In Christianity, heaven is traditionally the location of the throne of God and the angels of God,[2][3] and in most forms of Christianity it is the abode of the righteous dead in the afterlife. In some Christian denominations it is understood as a temporary stage before the resurrection of the dead and the saints' return to the New Earth.
In the Book of Acts, the resurrected Jesus ascends to heaven where, as the Nicene Creed states, he now sits at the right hand of God and will return to earth in the Second Coming. According to Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox teaching, Mary, mother of Jesus, is said to have been assumed into heaven without the corruption of her earthly body; she is venerated as Queen of Heaven.
In the Christian Bible, concepts about Christian eschatology, the future "kingdom of heaven", and the resurrection of the dead are found, particularly in the book of Revelation and in 1 Corinthians 15.
The Bible does not provide much information on what Heaven is supposed to be like.[4] As a result, Christian theologians are usually not very specific when describing heaven.[4]
The Book of Revelation states that the New Jerusalem will be transported from Heaven to Earth, rather than people from Earth going to Heaven.[5] The description of the gates of New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:21 inspired the idea of the Pearly gates, which is the informal name for the gateway to heaven according to some Christian denominations.[6]
One argument about the nature of heaven is whether it is possible for someone in heaven to have free will, which would normally include the freedom to sin.[4] The nature of the issue varies depending on the specific type of freedom being discussed.[4][5] One claimed solution is Augustine's view that people in heaven will no longer be tempted to disobey God.[5]
Another issue is how happiness could be possible with the knowledge that some loved ones are suffering eternally in hell.[4] This argument was published as early as the 1800s by the theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, who said that the knowledge of anyone's suffering is incompatible with salvation. This can be framed as an argument against the doctrine of eternal hell, but also against the concept of heaven.[5] Traditionally, theologians said that knowing the suffering of the damned would actually glorify God and therefore increase the joy in heaven.[5] More modern responses to this argument include that bliss in Heaven would overwhelm this knowledge, that people would be at peace with the idea of eternal suffering, or that they would have no knowledge of Hell.[5]
Philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche have criticized the notion of heaven as a doctrine which was developed by people with suspicious motivations, who desired to prove that God favored their group at the expense of others, or who tried to enforce their conception of religion or morality using methods that often involved manipulation and intimidation.[5]
Secular scholars assert that 1st-century early Jewish-Christians, from whom Christianity developed as a Gentile religion, believed that the kingdom of God was coming to earth within their own lifetimes, and looked forward to a divine future on earth.[3] The earliest Christian writings on the topic are those by Paul, such as 1 Thessalonians 4–5, in which the dead are described as having fallen asleep. Paul says that the second coming will arrive without warning, like a "thief in the night," and that the sleeping faithful will be raised first, and then the living. Similarly, the earliest of the Apostolic Fathers, Pope Clement I, does not mention entry into heaven after death but instead expresses belief in the resurrection of the dead after a period of "slumber"[7] at the Second Coming.[8]
In the 2nd century AD, Irenaeus (a Greek bishop) quoted presbyters as saying that not all who are saved would merit an abode in heaven itself: "[T]hose who are deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the city; for everywhere the Saviour shall be seen according as they who see Him shall be worthy."[9]
Various saints have had visions of heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2–4). The Orthodox concept of life in heaven is described in one of the prayers for the dead: "…a place of light, a place of green pasture, a place of repose, from whence all sickness, sorrow and sighing are fled away".[10] In the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, only God has the final say on who enters heaven.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, heaven is the parcel of deification (theosis), meaning to acquire a divine nature and complete one's hypostasis via christlike behavior, due to Jesus having made human entry into heaven possible by his incarnation, hence evidence of one's divine nature is usually miracles akin to those of Christ.[11][12]
Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), a philosopher with a Russian Orthodox background, wrote of "the Creator's theandric aim, that earth may be oned with Heaven".[13]
