Who is a true Christian?

A Christian is someone who has decided to entrust his or her life to Jesus Christ. A Christian trusts Christ for forgiveness of sin, a right standing before God, and guidance in life. A true believer of Christianity  loves everyone irrespective of caste, creed, religion, nationality or color. One who see's Christ in every individual or every living being is a true Christian.

What Is A Bible?

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by about 40 authors, in three different languages, on three different continents, over approximately 1600 years.  The Bible claims to be inspired and inerrant.  This means that the Bible claims to be from God and that it is without error in everything it addresses.

The Bible contains many different styles of writing such as poetry, narration, fiction 1, history, law, and prophecy and must be interpreted in context of those styles.  It is the source of the Christian religion in that the Bible contains the words of God and how the Christian is to apply the words of God to his life.

Basically, the Bible describes the origin of man in the Garden of Eden along with his fall into sin and out of fellowship with God.  It then describes how God called out a special people to Himself, the Israelites.  He promised the Israelites a future Messiah who would restore mankind's relationship with God.  The Bible is the account of the work of God in history bringing to fruition His prophetic declarations concerning Jesus.  Jesus was born of the Virgin, died on the cross, and paid for sins, just as the Bible prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New.  In short, the Bible points to Jesus, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me," (John 5:39).

Furthermore, the Bible teaches us that forgiveness of sins is found in Jesus alone, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved,” (Act 4:12).

Some say that the Bible is nothing more than fairy tales.  But this cannot be for it contains great wisdom and truth and it has been verified throughout history as being accurate.  Its historical accounts are flawlessly accurate.  In fact, archaeology routinely demonstrates the accuracy of the biblical records concerning locations and events recorded in the Bible.

What is the Gospel?

God provided the perfect sacrifice--Jesus Christ, God the Son--as a payment for the sin of all people. Jesus Christ is a gift, given by the perfectly just and perfectly loving God. Forgiveness is appropriated to the person who acknowledges his need for the gift, and receives Christ.

All of us are guilty before God. The charge is sin. Separation from God forever. We can plead either guilty or innocent. If we plead innocent, we are judged on our thoughts, words, and actions. If we plead guilty, and ask for mercy through Christ, Christ’s death on the cross is accepted by God the Father as payment of our death penalty. We go free because Christ paid our debt. This is why the Bible describes Christ as a gift. Like any gift, we do not need to earn it; indeed we can’t. We merely receive it and say "thank you."

Rom 3:23-24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God the Judge sets us free because Jesus the Judge's Son died for us. Although we are guilty, we receive mercy and forgiveness. What's more, the charges are completely erased from our record, as though we were innocent to begin with. The charges are nailed to the cross of Christ:

Picture God's perfect righteousness and justice on one side of a huge canyon, and human sinfulness on the other. Somehow each person needs to get to God, but gravity stands in the way--nobody can fly across the canyon. Jesus Christ is like a bridge extending across the canyon. The absolute truth of gravity still exists, but if we entrust our lives to Christ (walk across the bridge), each of us can have access to God, be accepted by Him, and receive spiritual life.

Jesus not only provides the way to forgiveness for sin, but also gives us spiritual life, satisfying the discontentment of our hearts, and providing victory over dysfunctional behavior and relationships. Think of a human as a glass. When God created Adam and Eve, they were right-side-up glasses, filled with His Spirit. But when they rebelled against God, they died spiritually, and the glass was turned upside down. From that point on, humans have felt and experienced the emptiness of a glass that's upside down. Trying to force things into the glass won't work. What's needed is to turn the glass right-side-up so that it can be filled with God's Spirit.

There is nothing a person can do to earn back God's Spirit. God can not fill a dirty vessel. Through Jesus Christ, however, God provided a way for us to be forgiven of sin and restored with His Spirit. Jesus has paid the penalty for sin for every person who is willing to receive the payoff as a gift. When we admit our need for God, and receive Christ as God's gift to us, we are turned right-side-up, ready to be filled by the Spirit of Christ.

