{"id":5913,"date":"2021-08-29T20:34:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T01:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/?page_id=5913"},"modified":"2025-06-14T15:10:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T20:10:47","slug":"heavens-below-heavens-above-daily-bible-study","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/?page_id=5913","title":{"rendered":"Heavens Below, Heavens Above — Daily Bible Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, April 25 2002<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Heavens Below, Heavens Above<\/span><\/h1>\n

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The term we know as\u00a0heaven<\/i>\u00a0is the Old-English translation of the two original words in\u00a0The Bible\u00a0– the\u00a0Hebrew\u00a0word in the Old Testament is pronounced\u00a0shaw-may,<\/i>\u00a0and the\u00a0Greek\u00a0word in the New Testament is pronounced\u00a0oo-ran-aws.<\/i>\u00a0Both mean the same thing – either the sky (i.e. the earth’s atmosphere), or the limitless outer space above it, depending on what the writer was talking about at the time.\u00a0Sky<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0space<\/i>\u00a0are quite accurate modern substitutes for\u00a0heaven.<\/i>\u00a0Examples:<\/span><\/p>\n

“Heaven”<\/strong> translated meaning\u00a0the sky<\/i>,\u00a0the atmosphere<\/i><\/strong><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”<\/strong><\/span> (Isaiah 55:10 RSV)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
  • “and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.”<\/strong><\/span> (Genesis 1:20 RSV)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
  • “<\/span><\/strong>And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And\u00a0Elijah\u00a0went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”<\/strong> (2 Kings 2:11 RSV)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    “Heaven”<\/strong> translated meaning\u00a0outer space<\/i>,\u00a0the abode of God<\/i>:<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • “O Lord, God of our fathers, art Thou not God in heaven?”<\/strong> <\/span>(2 Chronicles 20:6 RSV)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
    • “So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.”<\/strong><\/span> (Mark 16:19 RSV)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
    • “No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of man.”<\/strong><\/span> (John 3:13 RSV)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      “The Highest Heavens”<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

      Stars<\/b>\u00a0are very hot spheres of gas (usually more than 90% hydrogen) that give off various forms of radiation, including light. The sun is an average-size star. Some stars are much smaller than the sun, others are millions of times bigger. Stars vary in color according to their surface temperature, from blue-white (the hottest at about 35,000 degrees) to white, yellow, orange, to red (the coolest at about 3,000 degrees). Stars are “born”<\/strong> from accumulating physical matter, live out their lives according to how much fuel they have, and then “die”<\/strong> – either by going cold and dark, or exploding (a supernova) when they no longer have the gravity to hold together. From the ejected matter, new stars (and planets) will eventually be born.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Constellations<\/b>\u00a0are merely chance alignments of stars that seem to draw an outline of something – a human, animal or an object. “The Big Dipper”<\/strong> (also known as “The Plow,”<\/strong> or “The Wagon”<\/strong>) is a familiar example (it is actually part of the constellation Ursa Major – the Big Bear). Some others (there are 88 “official”<\/strong> constellations) are Orion the Hunter, Leo the Lion, and Canis Major. There are thousands more that anyone can decide for oneself on any starry night.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Galaxies<\/b>\u00a0are very large aggregations of stars, gas, dust, and physical matter – including\u00a0billions<\/i>\u00a0of planets. The “Milky Way”<\/strong> galaxy, of which the sun is a member, has an estimated 200 billion stars. Throughout the universe there are billions of galaxies. The telescope photo at left, while appearing to be just a mist in space, is a very distant galaxy, and the “mist”<\/strong> is actually\u00a0billions<\/i>\u00a0of stars (like raindrops on a window pane that blend with the distant view out of a window, the individual stars that can be seen in the photo are actually in our\u00a0own<\/i>\u00a0galaxy, and are not part of the distant galaxy)<\/span><\/p>\n

      Fact Finder:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Did the apostle Paul speak of how the stars of the heavens differ?<\/span>
      \n1 Corinthians 15:41<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

      Note:<\/strong> Paul was very well qualified to make that statement. See 2 Corinthians 12:2-4<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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      Thursday, April 25 2002 Heavens Below, Heavens Above The term we know as\u00a0heaven\u00a0is the Old-English translation of the two original words in\u00a0The Bible\u00a0– the\u00a0Hebrew\u00a0word in the Old Testament is pronounced\u00a0shaw-may,\u00a0and the\u00a0Greek\u00a0word in the New Testament is pronounced\u00a0oo-ran-aws.\u00a0Both mean the same thing – either the sky (i.e. the earth’s atmosphere), or the limitless outer space above […]<\/p>\n

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