**The Realm of Heaven** Heaven is a reality present around us. It is always presented in the New Testament with the prepositions εν or εις but never επι. The difference is continually made clear in the phrase "**on** earth as it is **in** heaven" (Matthew 6:10). The earth is something which we live *upon*, heaven is something we live *within*. While heaven is presented as something "above", the purpose of this is to communicate that it is something *beyond us* as a different dimension would be. It is "outside of us". If we think of the earth then as a globe, the visible heavens aren't merely "above us", for that is only a perspective understanding. Were we to step outside the globe we would see that the heavens aren't merely *above* but *all around us*. Heaven is something always beyond and outside of us but at the same time heaven is something which we are always within. The heavens are portrayed in scripture as something that can be opened (Jesus Baptism & Transfiguration, keys of the kingdom) and this can happen in any location. It is present even when we do not see it, as was the case with Elisha and his servant (2 Kings 6:17). As Christians we are those who are viewed as *belonging to it* though we have not yet *entered into it*. Heaven then is a *spiritual realm*. --- **The *Spirtual* Nature of the Realm** God is a Spirit but his Spirit Archetype. All spirits and spiritual realms are ectypes of his archetype. Angels are "ministering spirits" (Heb 1:14). Heavean as --- **The Ethic of the Heavenly Realm** There is no sin or evil in heaven, thus Satan (and his host) were instantaneously vanquished from heaven "like lightning" (Luke 10:18). Earth then is a *common space* where both good and evil can exist simultaneously. Satan is presented as coming before the throne of heaven but this may be understood as one who is now openly recognized as heaven's enemy. He is permitted insofar as the King of heaven, God himself, allows him to enter, but he has no power or authority there. God's rule is utterly sovereign in the heavens and the execution of his will is immediate, uncontested, and almighty. Satan cannot work his will in heaven. >*Speculative*: It is possible that God, while Satan worked his scheme to draw 1/3rd of the host of angels with him, that God permitted such to occur. God as all-knowing was not ignorant of such designs, yet such plans were not carried out until Satan manifested himself. God, as he does with men, so brought Satan before his tribunal and there executing his judgment against Satan that thus he was cast down instantaneously. Once the verdict was rendered his was vanquished. **Sinners in Heaven** The tabernacle & temple are thus presented as "copies" of the heavens. It is a transport by which we access the throne of God. Christ's blood is represented in Hebrews as the means by which we are permitted to enter into the heavenly places now. Thus, while heaven itself is hidden from our sight, it is none-the-less present always. The church gathered to worship is, by grace through faith, brought into union with the heavenly realm. While we do not see it, we greet it—or rather it greets us as it welcomes us. >[!Bible] [Hebrews 12:22-29 ESV](https://www.bible.com/bible/59/HEB.12.22-29) >But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. >See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Our transformation will be the same as Satan's vanquishing. When heaven appears it's effects are immediate. The presence of the Spirit >[!Bible] [1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ESV](https://www.bible.com/bible/59/1CO.15.51-52) >Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. **Kingdom of Heaven Fused with Earth** The new heavens & new earth will be distinct aspects of a single realm. For now, the heavenly realm is beyond the earthly, in that it cannot be experienced or accessed directly, except as it is revealed. In the new creation, both realms will be united, and what is invisible now will be visible. The newness of heaven is that it will take to itself something which previously did not belong to it—earth. And the newness of earth will be the same as that of heaven—that earth will take heaven to itself. This is analgous to what will happen to our bodies—they will become "spiritual." >[!Bible] [1 Corinthians 15:44-49 ESV](https://www.bible.com/bible/59/1CO.15.44-49) >**It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.** Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. --- The earth as a common space The earth, as noted above, is a common space. That is to say, heaven is a holy space *and* time. Whereas earth is a common space and time. That this is the case is indicated by the *sanctifying of the Sabbath day*. The earth then, in a sense, is profane, though not with the moral baggage that attends that term. What is most important to see is that literarily the first sanctifying act is of *time* and the second sanctifying act is of *space* (i.e., Eden, more below). That *time* is sanctified first indicates to Adam (and Eve) that he has not yet arrived^[this thought needs to be developed with what is said below with regards to Jesus' statement that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is what is significant about the [[Sabbath|sabbath]]]. There is a withholding of blessed holiness which he has not yet passed into. Yet in another sense, the function of Eden was to be microcosm of bringing earth (preparing it?) for it's transition into the blessed holiness of heaven. Holiness here should not be thought of first in its moral capacity. ==Holiness in its moral sense is derivative of its physical-temporal, or ontological sense==. Thus the holiness of Eden—God setting it apart and "planting" Adam in it—is precisely in its boundary and physical separation from the rest of the earth. Such is the case with the chronological separation of the Sabbath. It is not *first* morally holy *and then* chronologically holy (separated). It is precisely because something is *separated* that it becomes *morally* separate. But even that moral separation is purely derivative of its physical separation. This can be seen in the very distinction of the heavens and the earth. The two realms—or better, domains^[cf. [[Domain]]]—are *separated* now, or at the time of creation and for the time being. This is what makes the combination of both physical and temporal important in Jesus' statement "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Many commentators wrestle with how to translate the term "at hand" (ἐγγίζω). The most common direction is to translate "kingdom" as "rule" and this explains the nature of what is transpiring. I believe a better path is to see that both the *physical* and *temporal* aspects of the kingdom are arriving. It is not even that it has approached or is "at hand", as if to say it has yet to come. Instead, Jesus is himself the presence of the space-time of heaven. The second sense—temporal—is indicated in BDAG as the primary (or exclusive) sense to be attributed to this term. If we understand heaven as a *domain*, and a domain is properly attributed to *kingdom*, then it is right to see in the term *kingdom* not merely rule but of a much greater richness, namely, that of an actual domain entering. The reason for *kingdom* being used versus *domain* is that kingdom more properly expresses the *kind* of domain that is coming. It is not a neutral domain, but one that is subject to the king. This is why **almost immediately after Jesus makes his announcement that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (physically) we see physical manifestations of the kingdom**: namely, healings and exorcisms. While rule is a proper aspect of this and as the king of the kingdom comes to exercise his rule in the earth, it is more than rule. This presence of heaven is unstoppable and irresistible when it makes itself known. The presence of Jesus signals the unification of what was separated. The commonality of earth was what laid the foundation for Adam's advancement. Unlike heaven which is immediately holy, earth is holy only accidentally or as it is physically and temporally so. Adam himself as the image of God was holy but not in its fullest and most complete sense. There was a holiness that Adam did not yet have, and that was an immutable holiness. Thus, the nature of Adam had both mutable commonness and mutable holiness. A creature who simultaneously inhabits two realms. Earth was a creation for which a creature could come into existence that could experience the translation from mutability to creaturely immutability (for their can be no true divine immutability given to creatures). Thus the two realms of heaven and earth.