Heaven

“Father, I will that they also… be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory…”

John 17:24

“And they shall see His face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”

Rev. 22:4-5

“God hath made many fair flowers, but the fairest of them all is heaven, and the flower of all flowers is Christ.”

Samuel Rutherford

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Subsections

Bible Verses: Degrees of Reward in Heaven
Beatific Vision

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Oder of Contents

Articles  5
Books  4
Quotes  5
Latin  3
Historical Theology  10
On Lutheranism  1

Location of Angels  3
O.T. Saints went Directly to Heaven  4
Intermediate State  6
Knowledge of Others in Heaven  8+
Displeasure & Repentance in Heaven?  1


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Articles

1600’s

Ambrose, Isaac – ‘Heaven’s Happiness’  on Lk. 23:43  in Ultima = the Last Things…  or Certain Meditations on Life, Death, Judgment, Hell, Right Purgatory & Heaven…  (London, 1650), pp. 197-222

Ambrose (1604-1664) was an English, presbyterian, puritan minister and a preacher to King Charles I.  He was ejected from the Anglican Church for non-conformity in 1662.

Turretin, Francis – Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 3, 20th Topic

12. ‘What is the difference between the church militant and the church triumphant?’  632

13. ‘Will the saints glorify God not only with a mental, but also with a vocal language?  And will there be a diversity of languages or only one?’  635

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1700’s

à Brakel, Wilhelmus – ch. 103, ‘Concerning Eternal Glory’  in The Christian’s Reasonable Service, vol. 4  ed. Joel Beeke, tr. Bartel Elshout  Buy  (1700; RHB, 1992/1999), pp. 357-73

a Brakel (1635-1711) was a contemporary of Voet and Witsius and a major representative of the Dutch Further Reformation.

Edwards, Jonthan – ‘Nothing upon Earth can Represent the Glories of Heaven’  in Works, 22 vols.  (Yale Univ. Press, 1992), 14:137-60

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1800’s

Alexander, Archibald – ‘Heaven’  no date or source info, 4 paragraphs


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Books

1600’s

Love, Christopher – Sermons 1-10  on Col. 3:4  in Heaven’s Glory, Hell’s Terror, or Two Treatises: the one concerning the Glory of the Saints with Jesus Christ as a spur to Duty…  (London: Rothwell, 1655), pp. 1-138

Baxter, Richard – The Saint’s Everlasting Rest: Or, a Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints, in Their Enjoyment of God in Heaven…  (London, 1650)  848 pp.  ToC  IA  ToC  450 pp.

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1700’s

Mather, Increase – Meditations on the Glory of the Heavenly World. I. On the Happiness of the Soul of Believers at the Instant of their Separation from their Bodies. II. On the Glory of the Bodies of God’s Children in the Resurrection World, when they shall be as the Angels of Heaven. III. On the Glory of Both Soul & Body in the Heaven of Heavens, after the Day of Judgment, to all Eternity  (d. 1701; Boston: T. Green, 1711)

Mather, Cotton – Coelestinus: a Conversation in Heaven, Quickened & Assisted, with Discoveries of Things in the Heavenly World…  by Dr. Increase Mather, Waiting in the Daily Expectation of his Departure to that Glorious World  (d. 1728; Boston, 1723)  205 pp.

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1800’s

Patterson, Robert M. – Paradise: the Place & State of Saved Souls Between Death & the Resurrection  (Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1874)  220 pp.  ToC  MOA

Patterson (1832-1911) was a presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania.

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2000’s

Donnelly, Ed – Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven & Hell  (Banner of Truth, 2001)  127 pp.  ToC

Roberts, Maurice – The Happiness of Heaven  Blurb  (RHB, 2009)  129 pp.  ToC


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Quotes

1600’s

Samuel Rutherford

“When we shall come home and enter to the possession of our Brother’s fair kingdom, and when our heads shall find the weight of the eternal crown of glory, and when we shall look back to pains and sufferings; then shall we see life and sorrow to be less than one step or stride from a prison to glory; and that our little inch of time-suffering is not worthy of our first night’s welcome home to heaven.”

“Sure I am He is the far best half of heaven; yea He is all heaven, and more than all heaven.”

“O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without Thee, it would be hell; and if I could be in hell and have Thee still, it would be a heaven to me, for Thou are all the heaven I want.”

