Page 151 - Apologetics Student Textbook

in Revelation 21 said he saw “a New Heaven and a New Earth.” (verse 1). The reason he called it a NEW
Heaven and Earth is because at this time, the old heaven and earth had been destroyed by fire and the
elements will melt with the heat (II. Peter 3:12).

John witnessed that heaven (the new earth) possesses the “glory of God” (Revelation 21:11), the very
presence of God. Because heaven has no night and the Lord Himself is the light, the sun and moon are
no longer needed (Revelation 22:5).

The description of the physical city called the New Jerusalem is amazing. It has great high walls with
twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. The city is a cube about 1,400 miles wide, high, and deep. The
outer walls are 200 feet thick made of jasper and pure gold. The city has twelve foundations made from
previous stones and the streets in the city are paved with pure transparent gold. The paradise of the
Garden of Eden is restored: the river of the water of life flows freely and the tree of life is available once
again, yielding fruit monthly with leaves that “heal the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2).

There will be no more tears, no more pain, and no more sorrow (Revelation 21:4). There will be no more
separation, because death will be conquered (Revelation 20:6). The best thing about heaven is the
presence of our Lord and Savior (1 John 3:2). We will be face to face with the Lamb of God who loved us
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and sacrificed Himself so that we can enjoy His presence in heaven for eternity.

Buddhism teaches that Nirvana is the highest state of being, a state of pure being, and it is achieved by
means relative to the individual. Nirvana defies rational explanation and logical ordering and therefore
cannot be taught, only realized. Jesus’ teaching on heaven, in contrast, was quite specific. He taught us
that our physical bodies die but our souls ascend to be with Him in heaven (Mark 12:25). The Buddha
taught that people do not have individual souls, for the individual self or ego is an illusion. For Buddhists
there is no merciful Father in heaven who sent His Son to die for our souls, for our salvation, to provide
the way for us to reach His glory. Ultimately, that is why Buddhism is to be rejected.
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When I die, is reincarnation a possibility?
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Have you ever heard of the Dalai Lama? So far, there have
been 14 of them. The Dalai Lama is a title of the head monk
(or lama) of the Gelug school in Tibetan Buddhism. The
current Dalai Lama is named Tenzin Gyatso and he lives as a
refugee in India. All the Dali Lamas are the successor in a line
of monks who are believed to be reincarnations of a past Dalai Lama who renounced Nirvana in order to
help mankind. That was quite a sacrifice, for in Buddhism, nirvana is a total release from desire and
suffering. The nirvana-after-death, also called nirvana-without-substrate, is the complete cessation of
everything, including consciousness and any possibility of rebirth. So, the Dalai Lama is simply the
reincarnations of previous Dalai Lamas whose ministry is to help everyone.

Is reincarnation a possibility? The concept of reincarnation is completely without foundation in the
Bible, which clearly tells us that we die once and then face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). In fact, the Bible
specifically tells us that a human life will never return to the living (Psalm 78:39 says, He remembered

91 https://www.gotquestions.org/heaven-like.html (used with permission)
92 https://www.gotquestions.org/buddhism.html (used with permission)
93 https://www.gotquestions.org/reincarnation.html (used with permission)

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