This does not mean of course that there is no reward for the righteous or indeed no punishment reserved for the wicked. But whatever these might be, because of the harmony that exists throughout the Bible, such reward or punishment must be consistent with the facts that we have already established. A consideration of what the scriptures say concerning heaven leads us smoothly onwards in our developing understanding of what the Bible teaches about these vital questions of life and death.

Heaven – God’s dwelling place

Heaven is God’s abiding place. Of course, in making such a statement we must not limit the power and transcendence of God, whom scripture teaches to be everywhere present by His spirit. The psalmist, meditating upon this omnipresence of God, wrote:

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day.” (Psalm 139:7-12)

When Solomon built his temple – a house for God to dwell in – he too recognised this truth:

“Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded.” (1 Kings 8:27)

But though God’s spirit fills all space, this truth is compatible with the fact that the scriptures speak of a “dwelling place”. On that same occasion, Solomon besought God for Israel:

“When they shall pray towards this place … then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest forgive.” (1 Kings 8:30,39,43)

“Our father which art in heaven”

The wise man wrote:

“God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5:2)

And Jesus taught his disciples to pray:

“Our father which art in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9)

This concept of God’s heavenly habitation is summed up in the following passages:

“… who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” (1 Timothy 6:16)

“The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” (Psalm 115:16)

Man has no access into God’s presence in heaven; but the Lord Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, after his resurrection “was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).

This again is the logical conclusion to which the scriptures have led us:

“No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man.” (John 3:13)

The earth is man’s inheritance

Heaven is not for man: his habitation, both now and in any future existence, is the earth:

“The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace … For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth … The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.” (Psalm 37:11,22,29)

The Lord Jesus was referring to this Psalm when he said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). He taught his disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (6:10). And John had a vision of the redeemed (those delivered from sin and death), who sing:

“Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood … and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9,10)

The earth, then, is man’s habitation and also his promised eternal abiding place. We shall leave for a moment the question of how this inheritance on earth is granted, because first of all we must clear up some common misunderstandings about “hell”.

Hell is the grave

There are three main words in the Authorised Version which have been rendered “hell”. In the Old Testament it is the Hebrew word sheol; in the Greek of the New Testament there are two words, hades and gehenna. The word sheol was commonly used to indicate the abode of the dead below the earth. It is better rendered by “the grave” or “the pit”. In the Authorised Version sheol has been translated “grave” and “hell” on 31 occasions each, and “pit” on three occasions. Sheol is therefore the grave, the common place of the dead where men’s bodies are subject to decay. The grave is the place where the dead “know not anything … their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished … there is no knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave” (Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10).

“Like sheep they are laid in the grave (sheol); death shall feed on them … and their beauty shall consume in the grave (sheol).” (Psalm 49:14)

There are no exceptions: death and the grave give to men an equality they can never find in life, for:

“There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master.” (Job 3:17-19)

In the New Testament the word hades is the equivalent of the Hebrew sheol. In the Septuagint – a translation of the Old Testament into Greek, compiled approximately two hundred and fifty years before the birth of Jesus – this word is used almost without exception to represent sheol. In Peter’s speech on the Day of Pentecost he quotes from Psalm 16 to prove the resurrection of Jesus, and the Greek text of Acts uses the word hades:

“Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (hades), neither … suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Acts 2:27)

“Hell fire”

The third word translated “hell” is gehenna, a term always associated with fire and with one exception only found in the Gospels. The relevant passages in Matthew’s record of the Gospel are as follows: 5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33. It is worth observing that there are thus only about half a dozen different references to “hell fire” in the Bible. Of course, even if there were only one, it would still need to be given careful consideration to determine its meaning.

For the purpose of our enquiry we shall take just one passage: the explanation given in this instance applies equally to all the others. We have selected the words from Mark 9 (parallel to Matthew 18:8,9) because this is undoubtedly the most explicit and comprehensive example of the Lord’s teaching about Gehenna

“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (verses 43,44, see also 45-49)

From a superficial reading one might feel a certain repugnance about eternal fires and never-dying worms. Happily neither of these ideas is involved in a true understanding of the passage.