Do you believe in Heaven? I do. Why? I believe in Heaven because I want to believe in Heaven. It is paradise; the hope and goal of my faith. However, it takes more than just wanting to believe in something to make it true. For example, the atheist wants to believe in evolution. There is no scientific credibility to the theory of evolution, but it is the best thing that the atheist has going for him, so he believes in it. Heaven is not a fairy tale, a relic of ancient religious folklore. It is real. I believe in Heaven for the following reasons:

Because I believe in God. God created all things, including Heaven (Gen. 1:1). Heaven is the abode of God. "The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men" (Ps. 11:4). Jesus affirmed this to be true in Matthew 5:34. If I believe in God, I must believe in Heaven. God created it, and He dwells there.

Because I believe in Jesus. Jesus came to bear witness of the truth. "Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are You a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice'" (John 18:37). Thus, everything Jesus told us is the truth. On one occasion, Jesus assured His disciples that Heaven was real and was waiting for them. "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:1-3). On another occasion, Jesus spoke of the reward of the righteous, which will be in Heaven (Matt. 25:31-34, 46). Finally, when Jesus left this world, He ascended into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). If I believe in Jesus, I must believe in Heaven. He spoke the truth when He spoke about Heaven, and He is there now.

Because I believe in the Bible. "The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever" (Ps. 119:160). Every word in the Bible is the truth, from cover to cover. This means that we can trust everything that the Bible says. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). The phrase "inspiration of God" is translated from the Greek word THEOPNEUSTOS, which is actually a combination of the Greek words for "God" and "to breathe." This means that all (the entirety of) Scripture is the product of the mouth of God ("God breathed"), not the mind of man. Heaven is a doctrine of the Bible, so I believe in Heaven.

Because I believe in Hell. Jesus spoke of Hell more than anyone else in the Bible. He described Hell as a place of outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12), a place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44), and as a place of everlasting torment prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Hell exists because God's righteousness demands that evil and sin be punished. If evil has a punishment, then we can understand that righteousness has a reward. Heaven is the exact opposite of Hell. Heaven is the realization of man's existence the way God intended for it to be at the beginning of time. Everything that was lost in the Garden of Eden as a result of man's sin is regained in Heaven (Rev. 22:1-5). I believe in Heaven because I believe in Hell. The same God, Savior, and Bible proclaim both.

Do you believe in Heaven? Do you want to go there? You can! Jesus is the way to Heaven (John 14:6). He is the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Heb. 5:9). Why not obey the gospel today and make Heaven your eternal home?