Heaven in Christianity
In the Book of Acts, the resurrected Jesus ascends to heaven where, as the Nicene Creed states, he now sits at the right hand of God and will return to earth in the Second Coming.
[5] Philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche have criticized the notion of heaven as a doctrine which was developed by people with suspicious motivations, who desired to prove that God favored their group at the expense of others, or who tried to enforce their conception of religion or morality using methods that often involved manipulation and intimidation.
Similarly, the earliest of the Apostolic Fathers, Pope Clement I, does not mention entry into heaven after death but instead expresses belief in the resurrection of the dead after a period of "slumber"[7] at the Second Coming.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, heaven is the parcel of deification (theosis), meaning to acquire the divine nature by grace and complete one's hypostasis via Christlike behavior, due to Jesus having made human entry into heaven possible by his incarnation, hence evidence of one's deification is usually miracles akin to those of Christ.
[11][12] Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900), a philosopher with a Russian Orthodox background, wrote of "the Creator's theandric aim, that earth may be oned with Heaven".
Schools Relations with: The church teaches that heaven "is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness" and "is the perfection of salvation.
[25]The "fruits of the redemption" is eternal life, i.e., freedom from and immunity to all evil (temptation, sin, error, inconvenience, boredom, ignorance, weakness, lack of something (basic needs, beauty, etc.
), corruption, misfortune, unfulfillment, sorrow, condemnation, fear, dishonor, hostility, imperfection, suffering, and death), and possession of all good things, via the beatific vision.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates several images of heaven found in the Bible: This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description.
Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the New Jerusalem, paradise: 'no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him'.
As the CCC teaches: As the Roman Catechism teaches: The Roman Catechism adds that human concepts of heaven (living like a king, heaven being the most perfect paradise, one enjoying the ultimate union with God, the realization of one's potential and ideals, the achievement of godhood, materialistic fulfillment (wealth, power, feast, pleasure, leisure, etc.
"[36] Catholic authors have speculated about the nature of the "secondary joy of heaven", that is Church teaching reflected in the Councils of Florence and of Trent.
Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins describes this joy as reflecting Christ to one another, each in our own personal way and to the extent that we have grown more Christlike in this life, for as Hopkins writes, "Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his, to the Father through the features of men's faces."
[38] Pope John Paul II said that heaven "is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity.
These hierarchies and the names and descriptions of creatures therein are not part of the church's official teaching, even if some saints and popes (such as Thomas Aquinas and John Paul II) endorsed them.
Christadelphians instead believe that following death, the soul enters a state of unconsciousness, and will stay that way until the Last Judgment, where those saved will be resurrected and the damned will be annihilated.
They believe that only 144,000 chosen faithful followers ("The Anointed") will be resurrected to heaven to rule with Christ over the majority of mankind who will live on Earth.
[56] The view of heaven according to the Latter Day Saint movement is based on section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants as well as 1 Corinthians 15 in the King James Version of the Bible.
