《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
94 天堂——神要迎接衪的百姓进入永远的喜乐
Heaven - God will welcome His
people into everlasting joy
你们心里不要忧愁，你们信 神，也当信我。在我父的家里有许多住处；若是没有，我就早已告诉你们了；我去原是为你们预备地方去。我若去为你们预备了地方，就必再来接你们到我那里去；我在哪里，叫你们也在那里。（约14:1-3） .
[天堂]一词无论在希伯来文和在希腊文里，都是[天上]的意思，这是圣经用来指神的居所的一个名词（诗33:13-14；太6:9），那里有神的宝座（诗2:4）；是神所在之处，即得荣的基督回去的地方（徒1:11）；战门的与得胜的教会现今在那里联合敬拜（来12:22-25）；有一天属乎基督的百姓要在那里与他们的救主永远同在（约17:5,24;帖前4:16-17）。圣经将天堂描绘为安息之地（约14:2），一座城（来11:10），与一家乡（来11:16）。将来当基督回来审判时，它要成形为再造的宇宙（彼3:13；启21:1）。
将天堂看成一个地方，虽然会使人误会。但其优点胜过缺点。圣经里的天堂似乎是一个实际的空间，触及了所有受造的空间。保罗在以弗所书里，将基督在父神右边的宝座（弗1:20），和基督徒在基督里的属灵祝福与复活生命，都归在天上（弗1:3；2:26）。以弗所书中所谓的的[天上]（1:3,20；2:6；3:10及6:12[天空]）是天堂的另一种文学说法。保罗曾提到他在[第三层天上]或[乐园]的经验（林后12：2,4）。无疑的，神将宝座所在的天上，有别于敌对的属灵势力所盘踞的天空领域（弗6:12）。能适应天上生活的复活身体在等着我们去享用（林后5:1-8），我们要带着那个身体见父神与子神（太5:8；约一3:2）。当我们还只活在现今的身体中时，天上的实际对我们而言，是不可见的，通常说来也是想不透的；我们只有凭信心去明白天上的事（林后4:18；5:7）。可是天和住在其中的——父、子、灵、圣天使和邪灵——与我们十分接近，这点信徒永不可稍忘，因为那是一件属灵的事实。
圣经教导我们要籍着以下三种方法，来思想天上的生活：（1）由我们目前与父、子、灵神，以及与其它基督徒，和其他受造之物之间那种不够完美的关系中，去推想将来那种完全没有任何限制、挫折与失败的完美关系；（2）从我们所能想出如何为神而活的生活中推想，但由其中除去我们这尘世里所经历到之各种形式的 痛苦、邪恶、冲突与烦恼；（3）将我们所知道各种观念中的美好和神所赐的享受，以丰富的想象力加诸在将来的喜乐里。启示录里所描述之天上生活的异象，就是籍着以上三种方式的想象而来（启7:13-17；21:1-22:5）。
按照圣经，蒙赎者在天上生活持续的喜乐来自：（1）他们从耶稣基督的面上看见神（启22:4）；（2）因为主牧养他们，他们不断地经历到基督的爱（启7:17）；（3）与他们所爱的人和全体荣耀者间的团契生活；（4）因着神给他们在天上所存留的，信徒得以继续地成长、成熟、学习、才能和力量日日增长。蒙赎者渴慕所有这一切，一旦少了，他们的喜乐就不完全。然而在天上没有实现不了的愿望。
在天上的福气和奖赏有程度之分，虽然所有人都要蒙福到他们所能领受的界限，但是其度量有所不同，正如他们在世上的不同一样。至于奖赏（这一方面，现今的不负责会带来将来永远的损失；林前3:10-15），有两点必须证明：第一，当神奖赏我们的工作时，祂也是在激赏自己的恩赐，因为那些工作唯独是因着祂的恩典才能做成。第二，每一个奖赏的本质都远超过基督徒最渴慕的，它是一种与救主更深的爱的关系；这也是圣经所所表达之带有尊荣的冠冕、袍子、筵席等所有意象所指向的属灵实际。这奖赏的方向类似追求爱情的奖赏一样，后者是透过婚姻使这种爱的关系更趋美善。
由此看来，天上荣耀的生活是一种复合体；信徒在基督里、且透过祂看见神，加上蒙父神与子神所眷爱；有安息（启14:13），而又必须工作（启7:15）；是一种赞美敬拜的生活（启7:9-10；19:1-5），加上与羔羊和众圣徒的交通（启19:6-9）。
天堂没有终止的一天（启22:5），
其永恒性正是它荣耀的一部分；
你可以说，天堂是无终无息的，是荣耀中的荣耀。
[我不愿这喜乐经历终止。]
我们的心在天上会说：
[我愿这喜乐永远不止。]
而那真是永远不止息的，
没有消息比这更好的了！
HEAVEN
GOD
WILL WELCOME HIS PEOPLE INTO EVERLASTING JOY
Do
not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s
house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going
there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. JOHN
14:1-3
Heaven,
which in both Hebrew and Greek is a word meaning “sky,” is the Bible term for
God’s home (Ps. 33:13-14; Matt. 6:9) where his throne is (Ps. 2:4); the place
of his presence to which the glorified Christ has returned (Acts 1:11); where
the church militant and triumphant now unites for worship (Heb. 12:22-25); and
where one day Christ’s people will be with their Savior forever (John 17:5, 24;
