Heaven Is Waiting: There’s No Place Like Home

Copyright © 2012 Wayne Triplett.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from

the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Holy Bible.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART I HEAVEN IN OUR HEARTS

Chapter 1 You Can Know for Sure

Chapter 2 The Eternal Perspective

Chapter 3 Life after Death

Chapter 4 Resurrection

PART II THE NATURE OF HEAVEN

Chapter 5 The Three Heavens

Chapter 6 The New Jerusalem

Chapter 7 Our Complete Body Makeover

Chapter 8 What We Will Do In Heaven

Chapter 9 What Heaven Will Be Like

PART III THE REST OF THE STORY

Chapter 10 Questions and Answers

Chapter 11 The New Heavens and the New Earth

Chapter 12 Heaven … Here and Now

Chapter 13 The Reality of Hell

Chapter 14 RSVP: Heaven

PART IV REFLECTIONS ON HEAVEN

Heaven is a Wonderful Place

by Rev. Craig Church, Evangelist

Heaven! What Can We Really Know?

by Rev. James M. (Jim) Gore (Honorary D.D.)

Heaven and What It Means to Me

by Rev. Van Proffit (Honorary D.D.)

Heaven Is the Eternal Kingdom of God

by Dr. Charles A. Whipple

Heaven by Dr. Jerry C. White

Final Thoughts

Afterword

About the Author

Contributors

List of Illustrations

Bibliography

This book is

dedicated to my beloved son

Kevin Wayne Triplett (1986-2006)

Greatly respected and deeply loved on earth,

Yet expected and loved even more in Heaven.

Thank you for teaching me how to live and die,

And showing me the way to Heaven.

And to my dear friend

Ron Hutchins (the Inspirations)

The thing that helped me the most in my struggle against cancer was my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I read my Bible often, read some healing Scriptures, always said my prayers, and prayed for healing and strength to get through it. I always had a comfort in knowing that beyond all the doctors and everybody on this earth, there was a greater power that was helping me and taking care of me.

–Kevin W. Triplett

Kevin died on November 27, 2006, and sometime during that struggle, somehow during that battle… Heaven became much sweeter to him. He knew that his faith would soon become sight. And it has! Kevin would not be down the street somewhere, but in God’s house… at Home. Heaven matters! And there’s no place like Home!

–Rev. Shannon Critcher

FOREWORD

†

Pastor Jim Gore opened the foreword to Wayne’s second book, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow, with the words, This book matters! I would like to begin the foreword for this book with…Heaven matters!

Heaven is a very real, very eternal place. The Bible says much about the place that will be the forever home of every Christian. It is unfortunate that most people base their understanding and mental picture of Heaven on sentimentality, Hollywood movies, television shows, and even songs. Our view has become warped and instead of Jesus being the glory of Heaven, we have replaced the Savior with loved ones and a mansion in the sky. It is my prayer that this book will be a help to each of us and drive us back to the Scriptures to see what God’s Word has to say about the final destination of the saved and redeemed. The only One truly qualified to describe Heaven is God, and He does so in the Bible. The truth is always found within the pages of Scripture.

In April 2000, Wayne’s son, Kevin, was diagnosed with bone cancer below his right knee. An almost seven-year battle began. Many days, Wayne and Kevin reveled in the victories, and many more were spent in the trenches of defeat. It was a long, hard fight. Hours were spent in prayer, research, pain, and hope. Wayne and Kevin sought the will of God…a God who not only looked from Heaven upon their sufferings, but a God who would walk with them through each and every trial. Kevin died on November 27, 2006 and sometime during that struggle, somehow during that battle… Heaven became much sweeter to the two of them. They knew that Kevin’s faith would soon become sight. And it has! Heaven matters!

Wayne often sings about Heaven, and you can always hear the ache in his voice. He longs for Home, knowing that Kevin is now there enjoying the majesty of a mighty God. I guess that’s what the apostle Paul experienced when he wrote that he would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8 NIV). He wrote that we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:2 NIV). We can and should anticipate being in the presence of God because Heaven matters, and there is no place like Home!

I remember saying at Kevin’s funeral, in reference to Psalm 23:6, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, that because Kevin surrendered to Jesus in 1999, he was at home with God. Kevin would not be down the street somewhere, but in God’s house… at Home. And there’s no place like Home.

Each of us must decide what we will do with the Gospel of Jesus, and what we do decides our eternal home. You know, there are only two eternal homes… Heaven and Hell. Both are forever… one is eternal life and the other is eternal death. It is my prayer that God will use this book to whet your appetite for the Christian’s homeland and that His Spirit might make Heaven sweeter and Hell hotter in your mind and heart. If you are not a Christian, I beg you to repent of your sins and submit to the Lordship of Christ in your life. If you are a Christian, please be diligent in sharing the Gospel with those lost friends and family that God has brought into your life. Heaven matters!