Heaven is too beatific, too holy, and too perfect to comprehend or describe fully, since it is the enjoyment of the beatific vision. Hence heaven is unknowable save for what God has revealed in the Deposit of Faith and through the Magisterium.[14]
Angels and saints inhabit heaven and enjoy the beatific vision.[15] The angels and saints are Catholic - members of the Catholic Church - as members of the Church Triumphant, one of the three states of the church of heaven and earth.[16]
Known angels include: one's guardian angel, seraphim, cherubim, Michael the Archangel, Gabriel the Archangel, and Raphael the Archangel.[17] It is not known if angels are the only non-human creatures in heaven or just one of many types of creatures in heaven.[18]
Known saints include canonized Catholics, such as those listed in the Litany of the Saints: the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament, King David and Solomon, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, John the Baptist, the Holy Innocents, the Penitent Thief, the Apostles (sans Judas Iscariot), Saint Paul, and the Doctors of the Church.[19] Jesus as perfect man is not considered a saint, as he is not a human person but a Divine Person.[20]
Entry into heaven requires the grace of baptism, which can be obtained outside the sacrament of baptism, such as through baptism of blood or baptism by desire, for God is not bound by his sacraments. The unbaptized dead the church commends to the Divine Mercy, since the Penitent Thief was saved without baptism.[21]
Those Christians who die still imperfectly purified must, according to Catholic teaching, pass through a state of purification known as purgatory before entering heaven.[22]
The church teaches that heaven "is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness" and "is the perfection of salvation."[23] This is because in heaven one enjoys the beatific vision, the source and summit of heavenly happiness, peace, glory, honor, and all good things.[24] The church holds that,
by his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has 'opened' heaven to us. The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ... Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.[25]
The "fruits of the redemption" is eternal life, i.e., freedom from and immunity to all evil (temptation, sin, error, inconvenience, boredom, ignorance, weakness, lack of something (basic needs, beauty, etc.), corruption, misfortune, unfulfillment, sorrow, condemnation, fear, dishonor, hostility, imperfection, suffering, and death), and possession of all good things, via the beatific vision.[26][27] The Virgin Mary is "the most excellent fruit of the redemption" because of her Immaculate Conception, since she was redeemed at the moment of conception.[28] Mary is also "the eschatological image of the church", meaning she represents the church in heaven and at the resurrection on Judgment Day, because of her assumption into heaven, whereby she enjoys heaven with her resurrected body.[29]
In the Bible heaven is described symbolically, using images from everyday Jewish life during biblical times. The Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates several images of heaven found in the Bible:
This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the New Jerusalem, paradise: 'no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him'.[30]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes heaven as "God's own 'place' - 'our Father in heaven' and consequently the 'heaven' too which is eschatological glory. Finally, 'heaven' refers to the saints and the "place" of the spiritual creatures, the angels, who surround God."[31]
The Roman Catechism and the Catechism of the Catholic Church both explain that, by enjoying the beatific vision, everyone enjoys happiness, glory, honor, and peace. As the CCC teaches:
As the Roman Catechism teaches:
The Roman Catechism adds that human concepts of heaven - living like a king, heaven being the most perfect paradise, one enjoying the ultimate union with God, the realization of one's potential and ideals, the achievement of godhood, materialistic fulfillment (wealth, power, feast, pleasure, leisure, etc.), eternal rest, reunion with loved ones, etc. - are nothing compared to what heaven is really like:
Nevertheless the Roman Catechism explains that, while everyone will enjoy the beatific vision, not everyone will enjoy the same rewards, since one is rewarded for one's own deeds:
According to the Council of Trent, one does not sin when doing "good works with a view to an eternal recompense."[36]
Catholic authors have speculated about the nature of the "secondary joy of heaven", that is Church teaching reflected in the Councils of Florence and of Trent. For God "will repay according to each one's deeds" (Romans 2:6 ): ... "the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6 ). Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins describes this joy as reflecting Christ to one another, each in our own personal way and to the extent that we have grown more Christlike in this life, for as Hopkins writes, "Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his, to the Father through the features of men's faces." God means to share even this divine joy with us, the joy of rejoicing in making others happy.[37]
