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There are many books and programs
about people who say they have gone to heaven and back. Would it
shock you to learn that when a person dies they do not go to heaven,
or hell, for that matter? That may sound heretical only because it is
a traditional teaching that has been widely accepted as truth. You
can be sure that people who make such claims about going to heaven
(or hell) are not telling the truth. Millions of people buy into it
because after all, who really wants to die and stay dead? It is just
another easy way to make money to give people what they want to hear.
If we carefully read the
scriptures, we will not find one hint of anyone who has gone to
heaven after they have died to live with God forever. There is only
one exception and that is Jesus, the Messiah, who was resurrected
from the dead and now lives a life of immortality. However, Jesus is
not going to stay in heaven but come back to rule in the new kingdom
here on earth.
People such as Noah, Abraham,
Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, to name a few, listed in
Hebrews 11, did not go to heaven when they died.
When we are dead and buried, our
bodies remain in the grave. Everyone who dies remains dead in their
graves until the time appointed for their resurrection. Jesus clearly
says:
Marvel not at this: for the hour
is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his
voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28-29)
Note that Jesus says nothing
about going to heaven. There is nothing about the person being
conscious in any way while in the grave. The dead do not know
anything (Ecc. 9:5). There is no continuing consciousness of the
dead. Their consciousness or awareness will not return until the
resurrection.
King David, “a man after God’s
own heart,” to this day is still in the grave. After the
resurrection of Jesus Peter said to the crowd:
Brothers, I may say to you with
confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was
buried, and his tomb is with us to this day... For David is not
ascended into the heavens. (Acts 2:29, 34)
The hope of the righteous is not
going to heaven; rather it is the resurrection
from the dead and
given the life of immortality in God’s kingdom. Nowhere in
scripture does it say heaven is our destination when we die no matter
how this unbiblical teaching is reinforced in hymns, at funerals, in
literature, in the pulpits, and Hollywood movies.
God is going to renew this earth
and promised that the righteous are going to “inherit the earth.”
Jesus repeated this promise:
Blessed are the meek, for they
are going to inherit the earth. (Ps. 37:9, 11, 22; Matt. 5:5).
This renewed earth is the reward
and inheritance of all the saints.
Elijah
Question: What about Elijah who
“went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11)?
Answer: The Hebrew term
“hashamayim” is commonly translated “the heavens” (or
“heaven,” as it is here in 2 Kings 2:11). It simply means the
sky, not that Elijah went to dwell on the other side with God and the
angels. Elijah does not disappear forever but reappears several years
later in 2 Chronicles 21:8-15 where we find him writing letters to
the King of Judah, Jehoram. So Elijah was not in heaven and gone
forever from this earth, but was simply transported
to another area. Something similar like this happens in the New
Testament after Phillip baptized the eunuch:
And when they came up out of the
water, the Spirit of the Lord carried
Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and
went on his way rejoicing. But
Philip found himself at Azotus,
and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns
until he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:39,40)
Enoch
Question: What about Enoch?
Didn’t he go to heaven without tasting death?
Answer: In Hebrews 11:5 it
says:
By faith Enoch was taken away so
that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had
taken him’; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he
pleased God.
People automatically assume Enoch
did not die and therefore went to heaven. The word “taken” can
also mean “translated” as it is in the KJB. Some believe that
maybe he was taken or translated so that he would not suffer
persecution and death for whatever situation he was facing at the
time. Since we are not given any details about the matter, what we do
know for sure is that Enoch did in fact die. In the very same chapter
of Hebrews 11, we have a summary of some of the men and women of
faith listed which includes Enoch, and verse 13 tells us:
These all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar
off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Scripture confirms that Enoch
definitely died along with the rest of the saints.
I
also want to take the time to write a little more about Enoch and
Elijah to confirm my point concerning the matter of Romans 5:12 in
chapter 19. I have a periodical I receive in the mail where a person
wrote about the enigma concerning the end of Enoch and Elijah. This
person focused at one point on Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is
death,” and Rom. 3:23 where it says, “For all
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” After pointing
out these passages, the person went on to say:
All
have sinned; therefore all
must die (unless Jesus
returns first). Would it be fair that God would allow these two
sinful men, no matter how “good” their lives might have been, to
receive immortality without experiencing the wages of their sin?
This
person described Enoch and Elijah as “sinful
men.” The word
“sinful” means: wicked
and immoral; committing or characterized by the committing of sins.
