God’s dwelling place. Thereby He made it possible for the redeemed of the Old Testament days who were in Paradise, a waiting place, to ascend with Him into the presence o f the Father. Because all believers are identified with Christ by faith, and because death could not in any way hold Him, it follows that every believer—whether living before Calvary or after it—is assured of eternal residence in the Saviour’s presence. Looking ahead, now, to that time of the com plete ingathering o f all those who are and shall have been redeemed in all the ages, and to that place of their permanent residence, we turn our attention to the eternal city and seek the enlight enment of God’s Word concerning it. The Scripture always speaks of Heaven as “ up” from the earth. We read that “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11). Again, “when he [Christ] had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1 :9 ). And again, “ then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds” (1 Thess. 4:17). But which way is “ up” ? If we say it is in the direction at right angles with the earth’s surface wherever one may happen to be, then it would fol low that “ up” would be in a somewhat different direction from every part of the globe. The earth is round, and if a command were given for every body to look up, broadly speaking every person on earth would look in a different direction from every other person. If Heaven is just “up,” then Heaven is everywhere in general and nowhere in particular. But this is not what the Word o f God teaches. When the Lord ascended, He went somewhere in particular and not everywhere in general. Some time ago, my friend the late Dr. W. L. Pettingill discussed this subject of the locality of Heaven. His conviction was that the eternal abid ing place of the redeemed, the New Jerusalem, was in the north. To bear out this view, he called atten tion to Isaiah 14:12-15, where the fall of Lucifer is described. Lucifer was the name for Satan before his fall, and the event of his being cast out of Heaven is graphically pictured in this portion of Scripture. This passage reveals a great mystery. Lucifer said, “ I will ascend into heaven . . . I will be like the Most High.” In so declaring he locates the city of God, telling us that it is specifically “ above the stars of God,” “ above . . . the clouds,” and “ in the sides of the north.” Though finite minds cannot give a complete answer to this question now, we shall known ere long; for when we are “with Christ, which is far better,” we shall no longer “ see through a glass darkly,” but we shall know all that divine grace has planned. D BJ
000 moons to be lodged around those earths. But even the sun is small, comparatively, because some fixed stars such as Alpha Centauri are five times larger than our sun. We are told that the “Milky Way” is composed of untold millions of suns, some of them so far away that the light traveling from them to the earth at 186,000 miles a second re quires almost 100,000 years to arrive here. How, then, shall we think of our earth in relation to the whole universe? As a single grain of sand, at the base of a single blade of grass in the vastness o f a Manitoba prairie, so is our earth when compared with the rest of God’s universe! Think for a mo ment of the incomprehensible outreaches o f this great universe. Then remember that the govern ment—the upholding of it—all emanates from that holy place where Christ is at the right hand of the Father. WHERE IS HEAVEN? The Scriptures proclaim the existence of three heavens, and the context of each passage deter mines which one is in the mind of the writer. First of all, there is the aerial heaven, where birds fly, the winds blow, and the rain is formed. Satan, as the prince of the power of the air, has his abode somewhere in this area. Then we have the second or planetary heavens wherein the sun, moon, and stars are set. It is these heavens that “declare the glory of God,” as the psalmist affirms. Last of all, we have the Heaven of heavens, the third Heaven, God’s residence and the dwelling place o f angels and the redeemed. This sacred pre cinct of light and joy is “ the habitation of his holi ness, the place where his honor dwelleth.” It is dif ferent from the other two localities in that it is entirely separated from the impurities and imper fections, the alterations and changes, of the lower realms. Ultimately, the redeemed of all ages will, by the grace o f God, have their habitation in His holy presence. The Old Testament saints will be there. Prior to Calvary, the spirits of the righteous dead went to Paradise (or Sheol) which was one divi sion of “ the place of the departed spirits.” Hades was the other section. But sometimes the word translated hell is used loosely to mean both sec tions, as in Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27. Paradise, in the Old Testament times, was not identical with Heaven, though it has been since the resurrection and ascension of our Lord. When the Lord Jesus died on Calvary, His body rested in Joseph’s new tomb for three days and three nights, while His spirit went to the abode of the righteous dead who had lived from the time of Adam to the time of Christ. Through His death on the cross, Christ opened the way for believers to enter Heaven,
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