INTERMEDIATE (PRESENT) HEAVEN VS. ETERNAL HEAVEN - When we die, believers in Christ will go to an intermediate Heaven. The intermediate Heaven is not our final destination. God’s children are destined for life as resurrected beings on a resurrected Earth. In the intermediate Heaven, we’ll await the time of Christ’s return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and New Earth. God does not abandon our bodies, nor does He abandon the earth itself. The intermediate Heaven, is a temporary dwelling place. We will live with Christ forever, not in the intermediate Heaven, but on the New Earth, where God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — will be at home with His people. God is everywhere present. But His special dwelling place will be on the New Earth. Heaven, God’s central dwelling place, will one day be with His resurrected people, on the New Earth. When a Christian dies, he or she enters into what theologians call the intermediate state, a transitional period between our past lives on Earth and our future resurrection to life on the New Earth. Usually when we refer to “Heaven,” we mean the place that Christians go when they die. By definition, an intermediate state or location is temporary. Life in the Heaven we go to when we die, where we’ll dwell prior to our bodily resurrection, is “better by far” than living here on Earth under the Curse, away from the direct presence of God. Still, the intermediate Heaven is not our final destination. Though it will be a wonderful place, the intermediate Heaven is not the place we are made for. It’s not the place God promises to refashion for us to live in forever.

..............................................................................................................................................................

Intermediate (Present) Heaven vs. Eternal Heaven

.

When we die, believers in Christ will go to an intermediate Heaven. The intermediate Heaven is not our final destination. God’s children are destined for life as resurrected beings on a resurrected Earth. In the intermediate Heaven, we’ll await the time of Christ’s return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and New Earth. God does not abandon our bodies, nor does He abandon the earth itself. The intermediate Heaven, is a temporary dwelling place. We will live with Christ forever, not in the intermediate Heaven, but on the New Earth, where God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — will be at home with His people. God is everywhere present. But His special dwelling place will be on the New Earth. Heaven, God’s central dwelling place, will one day be with His resurrected people, on the New Earth.

BY RANDY ALCORN      

What is the distinction between the intermediate (present) Heaven and the eternal Heaven (the New Earth)?

When a Christian dies, he or she enters into what theologians call the intermediate state, a transitional period between our past lives on Earth and our future resurrection to life on the New Earth.

Usually when we refer to “Heaven,” we mean the place that Christians go when they die.

When we tell our children “Grandma’s now in Heaven,” we’re referring to the intermediate Heaven.

By definition, an intermediate state or location is temporary.

Life in the Heaven we go to when we die, where we’ll dwell prior to our bodily resurrection, is “better by far” than living here on Earth under the Curse, away from the direct presence of God (Philippians 1:23).

Still, the intermediate Heaven is not our final destination.

Though it will be a wonderful place, the intermediate Heaven is not the place we are made for. It’s not the place God promises to refashion for us to live in forever.

God’s children are destined for life as resurrected beings on a resurrected Earth.

We must not lose sight of our true destination. If we do, we’ll be confused and disoriented in our thinking about where, and in what form, we will spend eternity.

Will we live in Heaven forever?

The answer to the question depends on what we mean by Heaven.

Will we be with the Lord forever? Absolutely.

Since Heaven is where God dwells, we’ll always be in Heaven.

But will we always be with God in exactly the same place that Heaven is now?

No. In the intermediate Heaven, we’ll be in Christ’s presence, and we’ll be joyful, but we’ll be looking forward to our bodily resurrection and permanent relocation to the New Earth.

It bears repeating because it is so commonly misunderstood: When we die, believers in Christ will not go to the Heaven where we’ll live forever.

Instead, we’ll go to an intermediate Heaven.

In the intermediate Heaven, we’ll await the time of Christ’s return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and New Earth.

If we fail to grasp this truth, we will fail to understand the biblical doctrine of Heaven.

Everything hinges on the resurrection. God does not abandon our bodies, nor does he abandon the earth itself.

It may seem strange to say that the Heaven we go to at death isn’t eternal, yet it’s true.

“Christians often talk about living with God ‘in heaven’ forever,” Grudem writes.

“But in fact the biblical teaching is richer than that: it tells us that there will be new heavens and a new earth — an entirely renewed creation — and we will live with God there... There will also be a new kind of unification of heaven and earth... There will be a joining of heaven and earth in this new creation.”

