Kingdom Series: The Kingdom of God/Heaven is not up there!

Dear in Christ,

Centuries of indoctrination, fables, hymns and songs have made a vast majority of Christians to believe that the Kingdom of God/Heaven is somewhere up there, in the sky or even in the outer space. Song's like Bruce Springsteen's "Eyes On The Prize" depict heaven as having streets paved with gold, an imagery borrowed from the description of New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. (New Jerusalem is not heaven, it comes down from heaven - Rev 21:2)

Let's accept for a moment that the Kingdom of God/Heaven is up in the sky or outer space and read the following parable, uttered by Jesus:

Mat 13:47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
Mat 13:48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

If the Kingdom of Heaven be in heaven (as in the supposed dwelling place God), doesn't this passage imply that even the bad ones would be getting a free trip to heaven before being cast away? Doesn't the scriptures say that no wicked will stand in the presence of God? (Ps 1:5) Don't Christian creeds unambiguously state that sinners will go into eternal torment or hell? (Not that you or me subscribe to such views.) Is it that God wants to show the "bad" ones what they are losing before casting them away?

There is another passage, expressing similar thought:

Mat 13:36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
Mat 13:37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
Mat 13:38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat 13:39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
Mat 13:40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
Mat 13:41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
Mat 13:42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Here, again, the tares (all things that offend, and them which do iniquity) are gathered out of (from) the kingdom. If this kingdom were "up there in the sky", does it not imply that the tares will make it there, before being gathered out from there?

Frankly, my friend, the thought that the Kingdom of Heaven is up there in outer space does not add up. It contradicts the very fundamental beliefs of the proponents of such theories.

In Christ.

Tomsan Kattackal