The Bible Says

Heaven Is For Real!
by Charlie Grier
 

Jesus said to His disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3 NKJB).

Heaven is a place, a city, and a home. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Abraham “looked for a city that has foundations, whose ruler and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Solomon considered eternity as “man’s eternal home” (Eccl. 12:5).

When Charles G. Fuller was conducting the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, some years back, he announced that he would speak on Heaven the following Sunday. I wonder if any of the old-timers remember Fuller’s Broadcast? It was probably 60 or 70 years ago. They didn’t have television at that time -- everybody listened to radio -- and Fuller was almost as well known then, as Billy Graham is today.

During that week, Fuller received a beautiful letter from an old man who was very ill. The following is a part of that letter.

THE LETTER

“Next Sunday you are to talk about Heaven. I am interested in that land because I have held a clear title to a bit of property there for over 55 years. I did not buy it. It was given to me without money and without price, but the donor purchased it for me at tremendous sacrifice. I am not holding it for speculation since the title is not transferable. It is not a vacant lot. For more than half a century I have been sending materials out of which the greatest architect and builder of the universe has been building a home for me. It will never need to be remodeled nor repaired. It will suit me perfectly, individually, and will never grow old. Termites can never undermine its foundations, for they rest upon the Rock of Ages. Fire cannot destroy it. Floods cannot wash it away. No locks or bolts will ever be placed upon its doors, for no vicious person can ever enter that land where my dwelling stands. It is almost completed and almost ready for me to enter and to abide in peace eternally, without fear of ever being evicted.

“There is a valley of deep shadows between the place where I live in California and that to which I will journey in a very short time. I cannot reach my home in that city of gold without passing through this dark valley of shadows. But I am not afraid, because the best friend I ever had went through the same valley long, long ago and drove away all its gloom. He has stuck by me through thick and thin since we first became acquainted 55 years ago. I hold His promise in printed form, never to forsake me nor to leave me alone. He will be with me as I walk through the valley of shadows, and I shall not lose my way when He is with me.

“I hope to hear your sermon on Heaven next Sunday from my home in Los Angeles, California, but I have no assurance that I will be able to do so. My ticket to Heaven has no date marked for the journey, no return coupon, and no permit for baggage. Yes, I am already to go. I may not be here when you are talking next Sunday evening, but I shall meet you there someday.’ “

DEATH CAN BE AN OPEN DOOR TO THE GLORIES OF HEAVEN

Jesus promised that He would prepare a place in heaven for Christians. At death a Christian’s spirit enters immediately into the presence of the Lord. Physical death is only a transition from earth to heaven. Death does not alter the continuity of the relationship; it only enriches it. The Apostle Paul wrote to various churches about the promise of the resurrection from the dead. Because some disciples in the early church began to lose hope that Christ should return, the apostle Paul encouraged them with God’s promise of heaven (I Corinthians 15:51-57).

The Bible teaches that someday ‘the dead in Christ‘ are going to be resurrected, and the living are going to be caught up with them (I Thessalonians 4:16,17). At that time we will receive new bodies. We don’t know exactly what these new bodies will be like, except that they will be spiritual, permanent, and glorious. “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man” (I Corinthians 15: 49).

Christians have hope beyond the grave. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (I Corinthians 15:19). The re-uniting of living believers with those who have died before the coming of the Lord is part of the “blessed hope” to which Christians look forward (Titus 2:13).

Time-Tested Answers from the Billy Graham Bible