Let me suggest an imperfect analogy to illustrate the difference between the intermediate Heaven and the eternal Heaven.

Suppose you lived in a homeless shelter in Miami.

One day you inherit a beautiful house, fully furnished, on a gorgeous hillside overlooking Santa Barbara, California.

With the home comes a wonderful job doing something you’ve always wanted to do. Not only that, but you’ll also be near close family members who moved from Miami many years ago.

On your flight to Santa Barbara, you’ll change planes in Dallas, where you’ll spend an afternoon.

Some other family members, whom you haven’t seen in years, will meet you at the Dallas airport and board the plane with you to Santa Barbara.

You look forward to seeing them.

Now, when the Miami ticket agent asks you, “Where are you headed?” would you say “Dallas”?

No. You would say Santa Barbara, because that’s your final destination.

If you mentioned Dallas at all, you would only say, “I’m going to Santa Barbara by way of Dallas.”

When you talk to your friends in Miami about where you’re going to live, would you focus on Dallas?

No. You might not even mention Dallas, even though you will be a Dallas-dweller for several hours.

Even if you spent a week in Dallas, it wouldn’t be your focus.

Dallas is just a stop along the way. Your true destination — your new permanent home — is Santa Barbara.

Similarly, the Heaven we will go to when we die, the intermediate Heaven, is a temporary dwelling place, a stop along the way to our final destination: the New Earth.

(Granted, the Dallas analogy breaks down big time, since being with Jesus and reunited with loved ones in the intermediate Heaven will be immeasurably more wonderful, to say the least, than a lay-over in Dallas! But hopefully you get the point.)

Another analogy is more precise but difficult to imagine, because for most of us it’s outside our experience.

Imagine leaving the homeless shelter in Miami and flying to the intermediate location, Dallas, and then turning around and going back home to your place of origin, which has been completely renovated — a New Miami.

In this New Miami, you would no longer live in a homeless shelter, but in a beautiful house in a glorious pollution-free, crime-free, sin-free city.

So, you would end up living not in a new home, but a radically improved version of your old home.

This is what the Bible promises us — we will live with Christ and each other forever, not in the intermediate Heaven, but on the New Earth, where God — Father, Son (eternally incarnate) and Holy Spirit — will be at home with his people.

Of course, God will no more be confined to the New Earth than He is now confined to the intermediate Heaven.

God is everywhere present. But his special dwelling, what he regards as his home (and ours) will be on the New Earth, where He will dwell with His people.

Revelation 21:1-3 is explicit on this point: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth... I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God... And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’” - (Revelation 21:1-3).

Heaven, God’s central dwelling place, will one day be with his resurrected people, on the New Earth.

For more information on the subject of Heaven, see Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven.

Randy Alcorn (@randyalcorn) is the author of fifty-some books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. 

https://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Mar/28/intermediate-present-heaven-vs-eternal-heaven/

THE TIME BETWEEN THE DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION - What Do You Believe About the Intermediate State? - If we are with Christ once we have died, then we continue existing. Paul speaks of this state as "very much better" than the present state. If we were suddenly unconscious at death until the resurrection, wouldn't it be better to remain in this life because at least then we would have conscious fellowship with Christ? We indeed do have souls which continue existing after the body dies. We not only continue existing between death and the resurrection, but that we are aware of our existence. Revelation 6:9 speaks of John seeing underneath the altar "the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God." These individuals are surely not in a state of soul sleep because in the next verse they cry out "How long, O Lord."

..........................................................................................................................................................

The Time Between The Death And The Resurrection

What Do You Believe About the Intermediate State?

Article by 

Matt Perman

Guest Contributor

The "intermediate state" is the time between the death and the resurrection.

Some have held that during this time we are unconscious or possibly even go out of existence. We do not think that this is biblical.

The biblical evidence is that our soul continues on after death and that we remain conscious in the intermediate state while awaiting our final destiny of resurrected existence in the new heavens and new earth.

First, Paul spoke of having the desire "to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better" (Philippians 1:23).

Notice first of all that Paul speaks of death as a departure (from the body) not into temporary nothingness or unconsciousness but to be with Christ.

If we are with Christ once we have died, then we continue existing.

