The earth that we live in has seven continents, so also, including our little earth, Heaven that we generally call as kingdom of God has apparently seven planes that no one can see with our visual eyes. Though Heaven is hidden from our bodily eyes, it is like a treasure that is present within us also. Everything is abstract beyond this plane of our existence. The reason for Jesus to speak like is this. “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” This unseen kingdom of God is given to His elected ‘little flock’ at the close of the age, Lk.12: 32. Because there are seven planes of Heaven, can we assume the reason for the Son of Man comparing Heaven for seven times? Mt.13: 44-52. Paradise that is in the third or third heaven, mid-heaven, Rev.14: 6, is the third plane, 2.Cor.12: 1-4.

Seven Heavens:
If Paradise is the third heaven or mid-heaven, certainly there are seven planes for Heaven. No human being apparently has any accessibility beyond the third heaven, while one is in the flesh because God’s hierarchical hosts who hadn’t rebelled with Lucifer are seemingly there in the higher planes incessantly praising the God of hosts. “He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”, Eph.4: 9-10; 1.kg.8:27. Does it mean by ‘that he might fill all things’ that He may fill the highest planes by the specially selected human souls according to their merits, like 144, 000 virgins? There are many mansions in the Father’s House, Jn.14, and as there are great and small in the land of the Living, Mt.5: 19, these mansions are likely to be filled in according to the dessert on accounts of one’s struggles in the flesh. These seven 7 heavens are grouped as 3 categories that we hear about in the Rite of the Adoration of the cross ceremony during important festivities and festivals. The top layer of planes is where ‘cherubim bless’, ‘seraphim sanctify’ and ‘fiery hosts praise’; the second layer where ‘He whom those between exalt’ and the 3rd layer where ‘He whom the earthly beings below glorify’.

Prophet Ezekiel saw these 3 planes in a symbolic way, Eze.47: 3-12. He measured 1000 cubits to cross each plane. Each 1000 may stand for 1000 years; consequently it may take 7000 years to cross all the 7 planes. Man’s life here on earth is meant for 6000 years and the next 1000 years is a solemn rest with the Lord and His myriads of angels in mid-heaven, Heb.4: 9-11. The epics of India also portray 7 heavens and 7 hells, about which we find it hard biblically to draw a definite conclusion that there could be 7 hells altogether. The word ‘hell’ is used in NT to translate two words, Hades, generally meaning as the same of ‘Sheol’, the place of the dead and ‘Ghehenna’, the place of retribution for evil deeds. But the usage of the phrase ‘the lowest hell’, Deu.32: 22, Ps.86: 13, conveys the idea that there are more planes of hells than 2.

There are 12 patriarchs and 12 apostles; each one plane in the celestial heights may be in charge by 2 apostles, the reason for the Lord sending 2 in a group for ministry works, Lk.10; 1; Mt.18: 19. Altogether there are 12 apostles for 6 upper planes. Seemingly there are 6 planes upward and 6 downward and the earth in between having 2 half planes, cosmic and earthly-Godhood and Manhood of Christ- for which the Son Of God and Son of Man symbolizing the caretaker responsibility. As Judas fell to disgrace, Mathias was elected for completing the numerical figure of 12. This verse makes sense by knowing this truth, Acts.1: 20. “Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it; and his office let another take”. Son of Man is one world, and the Son of God is another one, making the total as 14.

The 12 sons of Jacob were the shadows of 12 apostles. The curse on Dan inhibited him to be a Patriarch, just as Judas’ habitation became desolate because of his betrayal. Though Dan was cursed, he has the right to judge the tribe. “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel”, Gen.49: 16. In spite of Dan’s ignominious disappearance, two more Patriarchs had come to the scene. They are Joseph’s son Manasseh and Ephraim, representing 2 half tribes, who had been blessed by Jacob as Patriarchs, Gen.48: 8-20. Despite Manasseh was elder, he was made subordinate to his younger brother, may be to show later that Judas’ place was replaced by Mathias.

Manasseh and Ephraim are treated as half tribes, likely to show that they represent the two natures of Christ that exist without confusion, change, division or separation. Thus there are apparently 14 planes, and they are under the charge of 12 Patriarchs and two half tribes and 12 apostles, as we witness twenty-four elders seating on the 24 thrones, Rev.4: 4-11. In Rev.6 we see the portrayal of the Lamb opening seven seals, means revealing 7 planes. When the 7th seal was opened, “I saw the 7 angels who stand before GOD, and 7 trumpets were given to them”, Rev.8: 2-6, for blowing. As the underworld planes are also under the jurisdiction of God’s angels, “It is a victorious spectacle of binding Satan and throwing him into the Hades for 1000 years”, Rev.20: 3.

