This is what it's like. Light and colors. Looks like a human being. And he says, there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald.

And he talked about there's 24 thrones there and 24 elders created angelic beings clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads. Now verse 5, here's what he's trying to describe what it is to be standing there looking at this place. The Paul just said, I can't even tell you about it. And from the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass.

Now, you know, I don't know what that means, dimensions. He just said it was like an endless sea of glass. But it's not glass. He's beyond the realm of physical things. And it was like crystal. And the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes. In other words, once again, we're talking about different kinds of angels. And he talks about what these living creatures look like. And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped God. You are worthy of Lord, verse 11. You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.

And John says, I got to see that. And then he says, one comes along that's like a lamb. And he describes all kinds of things that are going to happen here. As Jesus Christ reveals to him the seven seals. He opens up this scroll and reveals to him the seven seals. But here he's trying to describe what he's seeing. And I tell you, anything that CGI, you know, they can come up with CGI will be absolutely inaccurate to what this actually is. Now this is the third heaven. This is where the throne of God is.

Now, we have the third heaven. So what are the first and second heavens? What would be the first and second heavens? Well, we get an understanding of that by going back to Genesis. Let's go to Genesis chapter 1. We've got a lot to cover today because this is a nice intellectual exercise. And it's not just an intellectual exercise.

This is important in understanding the very plan of God. And it gives us a glimpse into who God actually is. Genesis 1, remember they're praising Him because you created everything. There was a time when there was nothing but that dimension. And then there's this physical creation. Of course, He created angels even before that. Spirit beings before that. Genesis 1, 14. Then God said, let there be lights in the firmament. Firmament, it's a word in Hebrew that just means an expanse. There's this expanse, this area. There's no measurements to it. Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night.

Let there be for signs and seasons, for days and years. And let there be for lights in this expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth. And it was so. That's interesting. That's plural. In this heaven, it's not, there's heavens, but in this heaven there are what we call sun, moon, stars, we know now galaxies. This is the universe. These are the lights that we see. And then God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.

He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth. So the second heaven is what we see out there, what we call sort of outer space. It's beyond the space. It's beyond the, there's another firmament. There's another expanse that goes out and has a limit to it. Someone was saying that Elon Musk said one of the hardest things they try to get, you know, to get some kind of rocket out to get it to the moon or to the Mars, you know, where he wants to go, is that because there's a barrier.

Well, of course there's a barrier. It's called the atmosphere. Watch any rocket take off and it has all these stages that are filled with what? It's filled with the fuel needed to break the barrier.

Once it breaks the barrier, those stages are empty and they just break away. They eject them until they're down to a very small capsule. Why? Well, once they're through the barrier, they don't have that pull of gravity. They don't need that much fuel to maintain the speed. So yeah, there's a barrier out there.

There's a barrier between the second heaven and what we would call the first heaven. So Genesis 1.20 says, then God said, let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens. It's plural again. This other heaven in these heavens. And what we have is the atmosphere. That's the first heaven. You and I look up into that heaven every day. And we actually see into the second heaven every day. Because that's, you know, one is where the birds are and one is where these lights are, these planets and these stars.

But the third heaven, that's beyond us. That's beyond any physical experience. It's a totally different place. Now, where do you go when you die? Now this isn't about the immortal soul. We'll have to do a whole sermon about the immortal soul, what about hell, and all those things as we continue to go through a whole series of basic doctrines. But when we die, do we go to heaven? And that's what I want to talk about next before we reach sort of a third point at the end.

Well, here's what Jesus says in John 3. Because there are a number of passages that are used in the Bible to not take this literally. This isn't to be taken literally. Or it is where the concept of purgatory really started. Because the idea was if Jesus, if no one went to heaven but Jesus, where did Abraham and Sarah go? So you've got to have a place to put them. So you put them in purgatory. Because they're not in hell, everlasting burning hell, and they didn't go to heaven. So what happened to them? John 3.13. These are the words of Jesus Christ.

Once again, I'm just pulling a verse out. We're not doing a lot of exegetical view of these passages. Just a verse that makes a point. No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. In other words, this is my home. The only one who has ascended to heaven will be me when I go back home. Nobody else has gone there. No other physical human being has gone there. That's what, of course, is taught by Peter in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 verse 29. He's speaking outside the temple on the day of Pentecost.

