Welcome back.

You are watching "The 700 Club."

Man we've got a bunch of stuff today.

We've gone from Alzheimer's to heaven.

And heaven and that's where we want to go there.

And Paul said, I'll do anything you

I could that I might attain the resurrection of the just.

We all want to know what it's going to be like.

Well, take a look.

NARRATOR: You might recognize Dr. Robert Jeffers

as a Fox News contributor.

He also pastors a 13,000 member church in Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Jeffers says, throughout his frequent travels

around the world, he thinks about one trip

that will last for eternity.

In his book, "A Place Called Heaven,"

he shares why it's important for all of us to focus on heaven.

And how thinking about the next life

can make us more effective in this one.

Well, it's a fascinating book.

It's called, whoa, "A Place Called Heaven."

Dr. Robert Jeffress has written it.

And he's with us right now.

Robert, it's good to have you with us.

God bless you.

Thank you, Pat, for having me.

All right, look, where is heaven?

Well-

How about that?

That's a great question.

And a lot of people are really mixed up about that, Pat.

All right.

Because one of the questions I answer is, do we immediately

go to heaven when we die?

The short answer is, we go immediately

into the presence of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:8, to be absent from the body

is to be at home with the Lord.

So we're conscious, we're awake, we know what's happening.

But that's not our ultimate destination.

Ultimately, we're going to spend eternity right here

on this recreated Earth, just as God intended it to be.

The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, down to Earth

and this is where we're going to be.

Instead of floating around up there in some foreign planet.

I kind of a like that.

Would they--

Yes.

We've talked so much about the rapture.

Get-- people getting caught up out of here.

But really, what you're saying is that heaven

would be a recreated Earth?

That's right.

And that's what John said in Revelation 21.

I saw a new heaven

BOTH: And a new Earth.

And you know that's the interesting thing, Pat.

When we die, we don't become somebody else in heaven.

It is we who die.

We're the ones who go to heaven.

We retain our names, we retain our personalities,

I think even some of the same gifts

that we have right now are going to extend throughout eternity.

So that we have something to do in the new heaven and Earth.

Let's talk about what are we going to do?

I mean people think I'm going to sit around on a cloud

and play on a harp all the day.

That's not it at all.

Or let's face it, Pat, some people

think heaven is going to be one long, unending church service.

And that sounds more like hell to people than heaven.

As much fun as a leg cramp.

I'm telling you.

We've got to be honest, we are going to worship in heaven.

but we're going to do more than worship.

We're going to work in heaven and on this new Earth.

God made us to be workers.

He's-- he created us to work.

It's not a curse, it's a gift from God.

We're going to work on the new Earth

and I wouldn't be surprised, Pat,

if our work in the new heaven and new Earth

doesn't resemble what we do right now.

You know--

I mean you're a great entrepreneur.

That's right.

You're a tremendous broadcaster.

I don't think God just limited those gifts for right now.

You may be hosting the heavenly edition of "The 700 Club."

Can you imagine?

For all eternity.

For all eternity.

Well, you know, that Paul said, with just the angels.

So do you think this is going to be a time of big tribunals

where we'll be, where the Saints of God will be doing that?

I think, for some people, there will be judgments.

I think, for some people, we're going

to be a ruling and reigning with Christ.

2 Timothy 2, I think we'll be creating new things in heaven.

I think there's all kind of responsibilities

that will be given to us.

By the way, based on our faithfulness

to Christ in this life.

And this is one of the things I talk about in "A Place Called

Heaven."

As brief as our life is here on Earth, compared to eternity.

What we do in these few, short years has eternal consequences.

What we do on Earth reverberates in the halls of heaven forever.

People have asked me about the,

you know, the idea of a baby.

He's dies when he's a year old, and the thought

would be that he's matured up to about 30 or something.

And people in their 80s or 90s come back to 30.

What age do you think is--

if we're spirits it really doesn't matter, huh?

It's pure conjecture--

Yeah.

--of what our age is going to be.

Some people say 30 because that's

when Christ began his ministry.

It's just conjecture.

But the good news is we are who we are here on Earth.

Did you know, Pat, for example, we're

going to retain our names in heaven.

