Bible Question: "Where is heaven?"

Bible Answer: The short answer is: "Wherever God is" and the shorter answer is nobody knows, at least nobody here on earth.

Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Note that Moses said "heavens," plural.

The Bible refers to three heavens, the skies above us, where the clouds and the birds are; the heaven of outer space, where the planets and stars are; and the third heaven, where God is.

Job 22:12 refers to two of the heavens, "Is not God in the height of heaven? And see the highest stars, how lofty they are!"

But the location of the third heaven is not in the Bible.

The Apostle Paul gives us a direction for the third heaven, up.

For Paul saw the third heaven in either a vision or revelation.

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago -- whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows -- such a one was caught up to the third heaven," Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:2.

Paul makes it clear in later verses in this chapter that the person he is referring to is himself, and he speaks of himself in the third person to avoid the appearance that he is boasting.

Paul adds in 2 Cor. 12:4, "how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which is not lawful for a man to utter." What Paul heard during his visit to heaven he said he was not allowed to tell, so guess what? He didn't tell us.

Some 14 years before was when Paul was stoned at Lystra and left for dead, but miraculously revived, told in Acts 14:19-20.

So this may have been the occasion when he was "caught up into Paradise" which he said was so real he didn't know whether it occurred in his body or out of his body, in 2 Cor. 12:2.

The imporant thing about heaven is not so much where it is, but how do we get there? And the Bible is very clear on that.

In John 14:2-6, Jesus says, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.

"Thomas said unto Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?'

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"

As I said to begin with, heaven is where God is. And the only way to get there is by salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)