The Present Truth, vol. 18
December 11, 1902
“Heaven in the Home” The Present Truth 18, 51, p. 808.
HEAVEN in the home: it is possible to have it there. Heaven belongs on the earth, and of all places on the earth, surely most of all in the home. PTUK December 11, 1902, page 808.1
The Lord Jesus came to this earth to bring heaven to the people as much as He did to take the people to heaven. Indeed, in a sense, He came for the purpose of bringing heaven to the people; for heaven must be brought to the people on earth and they must become acquainted with it, and desire it, and be made fit for it, before they can possibly be taken to it. And even when the glad throng of every kindred, tongue, people and nation, have reached heaven, it is with joyous anticipation that they exclaim, “We shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). That will be when “The new heaven and the new earth” shall have taken the place of this old one; and the great voice from heaven announces, “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. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:3, 4). Thus of very truth heaven belongs on the earth. PTUK December 11, 1902, page 808.2
But it is only Christ who has brought heaven to the earth; and only in Him can it be found one earth. So it is written that we give “thanks to the Father, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 3:13); and that kingdom is “the kingdom of heaven.” PTUK December 11, 1902, page 808.3
The word of God is “the word of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:11-19), and the object of the Word of God is to cause that the days of men on the earth shall be as the days of heaven upon earth. For so is it written; “Therefore shall ye lay up these, my words in your heart and in your soul, ... and ye shall teach them to your children that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children ... as the days of heaven upon the earth” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21). PTUK December 11, 1902, page 808.4
The Word of God laid up in the heart and in the soul, and taught diligently to the children, makes the days of parents and children as the days of heaven upon the earth. And the Word of God, and the truth as it is in Jesus, if allowed to prevail in the home, makes heaven in the home. PTUK December 11, 1902, page 808.5
God wants it so, and God has planned it so, that all who go to heaven, shall, as they go, have heaven within and all around to go to heaven in. And as the home is the one place on earth where all the life most centres, God has fixed it so that, of all places on earth, there shall most of heaven in the home
[sic.].
PTUK December 11, 1902, page 808.6
A. T. JONES.