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1800’s

Robert Murray M’Cheyne

‘The Church in Sardis’

“There was a little Christian child who was asked, when she was dying, why she was so happy?  ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I am going to be with Christ.’  ‘But,’ they said to her, ‘perhaps Christ will leave heaven.’  ‘Ah! Then,’ she said, ‘I will leave it, too, and go with Him.’  It is our very heaven to be with Christ; we shall see eye to eye.”

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John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan

“Till He comes it is the reign of hope; when He comes it is the reign of grateful remembrance.”

“I would see Jesus.  I am thinking on his name distantly, but I would see Him.”


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Latin Articles

1600’s

Martinius, Matthew – A Theology on the Singular Person of our Lord Jesus Christ in Two Natures…  (Bremen, 1614)

ch. 21, ‘Ubiquity is confuted out of the predicted leaving of the Lord from this world’  975

What then is the genus of Heaven?  1,032
Of the Time Heaven was Founded  1,038
Where the Heaven of the Blessed is?  1,040
The Third Heaven is the Place of Whom?  1,041
Whether the Supreme Heaven, or of the Blessed, will perish or be
.      burned? [No]  1,045
In what way the world will perish?  1,070
What may the character of the future state of the world be after the
.      Last Judgment?  1,078
Whether in Heaven life is temporally successive?  1,090-1111

Voet, Gisbert – Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 6  Abbr.

On the Separated Soul of the Blessed (Place, Felicity, Intellect & Will)
2. Of the Heaven of the Blessed


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Historical Theology

Ancient History to Middle Ages

Wright, J. Edward – The Early History of Heaven  (Oxford, 2002)  325 pp.  ToC

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Intertestamental Era to the Medieval Church

Simon, Ulrich – Heaven in the Christian Tradition  Blurb  (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958)

“The title…  suggests that the broad sweep of Christian history will be previewed.  In reality it is a study of heaven looking at Old Testament and New Testament texts, supplemented with references to inter-testamental literature, rabbinic sources, and the apostolic fathers;” – John H. Duff

Russell, Jeffrey Burton – A History of Heaven: the Singing Silence  (Princeton Univ. Press, 1997)  250 pp.  ToC  This covers 200 BC to 1336 AD.

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The Whole of Church History

McDannell, Colleen & Bernhard Lang – Heaven: a History  (Yale Univ. Press, 1988)  425 pp.  ToC

Ch. 6, is on sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth-century Protestant and Catholic conceptions of life after death.  For a review, see Duff, pp. 4-5.

McGrath, Alistair – A Brief History of Heaven  in Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion  (Blackwell Publishing, 2003)  215 pp.  ToC  This study is thematic rather than chronological, and surveys literature more than theological works.

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Early Church to the Post-Reformation

Crippen, T.G. – ‘Final Blessedness of the Saints’  in A Popular Introduction to the History of Christian Doctrine  (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. 250-53

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1600’s to Present

Smith, Gary Scott – Heaven in the American Imagination  (Oxford Univ. Press, 2011)  ToC  Has coverage of the puritans, Edwards, the Great Awakenings, etc.

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1600’s to 1700’s

Almond, Philip C. – Heaven & Hell in Enlightenment England  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)  240 pp.  ToC  Covers 1650-1750

Duff, John H. – ‘A Knot Worth Unloosing’: the Interpretation of the New Heavens & Earth in Seventeenth Century England  PhD Dissertation  (Calvin Theological Seminary, 2014)


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On Lutheranism

Quote

Francis Turretin

Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol. 1, 5th Topic, ‘Creation’, 6th Question, p. 447

“IV.  …This must be opposed to the Lutherans who hold that heaven to be uncreated and feign that it is illocal (illocale) and incorporeal and everywhere (in order to weaken the argument drawn from the ascension of Christ to Heaven against the ubiquity [everywhere-ness] of his body).”


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On the Location of Angels

Quote

Francis Cheynell

The Divine Trinunity…  (London, 1650), ch. 6, pp. 169-70

“…and it is most certain that angelical persons have a limited
presence, because they have a finite essince [as opposed to God]…

I need say no more concerning angels than what is commonly said, ‘Angeli sunt alicuoi definitive; sunt enim in suo ubi non per operationem vel circumscriptionem, sed per designationem definitivam,’ angels are naturally somewhere; though they are
not in any place by extension of parts, yet their finite nature is contained within certain bounds and limits.  Hence it is that
some learned men affirm that it is improper to say, that God is somewhere because He is everywhere; somewhere is a definitive word.”

