*** HEAVEN *** "My Father has many mansions." (John 14:2) All Christians teach the resurrection hope but some hope to live forever or to time indefinite upon Earth while others hope for resurrection to Heaven.  For example at Matthew 5:5 Christ says "blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth" and “earth” could mean either the Promised Land or else the planet Earth.  On Earth is definitely where Christ resurrected Lazarus (John 11), the widow's son (Luke 7), Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5) and some others. Many people came back to life on Earth when Christ died. (Mt 27)  Paul resurrected Eutychus on Earth after he fell. (Ac 20:9-12)  Peter brought back Tabitha upon Earth.  (Ac 9:36-43)  Elijah (1 Ki 17) and Elisha (2Ki 4) had also performed resurrections upon the Earth.   Christ says at John 5:28 that all will come forth from the tombs.  He himself was also a Jewish rabbi and throughout history and the Bible those among the Jewish people who have looked forward to resurrection have foreseen it to be upon the Earth.  On the other hand, as alluded to, history and the Bible clearly show that for some 2000 years the main hope and emphasis for Christians has been to go to heaven to serve with Christ although we can note that Revelation 21:2, 3 says that Christ and his bride, meaning those with him in heaven at some point return to rule at length upon Earth.  For example please read John 14:2, 3; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 2 Corinthians 5:1, 2; Galatians 1:8, Philippians 3:20, James 1:17.  Ecclesiastes 1:4 says of planet Earth that it will never end; but Christ and the Bible say that both heaven and Earth will pass away although a new heaven and Earth will come.  Please read Matthew 24:35; Luke 21:33, and Revelation 21:1.    Supportive of the Bible, scientists also teach that the starry universe and planet Earth will pass away and some scientists believe that later a new Big Bang explosion will trigger a new creation of the universe and Earth so that in this way Earth comes and goes thus remaining forever.  The Bible does not say but given the goodness and loving-kindness of God, one speculation is that before God has the Earth and starry heavens pass away He will have humans on Earth go elsewhere for at least a period of time in flesh or in spirit. Scientists have theorized other universes that humans might get to visit. The Good News is that God’s main characteristic is Love, and Christ gave himself as a ransom sacrifice so that God will save us despite the fact that as the apostle Paul noted we all sin and so first must die. (1 Corinthians 15:22)  Resurrection is our one hope but it is reasonable that its location for many will be on Earth and for others in Heaven.  God has many mansions.  (John 14:2)  We rest assured that our Father in heaven shall do what is best.  He has invited many to strive for Heaven but He will choose who actually go there or dwell upon the Earth.  We die but are resurrected, judged and disciplined in perfect fairness, given another chance, experience the many blessings that He will give to ALL of us (Acts 24:15, John 3:16) during His Kingdom.  God shall bring true peace and joy upon Earth as it is in Heaven.  This is truly amazing, Good News.

THEY SHUT THE GATE OF HEAVEN TO MILLIONS! “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. (Matthew 23:13) For more than 70 years the heads of the Watchtower Society over Jehovah's Witnesses said that prior to 1935 all or virtually all those going to go to heaven had already been chosen  Pressure was brought upon younger persons to deny that they themselves had the hope of going to heaven.  Watchtower said after 1935 that anyone who said they hoped to go to heaven was lying, insane, otherwise mistaken or misled by apostates or else were legitimate but only able to hold that hope because some other anointed person had proved unfaithful. Then in the May 1, 2007 Watchtower for Jehovah's Witnesses on page 31 it was finally written: "it appears that we can not set a specific date for when the calling of Christians to the heavenly hope ends."  This was an indirect admission that they had deliberately shut Christians out of heaven all those years.  Further, as said, many who had partaken had been shamefully mistreated by bullying Elders, a horrifying situation that in fact also still continues.  Now, what do you suppose Christ thinks of those mistreating his brothers and sisters like this!? Revelation 7:4 and Revelation 14:3 do indeed speak of 144,000 in heaven but Revelation 19:1 speaks of a Great Multitude (or Great Crowd) in heaven; and these may well be different groups.  For example, the 144,000 could be a literal or symbolic group of saintly persons serving with Christ but along with them in heaven could be an even greater group of perhaps many millions.  If God resurrects to heaven, on earth, or both, or neither, such decisions are His own.  We can be sure that as the God of love He knows what's best and will do it.

