Heaven is a real place, but where is it? The Bible speaks of heaven, but does not give us a geographical location. However, one short, popular answer to the question is, “heaven is where God is.”
That answer, however, doesn’t really explain it because God is omnipresent – present everywhere at once – which suggests that heaven is everywhere too.
There are several verses that indicate heaven is “above” the earth. At the Tower of Babel, God says, “Come, let us go down” (Genesis 11:7) Heaven is described as “high above the earth” in Psalm 103:11, and the place from which the Lord “looks down” in Psalm 14:2. Jesus is described as having “ascended into heaven” and “descended from heaven” in John 3:13 (ESV). In Acts 1:9–11 Jesus is described as being taken “up” into heaven, and when God takes John to heaven in Revelation 4:1, He says, “Come up here.” These passages have led to the conclusion that heaven is above the earth.
While God is an omnipresent spirit, the place where He resides – “heaven” – could be far away, but probably not because some passages indicate a place not too distant from us. He is always near us when we call on Him (James 4:8), and we are encouraged to “draw near” to Him (Hebrews 10:1, 22). When the Creator is said to be “in heaven,” the thought is that He exists on a different plane from us, rather than in a different place.
Here’s an expansion of that thought — Suppose heaven and earth exist in way similar to AM and FM radio signals (There may be a third signal out there, but that’s for a different conversation). We are constantly surrounded by those signals. However, they are invisible to us and to each other and only experienced through the proper receiver. Having been born on earth we experience that particular “signal”. When our bodies die, our souls are no longer bound to earth and are able to receive the heaven “signal”. Does that make sense?
Assuming the “signal” analogy does make a kind of sense, is there a reason to assume any sort of geographical relationship? In other words, what’s the significance of up and down? Suppose the two “signals” are slightly out of sync geographically. The result might be that heaven is up and hell is down.
The Bible is not clear on the issue of heaven’s location and there may be other ways to view it that are just as good or better than what is listed here. Where do you think heaven is?
Each of us is a unique spiritual being residing in a physical body. That physical body is born individually, it dies individually and the spirit it contains stands before God every moment as an individual being. No matter how large a group we find ourselves in, our relationship with God is one on one. Therefore our worship and each of our styles of worship must be accordingly unique. That concept is developed and expanded in the book “Worshiping Alone” available on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. If you haven’t read it, please consider doing so.
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God Everyday 