I mean Moses and Elijah, they've been dead

for hundreds of years.

But when they came back with Christ,

on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were Moses and Elijah.

They weren't somebody else.

So we retain our names.

We're going to have bodies by the way.

People ask, do we know one another in heaven?

Absolutely.

I mean our bodies are going to be

like Jesus Christ in his resurrection body.

His disciples knew him.

Not only that, Jesus ate in his new resurrection body.

So the best news for a lot of people

is we're going to eat in heaven.

That's absolute truth.

But always in moderation.

OK.

Well, what do you think about people--

why are there so many misconceptions about heaven?

I mean, what happens when we die, for example?

When do we go to heaven?

Well 2 Corinthians 5:8, immediately we

go to be with the Lord.

There's no such thing, in "The Bible," Pat, as soul sleep.

Or that is a man made concept.

We go immediately to be with the Lord.

And I think the misconceptions come about

because many people, and even many Christians,

get their ideas about heaven from Hollywood.

The movies or TV or some of these fanciful books that

have been written about heaven.

I based my book "A Place Called Heaven"

on what "The Bible" teaches.

Because "The Bible" has a lot to say about heaven.

It sure does.

And you know one of the questions, Pat, people have is,

well, why even talk about heaven?

With all that's going on in the world, hurricanes and conflict

with North Korea, shouldn't we be

thinking about this world instead of the next world?

And yet, isn't this a perfect time

to be talking about heaven?

Best of all.

To remind us that this world is not all that there is.

God has something better for us.

What do you think we're going to be--

well you said what you think we are going to be doing.

Jesus talked about a reward.

He said they will not lose their reward.

He'll beget the reward of a prophet and so forth.

Yes.

Well, what kind of rewards do you think they are?

That is a great question.

And I spend a whole chapter talking about

will heaven be the same for everybody.

A lot of people think heaven is going

to be kind of a sanctified socialism

where we all get the same size house l same plot of land

and so forth.

No, "The Bible" says there are degrees

of heaven based on our faithfulness

to Christ in this life.

And while our good works have absolutely nothing

to do with securing our place in heaven,

good works make a lot of difference after we're saved.

They determine the kind of heaven we experience.

I think those rewards, "The Bible" refers to them as crowns

but I think they refer to special privileges.

For example, "The Bible" talks about special access

to The Tree of Life, special position,

special praise we'll hear from God.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Whatever these rewards are Paul said

they are worth sacrificing for.

And again, you know when people do small things here on Earth,

they reverberate in heaven forever.

Giving Operation Blessing, for example.

That is something we do right here on Earth

but there are rewards we receive in heaven

for doing these things.

You know, the Apostle Paul said

we'll all stand before the Bema, the judgement seat of Christ,

to receive the things we've done in our body.

Talk about that.

Yeah, that's one of the misconceptions people have.

That if we're a Christian, we never

have to face the judgment of God.

It's true, we never face God's condemnation,

our sins have been forgiven.

But we will experience God's evaluation of our life.

And what you talked about, the judgment seat of Christ

is talking about that.

We, Paul was talking to Christians.

We must all appear before that judgment seat of Christ.

And 1 Corinthians 3 says, if our works

are seen to be wood, hay, and stubble, we will suffer loss.

Pat, there's going to be real, measurable loss

as we see what could have been ours had we not been--

if we'd been more faithful.

The good news is, to our audience

is, there's still time, right now,

to make a change in your life.

If you're not living for Christ as a Christian,

you can make a change that really

will make an eternal difference in that place called heaven.

You hit the nail right on the head.

God bless you.

"A Place Called Heaven," Dr. Robert Jeffress.

This is a sound book, ladies and gentlemen.

You really ought to get a copy of-- where

do they get these things?

The book's available in all Christian bookstores and all

secular bookstores or at Amazon.com.

Amazon.

OK

And it's a great encouragement,

by the way, to those who may be facing heaven soon--

Sure

--as well.

Well, God bless you.

It's a wonderful analysis and I appreciate you being here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Pat.

Yeah, bless you.

Well, we can also hear more from Dr. Jeffress

today in an exclusive interview on our Facebook page.

So be sure to check that out.