The gift of Christ is for every person who is willing to receive it. No person has committed acts too horrible for God to forgive through Christ. Christ has paid for it all. In fact, no person has any righteousness to offer God, so don’t be deceived into thinking that you must clean up your life before you receive Christ. You can’t. Ask Christ into your life; He will make you new:

In sum, the Gospel--the good news--is that, through Jesus Christ, each person can be forgiven of sin, brought into fellowship with God, and filled with the God’s Spirit for newness of life. Thus the Gospel can be stated in just two words: Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself is the Gospel.

What is salvation?

Understanding the Gospel is a prerequisite for understanding salvation, because the Gospel brings salvation.

A Christian is a person who has decided to trust in Jesus Christ for a right standing before God, and to turn the reins of his or her life over to Christ.

After expressing this decision in prayer, the Christian receives salvation. The word salvationindicates that the Christian is saved from something. Saved from what? In short, we are saved from death—spiritual death. More specifically, we are saved from the following:

God's glory does not mean that God intends for us to be glorified or praised by other people. Just the opposite is true. True humility results from realizing our utter dependence on God; we see that only He is worthy of praise. When we transfer our trust from ourselves to Christ, we exchange all we are for all Christ is. As a result, we are filled--glorified--with the Spirit of Christ, God's glory. Our spiritual death is replaced by the Life of Christ.

Salvation is not only the forgiveness of sin received by the new believer upon conversion, but the life of Christ that saves the Christian from "self" after conversion. It is salvation indeed to have our "self" flushed out by the Life (glory) of Christ:

Salvation, then, entails not only forgiveness of sin that gives us a ticket to heaven instead of hell, but power--the Spirit of the life of Christ Jesus in us--to be whole in every way. The freedom referred to in the following verses applies not only to life after earth, but to life on earth through the power of Christ:

Humans were designed to function with God’s Spirit in them. Without Christ, man is dysfunctional within himself and in relationships, like a car without an engine, or a table with only two legs. No wonder it’s called salvation--Jesus Christ not only saves us from hell, but is the cure, the only cure, to all dysfunction experienced by the human race.

Contentment, joy, inner peace, the manifestation of the supernatural love of Christ, and other aspects of wholeness through Christ, will be experienced only as the believer is abiding in Christ. Although Christians have been given the Spirit of Christ to meet all our real needs, we still tend to seek life apart from Him. Like Adam and Eve, we pick from the tree of "independence and self sufficiency." This is what the nation of Israel did in the Old Testament era; God had chosen them and filled them with His glory, but they wanted to be in control of their own lives instead of letting God take care of them. They exchanged the glory of God for "self":

 God wants to fill Christians with His glory--the Spirit of Christ. And He wants us to enjoy His presence. But we Christians are often deceived into loving the glitter of the world instead of the glory of God, and to seeking control over our circumstances instead of living by faith in Christ. Thus the awesome paradox given in John 12:24,25: If we don't let go of our life in this world, and allow Christ to become our identity, security, joy, and contentment, we will never bear fruit because Christ will be hindered from pouring His Life in and through us.

Trials and suffering, therefore, can indeed bring great blessings for the Christian. In love God may deny us the security, comfort, control, pleasure, power, and riches that we seek in this world, at least for a time, to turn our eyes from our circumstances to Christ, the realBread of Life, who wants to fill us with His joy and love, and bless others through us:

Bear in mind that we are saved from "ourselves" not by trying to change, but by trading ourselves for Christ. Christ gives us new life--His life. He completely transforms us. As we submit our will to His control, Christ manifests Himself through us--His thoughts, words, and actions become our thoughts, words, and actions. God is pleased and glorified to see His Son manifested through Christians.

