Heaven physical

Is Heaven a physical place?

When Jesus rose from the dead, He arose in a physical, literal body, a body that they could see and touch. He said to Thomas, “Reach hither your finger and touch my side.” This is a physical body. He was in the room with them, He spoke to them, He ate with them, He walked with them, He talked with them. And when we are raised in eternal glory, we will have, Philippians 3:20 and 21, a body like unto His body. So there is physicality in our eternal bodies, which means there must be a physical environment in some sense. So heaven is not a state of mind.

     Heaven is not an ethereal place where we float around in some kind of consciousness, feeling only good feelings and good emotions. It is an actual place. It is a re-created new heaven and new earth, a re-created universe. It has at its center a capital city, which is described in Revelation as the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. It is described in detail. It is essentially a cubed city, fifteen hundred miles cubed, which makes it a massive place. It has streets that are made out of transparent gold. It has twelve gates, each gate being a single pearl.

     Its foundations are all jewels that refract the light of the glory of God like one of those mirror balls in the middle of a dance floor or skating rink, shedding light in every direction, refracting the beauty of God’s glory all over the endless universe. So it is a real place. There is a river of life there. Trees planted along the river for the joy of the saints. There will be ministry. There will be activity. There will be a room in the Father’s house. All of those are indications of its physicality.

     Now, not in the sense that we know it because it’s not subject to the curse, and it is not subject to any change, such as the Eden in this world, while not at that particular time cursed, was subject to the curse and, of course, received the curse and we’re still under it. Heaven has no curse ever, and so that final and eternal state will be a state of glory both for the redeemed spirit and the glorified body. 

-jmac Q&A#53