And he says, Man and brother, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet in knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to his flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, for seeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

Now he's quoting from one of the Psalms here. He's saying that message, that prophecy given by David, is about Jesus the Christ. And this is where Judaism has to reject the New Testament. That's why they do. Because they're saying, Wait a minute, you can't quote from our book to make your point. Of course, Christians, these people had known Christ, they had seen Christ, they knew he'd been resurrected, and they're saying, No, these prophecies were about him.

That Jesus, this Jesus, God, is raised up, of which we're all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you know and see and hear, which was the Holy Spirit that had been given. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord will send to my Lord, send at my right hand to make your enemies your footstool.

David didn't go to heaven. The proof that Jesus Christ is Christ, that this Jesus of Nazareth is Christ, according to Peter is, he did go to heaven, and David did not. So if David did not, where did he go? If David didn't go to heaven, where did he go? Now, this gets into the whole idea of the resurrections, and the fact that when a person dies, they go into a sleep. Their consciousness is gone. It goes back to God. It's held on.

They have no consciousness. But that's another subject. Right now, we're just going to say, what about the places in the Bible that talk about what appears to be human beings going to heaven? And there's two that are used over and over and over again. I have a whole shelves and shelves of books from every kind of Protestant denomination, from Catholics, from explaining things like, you know, the resurrection, heaven and hell, and they're trying to explain all of it.

And they're all over the place. N. T. Wright, who's a famous Anglican bishop, had just basically came out and said, I have no idea where everybody goes. Because he says, hey, look at the Scriptures, and I can't figure it out where they go. And he's too popular to be disfellowshipped, excommunicated. So he's still there. Although Anglican's denounced him, he's still one of their bishops. And it's fascinating, because he looks at this and he sees what we're seeing and it's like, I don't know, he can't get rid of his preconceived ideas, but he can't hold on to them either.

And he's just in this never-never land trying to figure it out. Where there's two places that are used over and over again, he even uses to say, dead people have to go someplace. He doesn't want to accept that they have no consciousness. And one is Enoch, the story of Enoch, and the other is the story of Elijah. So let's look at the story of Enoch and the story of Elijah. Genesis 5, 21. When we look at verses in the Bible, once again, we're looking for continuity.

You always hear me talk about continuity. How does this verse match with this verse and this verse? And when you have a verse that doesn't seem to fit, you can't use it to explain all the verses that say something different. You use all the majority verses to interpret the one verse, not vice versa. Genesis 5, verse 21. Here we have the story of Enoch. Verse 21 says, Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah.

And after he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him.

Well, God took him to heaven. That has how that's interpreted. That's how that's interpreted by the majority of Protestant churches and that's how it's interpreted by the Catholic church, except the rogue ones who say, but it doesn't say that. It doesn't say where he took him. It just says he took him. What does that mean? So we're taking this vague comment and saying, okay, that means he went to heaven. In fact, there are people who believe you don't go to heaven when you die and the only ones who have gone to heaven are Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus. Everybody else doesn't get to go.

Only the three of them. Well, we've already read where no one's going to heaven except Jesus. But what do we do with Enoch and Elijah? Hebrews 11. Verse 5. Hebrews 11.5. We have another little statement about Enoch. People ask about the book of Enoch. Is that scriptural? And the answer is no. And there's more than one. So I don't know which one you're supposed to pick.

They're written at different times. But Enoch is quoted in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, there's a lot of books quoted that aren't scriptural. The Book of Jasper. How many of you own the Book of Jasper? The Book of the Wars. They're quoted. Sometimes we'll quote something from the Paul, but it doesn't mean it's spied by God. It just contains some history or a little truth to it.

So we go through the New Testament, how it formed. Remember we went through the Bible study on how the Old Testament was collected and kept. We're going to go through the New Testament. We'll go through the Apocrypha in some of those books and where they came from and why we don't believe that they are actually part of the canon, part of the structure of the Bible.

Hebrews 11 verse 5. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God. Okay, so he's taken away. In the Old King James, this is translated that he was... what's the Old King? If I can remember what it is, it's been so long. He was translated, if I say translated into translated, it was rendered into translated. That makes more sense. Well, that's sort of mystical. What's it mean by translated? All it means is he was taken from one place to another.

He didn't see death. It didn't say, by the way, he never died. At that point he did not see death. You know, this same word here in the Greek that is translated taken away is used in other places in the New Testament to mean carried away or taken away.