Difference between Heaven ‘within you’ and in the infinity:
There are biblical indications for the abstract references to Heaven as the kingdom of God, Mt.6; 33; kingdom of Heaven, Mt.3: 2; his kingdom, 2.Tim.4: 1; my kingdom, Lk.22: 30; thy kingdom, Mt.6: 10, but is not possible to find out the etymological usage of these words in different contexts. The first Para of Jn.14 poses a very puzzling and enigmatic problem. Man is created for replacing the fallen angels whose rooms have been lying vacant for ages, and we know that they used to have their abodes on this planet which the Son of Man wants to destroy because the fallen man is wandering here together with his older brothers, the fallen legion, who try to convert God’s earthly species to his side. It means that Jesus who presented us to the Father through His great sacrifice has gone to prepare a different place for the redeemed race separately, because of the other legions who hadn’t supported Lucifer’s rebellion in timelessness are still worshipping the Almighty and their locations are seemingly beyond the realms of the third plane.

The first entry into Paradise, the newly prepared abode for the sons of Adam, which goes in par with Eden, has been filling in by the robber who was crucified with Jesus. The OT Elects were kept in a separate place, known as Abraham’s bosom, under the earth because no soul could trespass the aerial realm of Oyar in the OT period, the narrow way to the Father’s place, prior to the son of Man’s sacrifice on the cross. Jesus was the first one, the first-born into the newly prepared Paradise, who conquered the astral realm of Satan’s Oyar. The departed souls who now go to the other side of the grave are able to pass through the twenty toll- houses set up by Satan in Oyar. As it takes forty days of intense testing in the twenty toll- houses, it takes about forty days to complete it, the reason for us to supplicate on behalf of the faithful departed during that period. It means that there is a place called Heaven beyond the boundaries of our horizon, although the line of separation of hell and Heaven is within us. If Heaven is limited within us now, no one has the necessity to die and go to an unknown place that we have no control at all.

Wrong interpretation:
“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, Lo, here it is! Or ‘there’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you”, Lk.17: 20-21. Very calculated words, not only here but also the frugal words and phrases used in the bible translate a celestial world that we find it hard to penetrate into. Using the phrase ‘within’, instead of using ‘in the midst of you’, make a difference of stellar distance which mislead and take us into the territory of the Devil. It would be humanly impossible for an ordinary observer to find the signs of the birth and life of Jesus, despite there were obvious signs that the magi, shepherds and Simeon led to and exposed to, when Jesus the symbol of Heaven was in the midst of them. He meant that Heaven was in the midst of them, means Jesus’ presence at that point of time in their midst while talking about heaven; it doesn’t mean that heaven is within our mind.

This misinterpretation that cut the taproot of the teaching of salvation has been a universal victory for the infernal blackguards. Whether Christians or non-Christians, everybody who believes that heaven is ‘within us’ is of the opinion that going to church or doing religious duties is only a paraphernalia; the main task is to clean up the mind. Emptying the mind and filling with the fallen legion is not the medication for salvation. Cleaning up the mind according to our pedestrian standard is not the formula for spirituality; doing some good things in life and whimper about and showing our ego is a sign of hell that only can profane the name of God and our mind.

Heaven is a place beyond our imagination and grasp; we have to work for it for the whole life that inevitably invites introspection and mental cleansing with Christian rectitude. When ‘Aham’ or high profile head weight that rule our life, the kingdom of Satan can only dwell ‘within’ us. Unless we worship the God of Heaven in deep penitence and then do serve our brethren sincerely, Heaven remains as a mirage that help to corrode our ‘within’. Morality bereft of God can only help us landing into the domain of individualism that is a breeding ground for the demon to build its strongholds. If Heaven that is a distant far off luminous land, yet remaining as a dream of reality within us and without, what is the main, enigmatic entry qualification into that territory of the mysteries?

