Bible Study Course
Heaven
Welcome to Book 2 in Bible Doctrine II. As you have seen in Book 1, hell is a place of terrible torment for the unsaved throughout all of eternity. But there is good news for those who have had their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ — there is a place called heaven! The word hell is used over 50 times in the Bible, but the word heaven is used over 700 times! This study is written to be used with the KING JAMES BIBLE, otherwise your answers are going to be incorrect. So please get your Bible, and begin this exciting study.Chapter 1
I. Where Is Heaven?
Note: The question, “Where is heaven?” must be made more specific, as you can see by the following Scripture. According to II Corinthians 12:2-4, Paul was “caught up to the __________ heaven.” So of which heaven would you like to know the location? Let us look at them in order.
A. The first heaven. 1. Job 35:10,11 says that God makes us wiser than the _____________ of heaven. 2. According to Jeremiah 4:25, there would come a time in Israel when man and all the __________ of the heavens would flee. 3. Lamentations 4:19 talks about persecutors being swifter than the _____________ of the heaven. These verses tell us that different types of birds fly in heaven.
4. I Kings 18:45 says, “the heaven was __________ with clouds and wind.” 5. According to Psalm 147:8, God covers the heaven with ____________. 6. Daniel had a vision of the ______ of man coming with the clouds of heaven. (Daniel 7:13) 7. Jesus agreed fully with Daniel when He said in Matthew 24:30, “they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of ____________ with power and great glory.” 8. Isaiah 55:10 says that “the rain cometh down, and the __________ from heaven.” 9. God does good by giving us “__________ from heaven,” according to Acts 14:17. 10. Genesis 27:39 refers to “the ______ of heaven from above.”
Note: Not only are the birds said to “fly in heaven,” but also that clouds, snow, rain, and dew are in, and come from heaven.
So according to these Scriptures, we take it that the first heaven
refers to the atmosphere around the earth. It is in
this area where the birds fly, and the clouds are found.
B. The second heaven.
1. On the fourth day, “God said, Let there be ______________ in the firmament of the heaven.” (Genesis 1:14)
2. Verse 16 tells us what these lights were:
a. The ______________ light to rule the day (this refers to the sun).
b. The ____________ light to rule the night (this refers to the moon).
c. The __________ (which also shine at night).
3. Deuteronomy 1:10 uses the _________ of heaven to be an example of a very large number.
4. When Joshua was fighting a battle, God caused the sun to stand still in the _________ (middle) of heaven. (Joshua 10:13)
5.According to Deuteronomy 4:19, the sun, moon, and stars make up “the __________ of heaven.”
6. II Kings 23:5 adds one more thing to “the host of heaven” by referring to “the sun, and to the moon, and to the _____________, and to all the host of heaven.”
Note: These verses have told us that the sun, moon, stars, and planets are in heaven.
So we take it that the second heaven refers to the
realm of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. We usually
refer to this area today as space or outer space.
C. The third heaven.
1. Going back to our first Scripture passage in II Corinthians 12:2-4, we find that Paul gave a name to the third heaven. In verse 2, he says he is “caught up to the third heaven,” and in verse 4 he says he was “caught up into ________________.”
2. According to Luke 23:39-43, the repentant thief on the cross would be with Jesus in ________________ that very day.
3. Not only the thief on the cross was given that promise, but so is every saved person today, because II Corinthians 5:8 says, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be ______________ with the Lord.”
So paradise is the third heaven, and that is where Jesus and thethief on the cross were going that very day — the moment they died.
The same promise is given to Christians today.
4. Hebrews 9:24 says that Christ is entered into “heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of ______ for us.” 5. According to Psalm 11:4, “the Lord’s ____________ is in heaven.” 6. Solomon was asking God to hear prayer “in heaven thy ________________ place.” (I Kings 8:30) 7. In II Chronicles 7:14, God said that if His people would humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, then he would “hear from ____________,” and would answer their prayers.
a. Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “lo, I am with you __________.” b. According to John 16:28, Jesus said, “I __________ the world, and go to the Father.” c. Matthew 18:20 states, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the __________ of them.” d. According to Acts 1:9-11, Jesus was taken up from them into ____________. e. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20 that, “if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come ____ to him, and will sup with him.”Note: These verses tell us that the third heaven is the dwelling place of God, and that it is called paradise. This is where God’s throne is; where Jesus is now; and where saved people who have passed away are presently residing.
Man does not really have a special term to designate the third heaven, for it is higher than the stars and planets. It is normally just called heaven, because it is beyond man’s realm of observation. Psalm 103:11 refers to this when it says, “the heaven is ________ above the earth.” To distinguish the third heaven from the others, the Bible sometimes calls it “the heaven and ____________ of heavens,” as in I Kings 8:27. In other words, it is “the heaven above all others.”
Question: If God’s throne and dwelling place is in heaven, and if Jesus has now ascended up to heaven, then why do people say, “Jesus is in my heart” or “Jesus is with us here as we pray”?
f. I Kings 8:27 records a prayer of Solomon as he was dedicating the new temple he had built for God. He realized something very important when he said, “behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot ______________ thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” g. According to Jeremiah 23:24, no one can hide from God because He “__________ heaven and earth.” h. Psalm 139:7 says, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy ________________?” God is always everywhere at once. This includes God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.Note: How can we possibly understand these verses of Scripture which seem to be contradicting each other? Other Scriptures answer this question.
Note: Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit in John 14:16,26, and said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will ________ in my name.”
But why would He send Him when He (the Holy Spirit) was already upon earth, even throughout the Old Testament? I Samuel 16:13 says, “the ___________ of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.”
The answer regarding how the Holy Spirit could be sent when He was already here is found in John 14:17. It says, “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth ________ you (right now), and shall be ____ you (future).”
The Holy Spirit was with God’s people in Old Testament times, but then Jesus came to earth. After His departure from the earth, the Holy Spirit would be coming for a special ministry in God’s people. Not just with them now, but in them.
The same truth applies to Jesus. He had a special ministry “in the flesh” upon earth, and then He ascended back to heaven. The Bible says, “And the Word was made __________, and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14) Describing His departure, the Bible says, “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into ____________.” (Luke 24:51)
But this certainly does not mean that Jesus is no longer around, because He said in Matthew 28:20, “lo, I am with you __________, even unto the end of the word.”
So it is proper to say, “Jesus is in heaven,” and
“Jesus is in my heart,” if you are a Christian. Both
statements are true, according to these Bible verses.
In fact, a Christian is not only indwelt by the Holy Spirit and by Jesus, but also by God the Father. The Bible says in John 14:23, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make OUR __________ with him.” So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are present with the Christian at all times.
REVIEW:
1. Paul was caught up to the __________ heaven.
2. In the first heaven, you will find birds, clouds, rain, snow, and dew. We commonly refer to this area as the ____________________.
3. The sun, moon, stars, and planets are also said to be in heaven (we assume the second heaven). We normally call this area __________.
4. Another name for the third heaven is ________________.
5. Not only the thief on the cross was promised to be with the Lord in paradise, but every __________ person is given the promise “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
6. The Lord’s throne is in ____________.
7. When the Bible refers to “the heaven of heavens,” it is referring to the heaven __________ all others.
8. Jesus promised believers, “lo, I am ________ you alway.”
9. Jesus also said, “I leave the __________ and go to the Father.”
10. We can understand these two verses in part, because God “fills heaven and __________.”
11. The other part of our understanding is to realize that although God is everywhere at all times, He also chooses to have one member of the Trinity come for a ______________ ministry at times (like when Jesus came in the flesh to earth, and like when the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers).
Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Final Test Liberty Bible Course Directory