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Are We Raised With Physical Bodies?

Hi A____,

Thank you for your question.

You ask:

"I have heard people say that heaven is our mind, but I want to understand brother, What is heaven? If our mind is heaven do angels and God live in our mind? Are the spirits of the departed inside us? ... please help me with scriptures brother."

The phrase "in our minds" is a figure of speech which attempts to express these truths:

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Right there Christ lost 99.44% of orthodox Christians who prefer to believe the so-called 'Apostles Creed," rather than believe scripture. Christ told Nicodemus that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." That's not what the so-called Apostles Creed would have you to believe. Add this next verse to what Christ told Nicodemus, and there are few indeed who believe God's Word:

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more [after the flesh].
The so-called Apostle's Creed is of second century origins and had nothing at all to do with any of the apostles. Yet the entire orthodox Christian world has sided with that heretical creed and teaches that since Christ's physical body was indeed resurrected, that we will therefore all be given bodies of flesh in our resurrection. 

In other words, the fact that Christ told Thomas that Thomas' insistence on seeing  the holes in Christ's hands and the hole in His side was not a blessed or faithful condition for Thomas to be in, means nothing to those who place that creed in such high regard.

Joh 20:24  But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
Joh 20:25  The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Joh 20:26  And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: [then] came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace [be] unto you.
Joh 20:27  Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust [it] into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Joh 20:28  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Joh 20:29  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
So Christ tells Nicodemus that a resurrected body is invisible, "like the wind," and the apostles creed tells us this is not so. Like Thomas, orthodoxy does not believe what cannot be seen, and Christ's admonition to Thomas is completely negated by the heretical Apostle's Creed. Here is a cut and paste of that creed and the date of its authorship for the Center For Reformed Theology and Apologetics:

" The basic creed of Reformed churches, as most familiarly known, is called the Apostles' Creed. It has received this title because of its great antiquity; it dates from very early times in the Church, a half century or so from the last writings of the New Testament.

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell. [See Calvin]

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy *catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the [physical] body, and life everlasting.

Amen."

As the Adversary did with Eve, mixing truth with lies to distort what God had actually said, and that is what this miserably misnamed creed does.

How is it possible to "be born again" and "know no man after the flesh," not even Christ, if we do not believe that heaven, rebirth, crucifixion and resurrection is all in the spirit within our hearts and minds?
Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
But of course that is exactly where it all is at this time, and that is why we are told that, at this time we have been "sealed with the holy spirit of promise... until the redemption of the purchased possession."."

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
What we have at this time is not "the redemption of the purchased possession," but it is "the holy spirit of promise... the earnest [Greek, down payment] of our inheritance." And yet we are told "we know no man... not even Christ, after the flesh."

We are told to know each other and Christ only "after the spirit," and that if we are born of the spirit we are 'as the wind, which cannot be seen." Are you beginning to see why we say that 'heaven' is in our hearts and in our minds? If that is not so then how are these verses to be understood?

Eph 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us every blessing of the Spirit in the heavens in Christ: (BBE)
That is the Bible in Basic English version. Here is that same verse in the International Standard Version.

(ISV)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm,
How can we be in these "vessels of clay," and at the same time "in the heavenly realm," if we do not understand that 'the heavens,' are for now in our hearts and minds, and that when God does set up His kingdom, it will not be ruling merely over physical bodies, whose hearts and minds have not been changed by the indwelling spirit, but it will be ruling over a new heart and a new mind within all who have come to "know both men and Christ after the spirit" (2Co 5:16).

Please read the paper entitled What and Where Is Heaven? on iswasandwillbe.com. If after reading that paper, you still have a question, then please get back to me. If you write to me directly, it will be much quicker.

I hope this all helps you to see "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit," and that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." I hope too, that God will give you eyes to see that "the kingdom of God is within you." If you can see the truth of those verses, then you will know that when the scriptures tell us that "God dwells in the heavens," that is the exact same thing as telling us that God dwells in His people," in their hearts and in their minds.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1Ki 8:30  And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou  thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.
Isa 40:22  [It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof [are] as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Your brother in Christ,

Mike