Welcome to Affirm foundation, presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

And our father. We ask now that the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts, would be acceptable in your sight, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. The story is told of a man with a rake in hand. His eyes are searching the dirt as he pokes with the rake, looking for some worthless article that he had dropped in the soil. And yet all along on his head is a crown of gold, which he never noticed in his whole life. Perhaps the greatest loss in the life of Christians today is the fact that we fail to live under the influence of the fact that there is a golden crown that has been placed upon the head of every Christian. That crown is the promise that we shall spend eternity in heaven.

And yet it seems we go from day to day without ever thinking about that golden crown. We get caught up in paying our bills and wiping children’s noses and running off to work and making sure that the dishes are washed. And by the end of the day, we seem to end with a great glad that’s over. And yet we have been created for eternity. And one of the greatest promises of scripture is that God has prepared a place. Heaven. It’s our home. It’s the place that we are longing to be. And it’s about heaven that I want to talk with you today. On the one hand, we hear so little talk about heaven. I cannot remember sitting at a dinner party where somebody said, what do you think about heaven?

Perhaps you’ve been to other parties where that was the conversation, but I have yet to have anyone ask me, what do you think about heaven? On the other hand, even though there seems to be so little discussion about heaven, there is a great deal of interest in the topic of the afterlife. For example, George Gallup has written a book entitled Adventures in immortality. And this records, from a scientific analysis the experience of people who have said that they have come to the edge of life. Some who give reports of being in eternal judgment, others who talk about the eternal joy of being with Christ. Well, George Gallup has spent a great deal of time studying that, and this has become a bestseller, a book written by Raymond Moody. Mister Moody is from the University of Virginia.

Raymond Moody has been studying many of the experiences of people who say that they have experienced death, clinical death. He has found that the common experience is the sound of a buzz, and then the person feels themselves quickly removed from their body and being able to, from some lofty height, look at themselves and look at the nurses and the parents and the friends who are gathered in the room, and then they quickly leave. And a common experience, he says, is that there is a rapid movement towards a light. And as they would approach that light, those who are crippled say that they were able to walk. Those who were blind say that they were able to see. Those who were deaf say that they could hear with great precision. And all of them talk about some drawing light.

Well, what shall we say of these experiences? When Doctor Kubler Ross herself, no Christian, a psychologist, stood before 1000 medical professionals, this was not a church meeting. This was not a gathering of the congregation. This was a gathering of medical professionals. She addressed that group to discuss life after death. She said this. I used to say, I believe in life after death. Now I know there is life after death. And what was the response of that pagan crowd? They stood to their feet and applauded her study. We live in a time where the church has failed to talk about heaven. Almost embarrassed about the topic, why don’t we talk about heaven anymore? Well, the late professor Willard Sperry, who was the dean of theological divinity school at Harvard, said this, and I quote the two words, heaven and hell have usually travelled together.

Most of us are through with the doctrine of hell. Perhaps that we are through with it has in some measure contributed to our scepticism as to heaven. If we cannot have heaven save at the price of hell, then we will forego the hope of heaven. End quote. I think another reason that heaven is so seldom mentioned within the context of the church and certainly within our culture is because of what is not being taught in seminaries. The problems at seminaries are not new. They have been with us for several generations. If went back to the previous generation, one of the bright lights of theology was a man by the name of Niebuhr. He wrote a systematic theology which was called the nature and destiny of man.

In that entire systematic study which was studied by the vast majority of seminarians in the last generation, there was no mention of the subject of heaven except for this quote. It is unwise for Christians to claim any knowledge of the furniture of heaven. And that’s all that was mentioned on the subject. In our own generation. One of the bright lights that has been studied in many seminaries is a man by the name of Boltmann. In a very famous book, Kerygma and Myth, he writes this. The concept of a Christ who pre existed as a heavenly being and of man’s own translation to a heavenly world is totally meaningless. So said Mister Boltmann this became for many seminarians, their diet of theological study.

There was a time, perhaps in past generations, where one of the weaknesses that was pointed in the church was that were so heavenly minded that were no earthly good. But I think the concern of the church today is that the church has become so worldly minded that we are no heavenly use, even in our advertising. Mastercard now on television, advertise with the bold pronouncement, so worldly, so welcome. And we look at that and give it not even a thought. Why such words? Just the generation or two would have been blasphemy. Worldly, so welcome. And yet, if Christians were to open their wallets, they’re the card that will bring that worldly welcome. How many of us think of heaven in the terms or even with the amount of time that we think about our Mastercard or our Citi card or our bank Ameri card?

