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Amazing Facts

Heaven

Joe Crews

Heaven Part 1

Currently under construction is a city 450 times larger than New York City.

This is not in the blueprint stage, it's now being built.

Its area will be greater than Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia combined.

In just a moment, you'll hear more about this amazing city and how you might someday live there.

♪ Hello, this is Joe Cruz on the Amazing Facts broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

You know recent reports on the buildup of great centers of population contain some startling figures.

According to the US News and World Report, there is no sign of any slowdown in the population explosion or in the concentration of families in certain urban areas of the United States.

And if present trends continue, within 4 years, 50% of all the American people will be living in 3 gigantic cities located in 3 rapidly growing sections of the country.

Now I know this sounds fantastic enough, friends, right out of the headlines of a conservative news report.

How could these giant super cities ever be administered?

New York City has problems enough and to spare.

What about those cities of the future that we are talking about?

Listen, there is a city in the future of this world much more fantastic than the ones anticipated by the news magazine.

In fact, it will be larger than all 3 of these cities put together and will cover an area greater than Virginia, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Rhode Island combined.

If you find that unbelievable, don't take my word for it.

Here it is in the Bible itself in Hebrews 11, 16, But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.

Now here we are told that God is getting a city ready for His people.

What kind of city is God building for His faithful ones, and where is it being made ready?

Revelation 21, 2 answers, And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.

You see, friends, in paradise, at this moment, far above the stars and planets, God is preparing mansions for you and me.

Someday that gleaming white city will descend right down to this earth, and settle as the eternal home of the righteous.

Revelation 21, 16 tells us, And the city lieth foursquare, and he measured the city with a reed 12, 000 furlongs.

Now notice, friends, the city is perfectly square and the circumference of it is 12, 000 furlongs and that is 1, 500 miles.

You see, a furlong is an eighth of a mile, so it is 375 miles on each side.

Believe it or not, 450 New York cities could be placed inside its gigantic walls.

The streets, by the way, are pure gold, and the gates of it are solid pearl, not just merely composed of pearls, but actually made of 1 solid pearl.

Now imagine, if you can, a city of those dimensions and of this distinction being right here on this earth.

Notice what Jesus said about it in Matthew 5, verse 5, in giving the Beatitudes, He said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." So you mark it down, friends.

God's people will finally dwell on this beautiful world as an eternal home.

Not like it is today, of course not, but like it will be, prepared by God.

Really is this not the most natural thing you could think of?

God planned for His children to live here when He created this world long ago, did He not?

He placed our first parents in that beautiful garden, a paradise without spot or blemish.

Now it is true that the devil came into the picture and interrupted God's plans, but he did not change God's plan at all.

He interfered with it for a little while, but finally God is going to put His plan back into operation as it was in the Garden of Eden.

He will restore this earth to its first dominion.

He will make it beautiful and sinless, and His people will live here in the perfection of Eden restored.

Today, of course, the wicked have more of the earth than the righteous do, and I suppose the finance companies probably have more than both groups put together, but someday, God says, the saints will inherit the earth.

Well, we wouldn't want it the way it is in its present state, I am sure.

It is quite a mess, but let's thank the Lord that when He gives it back to us, it will be altogether different from what we see today.

In Isaiah 65, 17 we read these beautiful words, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.

Now that is the New Testament account, but look now at The words we find, rather that was the Old Testament account in Isaiah, but let's see what John wrote about in Revelation 21.1.

He said, I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

Oh yes, friends, this old sin-cursed world of ours will be transformed completely, and every trace of sin will be removed forever.

Peter describes it in these words, Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Now that is the kind of world I want to live in, friends, a world in which righteousness dwells.

And if a man misses out on that, I will tell you he will commit the most colossal blunder that anybody could ever commit.

He will make the most tragic mistake that anybody could possibly make.

Now it is very surprising to me how many weak and twisted ideas people have about heaven.

Most people think of it as some faraway, mystical, ethereal place, you know, some beautiful isle of somewhere, and that is about all the average person knows about heaven.

It is up, because Jesus went away, He ascended up into the cloud, and He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14, 3.

Heaven is going to be a place just as real as those cities.

The righteous are not going to sit out there in space on clouds playing harps and singing hallelujah choruses all during eternity?

That is a very false, unbiblical picture of heaven.

In fact, many people think only of jokes and stories they have heard about heaven.

They think of a long-bearded, white-robed old man called St.

Peter who keeps the gate and has keys jangling by his side, and he lets people in and out of the gate.

Listen, friends, that is not a true picture at all.

You know, a minister was riding on a bus 1 day, and he overheard 2 teachers talking in the seat behind him.

He couldn't help listening because they were talking loud about their experiences in class that day, and 1 of the teachers said, You know, I had a very interesting class today.

I had all the children write essays on heaven.

And then she continued, she said, 1 of my nine-year-old boys, Willard, wrote a very interesting 1 that I'd like to read to you.

