This is a religious question.
 

This is meant to be educational... so please be kind.

I was wondering what is the depiction of heaven in your religion?

For me, I am a Christian (Baptist), and in my biblical up bringing heaven was always depictued as a place. And I have to believe in Jesus as the son of God.

So the questions are: Do you believe in heaven? And where or what is it? Do you have to believe in any one thing or do any one thing to get there?

I am looking for enlightenment and better understanding.
Thank you!

arin
 

I PMed you.

Re: This is a religious question.
 

In the church, heaven was always depicted as a place (ie. the pearly gates). I do believe in heaven but I don't think it's a tangible place that you can define as being in a certain place. Catholics believe that you not only have to believe in Jesus as the Savior, but also do good works to get there. I think almost all people end up doing good works at some time in their lives.

The book I've read that made the most sense to me about the after life was a book by Betty Eadie called Embraced By the Light. It made sense to me and fit with my own belief systems. Very interesting reading, even if you don't believe it.

ETA: She has a website that has some excerpts from the book. It's www.embracedbythelight.com

There isn't sufficient biblical evidence for heaven being a literal place, in my opinion. However, I do see evidence that the New Jerusalem is going to exist on earth after creation has been restored.

The city of the New Jerusalem described in the Bible cannot be taken literally (i.e. dimensions of the cube-like structure) as this is not how the original author(s) would have understood it. The specifics are derived from Jewish culture, with its focus on numbers and symbols.

By the way, the most prevalent forms of biblical criticism stem from a presuppostion that the Bible cannot mean now what it never meant in the time it was written.