Our Destination Is Worth The Journey

"For we are aware that the entire creation is groaning and travailing together until now. Yet not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the spirit, we ourselves also, are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the deliverance of our body." (Romans 8:22-23 CLNT)

"It is better to travel well than to arrive." - Buddha

Such is the opinion of false religion and its leaders who set their minds on this life because they fear or are ignorant of the next. The Buddha has millions of followers who he has taught to focus on the journey rather than the destination. Quite frankly, Christianity is not much different. It focuses most of its attention on the journey because they fear the destination.

But that is the religion of men. The truth of the God is not focused on our failures and suffering along the way, but the "glory" of our destination...

"For I am reckoning that the sufferings of the current era do not deserve the glory about to be revealed for us. For the premonition of the creation is awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God. For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (Romans 8:18-21 CLNT)

Heaven Is Not On Earth

“…they saw that I had been entrusted to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.” (Galatians 2:7)

When we get to the part of the New Testament that is authored by Paul we find no references to fig trees, beautiful cities, lambs, promised lands, or the garbage dump of Gehenna (hell). Those things are related to Israel and its Kingdom on earth. Those blessing for Israel are FROM heaven, not IN heaven.

We are told that the destiny of the “body of Christ” is “among the heavens”. This body is composed of both Gentiles and Jews. Our blessings are not FROM heaven but IN heaven, and Paul tells us to “set our minds on things above” and look forward to being “caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it…so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another… And he is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead... Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things…our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body…we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord...God raises us up with Christ and seats us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." (1 Corinthians 12:27; Romans 12:5; Colossians 1:18; 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 4: 15-17; Ephesians 2:6)

To understand the Bible we should distinguish between what Israel has on the earth sent FROM heaven and what belongs to the "body of Christ" IN heaven.

God’s chosen people are destined to rule in a future earthly Kingdom. However, Heaven is for all people, both Gentile and Jew. We are God’s chosen people to dwell “in the heavenly realms”, after our resurrection, in the Empyrean of our great God.

Is Heaven Real?

If heaven is real, if it is the utopia that we hope for, if it is a place of eternal bliss in an immortal, powerful, spiritual body, then experiencing the uncertainty and trials that we face now is in fact a “light affliction” in comparison.

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (2 Corinthians 4:17)

The way our “affliction” is “working for us” is simply that in order for us to get to heaven, we must be born into this “present evil age” and go through some time in this hell of a world in which we live that ends for us all in death.  The path to heaven is through this "evil age" to be rescued AFTER we die to an "eternal weight of glory".

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…” (Galatians 1:3-5)

It is God’s “will” to do just that, and the means by which He does so is the return of Jesus the Savior to save us by resurrecting the dead.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Is heaven real? I don’t know for sure yet, but the Bible says it is and I have chosen to have faith in what it says. For there is no hope or comfort in the alternative.

“…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)

Our hope and source of peace and comfort is that the Bible is true, that Christ has been resurrected, the first fruit, and the harvest of all mankind will follow…

“…Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:3).

Above is a clear statement of the good news from Peter. As a result of God’s MERCY, mankind will be “begotten again”. This living hope is instilled in us when we both hear and believe…

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" (John 5:24).

Those of us who have heard and believed in this life have the joy of the HOPE of everlasting life. However, most of mankind die before they hear and believe, so they die without the HOPE of everlasting life. But just as all mankind die as a result of Adam’s sin, so shall all mankind be freely given everlasting life as the result of the one righteous act of Christ Jesus, the second Adam.

"Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life" (Romans 5:18).

So tell someone the good news, and leave out the “ifs”, “buts” and “unlesses” added to the good news by religious theologians. Even they will eventually see that…

“…at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

I have skimmed over several books over the last 5-10 years written by those who purportedly went to heaven and were told to go back and tell people about it. There are numerous other people who claim to have had a “near death experience” in heaven or hell. I was recently asked what I thought about one of those books and the subsequent movie. Here goes…

There are the only three places in the New Testament where I find that men were allowed to see the future. Peter, James and John were with Jesus on what we call “the mount of transfiguration”; Paul as he related in his second letter to Corinth; and John as recorded in the Revelation. The Bible tells their stories as follows:

“After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves…then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus… As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, ‘Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’" (Matthew 17:1-9)

“Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ (Paul) who fourteen years ago-- whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- such a man was caught up to the third heaven…into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.… " (2 Corinthians 12:1-2)

“I (John) was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, "Write in a book what you see…” (Revelation 1:10-11)

These men were transported (not literally but in a trance, dream or vision) into the future and shown what is to come at that time. Peter, James and John were told not to tell what happened until after Jesus was raised from the dead. What Paul “heard” he was not “permitted to speak”. And what John saw he was to write down in a book…which he did – in the book of Revelation.

Here is what I think about modern day accounts...

Unless you are willing to elevate those recent accounts to the level of Scripture (God’s Word) then they are false in the sense they claim to have actually been in heaven. Why? 

Because no one in the entire Scripture has ever literally died, went to heaven and returned to earth to tell about it. Jesus will be the FIRST when he returns to resurrect the dead for we are told

“…He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:18).

Personally I believe these folks probably believe what they say but in my mind they have simply hallucinated or dreamed they were in heaven. I have had some pretty vivid dreams myself which seemed real after I woke up. And Jesus has told us we will arrive in heaven only when he returns to get us…

“Do not let your heart be troubled…In My Father’s house are many dwelling places…I go to prepare a place for you…I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also…I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:1-6)