Entry Qualifications:
The only imperative door entry pass is, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it”, Lk.18: 17. A simple statement in few words, but it doesn’t limit the meaning within our horizon. A second childhood that is given to man is basically in ruminating, reminiscing and re-examining the overall role that he played during his entire lifespan and become a child of second childhood that is the exit lane into the next stage of hidden existence. This second childhood period is named as ‘Vanaprastham’ that go in tune within the prescriptions of Indian sages. It doesn’t mean to live a childlike life only at the evening of one’s life, but to be a child of God through out one’s life that is periodically at sixes and sevens is the lifeblood of this ephemeral journey of uncertainties. Sinning and repenting, forgiving and forgetting, giving and taking, earning and squandering, hating and loving and similar other infirmities are the games of this testing sojourn. In a nutshell, children have no corruptions of their character, apart from the sluggishness of their genetic body temperance and the metabolic requirements that they need from time to time. Let us ponder over the likely qualifications of a child.

Love and fear:
Though the child loves everyone, the immanent fear that scares it to be in the hands of strangers is a problem for some children. The language of love makes it smile and laugh, whereas it is frightened by strange looks and appearances. Though man has the secular right to do anything that doesn’t affect others, we can’t do such things in real life that is crowded with a mob of unlike and like-minded strangers and associates. Everyone has one’s own feelings that branch into myriads of opinions which will have to be weighed to make a balance. Loving others like us is a precondition that should allow us to flow the pure and sincere love through our veins.

Love creates, whereas hatred destroys one’s salvation, friendship and our own inner and external lifestyle, despite the love-hate ethos is the mode of our everyday normality in the fallen state. The creative fear that is immanent in every animal, except alien to some mad people, is for self-protection. Just as a child reacts to strange situations and clings on its parents, man has a duty to repel from the diabolic activities and demons, so that we find shelter in the arms of our own Creator. Man must love God and hate his enemy, the Devil. All the problems of modern life are the outcomes of the fearlessness of God that deletes the love of God and towards His creations. Just the opposite is happening; loving the instincts of the flesh that is against the inner sensibilities is the dominant appetite of a high-flying life of modern agnostic way of life. “Do not resist one who is evil”, Mt.5: 39, is a prescription that allows us to love the passion of the Lord who love everyone and hate the deceit, the tool of the Devil.

Association:
A child has the ability to associate with others without any prejudice that differentiates between the people of multiracial ethnicities and linguistics and religiosities, the rich and the poor and beyond age barriers. The reason for Jesus to identify His followers as sheep is due to the fact that the sheep flock together while grazing or otherwise, whereas the goat go according to its whims and fancies, without giving any heed to the shepherd and other goats. Thus Christianity makes it as a social religion of equality while working for the destitute, vulnerable and the marginalized ones. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ by giving honour and glory to the Father is the pulse of the created order. Love that creates amity and concordance is the only religion in the world. God is a foreigner where there is aversion and apathy, cynicism and skepticism, feuding and conflicts. Learn these superlative qualities from a child that forgets any evil doings of others and forgives everything and everybody.

Sharing:
Despite food is our primary energy-giver, a child quite often likes to give a part of its food when it is at least half-fed, so also it allows others to share its belongings and habitats. Almsgiving that help the needy for food, shelter and protection is as old as life itself, just as a child lives and adjusts itself in tune with its surroundings. Life which invites adjustments and sharing with others is an excellent quality of mind that deletes head weight, jealousy, back-biting and all other intrigues. No one owns anything in this world; a caretaker role to look after this planet and its facilities is only a breath away from man. Why make a false boast, when the Creator is the owner of our wealth, time, health and our whole households. Children don’t claim the ownership of anything other than what they possess for time passing at that point of time. Remember always that we are the children of the same Father and sharing the same bread provided by the Creator.

Consoling:
The young ones also have the ability to identify with others and their feelings. They share anything what they have, while its associates are in dire need or danger. Possessiveness of wealth and property and money, a dangerous game that the adult exhibits is harmful for their life here and also in afterlife. Greed that has no limit is a contagious disease that can kill our soul and body. Whoever is driven by the passion of greed dislike to share his belongings, triggering jealousy which has no sympathy and mercy and ignoring the need of consoling others because any noble pursuit ends up in sacrificing something from one’s belongings?

Vengeance:
The passion of vengeance is a deadly nature that invites acrimony and feuding and vendetta that a child is usually free from. The fire of vengeance that boils one’s blood finds many valves to open for misdirected and inappropriate actions. “Vengeance is mine…Do not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good”, Rom.12: 19-21. Vengeance for greed, jealousy and possessiveness is an incurable pathological condition that works in various levels of our life: in family, society and most violently in national and international politics. The parable that is given at the end of Mt.18 should be a soul –searching medication for our daily life.

