John 3:13 reads, “For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again.” It seems like Jesus is saying he came from heaven because he says he’s going to return to heaven “again.” It also seems from this passage that he is the only one that is going to heaven because that’s where he comes from. None of us are going to heaven because we are not from heaven, we are from earth, or a combination of the two. In John 3, Jesus doesn’t say when we are born of the Spirit, just that we are and need to be in order to enter the Kingdom of God. John also records that Jesus says, “…you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” Not only spirit, but water also. Water… as in baptism or possibly the womb? Making humans unique (or possibly all mammals, but that would be stretching it).
I know that must sound bad because I know that most Christians don’t think about Eternal Life in much depth. The Bible says there is going to be a new heaven and a new earth. Yes, dirt, trees, rocks, sand, air, vineyards, animals… no weeds, no thorns, (and maybe the insects will finally do what they have been designed to do instead of bug us). If you want to know what Eternal Life is going to be like, all you have to do is look at what life was like in the Garden of Eden. God designed humans to live there in the beginning. It would stand to reason that his plans haven’t changed. He’s going to put us back there again after Jesus renews all things.
In addition, in John 3, Jesus doesn’t say we are going to heaven. He says if we are born of the Spirit, only then can we enter – The Kingdom Of God – not heaven. Heaven is where God lives and he comes from there to walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day (so the days will be hot in the new earth. Good news for my wife. And the evenings will be cool. Good news for me. Good environment for sleeping). People don’t go up to heaven to walk and talk with God. God comes to us on earth.
What is a Kingdom? Is it the castle? Are we going to live in the castle with the King? Or, are we going to live in the city of the King - in the Kingdom of God? Are we going to live and exist in the countryside surrounding the castle? “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” ~John 14:2. Is there a large physical building, skyscraper, apartment complex that will physically house every believer from all of history? Or could Jesus have been trying to convey that there is enough room in the Kingdom of God for all who want to live in the domain and under the protection of his Father, God, the King?
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