Well, Christians, I think, have in many ways been taken in by the world. And we too are part of the problem and that we at times are even embarrassed to talk about heaven. And yet, despite all of our sophistication, Professor James Orr, in a book entitled the Christian View of God, reminds us of this staggering fact that nearly every tribe and people on the face of the earth, savage or civilized, has held in some form the belief in a future state of existence. You can virtually not find anywhere in the world a group of people who do not have built into their belief system that this life is not the end. The Egyptians believed that there was another life and so they built their pyramids, which were called house tombs that then were filled with foods and nuts.

And all of the slaves who would have been the watchers for the pharaoh would be killed that they might be able to serve that pharaoh. We find. The Greeks believed in the island of the blessed, where warriors would go and spend their life in eternal peace. The Vikings spoke of their Valhalla, where there would be peace. The Hindus speak of a place of lakes and golden beds of red lotus, where pearls and jewels are like sand on the banks of the river. Mohammed in the Koran speaks of paradise as being better than anything in this world. It was Jesus who said, in my father’s house are many mansions. The belief of eternal life is not unique to the Christian faith. What is unique to the Christian faith is the description of that place, heaven and the entrance into that place.

But the heartbeat of all mankind seems to beat with the knowledge that there is something after this life. And yet, I think like a little baby who is in its mother’s womb, and there the comfort of the womb, the warmth, the nourishment. Can you imagine if someone were to say to that child, you’re going to be born into a world, and the baby’s not even able to say, why? Tell me about that world? For the baby cannot yet even speak. But let us assume that the baby can speak. And the baby says, well, tell me, what type of world will it be? Well, it’s a world that is full of mountains and prairies and lakes and oceans. And if you look to the sky, it is filled with stars. There’s a sun and a moon and planets. And there are people.

There are people who will comfort you, who will greet you. There’s a mother, a father. There are brothers and sisters who you must meet. And that baby in the womb would simply say, I don’t understand. I cannot conceive of such a world. And yet here we sit in this world, and Jesus tells us that there is yet another world to come in which we must be born anew to enter. And he says that this is a place that eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. You and I can hardly understand, let alone appreciate, what the joys and blessings of heaven will be like.

It is as difficult for us in this life as for the baby in the womb to understand the life that we currently are living. Imagine a place where every house is a mansion. Imagine a place where every step is a victory. Imagine a place where every meal is a banquet, where every year is a jubilee, where every month is a feast, where every week is a joy, where every hour is a delight, where every minute is simply like a grain of sand, and we shall enjoy that forever and ever. Heaven is mentioned in the Bible 550 times, the noun heaven. It is also discussed with many other descriptive words. We are told that heaven is a paradise. We are told that it is a city. We are told that it is a mansion.

One of the things that has always troubled me is, if it is a city, is it large enough for people to live in? What will it be like? And the scripture begins to answer some of those questions. We’re told, first of all, that heaven is a place. In the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 16, we are told not only is it a place, but the scripture gives us the length and breadth and height of that place. We’re told that it is a city that is laid out as a square whose length, width, and height are 12,000 furlongs. Now, a furlong is equal to an 8th of a mile, which means that heaven as a city according to those dimensions is 1500 miles long and 1500 miles wide. Why it is as long as the distance between Maine and Florida.

It is as wide as the distance between New York and the Mississippi river. But the scriptures tell us also that not only does it have a length and a breadth, but it also has a height. Now, the Empire State building stands approximately a little over 100 stories. Now, each of those stories is considered to be about 10ft. Now, if were to say that heaven, as it is referred to as a mansion, is in stories, and let’s say that each story were 15ft, it means that this mansion in heaven will be some 528,000 stories high, and each floor shall have an area of 2250, not feet, but miles. And the total volume of that place will be 1,188,000,000,000 sq. Mi. Have you ever thought of the number of people who have lived in all of the world?

We’re told that number is approximately 30 billion people. Now if all 30 billion people went to heaven, that would mean that each family in heaven would have 198 sq. Mi in which to raise their family. But Jesus said, not everyone is going to heaven. It was Jesus who said, few there be that find the way and many there are who will go to destruction. Remember several years ago, the Russian cosmonaut who one of the great goals of his flight into the skies was to see if there was a God. And he rotated around the globe, he landed and he made the declaration, there is no God, there is no heaven. I have been there and I did not see him. Well, question for that, cosmonaut, did you go out into the planets? Did you make a left at Jupiter?

Did you go further into our universe and there meet the Milky Way which is composed of millions and millions of our own galaxies? Did you go out of that milky way into the great galaxy? Beyond that, astronomers scarcely are able to come up with a number. And yet our cosmonaut friend goes up somewhere between the earth and the moon, scarcely scratching the surface to declare with great boldness, there is no heaven, there is no God. I did not see him. That is like a little boy in his bathtub with his little toy boat saying, there is no china. I can see it. My boat has never gone there. And yet man so often thinks that we have come up with the greatest arguments, the greatest insights, the greatest facts to do away with the concept of a heaven.

