by Eric Ruark

Created on: January 03, 2009

The Heaven Paradox

There is a story told about a woman who was her town's perennial gardening champion. She was very proud of it and let every body know just how right they were to have chosen her garden or her flowers as the best. She would often walk by people's houses and tell them what was wrong with their gardens whether they wanted to hear her opinion or not. Then she died. She was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter who gave her a personal tour of heaven. As they approached the heavenly gardens, the woman began to complain about the choice of flowers, their placement and the over all symmetry of the garden. When she had finished, St. Peter looked at her and said, "I guess this won't be much of a heaven for you, then, will it?"

If you ask the question: Is Heaven a real place or a state of being? You also have to ask the question: which heaven? In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul says that he knew a man "caught up to the third heaven." First heaven, second heaven, third heaven just how many heavens are there?

In the Bible, the word "heaven" is used 582 times. However, the English word, HEAVEN, is used to translate several different words from the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Here the word heaven is used for the word SHAMAYIM (Strong's 8064). According to Strong's the word derives from a root meaning to be lofty or the sky as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies move. This is definitely a physical place.

But shamayim is not the only word translated as "heaven". In Psalms 77:18, the translators also translate the Hebrew word GILGAL (Strong's 1534) as "heaven". Gilgal also means a wheel, a whirlwind and also dust as in a dust devil.

In Psalm 89:6, the word SHACHAQ (Strong's 7834) is translated as heaven. Its other meanings include thin vapor or cloud.

In the New Testament, the Greek word OURANOS (Strong's 3772) is used. According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon, ouranos means the vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it.

In Matthew 25:14, the word BASILIEA (Strong's 932) is translated as heaven although it also means royalty, a realm or a kingdom.

In Philippians 2:10, we find the word EPOURANIOS (Strong's 2032) translated as "heaven". According to Strong's this word also means "above the sky".

Regardless of which word is used, all of them seemingly refer to a real place.

However, I find it interesting that the Bible, itself, defines the word "Heaven". In Genesis 1:8, the Bible says, "And God called the firmament heaven" This leads us to the next question: What is a firmament? Firmament is translated from the word RAQIYA'' (Strong's 7554) and means an expanse or the visible arch of the sky. Raqiya' is used 17 times in the Old Testament. In the Bible, no other word is translated as firmament nor is any other word used to define heaven.

Therefore, according to the Bible, heaven refers to the visible arch of the sky. But what does that mean for us? The Bible also says that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 15:50) But here the translators have used BASILIEA, translated in Matthew to mean "heaven" to also mean the Kingdom of God. Therefore, according to the Bible, the Kingdom of God and heaven are one and the same and if that is the case, then flesh and blood cannot get there. Remove flesh and blood from the human equation and what is left? Spirit. Therefore if only the spirit can get to heaven, heaven must be its own paradox in that it is both a physical place but a place that you can only inhabit in a spiritual state of being.

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