Self centeredness, self indulgence, and discontentment stem from an effort to get "life" (value, identity, love, security, fulfillment, joy, contentment, inner peace) from anything tied to ourselves and how we compare with others (skills, intelligence, possessions, physical appearance, spouse, kids, friends, success) instead of from Christ. If we do not seek life from Christ, we will naturally, perhaps unconsciously, compare ourselves with others, searching for contentment through recognition, pleasure, power, or control--but without satisfaction.

It is impossible to be "selfless" without being filled and controlled by the Spirit of Christ. Self-centeredness cannot be overcome by the most diligent effort to be selfless. Self cannot simply be removed--it has to be replaced--and only Christ can replace it. Christ frees us from the slavery of comparison with others! He fills the emptiness of our heart with Himself. And He escorts us to the Father so that we can have joy in continual fellowship with Him.

What's more, just as we cannot earn our way to heaven by doing good deeds, we are not burdened to earn favor with God by doing good deeds after we receive Christ. In fact, we can't. The Christian life was not intended to be a struggle to please God and pay Him back for forgiving us. God is pleased with faith, and only with faith. We cannot earn favor with God by trying in our own strength to be "good Christians." Just as we received Christ by faith for forgiveness of sin, we are to live by faith in Christ. We are to trust Christ to live an upright and holy life through us:

God is pleased, not by our effort, but by our willingness to let Christ do His works through us. We can do nothing for God, except perhaps to say "Yes" to Him, submitting to Him and letting Him have His way with us, and then giving thanks for what He's done.

The Bible says that those who are in Christ overcome the world. Taken in context with all of scripture, this does not mean that Christians are given authority to rule over others. Nor does it promise Christians a life absent of struggles and disappointments. Quite the contrary, Jesus said those who follow Him would be persecuted and have tribulation. But the Christian overcomes the world by having, through Christ, perfect peace, joy, contentment, and inner rest in the midst of any and all circumstances:

Christians have struggles just as everyone else, but can have perfect joy, inner peace, and restfulness in the midst of them. Bear in mind that there are two ways to satisfy a want--whether the want is to have something or to be relieved of difficulty. One way is to get what we want. The other way is to not want it anymore. This is what Jesus offers--not to get everything we want, but to be content in all circumstances through our relationship with Him. Jesus does not remove all our struggles, but fills us with His perfect peace and joy in the midst of them. This is no small victory! It is true freedom. It is salvation.

Satan is all about death; God is all about life. Satan is full of hate; God is love. Satan is all lies; God is all truth.

God is more powerful than Satan. But Satan has power-- through sin, death, and hell--over an individual who has not entrusted his or her life to Christ. God, through Christ, offers salvation from sin, death, and hell. Those who trust Christ are saved from the power Satan because Christ has defeated Satan and removed his power.

Jesus Christ has crushed Satan's head. Jesus has won victory over sin, death, hell, and fear. Below are verses about Christ's victory over Satan. Stand firm on these verses. Choose to believe what the verses say. Say the verses out loud, declaring that you believe what is written. Don't boast about your victory over Satan; just give praise and thanks to God for Christ.

As Christians, we reap the benefits of Christ's victory over Satan. We are victorious with Christ, because we are now in the family of God, on the winning team, covered by Christ Himself. Christ, whose Spirit lives in us, is greater than Satan:

Satan hates Christians. He is jealous of us because we possess the Spirit of God. He wants desperately to keep Christians from realizing the power that we have through Christ. Satan wants to blind Christians from knowing the authority that we have in Christ, and the power of Christ in us, because when we abide in Christ, we experience great joy, we love others with the supernatural love of Christ, and, as a result, those around us will come to know Christ. Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus, that their eyes would be opened to see this power:

Satan also delights to see Christians engage in sinful behavior, because he knows that doing so hinders the power of Christ from working through us. Although Satan cannot make a Christian sin, he attempts to lead us into temptation and deceive us into thinking that we do not have the power to resist it. But if we abide in Christ, we will not be deceived. When we do face temptation, the power of Christ in us is able to resist it .