But I would remind you that cosmonaut has since died, and he now knows the reality of whether there is a God and whether or not there is a heaven to be gained or a hell to be feared. The city, we are told, is a city whose streets are not simply made of gold. But in revelation 20 118, the city is made of pure gold. The foundations of the city rest upon precious stone, sapphire and emerald and topaz. We’re told that there are twelve great gates in this city of heaven, and they are made of a single pearl. There’s no dirt in this city. Housewives will be glad to hear that. There’ll be no dusting, no vacuuming, for it is perfect. We’re told, too, that it is a place referred to as a paradise.

The word paradise comes from a Persian word, Paradiso, and that word simply means a park or enclosed garden. And so heaven is a paradise. A park. But it’s not like Central park, where you may be mugged. It is not like the parks of our nation, where thieves often run wild, where there is graffiti written on the walls. No, this is a park, we are told, where there is no darkness. For the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is the light. What will our bodies be like in heaven? Will we have a body? Or will we be like some Casper, the friendly ghost, flitting about with our harps? Well, the scriptures say that we will be raised with a glorified body in heaven, a body very much like the risen body of Jesus Christ.

And compared to the bodies that you and I have now that are in the process of breaking down. When we come to heaven, we will be given that new body at the resurrection and the return of Christ. And on that day, we will have ears that hear perfectly and eyes where 2020 vision will be abnormal, where our vision will be precise. We will be able to smell in heaven the fragrances that will gently waft in the breeze of heaven, the flowers and the frankincense. And we shall smell as we have never enjoyed that aroma before. And the fragrance shall be sweet. There will be no, the scriptures say, in heaven, the sorrows of illness, of bad news, of death, will be no more. There will be no loneliness.

There will be no one sitting in a room waiting for the phone to ring and what conversations we will have. Have you ever wondered what it was like to have been there with Adam and Eve? Well, they’ll just live down the hall and you can go talk to them. Or perhaps you’ve wondered what it was like when the sea was spread open and the Jews went through and were given their freedom. Well, just across the park is Moses. You can talk with him throughout the afternoon. Or perhaps there is a scripture that you have read in Romans that you have found to be very troublesome, and you’ve never completely understood it. Why, you can make a call to Paul, and the two of you can sit on a bench and discuss the word of God for as long as you like.

The scriptures teach that there is a heaven, that there is a place where we enjoy a new body. Will we recognize those who have preceded us in heaven? I think the scripture is very clear that, yes, we will. For Jesus told about the rich man and the poor man. The rich man was able to recognize the poor man on the bosom of Abraham. The disciples, when they were brought to the mount of transfiguration, recognized Moses and Elijah. And when Christ returned with that resurrected body, they recognized him. And they knew that this was the Lord. And when we get to heaven, we will recognize friends and fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and neighbours and people who we had sat next to in church. We will recognize one another. But there is a day coming when we gather in heaven.

And all of those multitudes who are there will move quickly towards that place where there is no temple, as they will come to worship him. And on that day, we will see Jesus Christ. Heaven is the place where God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live. And he has said he has made a place for us to come. On the field of battle, there was strewn across that field bodies of men who had been shot down. There was a doctor who worked as best he could. And from the multitude, heard someone cry out, hear. And the doctor turned to him, and he said, son, what can I do? And the young man said, nothing. They’re calling the role of heaven. And I’ve answered here. I’m here.

The scriptures say there is a book of life, and that no one shall enter heaven whose name is not written in that book. Is your name written there? Will you go? Jesus said, I have gone to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, would I tell you that I go to prepare a place for you? Jesus has made already in heaven for those who love him, for those who are called to follow him. May it be that no one who hears my voice would turn aside from Christ, but that you might turn in faith to him, that you might join with that multitude in heaven to sing glory and Honor and praise to Jesus Christ. There is a heaven, and those who love Christ shall see it. Let us pray. Our God and our father. We thank you for Jesus Christ.

We thank you that he has prepared a place, and father that he waits expectantly for each sheep who has put its trust in you to enter the fold, to be brought into your presence. We thank you for the joy of heaven. We look forward to it. We declare that this world is not our home. We’re simply passing through. Help us to make good use of the time, and help us by your power to introduce as many as we can to Jesus Christ who unlocks the door to heaven. We thank you in his name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to affirm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listeners. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you and Doctor Smith looks forward to hearing from you.