That's all it means. He was taken from one place to another. That's all that means. You have to read into that that he was taken to heaven because that's not what it says.

You say, but how come he never died? How come he never died? Well, let's go to verse 13. What we have here is all this listed in chapter 11 of Hebrews is the faith chapter and has all the great people, or many of them, of the Old Testament who had faith in God. And so it lists them. And here we have this list here which starts with Abel and Enoch and Abraham and Sarah. And it's going to go on and talk about more of them.

But notice what it says. These all died in faith. Verse 13. All the people in this list, all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. See, it makes no sense. Why does Enoch go to heaven and Abraham not? Or Moses or all the other people that's in this list? Why don't they go to heaven?

Only Enoch. Because it doesn't say he went to heaven. What it says is he was taken away so someone was going to kill him, something bad was going to happen to him, and God took him to another place. You know, Peter was carried to another place. Remember he was in prison and the angels came and let him out? There's numerous cases where people were taken away from a situation in the Scripture.

God intervened because they were going to be killed. Enoch was saved. You know, if you skip down to verse 39, once again talking about everybody that's in on this list. Among all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us. In other words, there is a general resurrection, a first resurrection that comes, it's not a general resurrection, it's a specific resurrection of all the saints, all those who have been followed God and have received God's Spirit, they're all resurrected at one time and no one is resurrected until that point.

So that's why they're all still in their graves awaiting the resurrection because the resurrection of the righteous happens at one time. We just celebrated that on the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement because they're connected. And so Enoch just was saved from death. He eventually died because it says they all died. Okay, so that one doesn't work.

That one's sort of weak. But Elijah surely teaches it, right? The story of Elijah. 2 Kings 2. 2 Kings 2. Elijah is of course one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. And let's start in verse 1 here. And it came to pass when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. So Elijah is a great prophet. He's about to be taken into heaven.

And Elisha is going to now become take his place. He's going to take his place. Look at verse 11. Then it happened as they continued on and talked, this is Elijah and Elisha, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire and separated the two of them and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. There you got the... You don't need any more proof than that. There he went to heaven. Well, there's a couple interesting things that happen in this story. Now, I'm not going to read all of chapters 1, 2, and 3.

But if you really want to put the story together, you just have to read chapters 1, 2, and 3. And then we'll look at a couple places in Chronicles. Because Chronicles and Kings many times are telling the same stories, just a little different details.

We'll look at that, okay? So, Jesus said no one is ascended into the third heaven except him. Why would he say that if Elijah had already gone there? So what's the other explanation that we can come up with? Well, those people who saw this happen had a very interesting response. Because there were people here that saw Elijah, you know, this chariot of fire come down, he gets on it and off it goes, right?

Verse 15. Now, when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha. They came to meet him and bowed to the ground and said, here's what they told Elisha after Elijah is gone. Then he said to him, look, now there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.

And he said, you shall not send anyone. But they urged him till he was ashamed and said, send them. Therefore they sent fifty men and they searched three days but they did not find him. Now, I want to just think about something. This was like a rocket ship comes down, he gets on it and it shoots off into space. But that's not what they saw. He got on this vehicle, or this, I don't know what it was, and jelly beans pulling something. I don't know what it was. He went off into the distance and they said, he went over there, let's go find him.

If he got straight up they wouldn't have said that. They never saw him leave the first heaven. They never saw him leave the atmosphere. Or what they say makes no sense. Let's just go get him. He's over there someplace. God left him. We don't want to give up Elijah, the greatest one. Elijah says no. His time now is done. It's my time. Okay, go find him.

You're not going to find him, but go ahead. And he went out and searched. Of course, he didn't find him. So, let's go back now and put this story together. Elijah is the great prophet sent to Israel, the northern ten tribes. And he's there under the king Ahab and then his son Ahab was a horrible king.

Jezebel was the queen. His son was a horrible king. And so he was there always in trouble. In fact, that's why Elijah ran away one time. He just said, they'll all have to kill me. I'm going off in the wilderness where nobody can find me. And guess what? God found him. He said, no, you're going back. I've got work for you to do still.

So he's in a very terrible time in those northern ten tribes. So he's taken away in chapter two in a whirlwind. And he's gone. Elijah now replaces him. And if you read chapter one, two, and three, you realize that after Ahab's died, and this time goes on, is that the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Moab decide that Judah, Israel, and Edom, they decide to fight a war against Moab. So they come together and those three nations say, we're going to go fight Moab.

