Heaven. It is a Biblical promise that inspires awe and wonder, but one that seems unknowable until you leave this earth and your temporal body behind. But what if you could experience heaven now? What if you were meant to do it now? What if you could follow in the footsteps of Biblical examples like Enoch, Elijah, John, and Paul - all of whom experienced the heavenly realms firsthand? The truth is, God has made a way for us to experience and live in the realm that Jesus Himself ascended to after His resurrection. It is not off-limits. In fact, there is an open invitation. In this book, author Christopher Paul Carter shares his own heavenly journey. It wasn't a one-time event or a near-death experience. Rather, it was an introduction into an ongoing life in the heavenly places. There's no need to wait, the doors to heaven are open now, and God is inviting you in. Christopher Paul Carter was born in Houston, Texas and spent most of his formative years in the Carolinas and Pennsylvania. Having a passion for science, he went to college in Charleston, South Carolina to study Physics. It was during that time that he had an arresting encounter with God that changed the course of his life. Today, Christopher and his wife, Melissa, direct Dwelling Place Ministries.

First Enoch is an ancient Judean work that inaugurated the genre of apocalypse. Chapters 1-36 tell the story of the descent of angels called "Watchers" from heaven to earth to marry human women before the time of the flood, the chaos that ensued, and God's response. They also relate the journeying of the righteous scribe Enoch through the cosmos, guided by angels. Heaven, including the place and those who dwell there (God, the angels, and Enoch), plays a central role in the narrative. But how should heaven be understood? Existing scholarship, which presupposes "Judaism" as the appropriate framework, views the Enochic heaven as reflecting the temple in Jerusalem, with God's house replicating its architecture and the angels and Enoch functioning like priests. Yet recent research shows the Judeans constituted an ethnic group, and this view encourages a fresh examination of 1 Enoch 1-36. The actual model for heaven proves to be a king in his court surrounded by his courtiers. The major textual features are explicable in this perspective, whereas the temple-and-priests model is unconvincing. The author was a member of a nontemple, scribal group in Judea that possessed distinctive astronomical knowledge, promoted Enoch as its exemplar, and was involved in the wider sociopolitical world of their time.

Starting with a Holy Spirit encounter about the Old Testament saint, Enoch, the author shares the encouragingNeven astoundingNnews about the limitless access believers have into God's presence and glory.

Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. For each myth, he includes extensive commentary, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature --from publisher description

There's an ethereal magic to standing beneath a dome, neck craned, looking up at a vision of the heavens created by some long-ago figure of genius. From the Pantheon to the Hagia Sophia, the power of the dome seems transcendent. Photographer David Stephenson's magnificently kaleidoscopic images of dome interiors capture this evanescent drama, and make Visions of Heaven one of the most spectacularly beautiful books we've ever produced. Traveling from Italy to Spain, Turkey, England, Germany, and Russia, among other countries, and photographing churches, palaces, mosques, and synagogues from the second to the early twentieth century, Stephenson's work amounts to a veritable typology of the cupola. His images present complex geometrical structures, rich stucco decorations, and elaborate paintings as they have never been seen before. Brilliantly calibrated exposures reveal details and colors that would otherwise remain hidden in these dimly lit spaces. Visions of Heaven shows more than 120 images, including the Roman Pantheon, the Byzantine churches of Turkey, the great domes of the Renaissance, the decorative cupolas of the Baroque and the Rococo ages, and a nineteenth-century synagogue in Hungary.