Bible Facts About Heaven

By John R. Rice

Multitudes who have lost loved ones are anxious to know where they are and whether they will meet them again. If they knew what is in the Bible about Heaven, their burdens would be much lighter. God's message about Heaven can give great peace to hurting hearts. This book will comfort the elderly, sorrowing, sick, and troubled. God has made sweet provision in Heaven for those who have put their trust in Him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sword of the Lord Foundation
• Release date: Feb 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311792587

John R. Rice

John Ralph Rice was born five years after the Second World War on October 12, 1950, in Newark, New Jersey. I was educated in Newark, New Jersey, at Essex County College, the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey, and the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. I am the great-grandson of African American slaves who were freed after the American Civil War in 1865. My ancestry prior to my great-grandparent’s lineage in South Carolina is unclear; however, in a recent interview in September 2009 by my great nephew, Al-Tariq Ibn Shabazz, I said, “I knew the relationship between African American females and the American white slave master was well known, and so I viewed the whole proposition as a system of sacrilege.” Thus becoming, in the words of Carter G. Woodson, “the miseducation of the Negro.” Upon graduation as a massage therapist (2004) many doctors, intellectuals, scholars, and activists around the world know my name and in every home in my family as well. I devoted my life to peace and change one week after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and my view of the world’s health problems became clear to me when I accepted transcendentalism as a philosophy in my professional years. I often said Sigmund Freud’s discovery of psychoanalysis played a major approach to my client’s problems on their first visit to my clinic. My passion for healthy lifestyles became rooted in acupressure, and the vision I bring to my work as a massage therapist is scientific. I believe in an empirical reality; that is to say, a patient’s symptoms has mental, not physical, causes and the unconscious part of the mind has a strong influence on behavior. I still consider myself to be a Renaissance man and here are my most important writings: 1) The John R. Rice Narrative 2) Rape, The Secret Assault on Women, 3) The Judgment of History, The Race For Freedom, From Slavery To Manhood, 4) The African American Spirit and The Search For Its Destiny, 5) The Voices in East Harlem 6) Africa’s Greatest Triumph, 7) The African American Body Politic, and 8) The Prison Door are donated to the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark. “Imhotep would be proud.”

Book preview

Bible Facts About Heaven

Sweet Home of Departed Saints

John R. Rice

...a precious unfolding of truth concerning the Father's House, designed to comfort the hearts of those who have been bereaved and to stir others with a desire to know the One whose presence makes Heaven, that they may be with Him forever in eternity. There are 8 chapters, and every one clear and scriptural. An ideal book for ministers to put into the hands of those who are mourning the loss of Christian friends and relatives.

—H. A. Ironside

Post Office Box 1099 - Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37133

Copyright 1940 by

John R. Rice

www.SwordoftheLord.com

Distributed by Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (printed, written, photocopied, electronic, audio or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

All Scripture quotations are from the King James Bible.

Table of Contents

I. The Comfort of Heaven

How saints of old loved to talk and sing about Heaven. How the social gospel and unscriptural preaching have cheated people out of joyful anticipation of Heaven.

II. Heaven, a Real, Literal Place

Heaven, a city with streets, walls, a river, trees, fruit, mansions. People with literal bodies in Heaven—Jesus, Enoch, Elijah, etc.

III. Heaven Immediately Follows Death for Christians

No purgatory, no limbo, no soul sleeping. How Jesus, the thief on the cross, Enoch, Elijah and Lazarus went instantly to Heaven at death; Paul's testimony.

IV. Christians Know Each Other in Heaven

Personality continues in Heaven. Knowledge much greater. There we will recognize not only the face but the heart. Lazarus and Abraham, Stephen, Moses and Elijah, my mother's dying testimony, that in Heaven they know one another.

V. In Heaven They Observe Us on Earth with Complete Knowledge and Eager Interest

If Jesus knows all, why not the saints? Samuel knew about Saul. The rich man in Hell and Lazarus and Abraham in Heaven knew about the five unsaved brothers. Moses and Elijah knew about the coming death of Jesus. The saints under the altar of Revelation 6:9-11 will know about persecution on earth. Joy in Heaven over sinners saved on earth. Christians on earth compassed about by great cloud of heavenly witnesses.

VI. Christian, To Die Is Gain: We Should Long for Heaven

Many Christians act like heathens at funerals. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. What a Christian gains at death: the presence of Christ, seeing loved ones again, being done with sin, no more sinful companions, hearts comforted, rest, eternal rewards.

VII. Christ May Come Today to Take His Own

The hope of a Christian is not death but the second coming. I will come again, and receive you unto myself. His coming is imminent. Christians are to watch continually, expectantly. The joy of going to Heaven without dying.

VIII. Christ the Way to Heaven; Make Sure You Are Going There

What men have done in hope of gaining Heaven. Jesus the only way; how Christ paid for sins; how He invites sinners. All who receive and trust Him for salvation are sure of Heaven. How to meet loved ones there. A decision to make today.

How to Use This

First, enjoy it. Saints of old rejoiced as they talked about Heaven. Their songs were about Heaven. And Jesus commanded His disciples, Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).

Pray God to make Heaven real to you. It is not far away. Angels go and come continually from Heaven to earth and back. Heavenly beings watch us with infinite tenderness. They rejoice when a sinner repents.

Search out the Scriptures. Carefully check every reference. Let no unbelief steal away your joy in the blessed promises about Heaven.

If this message can make Heaven real and sweet to you, it will have been well worthwhile.

In Mississippi I sat late talking to two old saints of God about the Lord and the happy land to which they would soon be going. As we talked, prayed and praised the Lord together, Heaven seemed very near.

The next day as I drove five hundred miles, from Mississippi across Louisiana and part of Texas, I dictated to Miss Viola most of this book. It was sweet to my soul and I trust will be sweet to yours.

Next, use this booklet to comfort people. Multitudes who have lost loved ones by death are anxious to know where they are and whether they will meet them again. Oh, if they knew what is in the Bible about Heaven, how much lighter it would make their burdens!

Great peace can God's message about Heaven give to a troubled heart, so give them this book and earnestly pray that God will make Heaven real to them. Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.

Some are old, sick and troubled. This world loses its appeal when the steps become tottering, the hearing becomes dim, and failing eyes don't see as they once did. With loved ones gone, riches or fame or pleasure become baubles and trash. Give elderly people this book to