And Elisha gets involved. And when you look at chapters one, two, and three, there's a simple timeline that happens. Elijah is sent to Israel. He is taken away. Elisha takes his place. And Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, calls Elisha to him. He doesn't call Elijah. Elijah is not there. He calls Elisha and says, I want to know whether you're really from God. I need a prophet to tell me what to do. So let's go now to chapter three and look at verse 11. So I'm just filling in the story and hitting the highlights here.

Verse 11, but Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here? That we may inquire of the Lord by him. So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha is here, who poured out or poured water on the hands of Elijah. So here was the servant of Elijah. Elijah isn't here anymore, but Elisha is here.

And he replaced him. Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat said to the king of Edom and went down to him. So the three kings go to meet Elisha and get what God's advice is, which they don't follow. So they now go. So we have the story. Elijah isn't gone anymore. Elijah has gone someplace. Jehoshaphat dies and is replaced by his son, who kills all of his brothers.

So now you're seeing how evil the societies of both Israel and Judah are. And so he kills all of his brothers. And then something very odd happens. 2 Chronicles 21. So I'm giving you this timeline because it's easy to figure it out if you sit down and just go through the…if you have a chart of the kings of Israel and Judah and one of Elijah and Elisha prophesied and you put all this together, oh, the story is easy to follow. 2 Chronicles 21 and verse 12. So this is about, then, Jehoram, who was this horrible man, killed his brothers, and just promoted paganism all through Judah.

And verse 12. And a letter came from Elijah, the prophet, saying, this is years after he disappeared. This is years after he went to heaven.

The king of Judah gets a letter from him, a written letter. Thus says the Lord God of your father David, because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa, king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot. And he goes on and he just tells him, because of how you disobeyed God, here's what's going to happen to you. Verse 15. And you will become very sick with the disease of your intestines until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness day by day. In fact, in verse 14 he tells him, and your family's going to have this. Your whole family's going to come down with a disease that can't be cured because of what you're doing.

Now this presents biblical scholars with a real problem, and they have three explanations for it.

One, Elijah had written this letter before he went to heaven and told them, hold on to this and send it to this king long after I'm dead, long after I'm gone. Two is, it's a forged letter. Someone wrote it and just signed Elijah, which of course would make it not legitimate.

Or three, it was sent from heaven. Well, I tell you, the heavenly postal system is a whole lot better than the U.S. post. That's the only three explanations they can have. No man has ascended to heaven, the third heaven, but Jesus Christ. Even David hasn't, but we have Elijah there. We have Elijah there. This is one of the things about purgatory.

The concept of purgatory is there's a whole section for Elijah and Elisha and David and Abraham and Sarah. There's a whole section of purgatory just for them waiting for Christ to come and then they can go to heaven because they don't know what to do with them. And it's very simple with Elijah.

He had simply taken him away. You know, he wanted to retire and God let him retire.

He took him away and for years no one knew where he was and for years Elisha did his job, you know, as the next generation of prophet and Elijah had his job. And at one point God said, you got to get back in the game here, Elijah. At least you got to send this letter to the king of Judah and tell him I'm going to punish him. And he did. It doesn't say they ever found Elijah. I don't know how it got delivered. Some guy delivered it, probably got on his horse and ran away as fast as they could. You didn't have to come up with one of these three ridiculous explanations or you just have to realize he never made it past the first heaven. Either that or he's the first astronaut. But do we leave him there? Is he still circling around in a fiery chariot up there someplace? Or do we just recognize he never got out of the first heaven and he died just like everybody else when his time came and God took care of him, just like Enoch. He said, it's not time for you to die so I'm taking you someplace where you won't.

To have these as your two major Old Testament arguments, because most really good Protestant scholars will recognize in the Old Testament you don't go to heaven except for two.

Whoa. Wait a minute. There's an easy explanation that says in the Old Testament nobody goes to heaven. And when Jesus says I'm the only one, he is the only one.

Now we've been talking about this now for 45 minutes.

Heaven is a dimension. It's a place in our words, you know. God is there. His Spirit is here so he knows everything that's happening here. He knows all of us. It says, you know, when it says he even knows the hairs of our head, he knows everything about you. Everything. Because you're his creation and he is interested. How does he answer all of our prayers? How does he know all the time what all of us are experiencing? How does he sometimes intervene in your life when you're not even asking him to, but he says, oh wow, that I got to help you from that happening. He does it all the time. As he interacts with his universe, but there is a place where in the spirit realm they actually see him. They actually hear him. And there's coming a time when you will be there. But I have to tell you, you're not going to the third heaven. Revelation chapter 21. This was read on the eighth day, the last great day. And it's read almost every last great day.

