“Nobody gets too much heaven no more”
Teddy Donobauer March 2022
Jesus
answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of
water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What
is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born
from above.’ The
wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes,
but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is
with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:3-8The
second death is only obliterated by the second birth. We are born
once, subject to the conditions of the flesh and therefore we shall
all die. But if we are born by the Spirit then the flesh can die
without that meaning that we ourselves die. The spirit within is
stronger than the outward wan in his fleshly imprisonment. The second
death however awaits them who did not avail themselves of the option
and free offer or a spiritual regeneration.
To the Church
the Spirit testified: “ Do
not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. The devil is
about to have some of you thrown into prison so you may be
tested, and you will experience suffering for ten days.
Remain faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the
crown that is life itself. The
one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. The
one who conquers will in no way be harmed by the second death.’
This
piece of writing is intended to be an in depth study of the question
concerning where we go at the point of our own death. Occasioned by
the embarrassing words of well-meaning but poorly informed ministers
at the gravesides of believers and non believers alike. “She has
gone to heaven, so don’t mourn.” Is it even true to scripture?
And if it is not, then why is it so solidly taken to be the truth,
capital T? To question such things is to poke a hornet’s
nest. (Throughout I am using the Bible.NET)
And
again also in Revelation: “Then I
saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given
authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been
beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word
of God. These had not worshipped the beast or his image and had
refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to
life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (The
rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were
finished.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy
is the one who takes part in the first resurrection. The second
death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of
Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. Revelation
20:4-6
The
importance of this meme is tremendous: Born once only I would die
twice, born twice I will die only once! The
sting of death is only a sting to those who have not been raised to
newness of life in Christ while they were still alive in the flesh.
We have the hope of resurrection, that is not another word for ‘going
to heaven’ but another word for “being in Christ.”
Jairus
daughter was raised from the death, so was Lazarus, but none of them
were brought back from heaven but only from the “deep sleep”. In
both cases Jesus, in response to the common understanding refused to
call them dead but said “they are asleep”. Mark 5:39, John 11:11.
Jesus refused to call them ‘dead’ in the sense of finality that
the people of the time thought of it. And so it goes on. John the
Baptist dies. Note: no promise of him going to heaven. Jesus himself
dies on the cross after he has commended his Spirit to the Father but
leaves the earthly form to the grave and the descent into the
Sheol/Hades in order to minister to those waiting in sleep for His
final coming. As in his exposition concerning Jonah Christ expressly
said that He would not go to heaven but be in the earth for three
days..
“Teacher,
we want to see a sign[d] from
you.”But he answered them,“An evil and adulterous generation asks
for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the
belly of the huge fish 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. Matt 12:38-40
Was it at this time that he did what Peter expressed?
“Because
Christ also suffered once for sins,
the just for the unjust,
to
bring you to God,
by being put to death in the flesh
but by
being made alive in the spirit.
In it he went and preached
to the spirits in prison..” 1 Pet 1:18-20
At
any rate: under no rules of interpretation can be it be maintained
that Jesus after death went straight to heaven. Nobody
who dies during the time of the later covenant is ever said to have
gone to heaven.
And
here comes the great “what about” of paradise.
Hanging
on the cross between
two others who had run into conflict with Roman interests, Christ is
seen and heard to give monumentally important statements about
several matters. One of the thieves is blaspheming, railing against
Jesus and spluttering curses until death. The other turns his heart
to the middleman between man and God and begs to be remembered by
Christ when he comes into his kingdom.
Christ’s answer is
common knowledge: “ Then
(the Thief) he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come
in your kingdom.” And
Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be
with me in paradise.”
On
the basis of this phrase the entire idea of someone dying and going
to heaven has been constructed. It begs many questions. Here is a
list of them:
1 What does the word “today” mean for
someone who on death passes out of all time?
2 Did Jesus on
death go to paradise?
3 Does any other portion of scripture
equate heaven with paradise?
4 What is the meaning of
paradise?
Starting
from number 4.
