Hey, this is John Collins and this is part two where we talk with Tim Mackey, PhD, about

heaven.

In the last episode we talked about from the Hebrew language, the word heavens is always

plural and it always refers to the sky.

And it is assigned as a place where God's presence dwells.

Biblical authors will use the sky as a way of talking about the nature of God's space,

that it's high, it's transcendent, it's authoritative, it's where he sees everything.

But in Biblical thought God's presence isn't only in the sky.

We know that they believe that God's presence was accessible here on earth, is thrown in heaven

overlapped with earth.

In fact, the whole point of creation is for God's space and our space to be united.

And in the story of the Bible it begins with God's space completely overlapping with human

space.

That's the ideal, that's the whole point.

That's the whole point, but it isn't our reality right now.

And so in Hebrew thought, in Biblical thought, there was still a place where you can find

God's presence, where God's presence overlaps with ours, and that's the temple.

Those are the pointers to the reality that God's presence should ought to and will one

day once again permeate all of this world, just like it was back in the ideal.

It raises the question, where where did it go?

Why isn't it everywhere anymore?

And that is how this whole set of concepts is a really cool way of looking at the story

...