Chapter 3 of my book is a very (very) brief look at heaven and hell. Why did I choose to get all my rough notes written up now? In the introduction to the book I write,
"Now, in April 2011, Rob Bell’s Love wins has just been published. I feel the need to articulate my own position, based on my own study and reflection, before reading Bell’s book."
So I wrote - and then I read Bell.
What is heaven? Heaven is where God lives. There are many references in the Psalms that would illustrate this. See, for example, Psalm 14.2; 33.13; 53.2; 80.14; 102.19 and 123.1.
The Hebrew word normally translated “heaven” is “shamayim” and it is used 416 times in the Old Testament (NIV exhaustive concordance). The Greek word for heaven, “ouranos” is used 274 times. ‘Heaven’ in Scripture is compared and contrasted with ‘earth’. Heaven is where God dwells, earth is where humankind dwells. This is implicit in a number of the Psalms referred to above. Thus when Jesus begins his ministry by announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven is near he is saying that in him the dwelling place of God and the dwelling place of human beings is coming together – a picture picked up in the last chapters of Revelation where heaven and earth come together as one and God’s dwelling (heaven) is among humankind (on earth).
The Kingdom of Heaven, Tom Wright explains, “does not refer to a place, called ‘heaven’, where God’s people will go after death. It refers to the rule of heaven, that is, of God, being brought to bear in the present world.”1 A programme of social justice, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed, giving dignity to men and women, the opportunity to live this life as God its Creator intended – this is bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the rule of God. The 1980s pop song was not far wrong:
Heaven is a place on earth
They say in heaven love comes first
We'll make heaven a place on earth
Ooh heaven is a place on earth.2
What about hell? In contrast to the 690 references to “heaven” in the Scriptures, the Greek “Gehenna”, translated “hell” in the NIV occurs 12 times. The Hebrew “sheol” occurs 66 times, but “sheol” is not the same as “hell” and the NIV reflects this by translating it simply as “the grave” or “the realm of the dead”, while the REB has “Sheol” and the RSV “the Pit”. See, for example, Psalm 16.10.
“Heaven” and “hell” are not equals in the Scriptures. Neither are “eternal life” and “eternal judgement/fire/punishment/sin. The NIV uses the phrase “eternal life” 42 times, and the phrase “eternal judgement/fire/punishment/sin” 6 times. That is not to say that the concept of eternal judgement/fire/punishment/sin is unimportant: four of these six occurrences are on the lips of Jesus himself. But we are wrong if we think the Scriptures have an equal focus. The phrase “eternal death” (which incidentally is a contradiction in terms) never occurs in the Scriptures.
1 N. T. Wright, “The challenge of Jesus” p20
2 “Heaven is a place on earth” by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley, a number 1 hit in many countries by Belinda Carlisle in 1987.
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