Sermon Central
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Heaven Comes First Series
Contributed by Antonio Silveira on Jan 14, 2012 (message contributor)
Summary: hobbies? Is it the TV show or the hockey tournament, dancing with stars or the latest soap opera? God knows that you need all these things and he doesn’t want to take that away from you but he is knocking at the door of your heart and waiting for you to p
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
1. God created “The Heavens”
When God started the Creative process the first thing that he did was “The Heavens”. We don’t have a great understanding about this and for some this is still a mystery. The universe as it exists was not produced by some cosmic accident. The conditions of creation were intricately planned and considered. Some Scholars say that Genesis 1 can be translated like this,
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the universe.”
Above the Earth Scientists identified 7 different layers of what we call the Atmosphere.
I personally believe that God not only created the physical heaven but he also created an invisible place in the real of the Spirit that we call “Heaven” and that most religions identify as the dwelling place of God and the final destiny of our afterlife existence.
Yes I also think that in the beginning God created the Universe (before he created planet Earth) however I believe there is something deeper hiding in this verse.
The study of Angels is called Angelology and according to Old scriptures that we call the Apocrypha there are Seven Heavens. I don’t want to present this to you as part of the Bible or as Scriptural truth because it’s not but there is always room fro some extra knowledge…
Different theologians identified what is called by different names:
- Seven heavens and the 7 hells
- The 7 celestial mansions and the 7 palaces of darkness
- The 7 heavens and the seven earths.
They say that the seven heavens stack one over the top of each other in a straight line. This is not talking about the 7 layers of our atmosphere but Spiritual places that are ruled by angels. Some of these angels are Godly and submit to Jehovah and some are fallen angels and are under the command of Satan.
I just hate to disappoint you but God didn’t create mankind first…He did however start by creating “The Heavens” and all the angelic beings that exist in different realms of space and time. The heavens are far greater than the Earth and much beyond our present level of understanding. Our mind cannot grasp well what we don’t see or feel but we all have a desire to one day leave Earth and move to all everything started…”The Heavens”
Christian Theology doesn’t mention 7 heavens. This is a belief of other religious groups connected to Judaism and to Islam. I really don’t know if there are really just 7 or one million. This is not the goal of this message, but I would like to tell you that there is more tan one heaven. The Hebrew Bible does not mention third heaven or the number of heavens.
1. God can choose to Reveal Heaven to some of us
An Epistle of the Apostle Paul, included in the New Testament, contains an explicit reference to the Third Heaven. In a letter to the Corinthian church he writes, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) The Greek says "caught away", not "caught up" possibly reflecting Jewish beliefs that Paradise was somewhere other than the uppermost heaven.
Christians, Jews and Muslims believe in the “Third Heaven” as the place where God will take us after our death. Why is it mentioned as “third”? Because we have the first whish is the atmosphere, the second is the inter-galactic space and the third is a spiritual realm that goes beyond our physical senses. So our main earthly religions disagree in many things but they all agree in some very important points, being one of them the existence of multiple “Heavens”.
2. Heaven’s Gates
Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, was fleeing from his twin brother Esau, who had vowed to kill him. Esau was furious with Jacob because Jacob had stolen Esau's birthright, the Jewish claim to inheritance and blessing.
On his way to his relative's house at Haran, Jacob lay down for the night near Luz. As he was dreaming, he had a vision of a ladder, or stairway, between heaven and earth. God's angels were on it, ascending and descending.
12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!