Catholic theologians have speculated about whether heaven is a place or a state - or both.[38] Pope John Paul II said that heaven "is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity."[39]
In the middle ages, a hierarchy of angels (as well as a hierarchy of demons) was devised based on various interpretations of the Bible. These hierarchies and the names and descriptions of creatures therein are not part of the church's official teaching, even if some saints and popes (such as Thomas Aquinas and John Paul II) endorsed them.[40]
Some Catholic saints have claimed to receive private revelations of heaven. For example, Marian apparitions that depict Mary as the eschatological image of the church: shining like the Sun, wearing a beautiful crown, etc. Another example is saints visiting heaven. Some visits describe heaven in material or physical terms, such as the vision of Anna Schäffer:
Other visits to heaven emphasis heaven's immaterial or spiritual features, such as the happiness one enjoys. For example, Saint Faustina claims in her dairy:
Saint Faustina also claims in her diary that she had a vision explaining one's freedom in heaven. She saw herself "on the altar", with people all around praying to her for graces, and God said:
Some denominations teach that one enters heaven at the moment of death, while others teach that this occurs at a later time (the Last Judgment).[citation needed] Some Christians maintain that entry into Heaven awaits such time as "When the form of this world has passed away."[44]
Two related, and often blended, concepts of heaven in Christianity are better described as the "resurrection of the body" as contrasted with "the immortality of the soul". In the first, the soul does not enter heaven until the Last Judgment or the "end of time" when it (along with the body) is resurrected and judged. In the second concept, the soul goes to a heaven on another plane immediately after death. These two concepts are generally combined in the doctrine of the double judgment where the soul is judged once at death and goes to a temporary heaven, while awaiting a second and final judgment at the end of the world.[44]
Some teach that death itself is not a natural part of life, but was allowed to happen after Adam and Eve disobeyed God so that mankind would not live forever in a state of sin and thus a state of separation from God.[45][46][47]
Methodism teaches that heaven is a state where the faithful will spend eternal bliss with God:[48]
Everyone that has a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord on departing from this life, goes to be in felicity with Him, and will share the eternal glories of His everlasting Kingdom; the fuller rewards and the greater glories, being reserved until the final Judgment. Matt. 25:34, 46; John 14:2, 3; II Cor. 5:6, 8, 19; Phil. 1:23, 24 —Evangelical Methodist Church Discipline (¶24)[48]
The Seventh-day Adventist understanding of heaven is:
Christadelphians do not believe that anyone will go to heaven upon death. Instead, they believe that only Jesus went to Heaven and resides there alongside Jehovah. Christadelphians instead believe that following death, the soul enters a state of unconsciousness, and will stay that way until the Last Judgment, where those saved will be resurrected and the damned will be annihilated. The Kingdom of God will be established on Earth, starting in the land of Israel, and Jesus will rule over the kingdom for a millennium.[53][54][55]
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that heaven is the dwelling place of Jehovah and his spirit creatures. They believe that only 144,000 chosen faithful followers ("The Anointed") will be resurrected to heaven to rule with Christ over the majority of mankind who will live on Earth.[56]
The view of heaven according to the Latter Day Saint movement is based on section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants as well as 1 Corinthians 15 in the King James Version of the Bible. The afterlife is divided first into two levels until the Last Judgment; afterwards it is divided into four levels, the upper three of which are referred to as "degrees of glory" that, for illustrative purposes, are compared to the brightness of heavenly bodies: the sun, moon, and stars.
Before the Last Judgment, spirits separated from their bodies at death go either to paradise or to spirit prison dependent on if they had been baptised and confirmed by the laying on of hands. Paradise is a place of rest while its inhabitants continue learning in preparation for the Last Judgment. Spirit prison is a place of learning for the wicked and unrepentant and those who were not baptised; however, missionary efforts done by spirits from paradise enable those in spirit prison to repent, accept the gospel and the atonement and receive baptism through the practice of baptism for the dead.[57]
After the resurrection and Last Judgment, people are sent to one of four levels:
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