THE RESURRECTION TO HEAVEN   1Corinthians 15:42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. 50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.   Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength   Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.   Phillippians 3:13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.   Phillippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.   Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.   2Peter 1:10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

"My father has many mansions" -- Christ

HOW ALL THE EARTH WILL BECOME A PARADISE The private nonprofit Population Reference Bureau has estimated 115 billion people have ever lived on Earth.  Our planet has 148,000,000 square kilometers of land of which only about 31,000,000 square kilometers can be cultivated.  So if 100 billion “unrighteous and unrighteous” people, (Acts 24:15) that is those who rightly knew and did God’s will as well as those who did not rightly know and do it, were to all be resurrected upon our planet Earth, then the result would not be a happy paradise but instead a nightmare of overcrowding with starvation.  However, all 100 billion do not receive a resurrection upon Earth.  In fact scriptures speak of a literal or symbolic 144,000 (Re 7:4, 14:1) extra loving Christ-like humans who are chosen to rule with Christ in heaven for a healing of the nations on Earth, as well as a “great multitude” or “great crowd” of Christians who are also invited to heaven. (Re 19:1)  We are not told how many humans will be in that Great Crowd in heaven or for that matter how many humans will be resurrected upon our planet Earth. Besides which notice that Christ says at Matthew 12:31, 32 that people who blaspheme or grieve Holy Spirit are not going to be forgiven, and therefore they will not be among the “unrighteous” who are resurrected.  Logically they are not people who sinned by doing common vices such as all humans have done at times but more likely are those who haven unrepentantly, knowingly done  horrible, evil things such as torture and murder, molest helpless little ones, etc.    There might be millions to billions of such persons who knew God’s will that we show love for others, but who deliberately and grievously sinned anyway.  Mercifully God forgave King Manasseh who harmed many but may not have understood that he was wrong to do what he did.  Further when Manasseh realized how evilly he had acted, he proved that he was truly repentant.  So it is possible to do serious wrongs and yet be forgiven, but the difference comes when your actions are done with knowledge and God sees that you choose to stay unrepentant. Returning to the question of population, although only 31 million square kilometers of land can be cultivated today, large deserts can be restored for additional living space and arable crop land.   In 2000 about one-fifth of all land on Earth consisted of desert, an amount of land roughly equal to what is already arable.  Even more land on earth is not desert but still too dry, cold, wet, ice-filled or semi-arid so that it cannot currently be much used or decent living conditions.  However, by staying out of wars with one another, humans can battle to successfully reclaim such land, produce plenty of grain and other foods. Vast lands that now mostly consist of high plateaus and mountains could become lower due to powerful climate changes.  Although Earth is warming a lot now, its rate of warming might be slowed by God either acting directly to do so or by God providing insight for humans to slow the rate of heating so as to cause the Earth to not become an inferno but pleasantly tropical.  Imagine if the Sahara Desert, the frozen Siberia, far northern Canada and the entire continent of Antarctica all became like paradise so that more humans could live there happily and produce food. True, there are scriptures which speak of Earth and the heavens being destroyed by fire, as well as scriptures which say there will be a NEW Heavens and a new Earth.  On the other hand, after the Flood of Noah’s time a rainbow appeared and God told Noah that the Earth would not be destroyed again.  Is this a contradiction?  No, because although the Earth of Noah’s time was “destroyed” it was not totally annihilated, that is not so badly destroyed or ruined that it could never be revived.  Not only did Noah’s ark save many land animals but plants also survived and grew again. God - called the Lord, Jehovah or Yahweh in the Bible (see King James, Psalm 83:18) - still deeply cares about the Earth, the humans and other creatures upon it.  His will of intense loving-kindness is for humans and the other creatures to benefit upon it along with perfect health and even an end to death itself.  For example Revelation 11:18 says that God will ruin those who are ruining the Earth. So God cares and His desire is for the Earth to not be destroyed or at least, as with Noah’s Flood, not so badly ruined or destroyed that it cannot be restored for those people who will be resurrected upon it. Various scriptures speak of God using the elements of nature ranging from hailstones to fire to ruin the wicked, but as explained such destruction is not absolute. In pre-Christian times the Jews hoped for resurrection upon earth.  Christ spoke of them being resurrected and coming forth from the memorial tombs.  Christ, the apostles, Elijah and others performed resurrections, and those resurrections were also on Earth.  From the time of Christ’s resurrection, the main hope set forth for Christians is heaven, but regardless of where we may be resurrected, we can and do look forward to it.  This is a time, more so than ever, for us to be happily telling others of the Good News of the Kingdom of God coming upon Earth as in heaven. (Mt 6:20; 28:19)  Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the Earth. (Mt 5:5) Some scientists and other Christians say after several more billion years, our Sun will or just might swell up, heat the Earth so much that those who have inherited the Earth would die, then explode and destroy both itself and our planet the Earth.   Although the Bible says the Earth remains forever (Ec 1:4), it is also the truth that the Hebrew and Greek words for the word usually translated "forever" can mean not just for all time but a long indefinite period of time, leaving open the possibility for such a still distant ending.  However, even if that happened, as Christ says, our Father in heaven has many mansions (Jn 14:2), which could mean other habitable planets in this universe or other universes or that in some other way the people on Earth as well as our planet itself can remain okay or be restored.

NOW PLEASE BE SURE TO CLICK HERE TO GO THE SECTION CALLED "PARADISE" IN ORDER TO LEARN EVEN MORE ABOUT THE EARTHLY HOPE