What Happened on the Cross. Nick Peros
is finished, the man then goes to live inside the house and inhabits the house. The man is always greater than the house, since he is its maker, but he is now living within the house of his making, inhabiting it. Once he inhabits his house, he is no longer outside his house, but within it.
It is exactly the same with God and his creation. God created time and space, as well as the rest of all creation, including Heaven. He created Heaven as the place where he would establish his throne within his creation so he himself would fully and physically inhabit his own creation, not remain outside of it. Just like the man who builds a house, God is always greater than his creation, for he is its maker. But just like the man who builds a house and then enters into it to inhabit the house, God has come to dwell within his creation, to inhabit it fully. So it is not true to say God is outside of time and space; rather, he dwells within it. As a result, God is always greater than time and space and is always greater than his whole creation, but he is not outside of it, rather he is in it, inhabiting it fully. The establishment of God’s throne within the created Heaven is a testimony to the fact that God inhabits his own creation.
The Ascension and Resurrection as Evidence
of the Physicality of Heaven
We know the resurrected Jesus Christ is God incarnate, who, ever since his incarnation, is eternally a physical human being with an eternal, resurrected human body of flesh and bone. His incarnation was not temporary—only lasting thirty-three years—but it is eternal; Jesus Christ is incarnate forever. Jesus himself describes his resurrected body: “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” (Luke 24:39 NIV). Jesus makes it clear his resurrected body is a physical, human body of flesh and bone, and not a spiritual body. Throughout the New Testament, the physicality of Jesus Christ is affirmed, clearly telling us he is incarnate God in human flesh:
Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. (1 John 4:2 NIV)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:14 NIV)
It is with this same incarnate physical human body that Jesus ascended into Heaven in Acts 1:9, to sit at the right hand of the Father (Heb 1:13; 4:14). This resurrected, physical, human Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of the Father, sitting there as a resurrected, physical flesh-and-bone man.
If Heaven, the seat of God’s throne, is not a physical place, but rather some sort of spiritual dimension, then the question remains how and where is the physical, resurrected, flesh and bone Jesus sitting? Is he floating in some alternate dimension or in some spiritual state? The Bible does not say Jesus ascended into Heaven to float at the right hand of the Father, rather, we are told the physically resurrected Jesus is actually sitting on an actual seat at the right hand of the Father. Since the resurrected Jesus is a physical flesh-and-bone human being, the seat upon which he is sitting must also be a physical seat.
Since the physical Jesus is sitting, in Heaven, upon a physical throne, then upon what is Jesus’ physical throne itself sitting? Is his physical throne floating in some cosmic dimension? No, rather, the physical seat itself, the actual throne upon which Jesus is sitting, must rest upon an actual physical platform; this physical platform must itself be sitting upon an actual physical base which, ultimately, is itself sitting upon an actual physical world.
As a result, not only is God’s Heaven an actual physical place in the universe, a created place subject to time and space, but Heaven must certainly be a physical world, or what we would describe as a planet, just as is Earth. All of this must be true because the resurrected Jesus Christ is a physical, flesh-and-bone, resurrected human being who is right now sitting in Heaven at the right hand of the Father, upon a physical throne. Heaven itself must be just as physical as is the resurrected Jesus Christ.
The Creation of Angels
After creating time, space, and Heaven, and after establishing his throne in Heaven, God then continued with the rest of his creation by creating the angels. We know the angels were created by God before he created the earth, but also after he created Heaven. When God created the “heavens and the earth,” the angels were created between the creation of the heavens and the earth. We know this from Job 38:4–7: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (NIV)? The angels watched God as he laid “the foundation of the earth.” What is the foundation of the earth?
Just as the Bible refers to three heavens, it also refers to the earth in three different ways. Throughout the Bible, the earth is referred to by the following terms: “the foundations of the earth,” “the earth,” and “the world.”
The Foundations of the Earth
The term “the foundations of the earth” means the actual physical planet itself, which is eternal and everlasting, as seen in Micah 6:2: “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth” (NIV). Further, when Job 38:4–7 tells us of God laying the foundations of the earth, he is describing God’s creation of the planet itself. The “foundations of the earth” is the planet Earth.
The Earth
The term “the earth” means the physical surface of the planet—this is how we are to understand Genesis 9:11: “. . . Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth” (NIV). In Genesis 9:11, God specifically tells us the flood destroyed the earth, but obviously Planet Earth is still here. Is this not a contradiction or an error? No, since the term “the earth” refers only to the surface of the planet, not to the planet itself. The flood completely destroyed the surface of the planet, but the planet itself, the foundations of the earth, remains eternal, as is clearly affirmed in Micah 6:2 when he writes of the “everlasting foundations of the earth.” There is no contradiction between Genesis 9:11 and Micah 6:2—Planet Earth itself is eternal, but the surface of the planet can be, has been, and will be destroyed, and when we are told in Genesis 9:11 that the flood destroyed the earth, that is an accurate description, for the flood did destroy the surface of the earth.
God Created the Earth
When Genesis 1:1 tells us God created “the earth,” it is referring specifically to the creation of the surface of the earth, but in this case, since it is also at the time of “the beginning,” it is implicit that the foundation of the earth—that is, the planet itself—is also created at that same time. This is further confirmed in Psalm 102:25, which tells us the foundations of the earth were laid, or created, “in the beginning”: “In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth” (NIV). This “in the beginning” referred to in Psalm 102:25 is the same “in the beginning” as Genesis 1:1. As a result, when Genesis 1:1 tells us God created the earth in the beginning, it includes the creation of the foundations of the earth, the planet itself, upon which the surface of the earth was created. In Genesis 1:1, God created Planet Earth.
The World
The term “the world” refers to all that exists and takes place upon the surface of the earth. This refers to all life, people, and civilization. When we are told in John 3:16 that God “so loved the world,” the term “the world” is referring to the people who inhabit the surface of the earth.
Angels
It is in this context that we approach Job 38:4–7, where we encounter the term the “sons of God.” In the Old Testament, the term “sons of God” is always and only used in reference to angelic or heavenly beings, as is made clear in Job 1:6: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them” (NKJV).
There is no question the “sons of God” of Job 1:6 are angelic beings. These are the same angelic beings referred to in Job 38:4–7, which specifically tells us the sons of God watched God as he laid the foundation of the earth, that is, the angels watched God as he created Planet Earth itself.
This creation of