Jersey Girl wrote:scripturesearcher
Yes.
Here is what I believe:
That there is 1 heaven and 1 hell.
Heaven is spending eternity with our God.
Hell is eternal separation from God.
That there may be different rewards in heaven based on the life you lived on earth, but all would have access to God.
I asked you that question for a reason, scripturesearcher. I wondered if you were familiar with the Seven Heavens in Judaism that are referenced in the Old Testament and New Testament. I don't see evidence that you are familiar with such or if you are, you haven't acknowledged it.
For example, Paul's reference to the Third Heaven.
If you are going to challenge LDS here, you need to be honest about what is stated in the Bible that you yourself accept as scripture.
Just so you know, I'm not giving you a hard time for no good reason, I am not LDS nor have I ever been LDS. If I, who shares most of your beliefs, can challenge you on the levels of heaven, so can LDS.
You must be honest if you are going to engage LDS on some of these issues. Just a bit of unsolicited friendly advice.
:-)
Let me start off by saying that Heaven is something that we will not be able to fully comprehend until we experience it.
With that said, here is my take on the Third Heaven:
The Jews from the biblical times did not have all of the knowledge that we have today with scientific terms to convey messages. What they would do is try to describe things in terms that they could identify with and something they could represent visually. When they attempted to explain the universe, they came up with something similar to an onion. It had various layers.
The different layers were called "firmament" or shamayim (heavens or sky) in the Old Testament or "heavens" in the New Testament era. There were many other non-biblical writings that describe these layers also. This model was said to still be in use in the Middle Ages. Sometimes the model had 7 heavens and sometimes 3.
The first heaven (the core) represented the visible physical world that all people can see.
The second heaven is composed of water that is a firmament that divides the earth from the heavenly beings.
The third heaven was beyond the sight of human beings and where God dwells.
So where Paul is writing and claims to have seen the risen Christ, he is describing his own experience in relative terms so that others would be able to understand.
So in a nut shell, Paul is not referring to 3 different heavens, but he is describing the part of heaven. Basically when people speak of heaven, they would be referring to the same as the third heaven. In other words, there is 1 heaven with more than 1 name or description.
Here is a website that can explains it a lot better than my attempt:
http://www.cresourcei.org/thirdheaven.htmlWith that said, I still stand by my earlier statement:
Here is what I believe:
That there is 1 heaven and 1 hell.
Heaven is spending eternity with our God.
Hell is eternal separation from God.
That there may be different rewards in heaven based on the life you lived on earth, but all would have access to God.