News Health: Intermediate Heaven

Happy Sunday,

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus speaking to the criminal on the cross (Luke 23:24)

Misconception 2: The present Heaven is our final home
This was perhaps the misconception that was hardest for me to uproot, but Scripture is quite clear that when a follower of Christ dies today, they go to a temporary Heaven—what theologians call the “intermediate state.” 

This timeline of forever may help:

• Creation: God makes all things good, and lives with His good creation

• The Fall: Sin enters the world, separating us from God

• Old Covenant: God’s plan for redemption unfolds through Israel, awaiting the Messiah

• Christ’s First Coming: Incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension

• Church Age: The gospel spreads, awaiting Christ’s return << WE ARE HERE >>

• Christ’s Second Coming: Judgement (think: getting rid of all darkness)

• New Heaven and New Earth: God lives with humans again after restoring creation

When a believer dies today, they cannot go to the New Earth… because it doesn’t exist yet. So, where do we go?

This 6-minute BibleProject video helpfully describes Heaven as “God’s space” and Earth as “our space.” In the Garden of Eden, these two spaces completely overlapped—humans lived in perfect unity with God—but we drove Heaven and Earth apart with our sin. In His mercy, God has promised to reunify Heaven and Earth, fixing the problem we made, and to once again dwell with us (Revelation 21). But, right now, we’re in the middle of the story. So, when a believer dies today, they go to “God’s space” (Heaven), which is currently separated from “our space” but will one day be reunited on the New Earth. 

In this intermediate state, believers are joyfully in Christ’s presence, but also eagerly anticipating His return to earth to judge the world and restore His creation.

What do you think?
Jason Woodruff

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