That one simple sentence says so much for those of us who believe in God the Creator. “Heavens” as in the 3 heavens - the terrestrial heaven that gives us our life giving oxygen and rain clouds, the galactic heaven that contains the planets, the stars, and from what we can tell, a space that goes on forever. And then there is the Heaven that is the place where God dwells. Each of these Heavens is greater and holds more wonders than the one before it. Should any Christian be troubled by the discovery of some sort of life on these creations of God? I think not.
Q. What are the three heavens? Are there levels of Heaven?
A. The standard King James Version says,
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
However, most modern translations correctly refer to heavens, plural.
Jeremiah 4:25 describes one heaven:
“I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.”
Birds fly within the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore one heaven is the air we breathe. Revelation 19:17 substantiates this by stating,
“I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come.”
Genesis 22:17 says,
“In blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.”
So it seems there’s a second heaven where the stars and planets are, the part of the universe we call space.
Psalm 11:4 says,
“The Lord is in his holy temple: the Lord’s throne is in heaven . . . “
but it doesn’t reveal which heaven.
It can’t be the first heaven, since God does not yet dwell with mankind. Could it be the second heaven, space?
Deuteronomy 10:14 tells us:
“Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s your God; the earth also, with all that therein is.”
Job 22:12 sheds a little more light on the subject.
“Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!”
This suggests the height of heaven is even higher than the stars, thus indicating yet another heaven.
But it’s Paul who truly reveals a third heaven. In 2 Corinthians 12:2 he wrote,
“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.”
Verse 4 refers to paradise, and Revelation 2:7 identifies it as the paradise of God.
So the three heavens are:
The atmosphere in which we live.
Space.
God’s throne.
Answer Given By: Leslie A Turvey
Actually, “In the beginning God created the heaven (singular) and the earth.” Within the seven days, He created two more.