You need to know the truth about Heaven and about the only way to get there… Jesus Christ. I hope you enjoy the book, and I hope you will go to God’s Word to see what He has to say about the Christian’s eternal Home.

¹⁶…we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ¹⁸While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (KJV)

Rev. Shannon Critcher

Senior Pastor – Millers Creek Baptist Church

Millers Creek, North Carolina

January 2012

PREFACE

†

The wind began to switch, the house to pitch, and suddenly the hinges started to unhitch. Just then the Witch, to satisfy an itch went flying on her broomstick, thumbing for a hitch. The house began to pitch. It landed on the Wicked Witch in the middle of a ditch, who began to twitch and was reduced to just a stitch of what was once the Wicked Witch.

And thus begins the opening lyrics of Munchkinland! The Wizard of Oz, adapted from L. Frank Baum’s timeless classic, is movie magic at its zenith and has enthralled young and old alike for every generation since 1939. This film masterpiece has stood the test of time and for millions like me, the magic will never fade. It is truly the world’s modern day fairy tale to which everyone can relate. Its devotion has only increased with time. Remarkably, the magical world of Oz was named after the alphabetical letters O - Z on the bottom drawer of Baum’s filing cabinet. No one can forget the films remarkable scenes: the field laden with poppy flowers, the flying monkeys carrying Dorothy away, the guards ho-he-hoing at the castle, and of course Munchkinland and its vast array of colorful citizens.

For me, OZ wasn’t a movie so much as it was a family tradition. It was so embedded in my childhood that I no longer thought of it as a movie, especially since it made an annual pilgrimage to television. We would always circle the date on the calendar, and it always seemed to be broadcast around Easter Sunday. When the tornado sequence ended with the house crashing down, you could hear a pin drop in our living room. It would be years later with the arrival of color television that I realized the film changed from black and white to color in Munchkinland simply by opening the front door.

The Wizard of Oz is the story of little Dorothy Gale of Kansas and her pet dog, Toto. Like so many girls her age, she dreams of what lies over the rainbow. The two become lost when a cyclone carries them up, up, and away from their home in Kansas to the beautiful, enchanted, magical land of Oz. Dorothy and Toto need help in getting back home. Along the way, they make enemies with the Wicked Witch of the West but make friends with the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and Cowardly Lion. Their friendship helps the five to survive many adventures, and makes each of their dreams really come true. For their loyalty and teamwork, they persuade the Wizard of Oz, and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (South in the novel), to help them get their individual wishes granted. Dorothy actually gets back home from the beautiful, enchanted, magical land of Oz through her own means. The means are the ruby slippers that the Good Witch of the North takes from the dead body of the Wicked Witch of the East. Dorothy has become the shoes’ wearer. Unknown to her, she has the means with which to get back home all the time. It’s now up to her, with Glinda’s help, to figure out how to use them.

After awakening at home in her own bed, Dorothy shares her magical journey with her family. They laugh it off and tell her she got a bump on the head and had a bad dream. After insisting that it was real, the movie ends with her stating again, There’s no place like home!

The movie’s deeper theme is about the uniqueness of home. It’s also about the appreciation of what one already has, for it’s entirely possible that what one searches for elsewhere is already in one’s own backyard. And it’s about not giving up on one’s dreams.

Am I a Bible scholar? By no means. Just a Christian layman trying to understand the Scriptures and put them into effect in my life. I am realizing my mission in this life through my writing and ministry to others.

Do I have all the answers? Obviously not. My goal is not to get you to agree with everything I’ve written; it is to get you to think. Feel free to disagree and ask your own questions. My hope is that anyone interested in what happens after we die will use this book as a resource in scouring the Scriptures and learning more about our future home.

I urge you to rethink the common concept of heaven. I am a Bible student. I ask questions. I seek answers. In this book, I share some of the insights and questions that intrigue me and the answers I’ve researched so far. I pray that you will be encouraged to ask your own questions and to see where God actually leads you on your quest to know more about heaven.

The vast majority of people from all cultures believe that there is a place called heaven. We all hope to go there. There is not one of us who does not desire to live again after death. But on what are our hopes founded?

This book is about heaven, but it is much more. It is about our longing for heaven, our innate instinct for it. It is about eternity in our hearts. It is about our groaning inside to protest against death, yet cry for something else beyond the grave. It is about wanting heaven.

So this is a book not just about heaven, but about heavenly-mindedness. It’s about how the hope of heaven inspires and sustains us. It’s also about the biblical admonishments for bringing heaven near.