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Historical Theological Articles

1900’s

Muller, Richard – Dictionary of Latin & Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology  1st ed.  (Baker, 1985)

‘alicubitas’
‘definitivus’
‘illocalis subsistendi modus’
‘ubietas’
‘unio accidentalis’


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The Old Testament Saints went Directly to Heaven upon Death

See also, ‘On the Limbo of the Fathers’.

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Bible Verses

Ps. 16:11  “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

Ps. 17:15  “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

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Westminster Larger Catechism #86

“Q. What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?

A. The communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death, is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness,[l] and received into the highest heavens,[m] where they behold the face of God in light and glory,[n] waiting for the full redemption of their bodies,[o] which even in death continue united to Christ,[p] and rest in their graves as in their beds,[q] till at the last day they be again united to their souls.[r]…

[l] Heb. 12:23.
[m] 2 Cor. 5:1,6,8Phil. 1:23 compared with Acts 3:21 and with Eph. 4:10.
[n] 1 John 3:21 Cor. 13:12.
[o] Rom. 8:23Ps. 16:9.
[p] 1 Thess. 4:14.
[q] Isa. 57:2.
[r] Job 19:26,27

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Articles

Turretin, Francis – question 11, ‘Whether the souls of the fathers of the Old Testament were immediately received into heaven after death or were cast into limbo.  The former we affirm; the latter we deny against the papists’  in Institutes, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (P&R), 12th Topic, ‘The Covenant of Grace’, pp. 257-62

Rijssen, Leonard – Controversy 7, ‘Of the limbus patrum – Were the souls of Old Testament believers at the entrance of Gehenna or the edge (limbo) of hell, excluded from salvation until the resurrection of Christ from the dead?  We deny against the Papists’  in A Complete Summary of Elenctic Theology & of as Much Didactic Theology as is Necessary  trans. J. Wesley White  MTh thesis  (Bern, 1676; GPTS, 2009), ch. 18, ‘Last Things,’ pp. 248-49

Rijssen (1636?-1700?) was a prominent Dutch reformed minister and theologian, active in theological controversies.

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Quote

1600’s

William Perkins

Works of William Perkins  (RHB), vol. 3, pp. 47-75

“Out of this translation of Enoch we may learn:

Thirdly, whereas the papists hold that all the fathers who died before Christ were in limbus and came not in heaven till Christ fetched them thence and carried them with Him at His ascension, here we learn it is most false and forged.  For here we see Enoch and afterward Elijah were in heaven both in body and soul many hundred years before Christ’s incarnation, whereby (as also by many other evidences that might be brought) it is apparent that limbus patrum [‘the limbo of the Fathers’] is nothing but a device of that heretical Church of Rome.

Against this ground, being the very words of the Old Testament, no man can take exception.  And here in a word, let us all mark the high and sovereign authority of God’s Word, which even the Holy Ghost Himself vouchsafes to allege for the confirmation of His own words.”


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On the Intermediate State:  After Death, before the Resurrection

Articles

1600’s

Maccovius, John – ch. 18, ‘On the State of Souls before the Resurrection’  in Scholastic Discourse: Johannes Maccovius (1588-1644) on Theological & Philosophical Distinctions & Rules  (1644; Apeldoorn: Instituut voor Reformatieonderzoek, 2009), pp. 265-71

Maccovius (1588–1644) was a Polish, reformed theologian.

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1700’s

à Brakel, Wilhelmus – ‘The State of the Soul After Death’  in ch. 100, ‘Concerning Death & the State of the Soul After Death’  in The Christian’s Reasonable Service, vol. 4  ed. Joel Beeke, tr. Bartel Elshout  Buy  (1700; RHB, 1992/1999), pp. 316-17

a Brakel (1635-1711) was a contemporary of Voet and Witsius and a major representative of the Dutch Further Reformation.

