Where Is God's Dwelling-Place?
By Emma Hildreth Adams
“WHERE does God live? Has God a fixed place of abode as I have?” These questions were proposed recently by a person who doubts if there is a God who takes loving interest in human affairs, to another whose faith in such a being is as immovable as the pillars of the mountains. Doubtless many men and women have asked themselves these questions, tho they may never have propounded them to other persons. They see, all around themselves—in the trees and flowers full of odor; in the sea replete with music, filled with life; in the heavens strewed with brilliant stars; in the mountains buttressed by might and power; in the atmosphere alive with gay twittering aeroplanes, specimens of amazing creative handiwork—evidence of a mind that, in ages far past, planned for ages far in the future; evidence of an eye which discerns the momentous outcomes of time in the far eternity. Naturally, every thinking observer of all these things hungers to know from what point in the vast universe emanates all the wisdom, knowledge, and might displayed therein. But neither fragrant trees, nor voiceful seas, brilliant stars, gigantic rocks, nor flitting birds condescend satisfactory answer to his fervid inquiry. Their mute reply is: “WE ARE. That is all we know. Where resides He who made us to bloom, to exhale odor, to talk from the waves, to shine in the firmament, to navigate the atmosphere, we know not. Our one duty is to obey.” It is safe to assert that our one reliable source of information as to the dwelling-place of God, is His Word, the Bible. If that great fountain of fact and truth, pertaining to matters outside our natural realm of knowledge, gives no conclusive answer to our inquiry, then, like God's creations in nature around us, we should glorify Him in a glad obedience to the laws of our life, and await the disclosures of the resurrection day for the information we crave. Three scriptures show conclusively that God dwells in a definite place, and they form one of the many clear evidences that He is a personality. Isa. 26: 21 cries: “Behold, the Lord cometh out of His PLACE to punish the inhabitants of the earth.” And Micah affirms: “Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His PLACE, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.” Now hear the author of Ps. 33: 13-15: “The Lord looketh from heaven. . . . From the PLACE of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike.” Notice, the author of this psalm makes “heaven” the place in which God dwells, wherever it may be located; and innumerable other passages confirm the assertion. Repeatedly, in the noble prayer offered by Solomon, at the dedication of the glorious temple he built to the Lord in Jerusalem, he pleads: “Hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place: and when Thou hearest, forgive.” “Hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways.” “Hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for.” Eccl. 5: 2 advises: “Be not rash with thy mouth . . . to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth.” Employing the beautiful illustration of the lost sheep, Christ declared: “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” And later: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven.” One citation more on this point: In His wonderfully comprehensive Sermon on the Mount, Christ urges: “Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven.” And in the model prayer embraced in that sermon, He teaches: “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” Thus are we assured, beyond all doubt, that God dwells in a place, and that this place is called heaven. Let us now inquire, as did the person whose words form the text for this paper: Where is heaven? In what direction is it from the earth? To the first inquiry, the Bible, so far as the writer recalls, concedes no reply. Two men, since the beginning of the Christian era, both of them filled with the Spirit of God, have been permitted to enter temporarily into heaven for instruction, for spiritual anchorage, for equipment for their life-work. One of them, Paul, who led a masterly life after his conversion, wrote to his beloved Corinthians, telling them of a man—himself—who, fourteen years before, had been “caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not possible for a man to utter.” But his lips are closed as to the locality of his remarkable experience. He vouchsafes not a word as to where Paradise is. The other, John, the beloved disciple, occupies pages of the book of Revelation with repetitions of the momentous words he heard, the grave commissions assigned him, with pictures of the august scenes he witnessed, and of the epitomized future history of the world revealed to him, during a lengthened stay in the presence of God, of Christ, and of the angels. But his faithful pen omits entirely to tell eager men and women just whither to fly to find the beatific dwelling-place of Him who rules the universe. Now let us turn back to Acts 7: 55. There we shall see—standing at the threshold of death by stoning—the first Christian martyr, Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, looking “*up steadfastly into heaven,” and beholding Christ “standing on the right hand of God”—for his solace, his encouragement in that most crucial hour. But again no sentence is published concerning the location of heaven. On that point utter silence reigns. However, one impressive item is never omitted in describing these supermundane scenes, visions, and audiences at the grand center of force and power exercised by the mighty Ruler of the universe. The direction thither from the earth is always indicated as upward or outward. In Acts 1: 9-11, Luke, depicting the departure of Christ from the earth, declares, “And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven”—into the atmosphere? “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in8like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” In 1 Thess. 4:16, 17, Paul asserts, with not a shade of doubt in mind, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them . . . to meet the Lord in the air.” Attention is now called to a peculiar and very suggestive feature of this subject. Luke, speaking of Christ's ascent, states that “a cloud received Him out of their sight.” Paul, alluding to the resurrection, affirms, “We . . . shall be caught up . . . in the clouds, to meet the Lord.” Christ, foretelling His return to the earth, avers, “Then shall . . . they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” On another occasion, answering a decisive question of the high priest, Christ declared, “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” Finally, John, in his address to the seven churches of Asia, referring to Christ's return to the earth, informed them, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” In these and similar scenes depicted in the Gospels, the departures from the earth are represented as ascents to some special point. The comings to the earth are portrayed as descents from somewhere. Hence we may safely conclude, since God, Christ, and the angels are personalities—judged from their works—that heaven, the center whence emanate the might, laws, and authority which maintain and govern the universe, is indeed a PLACE,—a place, according to Scripture, wonderful, beyond all human conception, for glory, beauty, and blessedness. But why are the coming and departing of heavenly messengers often screened from human view by clouds? The writer can suggest simply. May it not have been for the highest welfare of mankind that, except in very few instances, God's place of abode and the highway thither have ever been carefully curtained from mortal sight? One can but call to mind the confusing, trouble-breeding, far-reaching experience at Babel more than 4,000 years ago. Who knows, had not the impenetrable screen then been pushed steadfastly across the inviting way to God's dwelling-place, what other eager, fruitless attempts might have been made to escape devastating floods and destroying foes?