Heaven According to the Bible
by Courtney Jacob
Jul 24, 2026
What happens after we die? Is there an afterlife? What is heaven like? Where do our souls go while we’re waiting for Jesus to return? When we face death, whether our own or of someone we love, we experience complex emotions of grief and loss. We long for comfort and ask big questions. We want to know what happens to our bodies and souls after death. We talk about heaven but long to know what it’s like and what we will experience there. As Christians, these questions should lead us to the Bible. Join Groundwork for our study, “Heaven According to the Bible,” and together we’ll explore what Scripture does and does not teach us about heaven and life after death.
The Place Called Heaven
We are all familiar with the concept of heaven as a place people go after they die. Many Christian hymns and songs talk about heaven. Faithful believers talk about longing to go to heaven. Movies, books, cartoons, and other art forms attempt to visualize heaven.
If you asked someone to describe heaven, the details are likely to be a bit vague. There’s a really good chance you would hear details about pearly gates, clouds, angels, or streets lined with gold. You might hear it described as where you go after death if you’re good or a place where there’s no more pain or sadness. They might offer an ambiguous “up there” or “somewhere in the sky” to describe its location. But where are these ideas about heaven from? Are they true? What is heaven according to the Bible? Where is it? What does it look like?
Rooted in the Bible
Many of the images of heaven are indeed drawn from Scripture. The picture of pearly gates and streets of gold comes from , as does the promise that there will be no more tears, pain, or death. However, artistic and cultural attempts to visualize heaven utilize creative license to fill in the gaps of what we do not know. So what we think we know might have more basis in pop culture than scriptural truth.
Indeed, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding heaven since anyone who has experienced it isn’t around to tell us about it! Revelation is the closest we get, and in actuality, it’s John’s best attempt to describe the glory he saw in his vision. It is a wonderful gift to have the book of Revelation, but since it is a vision and a prophetic book, we cannot always read it literally; we need to keep that in mind as we study what it tells us about heaven.
It’s important, then, for us to revisit all of Scripture to discern cultural creative license from the truth the Bible teaches us.
A Biblical View of Heaven
I invite you to explore Scripture to discover what the Bible does, and does not, teach us about heaven through our Groundwork series, “Heaven According to the Bible”:
- What is Heaven? - ; ; ; ; ; ; and
- What Happens After We Die? - ; ; ; ; ; ; and
...and together we’ll gain a deeper understanding of what the Old and New Testaments teach us about heaven and life after death, and we’ll receive the deep comfort God’s Word provides.
Posted in: Faith Life, Asking Big Questions, Reformed Theology