The word paradise occurs three times in the
Bible. It is the Greek transliteration of a word in pharsi, the
persian language, which means “an ordered and protected, walled
Garden”. It is the description of the Garden of Eden as in Genesis,
which was a place on Earth which God had prepared as a template and
pattern for Adam and Eve to learn and imprint in their minds for the
task of subduing the rest of the earth and tilling it and ruling over
all of it. Adam was not made in that Garden, but brought into it by
God. Listen carefully: Genesis 2:8-17
The Lord God
planted an orchard in
the east, in Eden; and there
he placed the man he had formed. The Lord God
made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was
pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the
orchard.)
Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, ..
The Lord God
took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care
for it and to maintain it. Then
the Lord God
commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree
of the orchard, but you
must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat from it you will surely die.”
This
is paradise, or was. Because as you may know mankind was thrown out
of that paradise. The gates have been shut against us entering it
again as long as we maintain our independence from God and continue
in the idolatry of the self, which is claiming our right to ourself.
(But the Garden enclosed will make a come back.)
The Thief
is promised that after the death on his own cross that as
he had turned
to Christ, who is the express image of God, he will be in a safe
walled garden ordered by God. Where is that garden? It is promised to
one of the Churches in the first chapters of Revelation. Chapter 2:7
reads:
“The one
who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the one who conquers, I
will permit him to eat from the tree of life that is in
the paradise of God.’ “ Yes,
there will again be a garden with the tree of life, but where? Is it
in heaven? No, emphatically no. It is to be found on the restored
earth.
Listen to the testimony:
Revelation 22
describes the restored Earth under its King of Kings and Lords of
Lords. It does not describe any of the possible heavens.
“Then the
angel showed me the river of the water of life—water as clear
as crystal—pouring out from the throne of God and of the
Lamb, flowing down the middle of the city’s main
street. On each side of the
river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its
leaves are for the healing of the nations. And there will no longer
be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the
city. His servants will worship him, and they will see
his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night
will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the
light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they
will reign forever and ever.”
Which
city? The New
Jerusalem which comes down
from heaven! Read
carefully: “ The
one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my
God, and he will never depart from it. I will write on him the
name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem
that comes down out of heaven from my God), and my new name as
well. The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit
says to the churches.’
The
direction of all movement in the entire later covenant scriptures is
FROM HEAVEN BACK TO EARTH! But not the Earth we know now. Because our
entire world is waiting for the release from present bondage like a
woman in childbirth. See Romans chapter 8 for details of that
birthing process.
As Jesus had ascended to heaven he went
to prepare many mansions for His people, and He would stay there
until the time comes for the full completion of His purpose. See the
clear statement: Acts 3:21 “This
one heaven must receive until the time all things are
restored, which God declared from times long ago through
his holy prophets.”
What
was it that needed restoring? The fallen creature and the fallen
creation. Heaven needs purging from the residue of evil left by the
Devil and His crew. But it is the Earth and that of Heaven which is
indispensable to Earth that is to be reborn and recreated. Belinda
Carlisle is a well known pop singer and stormed the charts with a
song that said that “Heaven was a place on Earth.” She was right
in one sense.. That which is of heavenly character will be
established on Earth. That is not what her lyrics meant to say. But
she is right insofar as Heaven is a heavenly Kingdom yet to be
established on Earth.
By answering the 4th point
we have also answered all the others. The word Today does not refer
to this or that specific date, but to the eternal now of salvation.
“Today if you hear his words, harden not your hearts.. today is the
day of salvation..” The moment we depart from life we depart from
the time-space limitations that
we are set about on all sides. Therefore we have great difficulty in
speaking anything beyond death without using the only terminology we
know. All our language about the things beyond are by necessity
limited by the concepts available on this side of death. Which leads
to the last reference to paradise that we have in Paul’s second
letter to the Corinthian Church.
