Zion is already here. It is a heavenly place NOT because it resides in heaven but because of its origin. "Heavenly" is an adjective that defines the nature of Zion.
Like Christ (because He is our life and very being) we may sit both in the earth and in heaven.
"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus..."
The spiritual is the manifold reality of God. What is seen in time and space is meant to point to the spiritual reality. When this was written:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Distinction between the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem needed to be made. The nature of one differs from the other.
For example: this will never be written about the heavenly Jerusalem:
Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom the Lord had sent me: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day..."
and in the New Testament
[This is Jesus speaking] “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ "
Earthly Jerusalem pointed to the heavenly Jerusalem that endures and will never be cursed. BOTH are available for anyone to walk in: one may be entered by the flesh the other may only be entered by faith in Christ. The appearing of Christ ended any benefit to the natural lineage of Abraham. Now, only by faith can anyone inherit the promises of God.
Brother consider what Jesus is saying
“
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
John 14:2-3
And then consider this
“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:9-11
“So then
after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”
Mark 16:19 KJV
Then consider things like this
“but
the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
2 Peter 3:7, 10, 13 KJV
I’m not sure I’m understanding are you saying heaven isn’t an actual place where Gods kingdom is ? That Jesus didn’t ascend into the heavens and ge won’t actually return like he said at the end of this world ? I honestly not following your thinking there can you sort of tell me if these scriptures I shared here for i to what your saying ?
a specific question did Jesus actually rise bodily from the dead and did his disciples stand in a crowd and watch him ascend up into the clouds u til he disappeared out of thier sight ? And where do all of e heavenly angels and visitors come from and go to in the Bible ?
Brother heaven is a real place we’re just beneaeth it because of the flesh and can’t see or understand or perceive any of it . Angels are actual real beings Jesus is actually on a throne in heaven and will return one day like this
He’s going to actually return and gather us
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV
even in the Old Testament brother He was in heaven observing the eerth and interacting with man through heavenly visitors
“
The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
From the place of his habitation
he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.”
Psalm 33:13-14 KJV
We have the holy ghost our companion but we aren’t home yet heaven is real but we’re below it we can’t see it but it’s more real than earth it’s a spiritual world we’re blinded by the flesh and aren’t yet able to see by the spirit
I think there’s an element to what your saying but I don’t think your grasping from the beginning creation had two parts one for earthly beings and one for heavenly beings
“The heaven, even
the heavens, are the LORD's:
But
the earth hath he given to the children of men.”
Psalm 115:16 KJV
Notice heaven is described as Gods habitation throughout ? Look at what happened in creation both heaven and earth
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
Revelation 12:7-10, 12 KJV
I think we can sometimes not believe something or not actually see it and then we sort of over think it but faith is the hearing and believing
i believe the Bible clearly supports heaven as an actual habitation for spiritual beings and the earth as mankind’s and the created things habitation.
Two realms of one creation that became seperated by man’s dominion of sin and death on earth corrupting it and in the end God is going to bring the two realms back together again
“And I saw
a new heaven and a new earth: for
the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”
Revelation 21:1-5 KJV
But we’re told some would begin to doubt in the latter days
“knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”
2 Peter 3:3-4 KJV
Which is why Peter explained there the earth will Indeed be totally destroyed by fire and we are promised a new creation that isn’t corrupt where we will dwell with God and see his face like Jesus promised in the gospel