“Early Christians, trying to make sense of accounts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the writings of his first followers in the 1st century, formulated their views of the afterlife in this Greek and Roman philosophical context. Plato provided the idea of souls ascending into heaven, but the texts that would become the Christian scriptures (the New Testament) emphasized a physical, bodily resurrection – most importantly in their claim that Christianity’s founder was himself resurrected in the body and ascended physically to heaven. If Jesus dwelled in heaven, with New Testament texts indicating his followers would join him there, the radical hope of Christianity needed not a Platonic realm of rational thought, but a physical place – a material heaven. Aristotle’s view of the universe, with its outermost sphere of the stars, gave Christians the conceptual framework to locate heaven on a map.
Yet the creation account in Genesis introduces confusion because it speaks of the heavens in two different ways. First, it describes God creating the heavens and Earth. But then it goes on to describe God creating a ‘firmament’ by dividing waters below from waters above. Reconciling the discrepancy was Basil of Caesarea, the 4th-century Cappadocian writer and bishop. The first of these heavens was the starry heaven and the dwelling of the virtuous dead, Basil explained, whereas the second was only the airy heaven, or sky.
Basil’s arguments pushed heaven from the clouds to the stars, but the final step in the invention of heaven went even further, placing the Christian heaven in a location beyond the stars.”
Source: here.
Gary: “Basil’s arguments pushed heaven from the clouds to the stars.”
There is evidence in the Book of Acts that confirms that “in the clouds” was the original Christian location for heaven:
“When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.”
Yes, dear Readers, the historical evidence clearly indicates that early Christians believed that heaven was located in the clouds. And the earliest Christians believed it was a real physical place. They did not believe it was a void or other dimension. A few centuries later, Christians pushed heaven out to the stars, and eventually out beyond the stars. The idea that heaven is NOT beyond the stars came about after Copernicus discovered heliocentricity, shattering into pieces Christianity’s established cosmic view. But once again, Greek philosophy stepped in to save the day! To spare Christians having to find a new physical location for heaven, sophisticated Christians chose a bullet-proof, unfalsifiable new concept:
“Heaven is in another dimension!”
“Prove that wrong, you stupid skeptics.”
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End of post.
Escaping Christian Fundamentalism 
We thought God was on a mountain top, until we climbed it and found nothing. Then we thought God was in the clouds until we flew there and found nothing. Then we thought God was in space, until we went there and found nothing. Now God is just in a thought in a mind somewhere.
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Excellent!
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