COVER SUBJECT | ENLIGHTENING VISIONS OF THE SPIRIT REALM
Questions About Those in the Spirit Realm
Have you ever wondered about the spirit realm and those who live there? If so, you are not alone. For millenniums, people have speculated on that subject. Some believe that the spirit world is inhabited by ancestors who must be honored. Others envision a place of blissful tranquillity called heaven, populated by angels and good people who have died. Still others see the spirit world as a home for hundreds of millions of deities.
Many people argue that we cannot know anything about the spirit realm because no eyewitness has come from there to tell us about it. That line of reasoning, however, is incorrect. Jesus Christ existed in heaven, in the spirit realm, before he came to the earth. He said so quite openly to the religious leaders in the first century: “I have come down from heaven to do, not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” So Jesus was sharing firsthand information when he told his apostles: “In the house of my Father are many dwelling places.”—John 6:38; 14:2.
Jesus’ Father, of course, is God, whose name is Jehovah, and Jehovah’s “house” is in the heavens. (Psalm 83:18) Thus, no one could describe the invisible world better than Jehovah God and Jesus Christ could. They have revealed much information about the spirit realm by means of spectacular visions that they gave to faithful ones.
The following article discusses portions of the Bible that describe what men saw in a number of visions. As you consider these visions, remember that the spirit realm is not material, with things that we can touch or see. Thus, rather than choosing to explain matters to us in spiritual terms, which would be incomprehensible to us, God fashioned the visions to depict spiritual realities in terms that we can comprehend. The visions will help you to understand those who inhabit the spirit realm’s “many dwelling places.”