Adapted from The Bible Explainer by Michael Wittmer
Christians call heaven our “intermediate state” because it is where we temporarily live between this life and the next. When we go to heaven, we are “home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). We will worship God there, and that’s all we know for sure. The Bible says nothing more about heaven because taking us to heaven is not God’s goal. His ultimate plan is not to snatch us out of this world but to come to this world and save it.
Remember, Christians hope for the three R’s: the return of Christ, the resurrection of our bodies, and the restoration of all things. We believe that Jesus will return—gloriously, physically, and triumphantly—to rule this earth that He took back from Satan. Heaven, the throne room of God, will become a place on earth. That might happen today, so we look to the skies and pray the next-to-last sentence of Scripture, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).
When Jesus comes, He will raise our dead bodies. Your body is not just the shellfor the real you, the temporary residence of your soul. Your soul can exist independently of your body, as it must in heaven. But it won’t stay that way for long. The Christian hope is not that our souls go to heaven, but that Jesus will bring back our souls with Him, resurrect our bodies, and put us back together. We will live forever with Jesus as whole people, body and soul, on the earth He designed for us.
When Jesus comes, He will restore all things (Acts 3:21; Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 1:10). Everything that sin has broken, His grace will restore. God created this world good, Satan ruined it through Adam’s fall, and God wants it all back. He will send King Jesus not to obliterate our fallen world but to fix and rule over it. Heaven sings the Hallelujah Chorus: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). Jesus will reign forever here, over His whole wide world.