Self-deceit:
A very pernicious mental condition that betrays our own conscience exhibits duplicities of character and multiplicities of personalities is suicidal. One who deceives another is a self-conceited mental dwarf. Children are innocent and free from this harmful trait of character. There are many other sterling qualities in a child that is embedded in simple and humble love and natural fear which the adults to embody are the pure signs of a cherished Christian life of love towards God and charity towards man. When the feuding disciples who asked for greatest position in Heaven, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”, Jesus’ reprimand is of great significance. “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”, Mt.18: 1-22.

There are two salient features we note here. The first part is subjective and personal. One has to be humble like a child, and the second one is not to create any hassles to a person who has evolved himself like a child or any other person. Jesus continues: “woe to the world for temptations to sin…We shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who is likely to withdraw from the camp of God because of our hypocrisy, while we profess ourselves as a servant of the Almighty. In other words, we shouldn’t be a stumbling-block for others in not receiving the light of God. We destroy simultaneously ourselves and others on account of our pretence and greed. One who leads others should be like innocent lambs that are chosen for sacrifice, otherwise we carry the label of self-destroyers or society-polluters or terminators. “Let not many of you become teachers, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness”, Js.3: 1.

New Jerusalem:
The preparations of the marriage of the Lamb with the church that takes place in Paradise, Rev.19, after the 6th millennia and after a millennium thereafter the flock is apparently headed to the Last Judgement and then accompanying the new elects to a haven of new heaven and a new earth, New Jerusalem, for an eternal stay there, Rev.20: 7-22: 19. New heaven and new earth definitely remind us that the new habitat is a globe like that of ours, bereft of any infernal molestation. The descriptive beauty of the new earth that marvel and in superlative excellence which go in tune with the creation history of this universe and our first parents has no parallel in the whole of the biblical narrations, except that of the presentation of the Logos in St.John, chapter one. “ And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and a voice heard from the throne, saying, “Behold the dwelling of God is with men,…death shall be no more, neither shall be mourning nor crying…I take all things new….”.

The wall of this city is founded on the 12 apostles, the reason for us to follow their footprints and the chaste faith that we have to adhere to because they have the authority of judging the 12 tribes of Israel. “And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb”, Rev.21: 14.

It is apparently true to say that this new city that comes out of heaven from God is a new globe or a place that is exclusively adorned for the race of Adam, just as Eden was a new creation for Adam and Eve on this planet earth, Gen.2: 8. It is a similar planet that of the earth which has water, plants and the Tree of Life that produce various kinds of fruits, Rev.22. The throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and the elects shall share it there forever. This luminous territory that has the throne of the Eternal God, where we also sharing the same, Rev.3: 21, is the seeming land that is referred to as the kingdom of Heaven that is prepared separately for the redeemed race of Adam, whereas the kingdom of God likely pertaining to the oceans of universes of the gigantic universe of Heaven. This blissful domain will be within and without us then, also now in the embryonic stage within us, because we will be in the midst of the Lamb and His angels.

The visa qualification to that territory is very strict. The post-puberty lifestyle that is overruled by the virulent passions of money(wealth), power and sex games is not the ideal pattern of our life which pertain for our entry permit. Whereas the gate pass for the admission into that arena of eternal peace is the pre-puberty life culture of purity, innocence, humility and serene and selfless love towards God and man without any power, money and sex corruptions is the pulsating rhythm which is the one that is meant for our entire life, Mk.7: 21-23; Gal.5: 18-24. Beware that a child has not at all any power position or wealth and is in the purity of dormant sex. Triggering sexual impulse on the onset of puberty is exclusively aimed at is for the propagation of the species, not for any sexual foul play which will have detrimental backlashes that are inscribed within our mortal and immortal frames, permitting God to cleanse the stains by our salty tears and sweats. Just as our entire carefree childhood life is in the hand of our parents and relatives, our earthly life should be dedicated totally to God and His hosts who care and nurture in this life and take us into the land of the Living ceremoniously. Our sins and infirmities unless submitted at the feet of the Lord and sought sincere absolution, we won’t be taken into the God’s Holy land; a blemished life only tend to lead us into the territory of the outer darkness. “But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life”, Rev.21: 27.