Doctrine to Be Rejected #10. That the righteous will ascend to the kingdoms beyond the skies when they die.
Heaven
The doctrine concerning heaven-going can be stated in a positive way:
None ascend to heaven; the Lord Jesus being the only exception, and in this case for the purpose of his continuing mediatorial work The righteous await the return of Christ for the bestowal of immortality. “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13).
Heaven is certainly not “man’s eternal abode” but “God’s throne” (Matt 5:34), for “no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven” (John 3:13). And if Peter could say of David that “He is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day . . . for David is not ascended into the heavens” (Acts 2:29, 34), then who else could expect to go there? The late William Temple in his book Nature, Man and God neatly summed the hope of the Christian by writing: “The authentic Christian doctrine is a doctrine not of immortality, but of resurrection.”
False doctrine
The vast majority of Christian denominations teach that there is no such thing as death, if “death” is properly defined as “the total absence of life.”
Instead, according to their teaching, when the body dies, the “soul,” the “real you,” goes to heaven or hell, and keeps right on living either in eternal bliss or eternal torment. Therefore, most Christians do not believe that people actually experience “death” when their body dies.
Some scholars believe the shift in belief came because the Kingdom of God (i.e., Christ’s return) wasn’t immediate. Once the religions of the world accepted the idea that the “soul” or “spirit” did not die when the body died, the next step was to determine its post-mortem address. Where does the soul live after the body dies? A study of the various religions of the world shows that it was, and still is, very common to believe that “good” people go either to the abode of the gods (sometimes called “heaven”), while evil people go to a place of punishment or torment. These beliefs eventually found their way into both Judaism and Christianity.
“Man is mortal”…
This remains a vital truth. We have long thought it necessary to point out that the immortality of the soul is derived from pagan, especially Greek, sources. For this wrong view of the human condition has triggered wrong beliefs about heaven‑ going. If souls are immortal, the righteous must go somewhere after death! It then follows that there must be somewhere less pleasant for the unrighteous, who are doomed to live forever in imagined torment. By contrast, the teaching of Scripture is both clear and fair. When we die we return to dust; there we lie unconscious, as though we were in a dreamless sleep. Some people are destined to remain forever in that death state: they could be described as dead in the dust, or as asleep perpetually. As Jeremiah says: “In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD” (Jer 51:39).
The Psalmist (Psa 49:19,20) says of all without “understanding” that they will perish as though they were beasts; “they shall never see light”. Others have the hope of being rescued from the bondage of death. Their sleep in the dust is to end in an awakening. Daniel (12:2) contains the promise that “many (not ‘all’) that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake”. That was the Psalmist’s personal hope (Psa 17:15) and it was the clear teaching of the Lord and his apostles. Isaiah brings both prospects together. Contemplating the dominion of God, he recalls others who have sought to exercise ruler-ship. Of those “lords”, who are now extinct, he says:
“They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish” (Isa 26:14).
The majority of people who have died are now as if they never existed: they know nothing, and we know nothing about them. But a minority are known to God; they died in the hope of resurrection at the second coming of Christ: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isa 26:19).
Death state
The view of the death state in the New Testament is clearly not of the dichotomy of Heaven or Hell, as many denominations believe. Rather, the death state is likened to being asleep, and we all know that we are unconscious, unaware of our surroundings, in that state.
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1Cor 11:30).
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1Cor 15:51).
“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1 Thess 4:14).
What is heaven
So what is heaven? It is a very common term, being used 420 times or so in the Bible. If we just look at the New Testament, the term is used 284 times, 94 times in the plural, but it is hard to see any particular significance in this distinction. Heaven is used in several different ways, and it helps to briefly consider the major aspects. It is noticeable that in no case is it described as a place to which we ascend when we die: there are no pearly gates, no clouds, none of our antecedents looking down on us. So let us look briefly at the chief ways it is used in the New Testament.
- Heaven (and earth) were created by God.
“Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is” (Acts 4:24).
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24).
- Heaven is a term for the firmament, the realm above the earth. “Behold the fowls of the air (Gk our anos: heaven)” (Matt 6:26).
“And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven” (Mark 6:41).
- Jesus will come down from Heaven.
“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 1:10).
- God is in Heaven.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt 5:16).
- Heaven is the origin of the events described in Revelation.
“And John saw the holy city, new jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Rev 21:2-3).
- Heaven is the dwelling place of angels.
“Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt 18:10).
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the father” (Mark 13:32).
- Heaven has been and will be opened.
“And [Stephen] said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One