Question: I just started reading Heaven and on page 43 are you implying that when we die we aren't instantly with the Lord, but go to an intermediate Heaven, sort of a holding place? Question: In your book Heaven you mention Christ reigning during the millennium but the world will still be under the curse. Does that mean we will still have our chronic illnesses with us such as diabetes? Question: On page 211 of your book Heaven, you ask, "Whom will we rule?" and then go on to say other people, angels and that God may create new beings for us to rule. Are the "new beings" just part of your imagination or is there a scriptural basis for that thought? Question: Why don't you say much about what our lives will be like in the present Heaven in your book Heaven? If there are very few activities then the common fear of people is that we will be bored with repetitious praying and praising. Question: Why do you say the Bride of Christ is the Church when it's actually the New Jerusalem? Question: When I mentioned your book Heaven and how excited I was about the New Earth, a friend of mine thought it sounded like something the Jehovah Witnesses believe in... Question: What is the poem you refer to as one of your favorites in the Heaven book and who wrote it? Question: A misunderstanding of 1 Corinthians 2:9-10? Question: If when we die we are judged and go immediately to the intermediate Heaven as Randy states, how can Revelation 20:5 be true? This verse is talking about the transition period between the intermediate and the Eternal Heaven. Verse 5 is pre-eternal Heaven. Question: I just started your book Heaven and have really enjoyed it so far. However, on page 43 you teach that we will not be in Heaven until the "eternal Heaven." You talk about the intermediate Heaven as though it's a holding place until we reach the New Earth. Are you saying we won't be with Christ at the time of death but must wait until we get to the New Earth? Question: Since you think believers will have different levels of authority in Heaven, what do you believe about the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox views of Saints who have more access to God than the rest of us? Question: When writing about the New Earth, did you mean to leave out the New Jerusalem, which is the final Heaven, and is described in Rev. 21 and 22? Question: At the death of the non-believers, I understand from your writing, that their souls will go into Hell. Is this an "intermediate hell" similar to the believer's "intermediate Heaven"? Question: Catholics believe in purgatory. How would you explain that concept/location versus the intermediate Heaven? Question: Many people have questions regarding Heaven. How can you be sure that this depiction of Heaven is the correct one? Question: In Chapter 26 you discuss space and time. You say, "I can easily envision our inhabiting and governing other resurrected planets." Does this lend credit to the Mormon belief that you get your own planet when you die? Question: What do you want people to gain by reading your book? Question: Please explain your interchangeable use of the words create (bara) and restore (ex nihilo) in Chapter 9 of Heaven. With the distinction blurred, what does that do to the doctrines of origin? Question: I am presently reading your book, and I have a question regarding the Intermediate Heaven. The last line, page 63, has all of us either, in Intermediate Heaven or Hell, before we have been judged. I understand that Jesus will open the "books" and we will hear him say, either depart or enter our final place. It seems you have already sentenced each person to their final spot, prior to Christ doing the sentencing. What am I missing? Question: You point out that what Isaiah spoke about Jesus literally happened, so what he says in Isaiah 60 through 66 we should also take literally. Isaiah 65:17 says "I will create new heavens and a new earth". Verse 20 says "he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed."(NIV). It sounds as if Isaiah is saying that in the new heavens and new earth people will die. How do you interpret this text? Question: When discussing the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, you indicated that it is referring to the 3rd Heaven. I think it is referring to the location of Heaven before Christ's ascension. Perhaps the saints of the Old Testament went to "Abraham's Bosom" and after the ascension, heaven moved. Since Jesus hadn't ascended, maybe he wasn't referring to Intermediate Heaven. Support for this perhaps can be found in Ephesians 4:8-10. This isn't my original thought...more from studying Kay Arthur's precepts and Irwin Lutzer's One Minute after you Die. If it was the Old Testament Heaven, perhaps there really was a chasm between Hades and Heaven that people could see. What are your thoughts on this? I also wonder when Paul refers to the 3rd heaven that maybe it isn't a level but perhaps an actual number of how many Heavens there have been...1st heaven-before the earth was created; 2nd-Old Testament Heaven; 3rd- where Heaven is now. Question: You used the phrase "Second Adam" when referring to Christ in your book. No where in the Bible does the term "Second Adam" appear. The Scriptures refer to Christ as the "Last Adam" rather than the "Second Adam" (I Corinthians 15:45.) If there is a Second Adam, people may deduce that there is a third Adam, etc,. Not so. Jesus Christ is the final, corporate head of a new human race born of God. Question: Wouldn't a better word for "intermediate"—regarding the state of the person after death but before the resurrection—be "incomplete" in that God is working in stages, each of which builds on one another. (See II Corinthians 5:1-2.) No where in the Bible does it say we have an intermediate body but rather an eternal body from God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This, I believe, is a body like Moses's body, that is not temporary, but rather, incomplete. At the rapture, this incompleted body will be put on by our resurrected physical body. At that time, it will be changed into a physical body that has all the characteristics of Jesus' resurrected body. (I Corinthians 15)
Question: How can you say there will be oceans in Heaven when Rev. 21:1 says something different?
Randy's Answer
