• When a Christian dies, he or she enters into what theologians call the intermediate state, a transitional period between our past lives on Earth and our future resurrection to life on the New Earth. Usually when we refer to “Heaven,” we mean the place that Christians go when they die. (paradise) • By definition, an intermediate state or location is temporary. Life in the Heaven we go to when we die . . . is not our final destination. It may be a less conscious state. It’s not the place God promises to refashion for us to live in forever. • God’s children are destined for life as resurrected beings on a resurrected Earth.