Essay 17 (1-24-04)

QUESTIONS ABOUT HEAVEN

This subject is at the request of my brother Bill, my only living sibling. There were eight of us. I was with him over the holidays at his daughter’s home in Dallas. Our conversation turned to the hope of the believer, and I said things about what I believed the Bible taught about heaven that especially interested my brother and his son-in-law. Bill urged me – even insisted – that I do an e-mail essay on the subject. So, this is in obedience to my kid brother. I decided to do it by way of questions and answers.

Do we go directly to heaven at death?

Yes. This is evident throughout the book of Revelation where we are privileged to join the writer in looking right into heaven. In Rev. 6:9 we see redeemed souls who had been martyred for their faith. These martyrs ask, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth." The answer was that they were to rest awhile longer, until such time as other of their brethren – yet on earth – would complete their mission. This passage makes it clear that some of the redeemed were already in heaven while others were still living on earth.

In Rev. 7:9 we see "a great multitude which no one could number" in heaven. They are described as the redeemed – standing before the throne of God , clothed in white garments and with palm branches in their hands. John gives details of their heavenly glory, such as serving God night and day in His temple, and God wiping away all tears. He sees all this as a present reality while he is yet on planet earth.

This is consistent with other Scriptures. Paul is confident that when he is "absent from the body" he is "at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8), and he writes of his desire "to depart and be with Christ, which is far better" (Philip. 1:23). He would not have said these things if he had understood that beyond death he would have to wait – either in the grave or in hades – to be with his Lord. Stephen had the same expectation, for as he died he saw Christ in heaven, and prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59). Even Jesus saw the penitent thief and himself as being in paradise the same day they died (Lk. 23:43).

2. Are paradise and heaven the same?

Yes. This is evident from 2 Cor.12:2-4 where Paul equates "the third heaven" – which the Jews identified as God’s dwelling place – with paradise. He uses the terms as equivalent. This is why we can say that when Jesus told the thief "today you will be with me in Paradise" he was talking about heaven.

The Jews saw hades as the intermediate abode of the dead, and it was made up of paradise, the abode of the righteous, and tartarus, the abode of the wicked. This is evident from the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 17. Both men were in hades. Lazarus was in "Abraham’s bosom" (paradise, but not heaven), while the rich man was "in torment" (tartarus). Even our Lord was in hades – the place of departed spirits -- while his body was in the tomb (Acts 2:27).

This distinction appears to hold until our Lord’s resurrection and ascension. Jesus clearly stated, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father" (John 20:17), which of course meant heaven. An angel announces that he was "taken up from you into heaven" following his resurrection (Acts 1:11). Since Paul later equates paradise with heaven, we may conclude that Jesus took paradise with him to heaven. Some think this is what Eph. 4:8 refers to, which may be right.

I conclude from this that there is no longer any hades – no intermediate state -- only heaven and hell. Difficulty over this radical truth eventually produced – at the Council of Trent in the 16^th century – the doctrine of purgatory, which is seen as "a state of final purification after death and before entrance into heaven." It is for those who died "in God’s friendship, but were only imperfectly purified." In purgatory there is "a final cleansing before one is able to enter the joy of heaven." These quotations are from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Protestant theology has rejected this doctrine as unbiblical. The fathers at Trent cited 1 Cor. 3:15 as inferring purgatory: "If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire," but this is usually interpreted to mean that the "fire" that saves refers to the difficulties suffered in this world. There is no clear biblical evidence for an intermediate state of the soul, not since the resurrection of Christ. Our destiny is either heaven or hell, and anyone of us may be at one or the other beyond the next heartbeat.

This truth moved me when recently I read in the morning paper that four of our local university students were killed instantly in a head-on collision while returning from a football game. At one moment they were on their way to college, very much in this world. The next moment they were in eternity. It is enough to get our attention!

If we go directly to heaven at death, why is there a judgment?

The problem here is due to a longstanding fallacy – the assumption that the purpose of judgment is to determine one’s eternal destiny. One’s destiny is fixed at death, if not before. Paul says those in Christ do not face judgment (Rom. 8:1), as does Christ (John 5:24), except a judgment that determines rewards (2 Cor. 5:10). And the wicked are already under judgment, unless they repent (John 3:18). In any event, it is misleading to think of a "judgment day" on which we will find out which way we go. The apostle Paul certainly did not see a judgment standing between himself and heaven when he exulted, "To me, to live is Christ, to die is gain" (Philip. 1:21).

Even in human courts judgment is often the passing of sentence upon those who have already been found guilty in a court of law. Our "judgment day" is now -- in the living of these days. We determine our own destiny by the response we make to such light as God has given us. God doesn’t have to condemn us. We condemn ourselves.

The judgment scenes in Scripture are to be seen as metaphorical – a way of showing us that we must "stand before the judgment seat of Christ" (Rom.14:10) for the way we treat each other, and for the way we live in this world. It is a sobering, life-changing truth to realize that day-by-day we are charting our future, not only for this world, but for all eternity. In a very important sense we are standing before the judgment seat of Christ now -- every moment of our lives.

Will we recognize each other in heaven?

Of course! It is odd that this question would ever be asked – as if the Father might gather his family together in glory as total strangers! Not only will we recognize those we’ve known on earth, but we will know all our sisters and brothers in the family of God from ages past. All of them! We will not have to be introduced to Peter, James, and John, or to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or to that pious great grandmother that we heard about all our life on (the old) planet earth (I put it that way because we may well be on the new planet earth! – but that’s another question). Or the great saints and martyrs that we read about in the Bible and in history. There will not be one stranger in heaven. We will know and love them all, and rejoice and praise God together – and work together, which is still another question about heaven.

I base this on a heavenly scene that took place on earth – and we are allowed to look in and listen! That is a wow! On the mountain of Transfiguration, as in Luke 9, part of heaven comes to earth in the persons of Moses and Elijah. Jesus is there with Peter, James, and John. There are no introductions. They all knew each other. Jesus is transfigured – takes on heavenly form – and God speaks, declaring Jesus to be his beloved Son. There is conversation. Moses and Elijah talk with Christ concerning his upcoming sufferings – comforting him, we may presume. It is all so real. They see, they talk, they know each other, they even know what’s taking place on earth. It is heaven!

While we now are participants in that scene as readers and disciples, we will one day actually be where they were then. In heaven! We too will actually see the transfigured, heavenly Christ. We too will hear the voice of God – and in some measure see him, though we will never, not in all eternity, see the fullness of the glory of God since we will still be finite beings. We too will see Moses and Elijah, and we will know them, just as we will know everyone.

If we now look through a glass darkly, then we will see face to face. If we now know only in part, then we shall know even as we are known (1 Cor.13:12).

(More questions about heaven in our next)

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