Second, notice that Paul speaks of this state as "very much better" than the present state.

It would be hard to say such a thing of a state of complete unconsciousness.

Particularly when we consider that Paul's passion was to know Christ, it would seem that the reason the state beyond death is better than this present life is because we are with Christ and know it.

If we were suddenly unconscious at death until the resurrection, wouldn't it be better to remain in this life because at least then we would have conscious fellowship with Christ?

Second, Paul also said that "while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord" and that therefore he would "prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

First, it is significant that he speaks of the possibility of being absent from the body.

This implies that we indeed do have souls which continue existing after the body dies.

Second, notice again that he speaks of this state as his preference, which indicates (as in Philippians 1:23) that we not only continue existing between death and the resurrection, but that we are aware of our existence.

Third, even though the thief on the cross has been used to prove about every point in Christian theology, his case is still relevant here: "And He said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise'" (Luke 23:43).

The Jehovah's Witness's New World Translation punctuates Jesus words as "Truly I say to you today, you shall be with Me in Paradise," giving the impression that "today" refers simply to the time of Jesus' statement.

But the context demands that the "today" refer to when the thief on the cross would be with Jesus in paradise, because Jesus is responding to his request in the previous verse: "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom!"

The response, "Today you shall be with Me in paradise" can in this context only be taken to mean, "Not only will I remember you when I come in my kingdom, but already today you shall be with me in heaven."

Fourth, Revelation 6:9 speaks of John seeing underneath the altar "the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God."

These individuals are surely not in a state of soul sleep because in the next verse they cry out "How long, O Lord."

Matt Perman is the director of career navigation at The King’s College NYC, a blogger, and an author.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-do-you-believe-about-the-intermediate-state

OUR BODIES IN THE PRESENT, INTERMEDIATE HEAVEN - We cannot be fully human without both a spirit and a body. Between our earthly life and our bodily resurrection, God may grant us some physical form that will allow us to function as human beings while in that unnatural state “between bodies,” awaiting our resurrection. Just as the intermediate state is a bridge between life on the old Earth and the New Earth, intermediate bodies, or at least a physical form of some sort, serve as bridges between our present bodies and our resurrected bodies. At death we are immediately clothed by a heavenly dwelling in which we will await our resurrection.

........................................................................................................................................

The Present Intermediate Heaven

What Will Our Bodies Be Like in the Present, Intermediate Heaven?

By Randy Alcorn

Unlike God and the angels, who are in essence spirits (John 4:24; Hebrews 1:14), human beings are by nature both spiritual and physical (Genesis 2:7).

God did not create Adam as a spirit and place it inside a body. Rather, he first created a body, and then breathed into it a spirit.

There never was a moment when a human being existed without a body.

Neurophysiologic studies reveal an intimate connection between the body and what has historically been referred to as the soul — which includes the mind, emotions, will, intentionality, and capacity to worship.

It appears that we are not essentially spirits who inhabit bodies, but we are essentially as much physical as we are spiritual. We cannot be fully human without both a spirit and a body.

Given the consistent physical descriptions of the present Heaven and those who dwell there, it seems possible — though this is certainly debatable — that between our earthly life and our bodily resurrection, God may grant us some physical form that will allow us to function as human beings while in that unnatural state “between bodies,” awaiting our resurrection.

Just as the intermediate state is a bridge between life on the old Earth and the New Earth, perhaps intermediate bodies, or at least a physical form of some sort, serve as bridges between our present bodies and our resurrected bodies.

The apostle Paul says, “Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:2-4).

Some take this to mean that the intermediate state is a condition of disembodied nakedness. They may well be right.

Others, however, believe that Paul is longing to be with Christ (Philippians 1:21), but he cannot long for a state of Platonic nakedness, which he considers repugnant.

Thus, they ­under­stand Paul to be saying that at death we are immediately clothed by a heavenly dwelling (whether Heaven itself or an intermediate form), in which we will await our resurrection.

There is evidence that suggests the latter position could be correct. For instance, the martyrs in Heaven are described as wearing clothes (Revelation 6:9-11).

Disembodied spirits ­don’t wear clothes. Many consider the clothes purely symbolic of being covered in Christ’s righteousness.

Of course, they could also be real clothes with symbolic meaning, just as the Ark of the Covenant had symbolic meaning but was also a real, physical object.

