Heaven - On EARTH? - Jesus Taken Up In Glory

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For Part One and Part Two in this series, go to https://coryhcollins.blogspot.com/2026/06/heaven-on-earth-what-some-are-saying.html and https://coryhcollins.blogspot.com/2026/06/heaven-on-earth-what-some-are-saying_0308682380.html.

You may be wondering what the nature of Jesus’ body after his ascension has to do with the nature of heaven and our eternal existence. Actually, the study is crucial, and I’ll tell you why. Jesus’ resurrected body was later glorified, transformed for the heavenly realm and no longer suited for life on a physical earth. Our bodies will also be raised and transformed into his image.

Let’s start with the resurrection. Jesus came forth from the tomb in the same body that had gone into that tomb. To prove it to his disciples, he showed eleven of them both his hands and his feet (John 20:20). “Doubting Thomas” was absent that night. Afterwards he demanded direct evidence, and Jesus provided it.

Jn 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” 26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Luke provides the following account.

Lk 24:36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; 43 and He took it and ate it before them.

Not a spirit. Not a ghost. After Jesus was raised, he was flesh and bones. He walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He talked. He ate. He insisted, “It is I myself.” He showed his hands and his feet. He had risen -- in his real, human, physical, touchable body, with his original, authentic scars and wounds.

However, some heaven-on-earth proponents propose that Jesus exists today, in heaven, in this very same form. They say that he is still flesh-and-bones, still physical, and still scarred and wounded. From that point they reason that our own eternal nature will be the same. Our resurrected bodies will be like his.

They say that we will walk on a physical planet earth, as he did after his resurrection. We will sit at dinner tables, and we will eat. We will wear clothes and continue to experience an earthly life, but on the new physical planet earth, with God, the saints, and the angels all present.

But … does the Bible actually teach that Jesus lives today in a physical, flesh-and-blood body? Or that we will exist in such “earthly” bodies in heaven?

I think not. Here are some scriptures that lead me to this conclusion.

1. Jesus’ body was glorified in his ascension, after his resurrection. The scriptures say that he was “taken up in glory.” That phrase indicates a transformation in his status so that he was suited to return to the heavenly realm.

1 Tim 3:16 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.

2. As a result of his ascension and glorification, Jesus entered into some kind of cosmic, universe-filling existence. He is the one who “fills all in all” (Eph 1:23). He “ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things” (Eph 4:10). Christ is over the universe, but he also somehow occupies the entire universe. It is all his; it is all full of him; he is in every inch of it.

Therefore, it is hard if not impossible to imagine this infinite, all-encompassing Lord limited to a physical body in heaven, with the circumstances that would accompany such an existence.

3. Paul did not compare our future eternal body to Jesus’ flesh-and-blood resurrected state. He never said that we would become what Jesus was when he first rose from the dead. If Jesus still existed in flesh-and-blood form after his ascension, Paul could have said that we would have that same state for all eternity. He could have answered the question, “What kind of body?” simply by describing Jesus when he come forth from the tomb. He did not. He said rather that we would be transformed to be like Jesus as he is now, in his heavenly existence. We will no longer bear an earthly image, but a heavenly one.

1 Cor 15:35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” 36 You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37 and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

4. As that same scripture says in verse 45, Jesus became “a life-giving spirit.” That must have happened after his ascension. He is the “second Adam,” opposite to the “first man, Adam.” His glorified, heavenly, imperishable, immortal, incorruptible, spiritual body is suited for that heavenly place with the Father, the place that he said he would go to prepare (John 14:2-3).

5. If Jesus had remained flesh and blood, he could not have entered heaven. The same is true for us. The Word makes this clear.

1 Cor 15:50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

6. John the apostle certainly saw Jesus after his flesh-and-blood resurrection. Jesus appeared to John and the others in that state. However, John did not say, “It has appeared to us what we will be like when he comes.” Instead he said the just opposite: “It has not yet appeared what we shall be.”

1 Jn 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Therefore, Jesus must exist today in a form or state that is different from what John had seen and known in his personal experience.

There is much that we do not know about our eternal existence with the Lord. One thing we do know. It will be out of this world!

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Heaven – on EARTH? What Some are Saying – Part Two

To subscribe to “Serving and Sharing”, send an email to servingandsharing*outlook.com. (Replace * in the address with @.) Then watch your inbox and spam folder for a welcome email.

For the introduction and Part One of this series, go to https://coryhcollins.blogspot.com/2026/06/heaven-on-earth-what-some-are-saying.html.

Here are more reasons given by those who support the heaven-on-earth belief.