So the minister listened as she read this essay of the little boy.

The floor is the clouds, God sleeps on the first 2 floors, and Father Christmas with his reindeer and toys lives on the third floor.

The angels sleep in the basement, the houses are all made of gingerbread, and the rivers are all different colors, red, pink, blue, green, orange.

Well the minister was appalled, of course, to hear this kind of description, and he waited eagerly to hear what the teacher was going to say about how she corrected the child.

But he was even more appalled as the teacher said to her seatmate, You know, reading fairy stories really helps children form pictures of the life beyond, doesn't it?

Yes, it's a fact that millions of people have mingled fairy tale myths with the truth about heaven and they don't understand anything about its reality.

The only information we have about heaven is found right here in the Bible.

We ought to go to this book to find what heaven is like and how we can prepare for that wonderful place.

The only reason a few people perhaps don't want to go to heaven is that they don't know what it's like.

You may find somebody now and then who will tell you plainly that they are just not interested in going to heaven, but it's only because they have a misconception of it.

Popular myths have made heaven seem dull and uninteresting.

Now we want to present, if possible, in human language, some of the beauty, glory, and reality of heaven.

Heaven is a very real place, which is the most wonderful thing about it, I believe.

In fact, over in Isaiah 65 we read that we are going to plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

We are going to build houses and inhabit them.

Notice this, They shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

For they shall not build, and another inhabit.

Heaven Part 2

Modern research has extended the average lifespan by its amazing new medical discoveries.

How far can science go in prolonging human life?

I'll be back in a moment with news about a breakthrough which will add centuries to the average present lifespan.

♪ Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, friends, our world teems with advertising gimmicks about products designed to preserve or restore youth.

Many millions are being spent each year for highly touted rejuvenators and artificial age erasers.

The world has simply stormed after every possible plan for staying young or at least for looking young.

The sale of hair rinses and other artificial aids to disguise the marks of age have set new records during the past year.

This frantic pursuit of youth is understandable, perhaps, but years wait for no 1.

The wrinkles form, the body deteriorates, until finally death calls upon every human being.

In spite of shots, drugs, antibiotics, and every medical aid, that last moment comes to the highest and the lowest, the rich and the poor alike.

Now it is true the life span has been extended by some amazing medical breakthroughs in certain disease studies.

Geriatric medicine, for instance, is becoming a major field of practice as facilities for dependent elderly are expanded under the government planning.

Their living accommodations are not perfect and their years become more wearisome as infirmities increase, but life at least has been prolonged, it has been extended.

Now listen, friends, a breakthrough is nearing that will eliminate the problems of the elderly poor and make the whole poverty program absolutely obsolete.

That breakthrough is a breaking through the clouds of heaven by Jesus Christ to deliver His people.

The great plan of God will finally be revealed in a beautiful new world as the eternal home of the saints.

The final act of God in restoring that which was lost will be to restore this earth to its original Edenic beauty and perfection.

Every pocket of poverty will be eliminated in that wonderful new earth.

Living conditions will be so ideal that human language cannot even portray it.

Now a lot of people are asking this question about this wonderful world of the future.

Are we going to recognize each other there?

My friends, we certainly will know 1 another.

We are not going to be just animated numbers.

We are going to know more in heaven than we know right here.

Let's look at a text now in 1 Corinthians 13, 22.

For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Now if I understand the English language at all, this means that we will know 1 another better when we get over there than we know each other here on this earth.

We misunderstand each other so easily, but we won't do that in the new earth.

We will know each other clearly and plainly.

The Bible further says that we will sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom.

We will have to know those people in order to sit down with them and eat around that great table.

Yes, many people have lost interest in going to heaven because they thought they wouldn't recognize their loved ones.

Listen, I look forward to heaven because I love reunions, and I love homecomings, and I like to see old friends and renew old acquaintances.

I don't think I could enjoy heaven either if I didn't know anybody there.

It would be terrible to think of going to heaven and not meeting a single individual that I have known in this world.

I want to meet a lot of people there who will come up to me and say, It was you who helped me get here.

Don't you want to hear that also, friends?

I think that part of the reward in heaven will be to have folks come and tell you that you helped them find their way to that beautiful place.

Now here is another text in Philippians 4, verse 3, And I entreat thee also, true yokefella, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with others my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life.

Now Paul said to those people in the early church, Your names are written down in heaven in the book of life.

Well, now, tell me, what was written down there?

Some strange angelic name, or the name that their mothers had given them at birth?

Why, of course, they had the same names written down, John, Dick, Tom, Elizabeth, Sarah, all written down in heaven, the very names they had in this earth.

Now I read in the book of Revelation about a vision of the beloved John, and he saw that great Holy City, the New Jerusalem that we are talking about, and as he got closer and closer to it, the glory of it almost overwhelmed him.

And then he saw 12 foundation stones, each with a different color of precious stones, and each 1 of them had a name written.

Do you remember the names written there, friends?

