The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-20, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 48."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

I have a question for you regarding a book I just read by Earl Davies: Heaven is a Far Better Place. The question is, is heaven an intermediate state or is heaven an eternal state?

Answer

No, there is no such thing as an intermediate state. There is no such thing as purgatory-that is a fabrication of the Roman system…nonbiblical. Heaven is-really, heaven is the presence of God. In fact, in the New Testament, you read about the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same thing. Heaven is where God is.

There are distinguishing parts of heaven in the sense that there is a place in the Old Testament that is called “Abraham’s bosom,” but it was a place of the righteous dead in the presence of God. And there is in the book of Revelation a city called the New Jerusalem that is described as an 1400-mile-cube that hangs in the middle of eternal space, and that is the capital city of Heaven-the throne of God is there-and it gives a tremendous description of that in Revelation 21-22.

So, there are features of heaven that can be described, but what characterizes heaven above all things is that heaven is where God is. When Jesus on the cross said to the thief, “Today you shall be with Me in paradise,” you might say paradise is not the final new heaven and new earth, which hasn’t yet been created, and it won’t be created until this one is destroyed. So, we are waiting for the new heaven and the new earth, which is our eternal state. But, Jesus said, “Paradise is the place you’re going to be with Me.” And so, whether it’s paradise or whether it’s Sheol or Hades (in the Old Testament, the place of the dead-the righteous place of the dead) or whether it’s the present heaven, absent from the body for a believer, in II Corinthians 5, is to be present with the Lord. In Philippians 1:21, Paul said, “Far better to depart and be with Christ.” Throughout all of redemptive history, those righteous ones who leave this world enter into God’s presence, whatever the unique characteristics of His presence at any given time might be, or any given point, I guess you could say, in eternity.

We are still awaiting the new heaven and the new earth. That is not talking about the eternal abode of God; that’s talking about that which will replace the present physical heaven and physical earth. That will make up part of that eternal state. But, the best way to understand heaven is it is the immediate, full presence of God and Christ and the Spirit and all of those that have died righteous…and their spirits are now in the presence of God waiting for the resurrection when their bodies will be gathered to join them-new bodies, glorified bodies. Okay? There are no intermediate states.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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