Beulah land: heaven or not?

Squire Parsons wrote a Southern Gospel song, "Sweet Beulah Land," which has been quite popular. One stanza of it goes like this: 

Beulah Land, I'm longing for you

And some day on thee I'll stand.

There my home shall be eternal.

Beulah Land -- Sweet Beulah Land

It's clear that Parsons, and most of the others who have heard or sung this song, think Beulah Land is another name for heaven. The song appeals musically, and to the emotions. So does the idea of being with Christ in heaven. However, "heaven" wasn't the original meaning of "Beulah land."

Here's the Wikipedia: "Literary works have used "Beulah" as the name of a mystical place, somewhere between Earth and Heaven. It was so used in The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan and in the works of William Blake..." Here's a quotation, with emphasis added, from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress:

{382} Now I saw in my dream, that by this time the Pilgrims were got over the Enchanted Ground, and entering into the country of Beulah, whose air was very sweet and pleasant, the way lying directly through it, they solaced themselves there for a season. ... Here they were within sight of the city they were going to, also here met them some of the inhabitants thereof; for in this land the Shining Ones commonly walked, because it was upon the borders of heaven. In this land also, the contract between the bride and the bridegroom was renewed; yea, here, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so did their God rejoice over them." [Isa. 62:5] Here they had no want of corn and wine; for in this place they met with abundance of what they had sought for in all their pilgrimage. [Isa. 62:8] Here they heard voices from out of the city, loud voices, saying, "'Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh! Behold, his reward is with him!' Here all the inhabitants of the country called them, 'The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord, Sought out'", etc. [Isa. 62:11,12]

Bunyan's Beulah land was not heaven. It was close, on the borders, to heaven, a state of fellowship with God that comes with maturity and sanctification. Note the heading of a section a little further on in the book:

"{392} Christian's conflict at the hour of death"

Another song, older than the one by Parsons, is entitled "Beulah Land," by Edgar P. Stites. It includes this: 

I’ve reached the land of corn and wine,

And all its riches freely mine;

Here shines undimmed one blissful day,

For all my night has passed away.

Refrain:

O Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land,

As on thy highest mount I stand,

I look away across the sea,

Where mansions are prepared for me,

And view the shining glory shore,

My heav’n, my home forevermore!

It seems all but certain that the author had Bunyan's meaning in mind. The Pilgrim's Progress was, at one time, said to be the second most widely read book in English, after the Bible, and the author, who wrote these words nearly 150 years ago, would have known the book, and most likely read it.

When I was several decades younger, I heard a parody of this song on a non-religious radio station. It included:

 Saskatchewan, the land of snow

Where winds are always on the blow

Where people sit with frozen toes

And why we stay here no one knows

[Refrain]

Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan

There's no place like Saskatchewan

We sit and gaze across the plain

And wonder why it never rains

And Gabriel blows his trumpet sound

He says: "The rain, she's gone around"

This song, written by Alan Mills in 1960, used the tune of the previous one, "Beulah Land." I mention it here to indicate the popularity of the song by Stites, and, in turn, of Bunyan's work.

This post is not meant to disparage Squire Parsons, or anyone who has liked his song, but is meant to add some historical context to the subject of it. Bunyan's idea was, I think, to encourage us to be so close to God that we were ready for heaven.

Thanks for reading.