Bible Facts about Heaven Quotes

“The rich man in Hell looked with the deepest concern upon the affairs of the earth and said, "I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment." He knew that his brethren had not repented. Abraham in Heaven knew more about it than the rich man did and said, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." How strange that both Heaven and Hell look on with such intense concern for the conversion of the wicked here on earth while we who have an opportunity to warn them do so little about it!”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“But another question will answer this one: How can the Lord Jesus in Heaven be happy? Surely He knows all things here. He looked into Hell and heard the cries of the rich man tormented in flame. And He, with God the Father, knows the fall of every sparrow and numbers every hair on every head. He looks at the heart of every unrepentant sinner and grieves at the mistakes and failures of every Christian. Can Jesus be happy in Heaven? The Scripture answers: "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isa. 53:11). We know that Jesus on earth looked forward to the joy in Heaven, for we are told: "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). Yes, Jesus, knowing all the wickedness of this world, is happy in Heaven. So are the saints in Heaven.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Paul said in II Corinthians 5:8, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." Every saint who is absent from the body is present with the Lord Jesus in Heaven. At death the soul of the Christian is carried by the angels of God straight Home where Christ and the Father are.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“With loving forgiveness, Jesus turned to the penitent sinner and promised salvation not only in the distant day of His kingdom but "to day," said Jesus, "shalt thou be with me in paradise." That very day the dying thief entered into the Paradise of God with Jesus or, in the term to which we are accustomed, entered Heaven that day.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Sweet assurance of this truth is given. In Luke 23:39-43 we see how the repenting thief turned to Jesus on the cross beside him and said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Eventually, if enough masses are said and prayers uttered, the soul may pass from purgatory into Heaven. But that is not taught in the Bible. It is based on a doctrine of salvation by works and by the church instead of redemption by the blood of Christ. It is used to extort money from those who hope to shorten the period of suffering of their loved ones that they may the sooner enter Heaven.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Of all the race of mankind, the only two men that we know definitely went to Heaven without dying were Enoch and Elijah. They were translated while yet alive and physically transferred to Heaven. With chariot and horses of fire, Elijah was carried to Heaven in a whirlwind. Therefore, we know there are at least three beings in Heaven with physical bodies—Jesus, Enoch and Elijah.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Note that they said, "THIS SAME JESUS." The Jesus in Heaven is not another but the same. The Jesus who will return for His saints is not another but the same. When He comes again to Jerusalem, Jews will look on Him whom they have pierced (Zech. 12:10). They will ask, "What are these wounds in thine hands?" He will answer, "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends" (Zech. 13:6). His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4). Jesus now has hands and feet, the same with which He went away, hands and feet with the marks of nails! And this same Jesus now abides in Heaven with a physical body. I tell you, Heaven must be and is a real, literal, physical place!”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Remember that in six days Christ made the heavens and earth and all that in them is. "Without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). If He made so many wonders in six days, then what beauties and marvels He has surely prepared during these 1900 years in which He has been preparing our mansions in the Father's House!”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Revelation 21 and 22 tell us something of this wonderful place that Jesus is preparing for His saints, "the holy city," "that great city, the holy Jerusalem." Oh, the shining brightness of it! "Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal"! It is a literal city with walls of shining jasper, 144 cubits high. The streets are pure gold, and the foundations of the wall of the city are decorated with every kind of precious stone. The city has twelve great gates, each one a pearl.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“Don't think of Heaven as a ghostly, unreal, indefinite state. It is a real place, a place as literal and concrete as the house you sit in today, as physically real as the city where you live.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“This world is only an anteroom of the next. This short life is incidental compared with eternity. This world is not home to the Christian.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“The so-called "social gospel" lays stress upon this life, not on the next. In many quarters it is now regarded as very old-fashioned and passe' to urge people to prepare to die. Social security, better housing, relief for tenant farmers, better living conditions for the poor and the care of underprivileged children—these have occupied so much of the teaching and preaching of these modern days, that preachers have left hungry-hearted people ignorant about Heaven.”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven

“In the Sweet By and By," "When We All Get to Heaven," "Oh, Come, Angel Band," the magnificent "Glory Song" sung around the world in the Torrey-Alexander meetings, had their tremendous hold on people, no doubt because of the happy hope they expressed for Heaven. The human heart longs for an assurance of a blessed, immortal place where those made righteous, the forgiven, the blessed are at home with God; when sin, disappointment, human failure, heartache, disease and death are forever ended!”
― John R. Rice, Bible Facts About Heaven