It is used also (3) to denote the peculiar abode of Deity, with which the ideas of elevation, majesty, glory, power, holiness, unchangeableness are associated. It is the place to which prayer ascends (2 Ch 30=^), which makes J'"s throne (Is 6' 66'), which is His peculiar possession in contrast with the earth which He has given to the sons of men ( Ps 1 15"*). It is the ' height ' or ' heights ' (Job 22'-', Ps 148'), snpramundane, above the firmament and all created things (Ps29'-"' 104'^- »). As the dwelling-place of God it is described in terms of a temple, a sanctuaiT, a palace, a throne ( Ps 11*, Mic 1', Hab 2^ etc.). "the ideas of the supramundane abode are taken so naturally from the visible things of the mundane holy place, which was the centre of the Jewish worship of God and the place where He was specially to be found, tliat it is sometimes difficult to say which of the two was immediately in the writer's thought (e.g. in Is 6 ; see Riehm, EW, under the word Ilimmel). It is the place, too, in which God has His court of angels (Job 1' 2', implicitly). But whUe it is often tnus" spoken of as the peculiar habitation of God, it is also described as incapable of containing Him, and the prophets declare His greatness to be such as to surpass all the bounds of space and all idea of residence within the limits even of the heaven ui heavens (Is 40" 66' ; cf. 1 K 8^).
HEAVEN
HEAVEN
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But it is also used, (4), in the esiliatological sense, to express the new constitution of thiiii^s whicli sliall in the end talce the place of the ])resent im- perfect order. In many passages the quality of the changeless and enduring is ascribed to ' lieaven,' especially in contrast with the mutable earth and the perishable life of man (Jos 11'', Ps 72'- '• " 89=», Jer SI"- » 33'^- »). But it is also exhibited as an aspect of the changeful and transitory, as contrasted with the chan;;(;less being and eternal years of God Himself (Ps W2^--\ Is 51"). And the OT looks forward to a day of divine judgment, the issue of which shall be the dissolution of the present order, the renewal of the system of things, and tlie creation of a glorious condition of which a restored heaven shall form part (Is 05" GO").
The NT takes over the general OT idea of ' heaven,' Imt witli certain dilierences and enlarge- ments. It has the same general conception of ' heaven ' as a region above earth. As the () f speaks of a ladder reaching to heaven (Gn 28'-), of Elijah as going ' up ' in a whirlwind to lieaven (2 K 2"), of the 'heights' of heaven (Job 11*), etc., so the NT speaks of tlie angels of God ascending and descend- ing in relation to heaven (.In 1"), of St. Paul as ' caught up ' to the third heaven (2 Co 12-), of St. John as seeing a door opened in heaven and hearing a voice sayin", 'Come up hitlier' (Rev 4'), of the holy city as descending from God out of heaven (ReV 21"), etc. In the NT it is also the name given to the peculiar dwelling-place of God, and Christ's doctrine of God as our ' Fatlier in heaven' adds to the OT conception of its majesty and remoteness and holiness the new ideas of security, grace, and love. The whole conception of heaven as the habitation of Deity is made more definite by its being presented as the scene of the present life and activity of Christ. It is the jdace from which lie came to earth and to which He re- ascended (Mk 10'", Lk 24", Ac 1") ; tlie habitation wliich ' must receive ' Him ' until the times of the restitution of all things' (Ac 3-') ; the scene of His present reign and His present work. In heaven He is in ' the presence of God ' (He 9-^), and tliere His glory can be .seen (Jn 17-^). The scene of Clirist's ri-<cn life and the work of intercession whicli He carries on in it are described with special fulness in the Rp. to the Ileb., and in terms of tlie ancient .Icwisli sanctuary, its conditions, its sanctities, and its services I lie S' "'"• O'"). Heaven is also the abode of the angels (Mt 18'" 22™, Rev 3»), and the place from which the Holy Ghost is sent down (1 P 1").
It is chictly in its eschatological ajiplications that the word ' heaven ' is used in the NT. The idea of a renewal of heaven as well as earth that is a.s.sociated in the OT with the judgment of the end, is given more distinctly in the NT. In certain large and signiticant passages the NT speaks of a redemption of the whole creation from the bondage of corruption (Ro 8'-'), of a gathering together and a reconciliation of tilings in heaven as well as things on earth (F.pli 1'", Col l'-""), of a time of the restitution of all things (Ac 3-'), of a day when all things shall be made new (Rev 21'), of the formation of a ' new heaven ' as well as ' a new earth, wherein dwcUcth righteousness ' (2 P 3'-- ", Rev 21')- The NT as.s(>ciates this renewal of the heavens with Christ's Second Coming and the Final .luilgment, and connects the hope of a new scene and order for man's life with that of the linal perfection of his life. Purther, in the NT ' heaven ' is in jiarticular the linal home of the righteous. It is the place whicli Christ has gone to prepare for tlicin (.In IP), the place from which He is to come with His ludy angels (Mt 24"°, Mk \S^, I,k 2V^, Rev 1') for the final arbitrament of tlii igs, and into which His own shall be received thi t they may be with llim and see His glory voi_ If. — ai