Who Stole Heaven?
My research into the heaven that Jesus actually taught The purpose of this paper is to take an in-depth look at two questions: “Where is heaven?” and “What is heaven?” Because of the large scope of this topic, we will be using the New Testament as our primary source, focusing on the direct quotes from Jesus found in the Canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Many religious ideologies have a concept of heaven, or describe a place similar to the idea of the Biblical heaven, but our focus will be on the ideas contained in the Bible and the various Christian interpretations of heaven. For the purpose of this paper, it was necessary for consistency to choose a specific version of the Bible, and I have chosen the New Revised Standard Version. The reason behind this choice is twofold: First and foremost, I believe in its accuracy of translation and second, I am personally familiar with this version from my years of Bible study. As the reader begins this analys...