One of the greatest, most fascinating things the Lord has revealed to me over the past few years is the true biblical concept of heaven. He’s showed me more and more that our definition of heaven or "the after-life" is almost completely unbiblical. What I mean by that is the concept of "floating around on clouds for all eternity singing songs". As He’s opened up the scriptures to me, I’ve been continually blown away and fascinated - truly, deeply, really.

The interesting thing is - if you were to ask most any Christian "Where do we go after we die?", they would answer "Heaven, to be with the Lord." Which is true. Then, if you were to ask them "Will we be resurrected as Jesus was?", they would say "Absolutely, 1 Corinthians 15 speaks of it." Which is also true. The third, and hopefully obvious question should then arise - "Are we going to be in resurrected bodies on the clouds of heaven?" This seems certainly foolish. And even worse, it dulls the very "hope laid up for us in heaven", which Paul said was the Colossians motivation for sincere faith and widespread love! (Colossians 1:5)

Why? Because there are many gaps missing. What about the earth? How can we have bodies in heaven? If Jesus comes back to the earth, will we stay in heaven… and the like.

Obviously - the greatest hope "laid up for us in heaven" is in deep, lasting communion with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father for all eternity. We understand that part well enough - the whole worshipping and being with our Triune God forever. But the fascinating part to me is not merely the "what", but the "why", "how, and "where" part of it! Paul says that God’s ultimate plan is not just the redemption of mankind, but the redemption of all things - things which are in heaven and things which are on earth - in Christ (Eph. 1:10-11) What does this mean? Literally - that one day the Father will unite heaven and earth together in a glorious harmony. The spiritual and the natural realms will come together, joined together in Christ! The new heavens and the new earth will be a joint realm of glory, filled with the Holiness of God and His people, His spotless Bride!

And we, the Bible speaks - will not float around forever in this place, but will have glorified physical bodies, where we will have real interaction in complete holiness with each other, angels, and God Himself. We will be worshipping, but that will look many different ways according to the last few chapters of Isaiah and Revelation, including doing real, meaningful and satisfying work, and ruling and reigning over the nations! God is coming to reign over every area of society on earth, as it is in heaven!

This is good news - the world is not going to hell while we go to heaven, heaven is coming down to us!And as I have only begun to learn these biblical truths, I see that others are receiving wisdom and revelation about this - including N.T. Wright, the now popular Christian Theologian. Praise God for him, I don’t know much about him but I’m thankful for men who are continually willing to let the Word burst age-old boxes with its’ life-changing truth.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html