When Do We Get To Heaven?
"...you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die...the wages of sin is death..." (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23a)
Good old Grandpa Adam and Grandma Eve believed a lie....and it was Satan who told the lie. Once we start believing that a lie is the truth, it is almost impossible to convince us otherwise...Christians included. And of course the whole purpose of lies is to hide the truth, right. Sooo....What was that first lie?
"...you surely will not die...but when you eat...you will be like God." (Genesis 3:4)
I was taught in Church that Christians go immediately to Heaven when they die. But after I began to seriously study the Scripture, I found that I was believing and teaching something that was not true...a lie.
The truth about when we get to heaven comes from Scripture, such as the following. Note the "will be", the "after that" and the "at his coming":
"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all WILL BE made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, AFTER THAT those who are Christ's AT HIS COMING....The last enemy that will be abolished is death...the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ..." (1 Corinthians 15:22-26; Romans 6:23b).
Jesus was the "first fruits" and the rest of us are made alive "at his coming". And listen to "these words" of "comfort" in Paul's answer when asked specifically what happens to loved ones "who are asleep"...
"Now we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, about those WHO ARE ASLEEP, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope...For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout... and the dead in Christ shall be rising first, thereafter, we, the living who are surviving, shall at the same time be snatched away together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air...COMFORT one another with THESE WORDS." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 CLNT)
Paul's "words" of "comfort" were that we will be "made alive" when Jesus returns. He did not comfort them by telling them that those who had died were already in heaven...because that would have been a lie. Don't you think he would have told them that if it were true?
Now let's look at the two passages of Scripture used consistently in churches to teach that Christians go immediately to heaven upon death. Paul says...
"...I say and prefer, rather, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8)
and Jesus says to the man being crucified next to him...
"...today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43)
Paul was simply saying he preferred to be present with the Lord rather than continue suffering in this life. The context shows that he wasn't teaching about what happens the moment a person dies.
And this is my paraphrase of what Jesus said "I assure you today, you will be with me in Paradise" (note the comma). He was assuring the man next to him that one day both of them would be in Paradise. Jesus himself did not rise from the dead for three days and three nights so he could not have been talking about that same day.
"...just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights." (Matthew 12:40)
Christians use these two verses to justify their believing a lie. So what is the harm in comforting those grieving by telling them their loved is now in heaven?
Well nothing unless you prefer the comfort of the truth to the comfort of a lie.
When I think of my Mom and Dad, I am comforted in knowing that they are at peace, resting in a long sleep, oblivious to the suffering of this present evil age. And when Jesus returns to wake them it will seem, to them, only as "the twinkling of an eye".
"...the living know that they will die, but the dead don't know anything... I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." (Ecclesiastes 9:5; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
In the "twinkling of an eye" Mom and Dad will rise with me and my family through the clouds to meet Jesus our Savior in the air, "at the same time"!
That truth was given to Paul to comfort those grieving. That truth is more comforting to me than the lie!
Good old Grandpa Adam and Grandma Eve believed a lie....and it was Satan who told the lie. Once we start believing that a lie is the truth, it is almost impossible to convince us otherwise...Christians included. And of course the whole purpose of lies is to hide the truth, right. Sooo....What was that first lie?
"...you surely will not die...but when you eat...you will be like God." (Genesis 3:4)
I was taught in Church that Christians go immediately to Heaven when they die. But after I began to seriously study the Scripture, I found that I was believing and teaching something that was not true...a lie.
The truth about when we get to heaven comes from Scripture, such as the following. Note the "will be", the "after that" and the "at his coming":
"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all WILL BE made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, AFTER THAT those who are Christ's AT HIS COMING....The last enemy that will be abolished is death...the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ..." (1 Corinthians 15:22-26; Romans 6:23b).
Jesus was the "first fruits" and the rest of us are made alive "at his coming". And listen to "these words" of "comfort" in Paul's answer when asked specifically what happens to loved ones "who are asleep"...
"Now we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, about those WHO ARE ASLEEP, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope...For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout... and the dead in Christ shall be rising first, thereafter, we, the living who are surviving, shall at the same time be snatched away together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air...COMFORT one another with THESE WORDS." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 CLNT)
Paul's "words" of "comfort" were that we will be "made alive" when Jesus returns. He did not comfort them by telling them that those who had died were already in heaven...because that would have been a lie. Don't you think he would have told them that if it were true?
Now let's look at the two passages of Scripture used consistently in churches to teach that Christians go immediately to heaven upon death. Paul says...
"...I say and prefer, rather, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8)
and Jesus says to the man being crucified next to him...
"...today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43)
Paul was simply saying he preferred to be present with the Lord rather than continue suffering in this life. The context shows that he wasn't teaching about what happens the moment a person dies.
And this is my paraphrase of what Jesus said "I assure you today, you will be with me in Paradise" (note the comma). He was assuring the man next to him that one day both of them would be in Paradise. Jesus himself did not rise from the dead for three days and three nights so he could not have been talking about that same day.
"...just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights." (Matthew 12:40)
Christians use these two verses to justify their believing a lie. So what is the harm in comforting those grieving by telling them their loved is now in heaven?
Well nothing unless you prefer the comfort of the truth to the comfort of a lie.
When I think of my Mom and Dad, I am comforted in knowing that they are at peace, resting in a long sleep, oblivious to the suffering of this present evil age. And when Jesus returns to wake them it will seem, to them, only as "the twinkling of an eye".
"...the living know that they will die, but the dead don't know anything... I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." (Ecclesiastes 9:5; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
In the "twinkling of an eye" Mom and Dad will rise with me and my family through the clouds to meet Jesus our Savior in the air, "at the same time"!
That truth was given to Paul to comfort those grieving. That truth is more comforting to me than the lie!