This means that the person would be describing Enoch and Elijah’s
life in this category as wicked and immoral men who continually
sinned. Is this how their life is characterized in scripture? Where
it concerns Enoch, how can this be when it says Enoch “was pleasing
to God?” How can one be sinful
and pleasing to God at
the same time? How can these two men be “sinful
no matter how ‘good’
their lives might have been?”
Is this not an oxymoron?
Then
we have Elijah the prophet who urged the people of Israel to turn
from sin and return to the true God. Do “sinful men” do this?
Elijah was the voice of “one crying in the wilderness;” he
carried out God’s mission no matter what dangers and hardships he
faced to rebuke sin
in the land and expose all the false prophets and those worshipping
false gods.
Now
I understand where the person is coming from who wrote the article.
People are taught that because one sins, even if it is just one sin,
this is the reason for physical
death. Remember that
the person said, “All
have sinned; therefore all
must die.”
Infants die. Does this mean it is because they have sinned? After
all, “The wages of sin is death.” What sin does an infant commit?
If Jesus had lived to be an old man, he would have eventually died
too. All of us will eventually die. All physically die because all of
us suffer the consequence of Adam’s sin. Adam, along with his
posterity, no longer had access to the tree of life that would have
sustained their mortal life.
Scripture
says, “For all have sinned.” But remember that the word "have"
indicates an activity on every individual's part. Sin is voluntary.
All that have sinned are the ones who have sinned,
all who have broken God's law. It is true the wages
of sin is death, but
what kind of death? It is a spiritual death, meaning, a “moral
and relational separation from God,”
which we also know has eternal consequences.
You Shall Be With Me In
Paradise
Question: What about when Jesus
said to the thief on the cross, “This day, you shalt be with me in
Paradise?” And elsewhere where he says, “In my Father’s house
there are many mansions?”
Good questions. There is so much
to cover, but I will try to give it to you in a nutshell.
One of the scriptures is in
reference to John 14:1-3. Concerning preparing a place, it says:
Let not your heart be troubled;
you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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 to myself; that where I am, there you
may be also (John 14:1–3).
Just to make some points:
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Heaven is never referred to as
“my Father’s house.” (Allusion to the temple)
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Jesus is not talking about
taking them to heaven when they die. If this were so, we would have
Jesus “coming back” many times after each person dies and
individual resurrections.
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We know that Jesus is not
literally building buildings or mansions (translated “dwelling
places”). There is no construction work going on in heaven.
But Jesus does promise to prepare
a place for us. A question to ask is “Where is this place?” The
place will be here on earth when he returns, thus fulfilling a
prophecy given by the angels in Acts 1:11. It is also in harmony with
Jesus in 1 Thess. 4:13-17 where we will be united with Christ at the
second coming. The coming of Christ fulfills a multitude of
prophecies of the “Kingdom of God” in the Old and New Testaments.
All the saints will have an
important position of authority in the coming Kingdom, the
Millennium, which will be initiated by Jesus’ Coming.54
The saints will judge the world and angels.55
Jesus restores life to conditions seen in the Garden of Eden, 56
The Thief On The Cross
As far as the thief on the cross,
this is really no problem. The thief says to Jesus:
Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. (Luke 23:42).
Again, there is nothing in there
that says anything about going to heaven. It is about a “Kingdom.”
“…come into your kingdom.”
When Christ died, he did not go
to heaven, and he did not go to hell (as the modern thinking goes)
but was in the grave,
and it was on the third day that God raised (resurrected) him from
the dead. Christ was raised to a life of immortality, which is
promised to all those who believe the gospel about the Kingdom Christ
preached.
Jesus responded to the thief:
Assuredly, I say to you, today
you will be with me in Paradise. (Luke 23:43).
We have a system of punctuation
in the English that was not used in the Greek language. There is a
big difference when a comma is not in the correct place. The
translators give us the impression that Jesus went to heaven the day
he died, as well as the thief. To get a correct reading, and which
harmonizes with other passages of scripture, it should read:
Assuredly, I say to you today,
you will be with me in Paradise.
Notice the big difference when
the comma is after the word “today,” rather than after the word
“you.”
Now, if paradise is in heaven,
neither the thief nor Jesus went to heaven that day. Christ was three
days in the grave
and after his resurrection, Christ said to Mary Magdalene, “I have
not yet ascended
to My Father.” So I can say with confidence that the comma is in
the wrong place (after the word “you”). That simple comma where
the translators have placed it makes other passages of scripture
contradict.
God never promised eternity in
heaven as a reward for the saved, but a promise to “enter
the Kingdom.” When Jesus comes again he will reign on earth and we,
as coheirs, will reign with him.57
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