1 Thess. 4:16-17). It is pictured as a place of rest (John 14:2), a city (Heb.
11:10), and a country (Heb. 11:16). At some future point, at the time of
Christ’s return for judgment, it will take the form of a reconstructed cosmos
(2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).
To
think of heaven as a place is more right than wrong, though the word could
mislead. Heaven appears in Scripture as a spatial reality that touches and
interpenetrates all created space. In Ephesians, Paul locates in heaven both
the throne of Christ at the Father’s right hand (Eph. 1:20) and the spiritual
blessings and risen life in Christ of Christians (Eph. 1:3; 2:6). “The heavenly
realms” in Eph. 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10; and 6:12 is a literary variant for
“heaven.” Paul alludes to an experience in the “third heaven” or “paradise” (2
Cor. 12:2, 4). No doubt the heaven of God’s throne is to be distinguished from
the heavenly realms occupied by hostile spiritual powers (Eph. 6:12). A
resurrection body adapted to heaven’s life awaits us (2 Cor. 5:1-8), and in
that body we shall see the Father and the Son (Matt. 5:8; 1 John 3:2). But
while we are in our present bodies, the realities of heaven are invisible and
ordinarily imperceptible to us, and we know them only by faith (2 Cor. 4:18;
5:7). Yet the closeness to us of heaven and of its inhabitants, the Father, the
Son, the Spirit, the holy angels, and the demonic spirits, must never be
forgotten: for it is a matter of solid spiritual fact.
Scripture
teaches us to form our notion of the life of heaven by (a) extrapolating from
the less-than-perfect relationship that we now have with God the Father, the
Son, and the Spirit, with other Christians, and with created things to the
thought of a perfect relationship, free from all limitation, frustration, and
failure; (b) eliminating from our idea of a life lived for God all forms of
pain, evil, conflict, and distress, such as we experience here on earth; and
(c) enriching our imaginings of that happy future by adding in every conception
of excellence and God-given enjoyment that we know. The visions of heaven’s
life in Revelation 7:13-17 and 21:1-22:5 draw on all three of these ways of
conceiving it.
According
to Scripture, the constant joy of heaven’s life for the redeemed will stem from
(a) their vision of God in the face of Jesus Christ (Rev. 22:4); (b) their
ongoing experience of Christ’s love as he ministers to them (Rev. 7:17); (c)
their fellowship with loved ones and the whole body of the redeemed; (d) the
continued growth, maturing, learning, enrichment of abilities, and enlargement
of powers that God has in store for them. The redeemed desire all these things,
and without them their happiness could not be complete. But in heaven there
will be no unfulfilled desires.
There
will be different degrees of blessedness and reward in heaven. All will be
blessed up to the limit of what they can receive, but capacities will vary just
as they do in this world. As for rewards (an area in which present
irresponsibility can bring permanent future loss: 1 Cor. 3:10-15), two points
must be grasped. The first is that when God rewards our works he is crowning
his own gifts, for it was only by grace that those works were done. The second
is that essence of the reward in each case will be more of what the Christian
desires most, namely, a deepening of his or her love-relationship with the
Savior, which is the reality to which all the biblical imagery of honorific
crowns and robes and feasts is pointing. The reward is parallel to the reward
of courtship, which is the enriching of the love-relationship itself through
marriage.
So
the life of heavenly glory is a compound of seeing God in and through Christ
and being loved by the Father and the Son, of rest (Rev. 14:13) and work (Rev.
7:15), of praise and worship (Rev. 7:9-10; 19:1-5), and of fellowship with the
Lamb and the saints (Rev. 19:6-9).
Nor
will it end (Rev. 22:5). Its eternity is part of its glory; endlessness, one
might say, is the glory of glory. Hearts on earth say in the course of a joyful
experience, “I don’t want this ever to end.” But it invariably does. The hearts
of those in heaven say, “I want this to go on forever.” And it will. There can
be no better news than this.
