Throughout Scripture, the term “heaven” has several meanings. One primary meaning of the word “heaven” is “everything up there” (e.g., sky, space, stars, etc.). For example, when it says in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” we see the use of the term in this way. 

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Connected to this meaning of “heaven” is the use of “heaven” to refer to the place where God is. In the ancient world of the Bible, people believed that God, or the gods, existed “up there” somewhere. This is why people tried to reach up to God by building the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9). This belief is also why temples, such as Israel’s temple, existed on a mountain top, because it is closer to where God is and, as such, can be a place where God and humanity interact. Other examples of this belief in the Old Testament include Moses going up Mt. Sinai to interact with God and the use of Mt. Zion to refer to the presence and activity of God. 

In contrast to these definitions of “heaven,” Scripture uses the term “earth” to refer to “everything down here” (i.e., the ground where human beings live). So, “heaven” is “up there” where God is, while “earth” is “down here” where human beings are. 

Heaven, as the place God is, and earth, the place human beings are, were originally one place. This is the secondary meaning of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” As we discussed in our podcast episode “New Creation Theology: An Overview,” the creation account in Genesis 1 reads like the creation of a temple (i.e., a dwelling place for God). God created the cosmos to dwell with his creation, for the place where God is and the place human beings are to be the same. The problem, of course, is that sin has entered the world and separated God from his creation. 

Therefore, heaven and earth are no longer one, but they do overlap. We see and experience the overlap of heaven and earth in the OT tabernacle and temple, when we gather around the Lord’s table to partake of communion, when we gather together in worship, and even in our own selves, which are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:9). The ultimate overlap of heaven and earth was the incarnation when God came in human form and dwelled, or tabernacled, among his creation (John 1:14). We also experience heaven breaking through when God acts in the world. An example is when we pray for God to heal someone, and God does. 

In these overlapping moments of heaven and earth, when we get to see and experience heaven, we get to see and experience what the creation was intended to be. We get to experience the very presence of God in our worship, in the Lord’s Supper, and in our own lives. We look at Jesus, and we see the way humanity was created to live. In Jesus, we see the curing of disease, the healing of human relationships, and the restoration of God’s relationship with creation. We continue to see and experience these realities when heaven breaks through into our world. 

However, all of these experiences are incomplete. We experience the presence of God more fully in worship, but it is still incomplete. In Jesus, sin and death have been defeated, but the war is not yet over. There is still disease, brokenness, and injustice in the world. For this reason, “we wait new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home” (2 Pet 3:13). We are waiting for the curtain separating heaven and earth to be torn away, just as the curtain in the temple was torn as Jesus died, making heaven and earth one once again. We are waiting to return to the beginning, where heaven (i.e., the place God is) and earth (i.e., the place human beings are) are once again the same place. 

by: Spencer Shaw