Paul is attempting to do
justice to an experience that someone had been moved into by the
Spirit of Revelation. Possibly in connection with some close-to-death
experience, he had several, he knew of this man that he had been
brought to the Heaven that is beyond the created Heavens. And coming
to heaven he was ushered in to the enclosed and God ordered paradise
where he was given understanding of things that it was not lawful for
any man to speak. And he was not invited to stay there but was sent
back to minister to the church in all posterity. I would incline to
interpret and understand the “unlawful” things as also
“impossible things” because we here cannot comprehend what is
going to be there, so much speculation about that is mere guesswork
and should not be entertained at all. By us. Paul was told to keep
quiet about what he had been told. (2 Corinthians 12:3-4 “And
I know that this man (whether in the body or apart from the body I do
not know, God knows ),was
caught up into paradise and heard things too sacred to be put
into words, things that a person is not permitted to
speak.
Draw
your own conclusion: is heaven the same as paradise? The kingdom to
come is a kingdom of Heaven ON EARTH.
“Asleep
in Christ”
As
we know that those under the former covenant fell asleep (or even
closer to the truth: into oblivion) and are waiting for us to catch
up as it were, we must now quickly investigate where those who die in
Christ are, once death has ‘shuffled off this mortail coil’. The
later covenant states it with absolute clarity.
“For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that
God will bring with him those who
have fallen asleep as Christians. For
we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who
are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not
go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For
the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will
rise first.” 1 Thess 4:14-15
“ And if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is useless; you are still in your
sins. Furthermore, those
who have fallen asleep in Christ have
also perished. For if only in this life we have hope in Christ,
we should be pitied more than anyone.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man.”1 Cor 15:14-19
And again let us hear the deliberation that Paul has with himself in the letter to the Church in Philippi: “My confident hope is that I will in no way be ashamed but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. Now if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean productive work for me, yet I don’t know which I prefer: I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more vital for your sake that I remain in the body. “ Phil 1:20-24
Paul
has no notion of going to heaven. He understood totally that the body
he lived in was not what would be with the Lord. So all his scars and
brokenness was a mere nuisance, but of no ultimate account. He has
every notion of experiencing what Christ promised the disciples
before Calvary: “ I
want you to be where I
am, with me and in me.” And again: “Jesus
replied,“If
anyone loves me, he will obey my
word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take
up residence with him/ make our dwelling place with him..”
The
question asked “Where do we go at death” is based on a
misunderstanding. Death is the end of all motion and movement. We
become utterly and totally still. We remain where we are at death.
God does not wait for our death and then sends us somewhere. He has
set before all mankind his paths and invites all mankind to enter it
and stay on it. If they have, then when that road comes to the end,
then we will be on “The Kings High Way”. If we have chosen to
ignore that option and walked in the paths of evil, then evil will be
our awakening. God
does not send anyone to any other destination than the one they opted
for in this life.
There is no second option after the death. Those who refused Him here
will be refused by Him there. God does not need to send anyone
anywhere, he leaves that choice to the living, and respects their
choice when they
have died. What you sow you will reap and the path you chose is the
path to your exit door. But there is no motion beyond.
“Thy
Kingdom come”
There
are 272 passages in the later covenant speaking of heaven and
heavenly things. In 93 of them the word is in plural form. And this
is especially true of nearly all the things said about the “Kingdom
of Heaven”. Many times Jesus started by saying “The Kingdom
of heaven is like” and then gave image after image of that kingdom
to come, and suggested that the Church was responsible to pray for
the coming of that kingdom. In utter opposition to the idea of going
to heaven is the teaching of the Word that says that the kingdom of
heaven is to come here!
This outstanding fact pinpoints the deep confusion which has resulted in an attitude that our goal is heaven and Earth is merely an endurance race until we get there. Most of the teaching about the church on earth is therefore ignored and the result is a mere bare-bone-gospel which is aimed to bringing people to heaven but ignores that the entire purpose of salvation is to bring redemption and reconciliation where it is most needed. Here. Heaven has no need of salvation. It is already perfect. The alienation between man and God, man and creation, man and his fellow human beings and between man and himself, is here, not in heaven. And although we have an eternal inheritance laid up for us in heaven, it is kept there for us because we need it when the kingdom comes. We are even now, while here, blessed with all riches in the heavenly places. But live as paupers because we are told that that is only for later and laid up for when we get to heaven. Again ignoring that “heaven came down and glory filled my soul.”