What is the difference between Christianity and other beliefs?

Everybody trusts in something or someone for answers to the big questions in life: Where did I come from? Why am I here? How I can I have a meaningful life? How can I sustain joy and contentment? What will happen to me after I die--can I do anything about it? People put their trust either in someone else, God, their own wisdom and goodness, the government, or things.

Most religions--but not Christianity--are based on human performance. If one's performance is good enough, one will go to heaven or another desirable place after the earthly life, and will have a good life on earth. If performance is substandard, the person will be rejected by the higher being and go to hell or some other unpleasant place. Christianity, by contrast, teaches that no person is good enough to be accepted into God’s kingdom and, therefore, we can be accepted by God only by God’s grace and mercy, which is possible through Jesus Christ.

The answer to the second question is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ brings together God's perfect holiness, righteousness and justice; with His love, compassion, and kindness. No person can enter God's kingdom on his or her own merits--all have fallen short of God's perfect righteousness. So God provided the perfect sacrifice--Jesus Christ, God the Son--as a payment for the sin of all people. Jesus Christ is a gift, given by the perfectly just and perfectly loving God. Forgiveness is appropriated to the person who acknowledges his need for the gift, and receives Christ.

Every person was designed to be filled with the Spirit of God and to have continual fellowship with Him--to be in touch with his or her Creator. God was supposed to be the center of our work and relationships. We were designed to get our contentment and fulfillment from Him. Without the Spirit of God in us, we are dysfunctional, like a two-legged table.

Think of a human as a glass. When God created Adam and Eve, they were right-side-up glasses, in His image, filled with His Spirit. But when they rebelled against God, they died spiritually; the glass was turned upside down. From that point on, humans have felt and experienced the emptiness of a glass that's upside down. Trying to force things into the glass, while it's upside down, won't work. What's needed is to turn the glass right-side-up.

Jesus Christ is the only solution to the problem. He makes our glass right-side-up when we place our trust in Him for forgiveness of sin, and fills us with His life, making us whole. What's more, through Christ we can have continual and meaningful fellowship with the Father, which provides joy, contentment, peace, power to live righteously, and love. Jesus Himself is the life--He gives life to those who place their trust in Him:

When Jesus said, "He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst" (John 6:35), He was not talking about food and water; He was addressing the emptiness—the want and discontentment—that we have in our hearts. Only Christ can fill the void in a heart.

Jesus said that He has overcome the world. This applies to our desire to get fulfillment through things and circumstances in the world. Jesus gives us victory over the never-ending chase. Think about these verses, picturing your heart as a glass that needs to be turned right-side-up and filled. Before you read the verses, ask God to give you wisdom to understand them:

When Jesus said, "He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst" (John 6:35), He was not talking about food and water; He was addressing the emptiness—the want and discontentment—that we have in our hearts. Only Christ can fill the void in a heart.

Jesus said that He has overcome the world. This applies to our desire to get fulfillment through things and circumstances in the world. Jesus gives us victory over the never-ending chase. Think about these verses, picturing your heart as a glass that needs to be turned right-side-up and filled. Before you read the verses, ask God to give you wisdom to understand them:

As stated above, Christianity is based on the belief that those who entrust their lives to Jesus Christ receive forgiveness of sin and new life. Only God can forgive sin. Only God can create life. Therefore, the foundation of Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ is one and equal with God. If Jesus Christ is not God, then His death on the cross was not sufficient payment for our sin, and He cannot give us life. The validity of Christianity thus depends on evidence that Jesus Christ is God.

The resurrection is the evidence. The resurrection of Christ proves that He is God, and validates all that He said. Although Jesus performed many miracles on earth, and amazed people with the wisdom and authority of His teaching, the primary evidence for His deity is the resurrection. The Bible even says that if Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is worthless:

Why did Jesus come to earth?