Because we realize there's a great white throne judgment or humanity, the great majority of humanity who never knew God are resurrected and given an opportunity to know God. It's one of the great truths of the Bible that is almost unknown. But not everybody chooses. Just like, you know, you think, well how can you come up in the second resurrection and not choose it?

Because we all have corrupt human nature and when God calls us we choose.

And there were people that won't choose it, even after Satan's gone.

And that's why there is this like a fire.

And that's hard to understand. It's very hard to understand how people can be that stubborn and that evil within themselves. But after that, everybody's changed that has accepted God, which is going to be the majority. Of course, the first fruits that were resurrected at the beginning of the millennium, those are called now. Called by God to be part of what He's doing.

It's a remarkable privilege. I mean, that's what grace is.

I'm choosing you now. It's remarkable that God does that. And then you have the thousand years and then you have the lake of fire. The earth is absolutely destroyed. In fact, much of the universe is going to now go through a dramatic change.

God's going to recreate the universe for spirit beings to live in.

He's going to recreate the universe for spirit beings, specifically earth.

Verse 21, or chapter 21, verse 1. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and also there was no more sea. He says the whole thing changes.

A whole creation changes and is now designed, not just for us temporary human beings. It is designed. Remember Jesus said, I go and prepare a place for you? That isn't just a nice metaphor.

This is what God and Christ have been doing probably since Eden.

They're creating the place for His children to live in forever.

And there's a new heaven, a new earth. Everything's redesigned.

I can't even imagine. It's beyond anything that we know now.

Then I saw John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Heaven's coming here.

The throne of God is coming here only after everything's prepared for the throne of God to come here. I mean if the throne of God came here now, we'd all die.

The power that's in that. That's why it says a human being can't see God face to face in His glory. It would kill us. We physically and mentally can't even bear that.

And he says, I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God, the dwelling place of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. This is the whole focal point of Genesis 1-1 through the end of Revelation. This is the singular focal point, because this is what God's doing. This is why whenever He calls us now and in the future, when we're called, this is what He is shooting for. This is what He's preparing us for. This is what He wants, where we see Him face to face. Heaven comes to earth. The third heaven comes to earth. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. And He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I will make all things new. And He says to John, write for these words are true and faithful.

And He says to John, It is done, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to Him who thirst. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son. He says, I've done all this just for you. Think about your calling right now. I say, Oh wow, God called me and I'm just, I'm always on the razor edge of falling off and losing my salvation. And God says, No, no, I've done us all this for you. He says, I've done all this for you because I want you. He says, But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. His point is, that no longer exists. Satan's gone, the demons are gone, and any human beings who became like them no longer exist. And what he has is the family as heaven comes to earth. It's all one thing. It's all, this is the center of God's creation, the center where God the Father Jesus Christ will be dwelling on earth.

So there's a number of important teachings that this underst... that contained in the understanding of the heaven. There's a lot here. Understanding what the first heaven is, our atmosphere, the second heaven, which is what we call outer space, the third heaven, which is the realm where God lives. And that heaven, you know, when I die, I want to go to heaven. No? When you're resurrected, heaven comes here. We live with God on the planet He made for us. I don't know if we can leave it. I'm sure we can. Now that's going to be fascinating. There's a whole universe out there. He didn't make that universe for nothing. I don't know what that means. I can't even wrap around my mind living in New Jerusalem. In fact, I'll probably say, that's okay. I don't want to leave. I just want to stay here. This is where I want to be. So there's no contradiction with Jesus saying that no one is ascended into heaven but himself.

There's no need to try to explain Enoch and Elijah because the arguments collapse.

Just with the little reading of the structure, you have to have a preconceived idea to come up with what they did. There's a time when God is literally bringing the third heaven to earth.

And we just celebrated that. Don't lose that vision over the next year. Don't lose it.

Keep that vision that this life is wonderful and incredible. And there's that point when God says, I'm doing this for you. If you will just follow. Just follow.

And what we realize when we look at the three heavens, we actually not understand creation, but we understand the entire plan that God has for humanity.