This book will either affirm your belief in heaven or challenge your plan for getting there. Go, build your happiness on what the earth has to offer, if you wish. Take money, houses, and lands; take health and beauty; take power and rank; take everything your mind can picture to meet your heart’s desire. I dare tell you that even then you will not find fulfillment. After a few years, or maybe a lifetime, you will confess that it is hollow, empty, and unsatisfying. You will realize that this earth is not where our joy lies.

This life is filled with trouble and sorrow, labor and toil, partings and separations, sickness and death. I would be crushed to the core if I thought this life is all there is. If there were nothing beyond the dark, silent, lonely grave, I should indeed say it would be better never to have been born.

There is good news. Thanks be to God, this life is not all there is! There is a glorious rest beyond the grave; this earth is only the dress rehearsal for eternity. The graves of our loved ones are but stepping-stones and halfway houses to heaven. My poor, earthen body will one day rise again; this corruptible will put on incorruption; and this mortal, immortality. Yes, heaven is real! I do not doubt it.

We miss heaven even though we’ve never been there. We desire it, yet stray from it. We hunger for things above, but succumb to earthly offerings. We long for it, but we lack the means to procure it. We’ve become so earthly minded that we’re of no heavenly good.

Heaven is meant to be our secret shared. Like being in love, where just the thought of it carries us through life with a smile of hope on our faces. We seek to uncover eternity in our hearts, to recover the hope of forever, and to discover what makes us so heavenly-minded that we’re of much earthly good.

Are you excited and ready for a great adventure? Are you anticipating what awaits you beyond death’s door? I am excited and honored to share my discoveries with you.

Wayne Triplett

Millers Creek, North Carolina

January 2012

Suggestions for getting the most out of this book.

1. Study each chapter with an open mind and a prayerful heart.

2. Reread and meditate on the Scripture references cited.

3. Share what you are learning with someone else. Better yet, study this book with a friend or a small group.

4. Reread chapters as they apply to the needs of your life.

5. Start living for eternity now, so you will be prepared to enjoy and experience all of heaven when you get there.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

†

This book was the product of many hours devoted to researching the fascinating subject of heaven. Learning more about my future home has been a fulfilling voyage of discovery. If anything, it has made me long for that far-off country even more.

My eyes have seen past the pain of my son’s suffering into the heart of the heroic battles he waged against cancer. His insatiable longing for home…for heaven…he passed on to me. I am eternally indebted to Kevin for the lessons he taught me—how to live and how to die. The heaven he longed for is now his reality. Thank you, Kevin.

As well as Kevin, I thank the contributing ministers who accepted my invitation to share their reflections on heaven with the world. Each is a highly respected, devoted servant of God deeply committed to populating heaven through their individual ministries. Their knowledge, wisdom, and understanding greatly inspired me.

I am deeply appreciative of my dear friends and mentors, Dr. Jerry C. White, Pastor and Professor at Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute and Dr. James (Jim) Gore, Pastor Emeritus of Millers Creek Baptist Church, for their encouragement and reading of this manuscript for biblical accuracy. Jim read the manuscript of my second book, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow…Beginning Again after the Death of a Child, and wrote the foreword and endorsement for it as well. Karen R. Lowe, education consultant (and my co-teacher of single adults in Sunday school), meticulously edited my second book and this manuscript as well. Her attention to detail and accuracy is unmatched. Thanks, Karen!

Cam Finley, fellow bereaved parent and dear friend, lost his beloved twenty-two year old son, Cameron, in 2009. Cam profiled his son in a heartfelt account with photos in my second book. Cam’s giftedness with the camera is obvious throughout this book as his photos aptly proclaim. They are even more breathtaking in color. Thank you, Cam, for sharing your gift, your friendship, and Cameron with the world. We will see our boys again!

†

A Prospect of Heaven Makes Death Easy

There is a land of pure delight

Where saints immortal reign,

Infinite day excludes the night,

And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides,

And never-withering flowers:

Death like a narrow sea divides

This heav’nly land from ours.

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood

Stand drest in living green:

So to the Jews old Canaan stood,

While Jordan roll’d between.

But timorous mortals start and shrink

To cross this narrow sea,

And linger shivering on the bank,

And fear to launch away.

O could we make our doubts remove,

These gloomy doubts that rise,

And see the Canaan that we love,

With unbeclouded eyes.

Could we but climb where Moses stood,

And view the landskip o’re

Not Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood

Should fright us from the shore.

Isaac Watts

1674-1748

English Churchman and Hymnist

†

PART I

HEAVEN IN OUR HEARTS

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

–Jim Eliot

CHAPTER 1

YOU CAN KNOW FOR SURE

†

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,

that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:13

I’m dying. Sometimes I forget that reality. Don’t be alarmed though. I’m not presently suffering from a terminal illness, although I have battled prostate and thyroid cancers. I am not, to my knowledge, dying soon. But I am, as the apostle Paul wrote, outwardly wasting away (2 Corinthians 4:16).

