Shalom, friends.
Now, the primary reason for going into all the definitions of the words translated "heaven" and "hell" was to discredit the belief in the dichotomy of where one goes when he or she dies. One does not just go to "heaven" or to "hell." There are other places, time periods, events and details that must be fully explored to explain the End Times prophecies.
The Scriptures have been reduced to such dichotomous thinking in the Dark Ages in Europe when the Roman Catholic Church was primarily in charge across the continent although greatly influenced by the pagan mythologies of the original cultures of that continent. This influence, from the Greco-Roman mythology in the southeast to the Norse and Gaelic mythologies of the northwest and all the various cultures in between, warped and twisted the simple truths of God's Word, as they found their way into the various translations of Scripture into the languages of each people added to the Church. Although the text and the liturgy was preserved in Latin, someone (usually the parish priests and clerics) would have to communicate their instructions to the masses. In doing so, it was inevitable that some "backwash" of the cultures' mythologies would find their way into the teachings of the Church, particularly as the Church would incorporate some of their holidays and teachings, such as Christmas and Easter for example, adapting them to make them more palatable to the people. So, it should come as no surprise to find a "heaven" like Olympus or Valhalla of Asgard and a "hell" like Hades or Niflhel of Hel (which is where the word "hell" originated, by the way).
These myths of "a place of the blessed" and "a place of the evil dead" actually have no counterparts in the Scriptures, UNLESS one understands that the concepts of Paradise and the Lake of Fire are vaguely similar, but even these concepts should not be reduced to "heaven" and "hell."
Rejecting the common myths of "heaven" and "hell," and getting back to the simplicity of the Bible, one should then understand WHERE the Master Yeshua` the Messiah has been all this time and what are our destinies once He arrives.
He's not been in some mythical, ethereal place called "Heaven" all this time; He's been "preparing a place for us" "in [His] Father's house." Nor did He mean to imply in John 14:1-3 that He will be taking us there when He returns!
John 14:1-3
14 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
KJV
His point in John 14:3 was NOT that He would return to wisk us away to the place He is preparing for us, but that He WOULD RETURN so He and His disciples could be together again, never again to be separated! This doesn't happen individually when a person dies, either. It is the singular event when Yeshua` the Messiah returns to earth. Does one really expect Yeshua` to return several times a day, every day, to convey us to Himself in some mystical place called "Heaven?!" That is NEVER said to be the case! Nor will He cart us off to some mystical place called "Heaven" as a group in a "Rapture."
Remember: His Father's house, His Father's "skeenee" (NT:4633) or "Bedouin tent" (or "tabernacle") is the New Jerusalem, according to Revelation 21:3! WE don't go there; it comes to US!
Revelation 21:1-3
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven (the sky), prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
KJV
This is like the Bedouin house of Avraham, Yitschaq, and Ya`acov:
Hebrews 11:8-10
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles (Greek: skeenais, locative plural of NT:4633) with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
KJV
However, it doesn't come to us until AFTER the Millennium, AFTER the Great White Throne Judgment, and AFTER Yochanan (John) sees the "new heaven" (the "new sky" or "new atmosphere") and "new earth."
In the Messiah's love,
Retrobyter
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