One of my biggest little pet peeves when it comes to people talking about the Bible is saying that we ‘go to heaven.’
It’s simple really. It’s not in the Bible.
There is an obscure verse in Thessalonians about being ‘caught up in the air with Christ,’ but that’s about as close as the Bible gets to saying that we go to heaven. Well, plus the fact that Christ ascended to heaven….literally. He went up into the sky. So I guess one person has gone to heaven.
In Revelation 21, John sees the new heavens and new earth descending, because the first had gone away. But that’s not humans going to heaven…if anything, it’s the opposite — heaven coming to humans.
Isn’t that what we pray in the Lord’s prayer?
‘On earth as it is in heaven.’
Whenever the Bible uses the term, you need to enter into the ancient mindset. They used the term ‘heavens’ to refer to all the stuff up there, which we can see but not touch.
Stars
Clouds
Sun
Moon
Planets
Blimps
jk
Think about it like an ancient person: There is a realm we can see and touch (the earth: land, sea, etc.), and a realm we can see but not touch. And that, to the brilliant ancient imagination, is the heavens.
They often talked about God living up above the dome of the sky, or the Firmament. Thus, we have psalms like 115, which says, “the highest heavens belong to God.” Not just the heavens (the dome with the lights in it), but the highest heavens.
But regardless, when you die, you don’t go there.
We are so used to this binary thinking of “Go to heaven or hell” that we just automatically plug them in when we read other verses. But here’s a challenge: re-examine all the verses which seem to talk about the afterlife and see what it really says. You’ll find that they rarely incorporate such simplistic language, and even the ones that seem straightforward are not so much. Like, when people get tossed into the lake of fire (is that the same as hell…?) is that literal, or is the Jewish author making a reference to the Jewish scriptures for his Jewish audience? (c.f. Isaiah 34: the burning sulfur is a punishment, yes, but it is followed by restoration in the next chapter)
Instead of going to heaven, the New Testament speaks often about resurrection. This is what the Sadducees were always arguing with the Pharisees about: Is there a resurrection of the dead? And Jesus and Paul (both Pharisees) resoundingly say yes.
The idea that we ascend to some spiritual plane and dwell in the seventh circle of heaven while angels orbit around us in song comes from Dante’s Divine Comedy, not from the Bible. The Bible doesn’t talk about us leaving, or escaping creation to enter into some spiritual realm.
If that were the case, wouldn’t it just be advocating for suicide?
This is also the smackings of Gnosticism, which I also wrote about recently. No, the Bible necessarily has to value the real world and physical human bodies, both now and in the hereafter, for any of this to have any meaning. We get to rise again and inhabit a perfected earth and work and enjoy it in our human bodies, forever. The new heavens and new earth.
And I think that’s pretty good news.
e
Day 44 of 100 Days of Blog
Excellent article. Thank you!
Thanks Ethan.
What about the throne room in Revelation 4?
The 24 elders are possibly a picture of faithful Christians who will inherit the kingdom with the Lord Jesus as co-heirs, I like to think.
I agree that our ultimate eternal destiny is the new earth. In fact the streets of gold are not in heaven; they’re on the new earth.
But a lot has to happen between now and the new heavens and new earth.
Rapture, Judgment seat of Christ, the Millennial (1,000 year reign) of Christ, and then the rebellion, the Great White Throne Judgment, then the new heavens and new earth.
Where are we during all that time?
On the earth for the Millennial Reign of Christ. But in heaven after the rapture, and before it too, I believe.
Thanks. Interesting ideas.
One simple question. where do we go when we die, if we have believed in Jesus for eternal life?
Absent from the body is present with the Lord. Isn’t He in heaven?
Colossians 4: If then we are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God?
I think that’s heaven.
Thank you for your work. I loved the one about Romans 3:23, just a clause we pluck out of a glorious sentence. When you leave it in, it has a whole different meaning than how we use it. Brilliant!
In Christ, Cristy