Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Revelation 21:1
Christians often ask, Where is heaven? Heaven is mentioned more than 500 times in Scripture, but the only location suggested is “up.” The apostles of Jesus stood “gazing up into heaven” as Jesus ascended (Acts 1:11). The apostle Paul was “caught up” into a “third heaven”—but he doesn’t say any more than “up” about location (2 Corinthians 12:2).
Recommended Reading: 2 Peter 3:10-13
Given the lack of specificity about heaven’s location, Christians by default think it is somewhere overhead, somewhere in the “heavens.” But Scripture seems to suggest that heaven will be on earth, not in the sky. When the apostle John saw the New Jerusalem “coming down out of heaven,” it came to the earth (Revelation 21:2). And Peter described the present heavens and earth being “burned up” and “dissolved” (2 Peter 3:10-11), replaced by “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (verse 13). So it seems that God will renovate and restore His original creation by creating heaven on earth.
You may love where you live now, but you will love your heaven-on-earth home that is coming much more!
Heaven will chiefly consist in the enjoyment of God.
William S. Plummer
Read-Thru-the-Bible: Jeremiah 50 – 52