Since heaven is perfect and pain-free, why are we on earth? Do you believe it is a training ground?

The answer to your question is rooted in the story of our creation - a story with two sides.

While you contrast a “perfect” heaven with earth as a “training ground,” you’re also asking; If God is good and really loves us, if He knows everything and is so powerful, why do we suffer here on earth? He could prevent it all from happening.

The Bible says in John that in the beginning, there was God, and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word was God.

In Genesis, it says God spoke the world into existence and He looked on all (everything) that He had made and it was very good.

So, God did create a world that was good - there was nothing broken about it.

God is everywhere, including the hearts of his believers. He also dwells in the heavens.

But He made earth for humans. He crafted us in His image (with free will) for earth. It was a place of wholeness where humans would have a relationship with Him and rule over creation.

Think of it.

Adam and Eve walked with God in a serene, picturesque “garden” that He created for them.

And everything was perfect - at least for the first 2 chapters of the creation story.

Now. Here’s the rest of the story.

One day the devil showed up and sold Adam and Eve on the lie that they could become like God. They liked the idea of becoming their own gods, so they rejected God’s goodness, His authority.

As you can see by Adam and Eve’s actions, God didn’t create robots. He wants us to unite with Him freely, not forcibly.

Sure, without free will we would never experience the bad sides of being human.

But, consider this;

With free will we can happily choose God and experience pure love, holy goodness, immeasurable joy and eternal life with Him.

C.S. Lewis wrote about this kind of happiness …”being voluntarily united to God and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight - which when compared with the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth - is milk and water!”

Simply put, God’s divine love is more intense and fulfilling than the most passionate, romantic human love we could ever experience!

Living in a failed world can bring to us suffocating trials. And sometimes it feels as if God, whose very breath gave life to man, Genesis 2:7, is too distant to revive us - or absent from saving us.

But James 1:2 says, God uses our trials to develop or refine our character and to test and deepen our faith.

Meanwhile, in Psalm 34:18, we have the promise that God is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Bible story after story tells us that in difficult times the hearts of people will soften in repentance like King David or harden in sinful defiance like the Pharaoh of Egypt.

When we are forced to face our mortality, death becomes an equalizer. No matter our status, we realize control is an illusion. There’s that A-Ha moment when one realizes that God was there all along, in control.

We must surrender everything to Him and trust Him to drive, or steer ourselves down a path of eternal death.

Until our last breath, it’s never too late to realize Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that this earth is not our forever home.

God doesn’t prevent the difficult things we face on this earth, because:

Eternal good wouldn’t exist without the temporary bad things.

It wouldn’t be a world of choices with consequences.

Our families wouldn’t link arms and comfort one another  - or share belly laughs in the fun, joyous times. We would be emotionless beings.

It wouldn’t be a world where people come to realize they need Jesus - who rescued us from our sins and gave us the promise of a perfect life beyond this world!

Without Jesus, living in this fallen world would be our only life, we would have no hope!

Paul wrote about the” third heaven “ and “paradise” in Ephesians 1:3 and recounts being caught up there, hearing inexpressible things. He could not describe it using human words.

He encouraged believers to set their minds on eternal things and live today in spiritual victory, rather than focus on the temporary things of this earth.

So, God did make a perfect world for us without sin, suffering, or evil.

But we used our free will and messed it all up, and have lived with the consequences ever since. Meanwhile, the trials we go through while we’re here are meant to draw us to Him.

If we are in relationship with Jesus, one day we will get to live in a perfect world. He is coming back for us. This earth will be restored and heaven and earth will be merged. God will live among humanity and Jesus will be the light. Revelation 21, 22.

As incredible as it seems, if you read and believe the entire story of God from beginning to end and believe, you will be part of His family, this story and its happy, victorious ending!