Jesus came to earth to give forgiveness and life to those who place their trust in Him. He could not provide forgiveness and life without coming to earth, because there had to be a payment for the sin of the human race 

John 6:32-35 Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 "For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." 34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread." 35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

John 6:38-40: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

John 6:47-51 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 "I am the bread of life. 49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever 

John 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Mat 18:11 "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

Mat 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

John 12:46 "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

John 18:37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

1 John 3:8 The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 1:1-4 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

How good does one have to be to go to heaven?

1. No human is perfect, but God is. Therefore, no person can enter God’s presence on his or her own merit. No person is good enough to go to heaven.

Psa 143:2 And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, For in Your sight no man living is righteous.

Eccl 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

Isa 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.

Rom 3:10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

Ezek 33:17 "Yet your fellow citizens say, 'The way of the Lord is not right,' when it is their own way that is not right.

Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

It is sometimes difficult to understand why people we think of as "good" are not good enough to go to heaven. In reality, though, even a person who does many good things is still far from God’s holiness and perfection. Say that each person in the world was challenged to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Those who could not swim would drown close to shore. Olympic swimmers may make it several miles, but would also drown. Even the very best endurance swimmer could not come close to making it across the Pacific Ocean. Likewise, even the person who does more good deeds than anyone else, is far from God’s perfection.

2. Sin separates us from God. It keeps us out of heaven, and prevents us from having a relationship with Him, robbing us of joy and contentment.

Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

 The ten commandments reveal our imperfection. God gave the ten commandments—the Law—so that we would see that we fall short of His perfection and, therefore, need mercy and forgiveness instead of being judged on our thoughts, words, and actions. Consider, for example, the commandment Do not covet. Most people will admit that at some point in their life, they have wanted something that someone else had—their car, house, jacket, hair color, spouse, job, financial status, friends, body, education, parents. In God’s eye, the discontentment itself is sin, even if it does not lead to wrong words or actions.

Rom 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 

Cal 3:19,24 Why the Law then? 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

4. Jesus Christ is the solution to the problem. Jesus did not abolish truth in bringing forgiveness to man. On the contrary, He fulfilled the Law. Picture God's perfect righteousness and justice on one side of a huge canyon, and human sinfulness on the other. Somehow each person needs to get to God, but gravity stands in the way--nobody can fly across the canyon. In this analogy, the Law serves to reveal to people that a huge canyon exists between God and man. Without the Law, we do not realize that we are sinful and thus separated from God. Jesus Christ is like a bridge extending across the canyon. The absolute truth of gravity still exists, but if we entrust our lives to Christ (walk across Him, the bridge), each of us can have access to God, be accepted by Him, and receive spiritual life.

How Did Easter Celebration Originate and Where Did the Word Easter Come From?

The word Easter comes from the ancient Norse word Ostara, which is what the Vikings called the festival of spring.

The legend of a rabbit bringing Easter eggs is from German folklore.

It tells of a poor woman who, during a famine, dyed some eggs then hid them in a chicken’s nest as an Easter surprise for her children.

Just as the children discovered the nest, a big rabbit leaped away, and the story spread that it had brought the eggs.

Many Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost.

Jesus is God’s gift of life to us. He not only provides the way to forgiveness for sin, but also gives us spiritual life, satisfying the discontentment of our hearts. All of us are guilty before God. The charge is sin. The penalty is death—separation from God forever. We can plead either guilty or innocent. If we plead

How Did Valentine’s Day Originate and How Did Valentine Become the Patron Saint of Lovers?

In 270 AD, the mad Roman emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage because he believed married men made for bad soldiers.

Ignoring the emperor, Bishop Valentine continued to marry young lovers in secret until his disobedience was discovered and he was sentenced to death.

As legend has it, he fell in love with the jailer’s blind daughter, and through a miracle he restored her sight.

On his way to execution, he left her a farewell note ending in, “From Your Valentine.”

Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14 celebrating love and affection between lovers, and first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages.

