Heaven Our Home

By William Branks

"I go to prepare a place for you." This well-known promise from Jesus must cause us to think about the reality of heaven. Heaven is to be our home for ever. Where is heaven? What is it like? Will I recognize people there? All who are Christians must surely want to hear about the place where they are to spend eternity. In this abridged edition of William Branks' classic work of 1861, we discover what the Bible has to say about heaven. There may be a few surprises, and there are certainly some challenges as we explore a subject on which there seems to be little teaching and awareness today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Jan 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9780993500534

Book preview

I go to prepare a place for you. This well-known promise from Jesus must cause us to think about the reality of heaven. Where is heaven? What is it like? Will I recognize people there? Heaven is to be our home for ever. All who are Christians must surely want to hear about the place where they are to spend eternity. In this White Tree Publishing abridged edition of William Branks' classic work of 1861, we unlock some doors and discover what the Bible has to say about heaven. There may be a few surprises, and there are certainly some challenges as we explore a subject about which there seems to be little teaching and awareness today.

Heaven Our Home

William Branks

Abridged Edition

This abridged edition ©Chris Wright 2016

e-Book ISBN: 978-0-9935005-3-4

Original book first published in 1861

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

[e-mail]

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Contents

Cover

About this book

Foreword

Part 1 Heaven Our Home

Chapter 1 Heaven is a Place

Chapter 2 Pictures of Heaven:

Eden and |Canaan

Chapter 3 Pictures of Heaven:

A Temple

Chapter 4 Pictures of Heaven:

A City

Chapter 5 Pictures of Heaven:

A Home

Chapter 6 The Family in Heaven

Part 2 Knowing Our Friends

in Heaven

Chapter 7 Knowing our Friends

in Heaven

Chapter 8 Heaven a Home

Proves recognition

Chapter 9 Entering Heaven

Chapter 10 Memory in Heaven

Chapter 11 The Judgment Day

Part 3 Heaven and Earth

Chapter 12 Heaven and Earth

Chapter 13 Angels

Chapter 14 Children of God

Chapter 15 The Lost

and the Found

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Younger Readers#

Foreword

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:2).

These words of Jesus must cause us to think about the reality of heaven. Where is heaven? What is it like? Will I recognize people there? Heaven is to be our home for ever, so all who are Christians must surely want to hear about the place in which they are to spend eternity. So writes William Branks in the opening chapter of his 1861 book Heaven Our Home.

A rather sweeping observation today would be that in the 19th century, when young deaths within the family were relatively common, people were especially interested in heaven, with questions such as: Where and what is it? Will we know people there? In the 20th century, with world wars and the return of the Jews to Israel, attention turned from heaven to studying signs for the return of Jesus in the end times. Now, in the 21st century, immersed in consumerism and self-fulfilment, in many churches little is heard of heaven or the promised return of Jesus.

Heaven is like a locked door. The Bible tells us almost nothing about it. Wrong! All through the Bible there is an amazing picture being painted of heaven, if we only look for it.

Anyway, I've got too much to do in this life to think about heaven. If we could just get a glimpse of heaven, imperfect though our understanding would be, our lives, our hopes, would surely be different.

I know someone who's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly use! The apostle Paul was given a glimpse of heaven, and he was a man of great earthly use. John Wesley, William Wilberforce, Hannah More, William Booth (and so many other great Christian reformers that we could fill a book with their names) were godly, heavenly minded people who were a powerful force for God while on the this earth.

In 1861 William Franks explored all the Bible references to heaven. In this classic work he unlocks the door and leads us as close to seeing and understanding this exciting and comforting picture as we are likely to get with our earthly vision. Heaven is a place! He explores direct Bible teaching about heaven, parables about heaven, and descriptions of heaven in visions recorded in the Bible. The first edition sold out in just over a week, and 100 reprints were subsequently needed to keep up with the demand.

His book received criticism from some liberal theologians who accused him of concentrating on the family and the reality of heaven as our home, because in their view heaven is more a state than a place. This is in absolute contradiction to what the Bible has to say about heaven, where the emphasis is very much on heaven being a real place, with believers knowing each other there -- although knowing Jesus must, and will be, our main priority.

My surprise, when reading William Branks' original book many years ago, was that there is so much we can learn about heaven from the Bible. Here is an exciting glimpse of a very real world, already existing and ready for us for eternity.

The original work is long and sometimes heavy and repetitive in places. In abridging this work, I have tried not to alter William Branks' original understanding or emphasis. However, there are some places where I felt more explanation was called for in the 21st century, and I have added the occasional note which may help clear up any confusion, or give a different viewpoint to consider. (The original book has recently been reprinted by several publishers, and is available from them as a print-on-demand paperback.)

Mediums and spiritualists often give a comforting description of the world on the other side or over there. We must ignore this as dangerous and misleading, because in the Bible contacting the dead is strictly forbidden, and surely much false information will be given by those who do not acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The imagery in messages from beyond the grave is certainly very different from that used in the Bible. The Bible is the Christian's source of teaching about God and heaven.

As you read this book, you may have your own interpretation of some passages, and occasionally question some of William Branks' imagined scenes in heaven. Please feel encouraged to examine this teaching for yourself, and maybe understand a few things a little differently. Some will see John's descriptions of heaven in Revelation as exact. Others will imagine what a man from a tribe deep in the rainforest might take back as a description of what he had seen if he was transported for an hour to the centre of a modern city, full of cars and buses, traffic lights and signs, and large department stores. What words could he use to describe the city when he returned to people who have never left their isolated village? The city would still be real, even though the understanding of the people would be far from perfect. Does our limited understanding make heaven any less real?

When we are planning to travel to a part of the world we have never visited previously, we can read the guide book and imagine the towns and the countryside. But when we've been there, and read that same guide book again, our understanding of what we first read is now very different. Yet the description in the guide book has not changed. It is our understanding that has changed. To see and understand heaven we need to be in heaven and see it with heavenly eyes. One day, of course, we will be able to understand. As the apostle Paul says, For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).

The sole reason for publishing this abridged book is to awaken a deeper interest in heaven among Christians in the 21st century. If it does that, its purpose will be achieved. I am well aware that there is no Bible translation that suits everyone, but the translation I have used in this abridged book is the New King James Version (NKJV), which bridges both the traditional and the modern translations. If you are a reader with a strong preference for a different translation, you will be able to check the verses in your own Bible. The full reference is given for every Scripture quotation.

Chris Wright

Editor

Part 1

Heaven Our Home

In My Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:2).

Chapter 1

Heaven is a Place

I go to prepare a place for you. These words of Jesus must cause us to think about the reality of heaven. Where is heaven? What is it like? Will I recognize people there?

Heaven is to be our home for ever. All who are Christians must surely want to hear about the place where they are to spend eternity.

The sailor who is afloat on the ocean, on his voyage home consults the compass regularly and carefully, for it points out the course he must sail if he is to reach the sheltered harbour. Here he will drop anchor and be safe and secure, for the storms will then be rolling far away in the distance behind him. He also delights to study the book which gives him a detailed account of the country to which he is sailing.

In the same way, you who are the children of God can look forward with excitement and longing when you think of your eternal home. You must surely feel some interest in an attempt to give you a description of it, what it is, and what you are to experience when you enter it.

What, then, is