19 Bible verses about heaven and what Scripture actually describes
Written by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Raphael Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
Heaven, in the Bible, is described less as a place and more as presence. John 14:2-3 speaks of dwelling places prepared and of being where Jesus is, Revelation 21:1-2 announces a new heaven and a new earth, and 1 Corinthians 2:9 admits nobody has ever imagined what it is.
The first surprise, reading these texts in sequence, is how little they say about clouds, gates and harps. What recurs is something else: presence. Being with him, seeing his face, living where he lives. John 14:3 does not describe the place at all — Jesus says he is coming back to take his own where he is, and the argument ends there.
The second surprise is the earth. The hope the New Testament describes is not going up and away from here, but a new heaven and a new earth, with the city coming down. Isaiah 65:17, 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21 say the same thing across different centuries. It is quite unlike the popular picture, and it is what is written.
About what happens between a person’s death and that ending, Scripture says little, and the Christian traditions have filled that silence in different ways. The comments below say what each text states and stop where it stops.
All 19 verses, one by one
1“Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe in me also.
2In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places. If there were not, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you.
3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will return again, and then I will take you to myself, so that where I am, you also may be.
The most read text about heaven, and it never once describes the place. The whole promise is about company: so that where I am, you also may be.
Read the chapterFather, I will that where I am, those whom you have given to me may also be with me, so that they may see my glory which you have given to me. For you loved me before the founding of the world.
Here it is Jesus praying, and this is exactly what he asks for. Worth noticing that the wanting starts with him, not with the people hoping to get there.
Read the chapterAnd Jesus said to him, “Amen I say to you, this day you shall be with me in Paradise.”
Said to a man who was beside Jesus in the last hours of both their lives. The word "today" is the centre of the different readings the traditions give of the interval between death and resurrection — and none of them disputes the promise itself.
Read the chapterBut this is just as it has been written: “The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.”
The one verse here that admits to not knowing. Paul quotes Isaiah to say the subject exceeds eye, ear and imagination — which is a useful brake on descriptions that get too detailed.
Read the chapter20But our way of life is in heaven. And from heaven, too, we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ,
21who will transform the body of our lowliness, according to the form of the body of his glory, by means of that power by which he is even able to subject all things to himself.
Written to a Roman colony, where citizenship was a matter of identity and pride. The Greek word behind "our way of life" is the civic one — Paul chose it deliberately: the passport is from somewhere else.
Read the chapterBut now they hunger for a better place, that is, Heaven. For this reason, God is not ashamed to be called their God. For he has prepared a city for them.
The most generous sentence in Scripture: God is not ashamed to be called their God. The prepared city turns up as a consequence of that, not as a reward.
Read the chapterFor in this place, we have no everlasting city; instead, we seek one in the future.
One short line that explains why a Christian always feels slightly out of place. It is not contempt for the present — it is a temporary address.
Read the chapter1Therefore, if you have risen together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2Consider the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.
The verbs are seek and consider, not escape. Paul writes this and in the following lines talks about marriage, children and work — looking up is what organises life down here.
Read the chapter19Do not choose to store up for yourselves treasures on earth: where rust and moth consume, and where thieves break in and steal.
20Instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither rust nor moth consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21For where your treasure is, there also is your heart.
Rust, moth and thieves are three ways of losing what you store. The argument is about the security of an investment, and the conclusion is about where your heart ends up.
Read the chapter11Blessed are you when they have slandered you, and persecuted you, and spoken all kinds of evil against you, falsely, for my sake:
12be glad and exult, for your reward in heaven is plentiful. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Said to people paying a real price for following Jesus, which changes the whole tone. The reward in heaven appears as compensation for something concrete, not as a generic line of comfort.
Read the chapter3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has regenerated us into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead:
4unto an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance, which is reserved for you in heaven.
Three adjectives for an inheritance: incorruptible, undefiled, unfading. Peter is writing to people who were losing property — the list answers specific losses.
Read the chapter16For the Lord himself, with a command and with the voice of an Archangel and with a trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven. And the dead, who are in Christ, shall rise up first.
17Next, we who are alive, who are remaining, shall be taken up quickly together with them into the clouds to meet Christ in the air. And in this way, we shall be with the Lord always.
The most detailed scene of the reunion in the New Testament. The closing sentence is the point of the whole paragraph: we shall be with the Lord always.
Read the chapterFor behold, I create the new heavens and the new earth. And the former things will not be in memory and will not enter into the heart.
The promise of new heavens and a new earth appears seven hundred years before Revelation. It is neither a late idea nor an invention of the Bible’s last book.
Read the chapterYet truly, in accord with his promises, we are looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth, in which justice lives.
The detail is at the end: in which justice lives. It is the only description of heaven on this list made in moral rather than visual terms.
Read the chapter1I saw the new heaven and the new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more.
2And I, John, saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
Notice the direction: the city descends. The popular image of going up to heaven is not the one the text uses here.
Read the chapter22And I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb.
23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine in it. For the glory of God has illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp.
A holy city with no temple in it — the absence is the point. There is no separate place to go and meet God when he is the whole place.
Read the chapter3And every curse shall be no more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants shall serve him.
4And they shall see his face. And his name shall be on their foreheads.
5And night shall be no more. And they will not need the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them. And they shall reign forever and ever.
"They shall see his face" is the strongest sentence in the Bible on this subject, because in the Old Testament seeing God’s face was precisely what nobody could do and live.
Read the chapter9After these things, I saw a great crowd, which no one could number, from all the nations and tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
10And they cried out, with a great voice, saying: “Salvation is from our God, who sits upon the throne, and from the Lamb.”
The crowd is from all the nations and tribes and peoples and languages — four words Scripture uses to say that no group was left out.
Read the chapterYou have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with joy by your countenance. At your right hand are delights, even to the end.
It closes the list from the oldest and simplest end. The joy is not in a setting: it is in a countenance. It sums up everything the texts above describe.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What is heaven like according to the Bible?
Scripture describes far more presence than scenery. John 14:3 speaks of being where Jesus is, Revelation 22:4 of seeing his face, and Revelation 21:4 says there will be no more death or pain. 1 Corinthians 2:9 admits that no description reaches what it is.
Does a person go to heaven as soon as they die?
The Bible states both ends clearly: being with Christ after death (Luke 23:43, Philippians 1:23) and the resurrection at the end (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). About the interval it says little, and the Christian traditions describe that period differently. Admitting this is more honest than picking one version and presenting it as the only one.
Is heaven here on earth or somewhere else?
The texts about the final ending speak of new heavens and a new earth, with the city coming down — Isaiah 65:17, 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1-2. Biblical hope is not about abandoning the earth but about a renewed creation. That usually surprises anyone who only knows the popular picture of rising into the clouds.
Will we recognise the people we love in heaven?
The Bible does not address this directly, but 1 Corinthians 13:12 says that then we shall know as we are known, which points to more knowledge and not less. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 speaks of being together with those who went ahead of us. That is as far as the text goes.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, I know almost nothing about heaven, and the little I know is enough: that you are there. Keep that hope in me without letting it make me despise the life here. And comfort whoever is waiting to see someone again. Amen.