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Latin Articles

Voet, Gisbert

Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2  Abbr.

tract 3

Appendix: Of the Perfection of Regeneration Following & of the Perfection of Sanctification in Death or After Death

tract 6

On the Life & Operations of the Separated Soul
On the Knowledge of the Separated Soul
On the Adjuncts, Properties & Affections of the Separated Soul
2. Of the Separated Soul in Specific

On the Separated Soul of the Blessed (Place, Felicity, Intellect & Will)
On the Separated Soul of the Damned (Place & Punishment)

1. Of the Intermediate State of the Body in General, or of the Cadaver  (Before & After the Whole Dissolution of it)

2. On the State of the Body in Specific  (Of the Blessed & Damned)

‘Some Problems on the State of Souls After Death’  in Select Theological Disputations  (1669), vol. 5, pp. 533-38


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We will be able to Know Each Other in Heaven

Quote

William Bucanus

Institutions of Christian Religion...  (London, 1610), ch. 39, ‘Of Eternal Life’, p. 488

“Shall men know one another in this eternal life?

Yea verily, for they shall be full of the Holy Spirit, and of wisdom, as Adam before his Fall, keeping as then the integrity of God’s image, acknowledged Eve, whom he had never seen, and whence she was, being told of no man, Gen. 2:23.  As Peter on the mountain, receiving only a certain taste of life-eternal in his mortal body, knew by inward revelation Moses and Elias, whom he never saw, Mt. 17:3-4, yet this shall not be a carnal, but a spiritual knowledge.”

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Articles

1600’s

Turretin, Francis – Question 11, ‘Will the Saints in the Other World Know One Another?  We Affirm.’  in 20th Topic, ‘The Last Things’  in Institutes, vol. 3, pp. 630-32

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1800’s

Foster, Randolph Sinks – ‘The Doctrine of Recognition’  in Beyond the Grave: being Three Lectures before Chautauqua Assembly in 1878, with Papers…  (NY, 1879), pp. 189-238

Foster (1820–1903) was an American, Arminian bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Woodruff, Purl G. & Jonathan F. Woodruff – Recognition of Friends in Heaven  Indiana Conference  (Indianapolis, 1887)  45 pp.

J. Woodruff was a minister.  The authors take the Bible as authoritative.

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Books

1800’s

Kerr, John J. – Future Recognition, or the Blessedness of those ‘Who Die in the Lord’  (Philadelphia: Hooker, 1847)  170 pp.  ToC

Kerr was a Protestant Episcopal Church clergyman in Philadelphia.

Killen, J.M. – Our Friends in Heaven, or the Mutual Recognition of the Redeemed in Glory Demonstrated  15th ed.  (1854; London, 1873)  270 pp.  ToC

Killen (1815–1879), D.D., was a minister in Comber, co. Down, and was the brother of ​the Irish presbyterian, ecclesiastical historian, William Dool Killen (1806–1902).

Bickersteth, Robert, et al. – The Recognition of Friends in Heaven  (London, 1866)  320 pp.  ToC  There is a collection of excerpts from divines on pp.191-224.

Bickersteth (1816-1884) was an Anglican Bishop of Ripon.

Hodge, J. Aspinwall – Recognition After Death  (Robert Carter & Brothers, 1889)  185 pp.  no ToC

Ziegler, Henry & Peter H. Anstadt – Future Recognition of our Friends in Heaven… Together with the Requisites to Recognition…  Also extracts from the writings of Harbaugh, Schmucker, Stork, Luther, Melanchthon, Knapp, Calvin, Tillotson, Doddridge, Baxter, Melville & Others…  (York, PA: 1895)  195 pp.  ToC  The excerpts from theologians are on pp. 83-131.

Ziegler (1816-1898) was a Lutheran minister and professor in the Pennsylvania and Maryland area.  Anstadt (1819-1903) was a Lutheran minister in the Pennsylvania area.


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Will there be Displeasure & Repentance in Heaven?

Bible Verses

Rev. 7:7  “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

Rev. 6:9-10  “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?'”

Rev. 8:3-5  “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.  And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”

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Affirmative

Article

Baxter, Richard – pp. 16-27  in section 3  of Catholic Communion Doubly Defended by [Against] Dr. Owen’s Vindicator…  (London: Parkhurst, 1684)


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On the Glorified Soul

Article

1600’s

Bucanus, William – ‘What shall be the State of the Godly Souls?’  in ch. 37, ‘Of the Last Resurrection’  in Institutions of Christian Religion...  (London, 1610), pp. 463-64

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Related Pages

Death

Funerals

Purgatory

The Judgment

Glorification

Bible Verses: Degrees of Reward in Heaven

Beatific Vision

Hell

Bible Verses on Degrees of Punishment in Hell

On the 2nd Coming of Christ

On the General Resurrection

On the Renovation, New Heavens & Earth & Believers’ Eternal Home

On Eternal Life