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|“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” The story of the Heavens is about the Sovereignty of God.
“Our God is in the Heavens; He does all that he pleases.” (Psalm 115:3)
The Hebrew word for Heavens is Shamayim (šāmayim). The word is plural, meaning more than one Heaven. The bible describes three different Heavens.
The First Heaven
The First Heaven is the atmosphere above the land and oceans of Earth. It is the troposphere, extending about twenty miles upward. It is the air we breathe, the sky above, where the wind blows, where the birds fly. It is the sky we see every day.
“The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” (Psalm 19:1) The natural universe — itself — reveals the majesty of God, without any words at all.
The Second Heaven
The Second Heaven is the immensity of outer space, the celestial heaven, the stellar heaven, the heaven of the stars, the stratosphere. It is the universe, the vast spiritual realm where God has placed His galaxies, His stars, His planets, and our own little planet, Earth.
With the expressed permission of God, we live in a very far away, distant, corner of God’s creation, at exactly the perfect — “Goldilocks” — distance from “our” sun.
Here, we live on a very small, little speck of rock and water and air, a little planet, the one we call Earth, that is our world.
The stars and the night sky “know things” and they have a way of reminding us of things we need to know and remember, because . . .
The Second Heaven is the place of spiritual warfare, the ongoing fight of good against evil, where God and His angels fight against Satan and his demonic Authorities, Rulers, Powers, and Principalities. (Ephesians 6:12)
Spiritual warfare is the essential core of Christian life. It is fought in the spiritual realm, with human “flesh and blood” as the intended collateral damage.
Our everyday physical and spiritual life on this little planet, Earth, is a battlefield. For us, it is the battlefield.
From the foundation of the world, our eternal destination is ultimately Heaven or Hell, the inevitable outcome of the choices that we make in our lives, every ordinary day. (Matthew 25:34, 25:46)
God is love, and each of us is born free. God has gifted humans with free will. Each of us, one by one, with every interaction, every day, makes loving choices, or not. We are free to choose.
As we grow, we learn, each day, what is love, and what is not. We decide to choose life and love, or we do not. We choose to honor God, or ignore God, or dishonor God. We are free to choose.
In Matthew 10:14 and Mark 6:11, Jesus told his apostles, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.”
Jesus respects and honors the free will of each person who does not want to accept Him as Lord and Savior. He tells us to move on, to share His grace with others.
Although the everyday battle is real, Jesus has already won the war. Through His death and resurrection, “It is finished.” (Colossians 2:15) Believers fight, not for victory, but in victory.
The only strength of believers is their precious personal relationship with Jesus. The fight is won through prayer, scripture, faith, community, believing, trusting, obeying the commandments of God. (James 4:7)
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He knows those who know Him. He assures His followers, “I know mine and mine know me.” (John 10:14)
Jesus affirms and emphasizes the deep, personal, relationship between Himself and His followers. He knows His sheep, by name. They recognize His voice. They follow his commands. They follow Him.
Jesus told us plainly, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6), and . . .
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:44)
John the apostle wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Jesus is not just a messenger. Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus is the very embodiment of divine authority, revelation, and truth, come to Earth. Literally, Jesus is the Word of the Father made Flesh. Jesus is the most precious gift of God the Father to all of humanity.
Accepting the gift of the Father’s grace, believing, trusting, honoring Jesus, who is the Word of God, is the only hope of salvation. (Ephesians 6:17)
We cannot save ourselves.
Receiving the gift of grace from the Father is the essential first step. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father first provides the blessing of grace. (John 6:65)
The gift of salvation is given to believers by the grace of the Father, through faith in Jesus. (Ephesians 2:8–9; Philippians 1:29)
If believers are truly granted the gift of eternal salvation, it means that believers are already chosen, before the foundation of the world, by the Father, Himself, who wrote their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 20:11-15)
The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus enables those who are redeemed, those who are chosen by the Father, to receive the divine gift of being welcomed as Children of God into the House of the Lord, for eternity.
Without the grace of the Father, no one can come to Jesus. The gift of salvation is not a general invitation to those who do not want to accept Jesus. This is the hard truth. God chooses those upon whom He will show His mercy . . . or His justice.
Salvation is by grace, through faith — and faith, itself — is the merciful gift of the Father. (Ephesians 2:8–9; Philippians 1:29) Some receive grace. Some receive justice.
Nothing imperfect can survive in the presence of God. The record of our sins has already condemned us. There is nothing that we can do to save ourselves.
We are dependent, entirely, upon the authority and power of Jesus, who took upon Himself the weight and pain of our sins to redeem us from our sins. Jesus paid the blood price for our sins, to save us from ourselves. (Luke 10:19)
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22)
In the record of our lives, we choose to honor Jesus, or we choose not to honor Jesus. Only the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf saves us from ourselves.
Jesus told us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” These are words of Jesus to Paul the apostle. (2nd Corinthians 12:9)
The Father, who knows everything, knows the names of all those whom He chose to be redeemed by the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. The Father knows also the names of all of those who will not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
The Father has granted eternal salvation to believers, from the very first person ever created, to the very last person who would ever be born.
The Father chose each person whose name is written in the Book of Life.
Jesus knows, by name, each person whom His Sovereign Father has chosen to be redeemed through Jesus’ death and resurrection — each person who has ever been born — each person who will ever be born.
The gift of eternal salvation is not universal. It is not a general invitation extended to all people. The gift of eternal salvation is specific to those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 20:12; 20:15; 21:27)
In Revelation 3:5, Jesus declares, “. . . the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father, and before His angels.”
Believers receive the gift of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 6:23) Believers rely on their salvation absolutely, completely, entirely on the authority and power of Jesus, not in any way on their own personal strength.
The Third Heaven
The Third Heaven is the spiritual realm, outside the physical world. It is the home of God, the holy angels, and the saints. It is the throne room of God.
Jesus, the Son of God, is seated “at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens.” (Hebrews 1:3, 8:1; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; 1st Peter 3:22; Mark 16:19)
The Father has given Jesus all authority to judge the living and the dead, because of His perfect righteousness and holiness. (John 5:22, 27)
At the end of their lives on Earth, all believers will stand before the Judgment Seat of Jesus. Their works will be evaluated for rewards — not for salvation — which has already been secured by faith in Jesus. (2nd Corinthians 5:10)
At the end of time, all those who have chosen not to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, all who have rejected Jesus in their lives, are also judged. This is the Great White Throne Judgment.
The Great White Throne Judgment is not about salvation. It is the moment of eternal sentencing, the ultimate day of reckoning. (Revelation 20:11–15)
All unbelievers from throughout history — all those whose names are not written in the Book of Life — are raised from the dead to stand in judgment before Jesus.
The dead are judged “according to what they had done,” as recorded in books, the evidence of their life decisions, moral conduct, everyday choices, every ordinary day of their lives. (Revelation 20:12)
All who have chosen not to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, all who have chosen to reject Jesus, including Satan, his fallen angels, Death, and Hades, are cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death—eternal separation from God.
Is God fair? The Sovereign Lord of all His Creation is merciful . . . and just.
God’s divine mercy is not based on any human effort or merit. God tells us, plainly, clearly, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” (Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15)
The Father’s divine mercy is His own personal gift to whomever He pleases. He grants the blessing of His grace according to His own will and choice.
“Our God is in the Heavens; He does all that he pleases.” (Psalm 115:3)