For Christians, heaven's history extends as far back as Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Heaven is believed to be where God is, and where those who have accepted His salvation go after death.
The Great Awakenings and its famous preachers' sermons helped clarify Christians' vision of heaven. Here are three sermons on heaven that impacted American Christian history.
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1. "Praise, One of the Chief Employments of Heaven," Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards, a protestant preacher in the early 1700s, suggested that once the saints reached heaven, their work was only just beginning. “But yet the rest of heaven does not consist in idleness and a cessation of all action, but only a cessation from all the trouble and toil and tediousness of action,” he said in a 1734 sermon. “No employment can be a greater honor to a man than to praise God.”
The notion of an active participation in heaven rather than a passive rest reflected Edwards's Puritan heritage. The protestant work ethic in colonial America was a common theme in Edwards' sermons during The Great Awakening.
2. "There Must Be a Heaven Somewhere," Lawrence B. Hicks
Lawrence Hicks was a preacher in the Church of the Nazarene. His most famous sermon, “There Must Be a Heaven Somewhere,” addressed seven key points of his interpretation of heaven. One of his key points, that heaven is real, challenged the idea that heaven was a state of mind or imaginary place. “Beloved, when I get inside heaven's gates and let my feet down on solid gold streets, and walk down to that lovely sea of crystal glass, mingled with fire, it will not be make-believe,” Hicks said. “It will be real on that morning.”
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3. "Marks of a True Conversion," George Whitefield
George Whitefield was an Anglican preacher from Great Britain who came to the colonies in the 18th century to participate in the revivals of The Great Awakening. He visited America seven times during his preaching career.
In “Marks of a True Conversion,” Whitefield said, “And of all the solemn declarations of our Lord, I mean with respect to this, perhaps the words of the text are one of the most solemn, except, (says Christ) ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
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