Well, they were the names of the 12 apostles, 1 of them on each foundation stone.

What a thrilling experience it must have been for him.

But now listen, those were the very same names that the Judean mothers had given their little babies when they were born.

You see, when Jesus called His disciples, He didn't change their names.

He didn't give them some strange mystical names when they became His disciples.

They kept the same names, and those names are written unto the 12 foundation stones of heaven, and our names are written down in heaven, just as we have them here.

All right, we are going to have a city home when we get there, and we will have a country estate also.

Jesus said that He had gone to prepare a mansion for us.

Now that, I am sure, would be the city hall.

He said, I go to prepare a place for you, John 14, 2.

And notice who He was to make that mansion for?

He said, for you, and you can put your own name in that text if you like to, because it's true.

He went to get a place ready, and your name will be on it.

I like that, because the Lord is a builder who knows exactly what I'd like to have the most.

Now, I visited a lot of people who built their own homes.

They drew the plans themselves, made it according to their own specifications, and yet they are never completely satisfied.

They say, you know, if I had to do this again, I would change that closet over there, or I wouldn't have this door like this.

Haven't you heard people say that, friends?

They are never quite pleased with it after it is built.

But the Lord knows exactly what we would like to have, and He is going to prepare a mansion for us that will please us and suit us exactly.

I think, in fact, the Lord is going to meet each 1 of us and show us through that holy city.

Surely He is going to conduct us down those golden streets and show us all the different places of interest in the New Jerusalem.

And we'll walk along beside the River of Life, for example, and he'll tell us about that tree which grows over the river, bearing 12 manner of fruit every year.

And as he takes us down 1 street after another, finally we're going to see a certain mansion.

Perhaps as soon as we see it, a responsive chord is going to strike in our heart, and we'll think, My, that's just what I've always wanted.

That's the kind of mansion I'd like to have.

And Jesus will interrupt and say, This is yours.

I've prepared it for you, and I knew exactly what you'd want, and this is made especially for you." Yes, friends, maybe we are using some imagination here, but don't you think that's the way it's going to be?

Jesus plainly said that He would prepare mansions, and He certainly will prepare 1 that will make us completely happy.

Then of course we are going to have a country home, but we are going to build that ourselves.

You remember in Isaiah 65 it tells about building houses and inhabiting them.

The whole beautiful world is before us and we can find the choice of spot that will fit our own personality and put our house right there.

I can just close my eyes sometimes and try to think of a place that would please me and I think of lots of them that would make me happy.

A place without any spot of sin, without any curse at all in the entire land.

I've talked to poor people whose homes had burned, destroying all their possessions.

I talked to 1 family who had robbers break in while they were gone, taking almost everything out of the house, even the bedclothes and the clothes in the closets were gone.

Now somebody says, well, I don't know how to build.

Listen, friends, don't think it will be laborious work, the kind you see poor carpenters doing in this world.

No, it's not going to be like that at all.

As for your building knowledge, don't worry about that either for a moment.

There will be no limit to what you can learn.

You will have a whole eternity before you to learn and understand.

If you don't know anything about music, take a music course.

Heaven Part 3

The government welfare program is meeting unexpected opposition.

Hundreds of complaints have been made against the administration of welfare funds.

The program is faltering in many areas, but another plan soon to go into operation will completely eliminate all poverty, and it won't cost the government a single penny.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts.

Music Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts Broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, friends, it has been determined that the words heaven, mother, and home have the strongest emotional appeal in the English language, and of course we can understand why.

Our own heart strings have been tugged by those terms over and over again.

Rarely, if ever, do we meet an individual who has no desire to go to heaven, And the only reason anyone feels that way is that he does not really have any true understanding of what heaven is like.

It's not a vague, immaterial dream world.

It's a real place that will be inhabited by real people with real bodies.

The final reward of the righteous will be on this earth, renewed and restored to absolute perfection just as it was in the Garden of Eden.

Conditions in this sinless world of the future will be idealistically happy.

Now perhaps the most common misconception that people have about heaven is this oft-repeated question, will we know each other there?

Now listen, all defects will be left behind when we go there.

In Isaiah 35, verses 5 and 6, we have this beautiful promise, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then shall the lame man, lepers in heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.

For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

Oh yes, 1 of the joys will be to hear voices on every side saying, I can see again, I can hear, and I am strong.

You see, friends, all the infirmities of old age will disappear forever and ever, and we will see only the bloom of eternal youth.

Every mind will be keen and alert, and we shall know even as we are known, the Bible says.

We will recognize each other perfectly there.

We will be able to spend an eternity in the presence of our loved ones, knowing them and appreciating them as we never have been able to do in this world.

I know over in India I saw the poor people there crawling around sometimes like animals with crippled bodies, twisted in mind, leprous, blind, but in that city of God, friends, we will see nothing like that.

The Bible says they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Series

Heaven

Heaven Part 2

Transcript

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