How Many Heavens are there?

Last week, a friend of mine ask me a question I had never been asked before, “How many heavens are there?”  I promised her I would look into what the Bible had to say and post it today.  It also seemed like a good time to talk about something else besides the current crisis. We normally think of Heaven as the place God and the angels live.  A place of purity and peace, where we hope to be one day when we leave this life.  While this is true, this picture perfect place is not the only heaven mentioned in the Bible.

The Hebrew word for heavens is shamayim, it is in a plural form, meaning “visible heavens, sky, as abode of God, visible sky.” (See Brown-Driver-Briggs)  It is found in the first verse of the Bible. (See both Genesis 1:1; 2:1)  The Bible teaches that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  He did not make another heaven after this time.  The phrase “heavens and earth” are used to indicate the whole universe. (See Genesis 1:1; Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 17:24)

The closest thing Scripture says to there being different levels of heaven is found in 2 Corinthians 12:2, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows --such a man was caught up to the third heaven.”  Some interpret this as indicating that there are three different levels of heaven.

Paul is not saying that there are three heavens or even three levels of heaven.  In many ancient cultures, people used the term heaven to describe three different realms—the sky, outer space, and then a spiritual heaven.  Paul was saying that God took him to the spiritual heaven—the realm beyond the physical universe where God dwells.

The Bible speaks of three heavens.  The first being our immediate atmosphere, the second is outer space as far as it stretches, and the third is the place where God Himself dwells.  What Jesus called the “Father's house.”

The first heaven is the firmament, Earth’s Atmosphere, which is the immediate sky, where the “…every bird of the sky…” (See Genesis 2:19; 7:3-23; Psalms 8:8), “…than the eagles of the sky…” (See Lamentations 4:19), it is our atmosphere that surrounds the earth.

Genesis 1:14 says, “And God said, Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night...”  The first heaven consists of the clouds and the atmosphere, the heavens above us, until we come to the stars.

Psalms 78: 23-24 “Yet He commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven; and He rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them food from heaven.”

The second heaven is where our atmosphere ends, outer space, and the starry heavens. (See Deuteronomy 17:3; Jeremiah 8:2; Matthew 24:29)

It is the heavens in which the sun, moon, and stars are fixed in orbit.  The stars are seemingly endless and the distance between all of them is staggering, no wonder the Bible states in Psalm 19:1 “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”  

In ancient times people were in awe of the starry expanse, today we know how immense this really is.  The firmament, or expanse, raqiya: meaning “the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky.” (Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary)  "And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:17)  

In Isaiah 40:22 we are told, “It is He who sits above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”

Then in Psalm 19:4b, 6 we read, “In them He has placed a tent for the sun... Its rising is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of them; and there is nothing hidden from its heat.”

Finally, the third Heaven is where God and the holy angels and spirits of just men dwell.  It is called “The heaven and the highest heavens…” (See Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 115:16; 148:4)  

The third heaven is beyond space and stars.  Where no man has seen by telescope.  This heaven is the dwelling-place of God, to which Paul was taken, and whose wonders he was permitted to see, this region where God lives.  It is specifically named the third heaven by Paul in 2 Corinthians12:2. Heaven is the inheritance of all believers where there is complete joy and everlasting blessedness.  

Are there more heavens?  Scripture does not say and so we do not know.  Usually, when we talk about heaven we are referring to the heaven where God lives.  Someday God will destroy the old heavens (apparently all the heavens, except the third one) and earth, and create a new heaven and a new earth.  This is where we will live for all eternity.

Christ will then usher in a new heaven and new earth and the New Jerusalem—the eternal dwelling place of believers.  There will be no more sin, sorrow, or death. (See Revelation 21–22)