The greater truth is that you, like me, are also dying, and that’s that. Is there any way to come to grips with that reality without being depressed or consumed by it? Even though my beloved son, Kevin, has preceded me in death, as a retired educator I still try to live life to the fullest, writing books, researching cancer protocols, serving in my church, and ministering to others.

Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. The lyrics of that song ring true throughout our culture. Speculation runs rampant about what happens to us after we leave this life on earth. Movies like Ghost, Michael, and Oh God paint a laid-back, almost comical view of the netherworld, while What Dreams May Come affirms that heaven is more glorious than we can ever imagine.

If you ask people if they believe in heaven, most would probably say yes. But if you asked them what it’s like or how to get there, you’d get a multitude of answers.

Perhaps the one thing that unites diverse cultures throughout history is the near-universal belief in life after death. The ancient Egyptians are a good example. Archaeologists have discovered that the Egyptians buried their dead with pets, food, and even boats by which to navigate to the next life.

If nearly all worldviews hold to some sort of life after death, Christianity is the one that defines it with specifics. For the Christian, physical death is simply the temporary end of the life of the body. God created humans to live forever…physically and spiritually. But once sin entered the world, both body and spirit were subject to death. It was necessary for both to be reborn. Spiritual rebirth takes place at the time of faith in Christ, while physical rebirth will occur at the Resurrection (or at the Rapture for those who are alive when that event occurs). Christians have no reason to fear death, since their conscious spirit is always in the presence of the Lord.

The Bible’s Authenticity

In Heaven Is Waiting…There’s No Place Like Home, you will realize the source of authority for my writing is the Bible. Is the Bible truly the inspired Word of God? If it is, then we have certainty about God, about man, and about human destiny after death. If it is anything less, there are no certainties. We are left grasping at straws as to why we are here. If the Bible is removed, there is no foundation for our faith.

The Bible clearly states that after death there are only two possible destinies for humans…heaven or hell. Knowing this, we would be foolish to ignore God’s Word and risk relying on our own ideas about how to get to heaven.

I realize that even Christians have honest questions about the Word of God. Can we trust what the Bible says about how we should live our lives? Can we trust what it says about heaven?

Over the years, no book has been as scrutinized and challenged as the Bible has been. No other book ever made such authoritative claims to be the inspired Word of God. Yet, we have substantial archaeological and historical evidence that supports its claims. Moreover, this one book dares to predict the future. Many books have been written on that very subject. The Bible’s credentials speak for themselves. In all the writings of Buddha, Confucius, and Lao-tse, you will not find a single example of predicted or fulfilled prophecy. In the Koran (the writings of Muhammad), there is only one instance of a specific prophecy that he would return to Mecca. This is quite different from the prophecy of Jesus who said that He would return from the grave. One is easily filled, and the other is humanly impossible. (Kennedy 1980).

The prophecies of the Bible are incredibly detailed and specific. They must be exactly fulfilled. They cannot be good guesses. Bible prophecies again and again have predicted the very opposite of human expectations and came true. They were written hundreds of years before the events and were fulfilled hundreds of years after the deaths of the prophets. Some two thousand specific prophecies have already been fulfilled. Those who say the Bible was simply written by men are expressing their ignorance on the subject. God gave us these predictions that we may learn to believe His promises.

Every prophecy up to the present moment has been fulfilled just as God said in the Bible. God is batting one hundred percent. This is proof positive of the existence and supernatural power of God. Therefore, our faith goes far beyond blind faith.

There were thirty-seven biblical prophets in various locations who gave us nearly one thousand prophecies over a period of several thousand years; yet, these prophecies fit together perfectly. There were fifty-five Messianic prophecies that were fulfilled by supernatural means eight hundred seventy years before the time of fulfillment! When you consider the odds of any person other than Jesus fulfilling all the prophecies and performing all the miracles in the Bible, they are about the same as the sun not coming up in the morning. The odds of this happening by chance are zero. (Thompson 2008).

With archaeologists recovering more and more artifacts from the past, many people wondered whether finds from antiquity would confirm biblical accuracy. The Bible mentions hundreds of kings, peoples, cities, and even whole nations not mentioned elsewhere. The tools of the archaeologists have unearthed countless facts that confirm Scripture. Over twenty-five thousand sites have been discovered pertaining to the Bible. Records of tens of thousands of individuals and events have also been found. Time after time, Scripture accounts have been shown to be true. (Kennedy 1980).

We can rest assured the Bible is true. Our faith in it is logical and reasonable. Much like a road map, it can take us to a place (heaven) we’ve never been before.

Everyone has a right to his or her opinion about anything, but