5. Fifth, some take Peter’s statement in Acts 3:21 as a promise of a new, physical earth. There he spoke of Jesus, “… whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” The problem here is that the “holy prophets long ago” never spoke of God creating a new, physical planet earth that would last forever. They did speak, however, of the radical, gracious restoration of man’s relationship with God that Jesus Christ would create at his first coming.

6. Sixth, some will go back to the Garden of Eden. Since God originally placed man and woman on a physical earth, it logically follows for them that he would do that again in eternity. Perhaps they find support by taking literally the mention of the “tree of life” in Revelation (2:7; 22:2, 14, 19).

However, those same passages in Revelation indicate that heaven will be unlike and even opposite to the original earth and the Garden of Eden. Specifically, there will be no hunger, no thirst, no sun, no moon, and no night there (Rev 21-22). How could the new earth have trees and food without a sun (Rev 21:23; 22:5)? And, without a sun, would the new physical earth still revolve around something? Would it spin on its axis as the present earth does? How will things work without the moon and the sea? Will there be other eternal, physical planets? If people fish on the new earth, of course the fish would die. In that case, death would continue.

The more “opposites” we see between the present life and the life to come, the harder it is to maintain the idea of a new physical earth very similar to this one. That theory just does not seem to fit the biblical data.

7. Seventh, some will take the OT prophets’ predictions of an ideal life on earth as proof. Read, for example, Isaiah 11:1-9. It speaks of the wolf lying down with the lamb, the nursing child playing by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child putting his hand on the viper’s den. Since that has not happened literally, they reason, Isaiah must be speaking about the “new earth.” It will be this earth, or one just like it, without the dangers of our current life.

However, read a similar passage in Isaiah 65, which actually promises new heavens and a new earth. When you do, I think you will agree that these Old Testament prophecies cannot point to an eternal, physical earth.

Is 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. 24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.

This passage, like the one in Isaiah 11:1-9, speaks of the wolf and the lamb, and also the lion eating straw and the serpent eating dust (65:25), so it apparently refers to the same future for God’s people. It speaks of planting crops, building and inhabiting houses, and people enjoying the work of their hands.

Some “new earth” proponents may find support here in Isaiah for a physical, eternal earth which will include these elements. However, that is not possible. Why?

The phrase “new heavens and new earth” in this passage obviously refers to Jerusalem! It points to God’s “holy mountain,” which is likely Mount Zion. It also speaks of bearing children, though there will be no marriage in heaven. And it clearly notes that people will still die (though at an old age) in this “new earth.”

Since there is no death in heaven, these “new earth” passages in Isaiah cannot refer to eternity. They must refer instead to the new existence that God would give the Jews after their return from exile in the Old Testament era. Using symbolism and metaphors, Isaiah described this renewed Jerusalem in idealistic, idyllic terms. In other words, it would be what you and a would call “a whole new world” – but not a new, eternal, physical planet earth.

By the way, this idea of a “new Jerusalem” also helps us understand the “new Jerusalem” noted in Revelation (3:12; 21:1-2, 10). The phrase there describes eternity with God in heaven as the fulfillment of the “new Jerusalem” granted to Israel after the exile. It does not necessarily refer to an actual physical city called “Jerusalem.”

8. Eighth, some promote the idea that eternity with God, the angels, and the saints in heaven would be unfulfilling, even boring, without the pleasures of earth. Some will actually suggest that, without the current blessings of life on earth, eternity would basically be an eternal church worship service, and they imply that nobody would enjoy that! It would be dry, stale, and uninteresting if it lasted forever.

It’s hard for me to imagine such a view. When I read Revelation 4-5, for example, I can feel the thrill of joining in the saints’ praise of God and fellowship with each other.

Here is just a small part of that great, inspiring text.

Rev 5:11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

9. Ninth, some will point to Jesus’ resurrected body. Since he came from the tomb in flesh and blood, in a physical body, they believe that he still exists in this form and that we will, too, for all eternity. In the view of some, he still today has the scars on his back, the nail marks in his hands, and the spear wound in his side. And, according to this view, I suppose they believe that we will still have our bodily scars, wounds, and wrinkles that we have when we die.

In my next post, I want to discuss the nature of Jesus’ resurrected and then (I believe) glorified body. I propose that the Bible’s teaching on this subject will provide clear evidence that our eternal existence will be in the heavenly realm, not on a physical earth.

To subscribe to “Serving and Sharing”, send an email to servingandsharing*outlook.com. (Replace * in the address with @.) Then watch your inbox and spam folder for a welcome email.