Expert: Messianic Rabbi Yochanan Levine - 8/9/2007

Question
I am having a conversation with this guy Nick about several different ideas. One is about heaven. He thinks that maybe heaven is not a physical place at all and that it is just the body of Christ being heaven. I brought up the passages in Revelation about the pearl gates and streets of gold. He doesnt think that is physical. Two is about the new bodies. He believes we might not get a physical body, but its actually like the body of Christ. I do believe that we will be spirits but have like a spirit body. Three is the main one about Adam. He believes strongly that Adam was like God in human form, just like Him. When he took the apple and God asked where he was, that is like proof of God separting from Adam. I do believe that Adam was close to God, but not God or so very like God. God made him in his image, but he was still human. I really want to know what you think about this. Those are the three main ideas that have stuck with me during that conversation.

Answer
Hi Alicia,

Each of these points are debated by well meaning Believers. I'll be happy to add my thoughts.

According to the Bible, Heaven is a literal spiritual place that exists in a spiritual reality that is completely foreign to material life. The nature of that supreme place is beyond human conception.

Moses asked to see God and was told that the sight would kill him and yet angels and even Satan see God. In our physical forms we are utterly "other" than God; heaven is not our Home, the earth is.

One area where my understanding of the Bible differs somewhat from many Christians (not all by any means) is that I believe the Bible teaches that the Earth is our home, not heaven. Heaven is the home of God, the angels, etc. The Scriptures are clear in my opinion that what God proposes to do He does. His intention was for humans to live on a paradise earth (the Garden of Eden). And that following the War of Armageddon the earth will be restored and for a thousand years humans will live here and create a glorious earth. When the thousand years are over, God will grant us the 'New Heaven and the New Earth, for the former are passed aways.' "The lion will lay down with the lamb" etc. during this time of planetary peace. The pearly white gates etc.are metaphoric references to Jerusalem.

Those who die go to "heaven" and wait to return to the restored earth. They do not remain there for eternity. Humans were never intended to die and God allows us to remain in Heaven during the interim.

Heaven is not a physical place with streets of gold etc. but so that we can comprehend it such language is used. Remember that of Jesus it was said:

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them (Matt 13:34). Much of the words used are metaphors and similes.

I agree with your friend about our bodies. It is implied, though not stated directly, that prior to the fall humans were in bodies similar to the transfigured bodies of Jesus, Moses and Elijah on the Mount (Mark 9:2). When Adam and Eve were being cast out of the Garden they knew they were "naked" and God clothed them in flesh (Gen 3:21). This in my opinion is how we became physical beings as is discussed in I Cor 15. During the 1000 years we will live in these forms, however in perfect health. After the 1000 years we will return to our natural transfigured state as pure sons and daughters of God.

The Shema is clear:

Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.
Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.

God is always our superior in ever way.

We are "gods" in that God is our Parent and children share the nature of their parents, however God is One (Ps. 82:6).

Adam was a created being. He was never God nor equal to God. Such an idea is utterly alien to the Bible. Our roles as human beings are to submit ourselves to God's will.

Hope this helps,
Write back any time,
~John of AllFaith