A fundamental article of the Christian faith is that the resurrected Christ now dwells in Heaven.

We are told that his resurrected body on Earth was physical, and that this same, physical ­Jesus ascended to Heaven, from which he will one day return to Earth (Acts 1:11).

It seems indisputable, then, to say that there is at least one physical body in the present Heaven.

If Christ’s body in the present Heaven has physical properties, it stands to reason that others in Heaven might have physical forms as well, even if ­only temporary ones.

It also makes sense that other aspects of the present Heaven would have physical properties — so that, for example, when Christ is seen standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56), he is actually standing on something.

Otherwise we would have to conclude that the resurrected (and thus, embodied) Christ has been floating for two thousand years in a realm without material substance.

(He could, of course, but does he?) If we know there is physical substance in Heaven (namely, Christ’s body), can we not also assume that other references to physical objects in Heaven, including physical forms and clothing, are literal rather than figurative?

Enoch and Elijah appear to have been taken to Heaven in their physical bodies. “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24, NASB).

Apparently, Enoch’s body was not left behind to bury.

The Septuagint translates it as Enoch “was not found.” 

Hebrews 11:5 explicitly says that Enoch ­didn’t die: “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had taken him’” (NKJV).

Similarly, Elijah was taken to Heaven without dying and without leaving a body behind: “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha . . . saw him no more” (2 Kings 2:11-12, NKJV).

Given that at least one and perhaps three people now have bodies in Heaven, ­isn’t it possible that others might be given physical forms as well?

Moses and Elijah appeared physically with Christ at the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36).

Because they’d already gone to Heaven (Moses having died and Elijah having been taken from Earth in a whirlwind), if souls in the present Heaven are disembodied, God would’ve had to create temporary bodies for them when they came from Heaven to be with ­Jesus on the mountain.

If so, they would have gone from being disembodied to embodied, and after the Transfiguration become disembodied again to await the final resurrection.

A second possibility is that Moses and Elijah came to Earth in the same temporary bodies they already had in Heaven.

(In Elijah’s case, his temporary body might even have been his original earthly body, which had never died.)

If Moses and Elijah came to Earth with the same temporary bodies they had in Heaven, they could have returned to Heaven just as they were.

Did their joining Christ on Earth require them to become something else, or did it simply involve their coming somewhere else?

Was it that they were temporarily embodied, or merely temporarily relocated?

The physical presence of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration seems to demonstrate beyond question that God at least sometimes creates intermediate bodies for people to inhabit prior to the resurrection.

For more information on this subject, see Randy Alcorn's book Heaven.

Randy Alcorn (@randyalcorn) is the author of over fifty books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. 

https://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/17/what-will-our-bodies-be-present-intermediate-heave/

 

HEAVEN INTERMEDIATE STATE - Our loved ones, though no longer in the old bodies which had perhaps been filled with pain, are now with the Lord. They have been given spiritual bodies in which to function in heaven until the coming Resurrection day.

.

“with Christ; which is far better”

Present with the Lord

.

“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8) 

This verse has proved of great comfort to many a sorrowing believer who has just lost a loved one.

Especially if they know that the parent or child or friend was also a believer in the saving work and person of Christ, then - although they sorrow - they “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). 

For that loved one, though no longer in that old body which had perhaps been filled with pain, is now with the Lord. 

That is, he or she has been given a somewhat indescribable spiritual body in which to function in heaven until the coming Resurrection day.

Although that may not yet be the wonderful life that awaits them in their glorified, resurrection bodies in the ages to come, they will be “with Christ; which is far better” than this present life (Philippians 1:23). 

There are a number of sincere believers who argue that dead Christians will simply “sleep” until Jesus comes again to raise the dead.

While a certain case can be developed for this “soul sleep” concept, it is hard to see how that could be “far better” than this present life.

Paul said that he had a “desire to depart, and to be with Christ” and also that “to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:23, 21).

But what “gain” could there be for him in simply “sleeping” instead of continuing to live in Christ? 

The Scriptures do not reveal much about that “intermediate state,” as it has been called.

But there is that intriguing verse about being “compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” who perhaps are somehow watching us as we “run with patience the race that is set before us” here on Earth (Hebrews 12:1).

That possibility can be a real incentive to do just that. 

icr.org