According to the Bible, Heaven is a place where people can live in perfect peace and harmony. It’s a place where there is no pain or suffering, and everyone is equal. But according to recent scientific studies, the size of heaven may not be as big as we think.
The Bible makes it clear that Heaven will have streets paved with gold and walls made of precious stones. It also says that heaven will have gates made from pearls and streets made from pure gold (Revelation 21:21). This suggests that Heaven must be very large indeed!
But what if there’s another way of looking at this? What if we take what God says about Heaven literally, but we also take into account other things he told us about the world? For example: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth” (Exodus 20:11). And in Genesis 1:1-2 we read “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth.” So what does this mean for how big Heaven might actually be?
How Big Is Heaven According To The Bible
The vision of the new creation that John, a scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures, presents is a kaleidoscope of images from the biblical poets and prophets. His intention was to make a picture that would make us think about the metaphors used in the Old Testament.
John’s description of the new Jerusalem’s physical attributes in Revelation 21:15–21 is a prime illustration of this.
Revel. 21:15–21 15
He measured the city and its gates and wall with a gold measuring rod as we conversed.
Don’t stop reading! According to him, the 12 tribes of Israel are represented by the city’s 24 gates spread across its four sides. Then he says that there are 12 enormous cornerstones, which represent the 12 apostles. Hereafter, John describes the heavenly city as a perfect cube, with each side measuring 12,000 stadia, or 1,400 miles. Then we learn that the walls reached a height of 144 cubits, or just under 200 feet.
Moreover, the most shocking revelation is that temple construction is not a part of the New Creation. Once contained only in the temple, God and the lamb are now everywhere in the new world. There, a new kind of human being is living up to the promise made to them on the very first page of the Bible. Humans, created in God’s image, will exercise dominion over the rest of creation as they work alongside God to explore uncharted regions. The epic storyline of the Bible comes to a close with John’s apocalypse.
What Does Heaven Look Like According to The Bible
Jesus is in heaven preparing a dwelling place for us (John 14:1-3). Those who are saved by God will receive brand new bodies in the afterlife, ones that are free from the effects of sin. In the afterlife, the senses will be fully restored, and there will be no more blind, deaf, or lame people (Isaiah 35:5, 6 and Philippians 3:21). Despite the fact that Jesus constructs mansions in heaven, the Bible promises that the redeemed will construct and live in their own dwellings, as well as plant and harvest vineyards for their own sustenance (Isaiah 65:21). God wants to be your friend, and He will be there in heaven. He longs to be your constant companion and the one to dry your tears (Revelation 21:1-4).
1) Everything is brand new “As I looked up, I realized that the old heaven and earth were no more. There was also no longer any ocean. New Jerusalem, the holy city, descended from heaven from God like a bride dressed for her husband, and I, John, saw it ” (Revelation 21:1, 2).
Secondly, there are no sad or hurt feelings.
“And there will be no more death, sorrow, or crying, for God will have eliminated all of these things from their existence. Nothing hurts anymore because the old ways are gone ” (Revelation 21:4).
Peaceful perfection “The wolf and the lamb will eat together, the lion will eat straw like an ox, and the serpent will eat dust. Nothing they throw at My holy mountain will ever be able to hurt or destroy it, says the LORD ” (Isaiah 65:25).
- Dwellings and agricultural land
They’ll put up homes and live in them; they’ll plant vineyards and drink the grape juice (Isaiah 65:21).
Producing Gardens
The barren land will be rejoicing in their presence, and the desert will be blooming like a rose (Isaiah 35:1).
Where is Heaven Located in The Universe
Due to the fact that God is spirit (John 4:24), it could be assumed that God’s abode, heaven, is located on a different dimension than our own. Jesus, in His resurrected body, is now residing in heaven. In addition, God is present in heaven with his angels and the souls of the faithful who have passed on; after all, they are a part of the material universe that God created. This means that heaven has some physical aspects, but is not located anywhere in the physical universe. Heaven is currently inaccessible to humans on Earth, but the Bible speaks of a future state of existence in which a new heaven, new earth, and new heavenly city will exist (Revelation 21–22). All God’s people will eventually make their permanent home in this heavenly realm alongside their Creator.
The apostle John is shown entering heaven through a heavenly portal in Revelation 4. And then he is transported to heaven, where he stands before the throne of God. Once again, John has a vision in which he is somewhere other than on Earth. There were a few references to looking down at what was happening on Earth, but no specific location was ever specified. Where exactly is the afterlife located? Angels at the four corners of the earth make it clear that heaven is beyond and larger than Earth (Revelation 7:1-4).
Many people have pondered where exactly Heaven is. Heaven is both assumed and frequently mentioned in the Bible, suggesting that its authors believed it to be a real location. Where, exactly, is heaven, though? The apostle Paul referred to this heavenly realm or paradise as the “third heaven” in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4. Separate from both the first heaven (the heavens above) and the second heaven (the underworld), this place (the expanse of outer space). Obviously, this is the place where God resides in the afterlife.
So, what else do we know about God’s current abode in heaven? Faithful people from the past are with God right now, according to Hebrews 11. As taught in Matthew 6:9-10, the Lord’s Prayer, “Glory to you, O God, the Father Almighty. Pray that God’s will be done, both here on earth and in heaven.” There, the Father’s name is praised, His kingdom rules, and His will is carried out.
Exactly where is this heavenly place then? Beyond the sinful curse of this world, there is a place called Heaven where God dwells with his angels, his faithful followers, and other creatures. Eventually, this heavenly realm will give way to a final state that includes a new heaven, a new earth, and a new heavenly city where God and His children will live forever (Revelation 21–22).
How big is heaven?
No one really knows how big heaven is, and the Bible doesn’t give us a direct answer. But we can surmise that heaven is quite large.
First, we should clarify that there are a few different things meant by the word “heaven.” We talk about heaven in the sense of where the stars reside, where God dwells, and where those who have put their faith in Jesus will dwell for eternity. Each of these is a large place.
When we look at the word “heaven” in the Bible we see a vastness that the writers could not explain. In Hebrew, the word shameh or shamayim refers to the sky or everything above the earth and all that is visible from it—beyond the atmosphere, stars, and all that can be seen. In Greek, ouranos means the sky or the place where God lives, or even “an eternal realm of happiness and glory.” When the writers chose the word meaning sky or everything above the earth, they were saying that heaven is vast, lofty, and of God.
When you look literally at what they described, you can see that anything larger than what we can see is beyond comprehension. We have been able to see, with the Hubble Space Telescope, parts of the universe so far away it is hard to understand. The nearest galaxy to our own, Andromeda, would take us 2.2 million light years to reach—or 37,200 years at the rate of 18,000 miles per hour. Can you say warp speed, please?
When we look at the Bible, it shows us that God lives in heaven and He is infinite with no beginning and no end to His years (Psalm 102:27), there is no end to His reign (Luke 1:33), He is unchanging (Hebrews 1:12; James 1:17), and He is the Creator of earth and heaven (Genesis 1:1). Certainly His dwelling place is not small.
John, who was given a look at heaven, writes, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'” (Revelation 7:9–10). Though we don’t know the measurements of heaven—where God and His followers who have died are—we do know it is big enough to fit a great multitude that cannot be numbered.
John is later given a vision of the new heavens and new earth, which is where believers will ultimately spend eternity. Out of the new heavens, a New Jerusalem will descend (Revelation 21:2). The New Jerusalem is only one part of the new earth, but the Bible does give its measurements as approximately 1,400 miles in each direction, possibly in a cube or pyramid shape. And that is just one city. So no doubt our eternal abode is quite large.
