Heaven is Not Our Home

Here is something that's been on my mind for a while now. Heaven is not our home, nor will it ever be. All my life, I've heard that when people die, they go to Heaven to live with Jesus. I cannot think of a single passage in the Bible that refers to this. Now, what I want to make clear is that if anyone knows of a place in the Bible that does broach this topic and if you strongly disagree with these statements that I'm making, by all means, let me know. I am making claims from what I know and I want to be informed of when I'm wrong. Also, for all intensive purposes, we are assuming you are saved by the blood of Christ when we refer to someone going to heaven.

Some claim that you go to Heaven when you die, some people believe that we "sleep" until the second coming of Christ. I have no real stance on that particular issue and I don't wish to get into deep doctrinal discussions. What I do believe is that we were created for this world. Actually, I believe that this world was created for us.

First things first. When God created Adam and Eve, He did not put them in Heaven with Him (Again, this is assuming God resides in Heaven). He placed the first people in a garden on Earth and then gave them dominion over every living thing. He created the world for us. He did not create Heaven for us.

Now, through all the texts of the Bible, we are given a common theme: God dwelling on Earth with us. God walks in the garden of Eden, God meets Abraham on Earth, He wrestles with Jacob here, He indwelt the Ark of the Covenant and resided in the Tabernacle so that He could commune with the Israelites, He came down in the form of a man called Jesus and made friends with the scum of the earth. In fact, Jesus died for the scum of the earth. One day, Christ will come back to this Earth and rule from Jerusalem, not Heaven. The Bible has God coming to us. It's not the other way around.

Normally, when a subject of slightly different doctrinal beliefs pops up, I dismiss it because I see it as unimportant to the overall mission of Christ and something that needlessly separates His Body of believers. But I feel that this is not some trivial issue, not because of a simple belief that we will leave this earth in the end, but because that belief hurts our mission as disciples.

If we start to think of this world as temporary, as simply a waiting room until we die and go to our real home, we are more apt to think of salvation as a "get out of hell free" card and less apt to reach out to others. This also stems back to the idea that the Kingdom of God is not a kingdom in Heaven, but a Kingdom of a unique sorts right here on Earth. We are the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is here.

In the end I guess I really don't like when people look to Heaven as a sort of retirement. I seriously think that our eternity with God will be so much more than just worshiping Him forever. God created us for a reason, and I don't believe it's to take the place of the angels that already worship Him non-stop. We worship God with our lifestyles and by using the gifts that He gave to us when He created us. I believe that will continue even when this earth passes away and God reveals the New Heaven and the New Earth.

To me, the very idea that He's going to create another Earth tells me that this world and our place in it are so much more than we truly know. And we should live like it.