When referring to the first phrase in the Lord’s Prayer: "Our Father who art in Heaven" the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says in 2794 that: "This biblical expression....does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not ‘elsewhere’." We are here on the earth and our Father in Heaven is not elsewhere. Therefore, "Heaven" is not literally up in the clouds, or beyond the clouds, it is here on this earth, the earth that we are now living on. In Hebrews 12:1 the Word of God says that "we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses", the terminology "so great a cloud of witnesses" referrers to the saints in Heaven. And when explaining where the "great cloud of witnesses" dwell, the CCC says in 165 that "we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses". Two of the saints that the CCC names as members of this "great cloud of witnesses" are Abraham and the Virgin Mary. While quoting St. Therese of Lisieux, the CCC says: "Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during life." "I want to spend my heaven in going good on earth." The CCC teaches us that the saints in "Heaven" surround us HERE on earth and that they are "doing good on earth." The saints are invisible to us because they are in a higher realm of holiness than we are. Hence, "Heaven" is not "elsewhere" IT IS HERE ON EARTH. In 2796 of the CCC it says: When the Church prays "our Father who art in Heaven," she is professing that we are the People of God, already seated "with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" and "hidden with Christ in God; yet at the same time, "here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling." Hence, we are already in "heavenly places" on earth, and the saints are also in "heavenly places" here on earth, but they are in a higher realm of holiness than we are. And that higher realm of holiness on this earth is called "Heaven". Therefore, if we are alive at the time of the Second Coming, we will be clothed with our "heavenly dwellings" and enter into the "heavenly places" on earth called "Heaven", and we will do so with out having to die. Bill Britton wrote: "Heaven is not a planet that spaceships could go to, and God is not a billion light years away somewhere in the blue. "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28). If this is true (and it is) then He must be here where we are, only in a higher invisible realm. Jesus has ascended into that higher place, and soon shall descend back into a visible realm, to which we shall be caught up. Notice, the Bible does not say that we shall go to Venus, or Mars, or Saturn, or any other planet. It does not even say that we shall leave this earth... only that we shall be "caught up: to where He is. And geographically speaking in miles or inches, He is not far from any of us. And this may shock you, but when He comes you are not going to "heaven" to see "mother". "Mother", along with the rest of the saints who sleep in Jesus, are returning with Jesus when He comes back into the visible realm. But though they descend into a visible realm, they shall not descend all the way back into this carnal realm of death and limitation. And we who are alive and remain unto His coming shall not remain on this realm of death and physical problems where we walk by faith. But we (a small number of Christians who know that Jesus’ final coming is immanent and who are getting appropriately preparing for it) shall ascend into that higher realm of the fullness of God and complete victory over every enemy.
God is a spirit. We are corporeal. God is in a process of manifesting His spiritual reality into our corporeality by a program of reverse engineering. The aim is to recreate a suitable habitat in which He may exist. Spirituality and corporeality have never and will never exist in a state of mutual exclusion.
I think like the concept of Nirvana it can be found here and now, its all perception. Whats within is without and all to degrees but I do believe in an actual heaven after death where? no idea God bless peace
My sunday school teacher once said something about Heaven being north. I might look up some verses about that.
Before you were born... Darkness.. then you become alive.... everything comes into existance... what once was darkness and formless and nothing is now full of life, color, sounds, smells... Look around you the grass is green, the water is flowing. Its all in your mind. Your afterlife or belief that one doesnt exist. Whatever you can dream of is what will become of you.
Actually before I was born everything was the same. I've known people who have been there before I was.
He is speaking of your perception. Nobody can see the same thing as you because our minds work differently, thats sort of his point. So basicallyfor you, before you wee born, there was nothing--void...