What Does The Bible Say About Heaven

What does the Bible say that heaven looks like?  Are there sufficient scriptures to tell us?  Are the images of the saints playing harps while lying on the clouds of heaven accurate?  Can we know for sure what heaven will be like?

What Heaven Isn’t

The tiny chubby cherub angels playing their harps in heaven are not what heaven will be like or are like at this present time.  Heaven exists today but humans who are living on earth can not yet see it and the pictures that we have seen of it can not describe it accurately in all its splender, glory, beauty, and majesty.  The Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father on His throne they are in heaven right now. What this means is that heaven is for real; it does exist, and there are Christians who have died and gone to heaven and are now with Jesus Christ.

The Three Heavens

There are actually three heavens described in the Bible.  The first heaven is what is called the firmament or sky that covers the earth.  This is the realm of birds and clouds and surrounds the entire earth.

The second heaven is where the stars, the sun, and the moon reside.  This is the space beyond the earth and it covers the entire universe.  It is as far as the human eye can see with the help 

of gigantic telescopes such as the Hubble telescope.

The third heaven is unseen and is the residence of God, including Jesus Christ and is where the dead martyrs and saints are today.  This is the location of the throne of God and where the holy angels surrounding His throne sing day and night, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord our God.

Biblical Eye Witnesses to Heaven

There are several people in the Bible who have been eye witnesses to the heaven before they died.  Elijah was caught up into heaven, taken up in a whirlwind and who never tasted death (II Kings 2:1-12).  Like Elijah, Enoch who was said to have walked with God, was taken up into heaven without ever tasting death.  The apostle John saw heaven through an open door so that he might see and record in the book of Revelation some of the things he saw in heaven (Rev. 4:1).

While Paul was on the Damascus Road on his way to persecute Christians, He saw heaven open up but whether this was heaven itself or just the first heaven where he saw the light, we can not be sure.  Acts 9:3-4 described what Paul saw, “As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  We do not know for sure, according to the scriptures, whether this was the third heaven, where the throne of God was or not, but can assume it was not for Paul on heard a voice from heaven and he saw only a light from heaven.  Nonetheless, heaven is for real and it exists today in every sense of the word.

I am sure you have read or heard about many who have died and seen heaven for themselves.  They describe such a realm that is beyond description.  Some who died and came back to life revealed seeing their lost loved ones in heaven, their family, friends, and some even their pets.  This is difficult to prove, yet the sheer number of these who have seen heaven and came back from death is hard to refute.  Only they themselves know this for certain.  But the Bible does describe some of what heaven is like in the scriptures.  It is, from the human standpoint, indescribable (I Cor. 2:9).

Biblical Descriptions of Heaven

There is a constant chant of holy angels that are continually proclaiming Holy, Holy, Holy over the throne of God.  The Mercy Seat in heaven where God sits is surrounded by magnificent angels full of glory and power that proclaim and bless the holy name of God without ceasing.  Some of these are described as beasts, full of eyes, with six wings and neither rest day or night in their proclaiming the holiness of God (Rev. 4:8-11).

Heaven Descends to the Earth

After the Kingdom of Heaven begins on earth, after Christ’s return, the New Jerusalem descends out of heaven and heaven, in the New Jerusalem, will then be on earth.  Revelation 21:1-2 describes this:  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”   The very tabernacle of God will be with humans then and heaven is any place where God is at (Rev. 21:3).  All pain, suffering, and tears will absent there (Rev. 21:4).

John was carried away to heaven in Revelation chapter 21 and this chapter is perhaps the best description of heaven that we know of; at least the heaven that will be seen by those who are Christ’s today.  John describes it in Revelation 21:10-27:

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.

14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia [or 1,400 miles!] in length, and as wide and high as it is long [1,400 miles wide and tall!].

17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits [that is 200 feet!] thick.

18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.

19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst [these last two stones are unknown or only exist in heaven today].

21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.

26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.