What
we teach is what we feed. What we feed determines our ability to
testify of the ‘kingdom of God that is within and among you’. The
initial BeeGee qoute was “Nobody gets too much heaven no more and
I’m waiting in line” is uncanny in its double stroke. Hoping to
go to heaven does not equip you to allow heaven to come here. You
simply don’t expect it, and most likely you will be taken aback
when it comes. “We
didn’t see that coming.” He
is coming to earth to judge the living and the dead and to reign with
his people. The whole earth must again be filled with the glory of
Lord. Heaven is already complete and needs nothing from earth.
We
will be given the keys to the Kingdom of heaven here so that we may
enter when that Kingdom comes. When will it come? When the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords comes again. It has pleased the Father to
give that kingdom to “the Little flock”. Not in heaven but here
in his future reign. “Inherit the kingdom which has been prepared
from before the foundation of the world” Matt 25:34 Where is it
going to be? Here.. not in heaven..
A Swedish Singer Song
writer called Timbuktou has made a statement that fits well
here: “Everybody
wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.” The
issue of death is alive and well on the lips of the crooners of the
world. Death is avoided and tabooed by and large among most
people. And that against the fact that all will come to it. Is it not
with utter disbelief that we must watch this concrete refusal to face
the fact of our own imminent demise from this life? And how have we
done with our preparations for what lies beyond? And for the record,
no one gets to be in the future heavenly kingdom who has not died at
least once and been born twice. (Unless he or she is alive on earth
at the coming of the King.)
Holding out a hope of heaven
and having very little to realise on earth is a serious cop out from
the entire and coherent teaching in the Bible. It is true that we
have our true nationality in heaven. Our citizenship, our ‘politeia’
is there, (Phil 3:20) and that is why we are on earth and in the
world, but not of it. And the point of that is that we , while here
should infuse the realities of the eternal kingdom here in
preparation for when the Kingdom comes. It takes all of heaven now to
live on earth as God’s people. (I
have a Swedish citizenship but live in England. My citizenship is not
a description of where I live.)
Epilogue
In
Johns gospel, at chapter 3:13 we are told that “No
One has gone into heaven except he who came down from heaven, the Son
of man.” Note:
no not One except Christ himself. And He will stay there until the
time is at hand for the restoration of all things. “On
earth as it already is in heaven.”
That
is what Stephen saw as the hail of lethal rocks whizzed around him.
He saw the glory of God and the Lord Jesus at His right hand. And he
ended his life giving back his
Spirit to the Lord whom he saw. He did not go to heaven, he died and
is preparing to come back to earth with his Lord and all His saints.
Acts
7:55-56, 59-60
But
Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently toward
heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right
hand of God. “Look!” he said.“I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
..
“They continued
to stone Stephen while he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit!” Then he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud
voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”When he had said
this, he died.
What
has a beginning will have an end
From
the 1st Corinthian
letter we are told that Jesus must reign on Earth until his enemies
have been brought in under His sovereign rule. But then that is not
the end. When everything is under His control He will hand it all
back to the Father, So that as in the beginning all things came from
the father through the Son and by the Spirit, so the reverse will
happen. All things will by the Spirit be given to the Son and brought
back to the Father of Lights.
“ But
each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ
comes, those who belong to him. Then comes
the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when
he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. For
he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The
last enemy to be eliminated is death. For he
has put everything in subjection under his feet. But
when it says “everything” has been put in subjection, it is clear
that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection
to him. And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son
himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to
him, so
that God may be all in all.
This
is the Alpha and the Omega of the plan of Salvation. As
it was in the beginning so it will be in the end. And truly when that
comes then there will no longer be any Heaven or Earth, and no Sheol
or Hell. All will be regained and brought into the perfection that is
only found in
God Himself. Even eternity is not a place in
which God dwells, He is the Everlasting God, everything else is less
than God. Eternal life is His and is given to us by him. Restoring
the image of God in mankind. Made in his likeness, returning back
into him.
What was spoken into existence by His word will
return to Him having accomplished all that was planned before, and
outside, of when any time-space continuum existed.
Faith sees it
clearly, science dimly. We have this hope because of Him who died and
rose again.
“Imagine
there is no heaven, its easy if you try..” But
John Lennon was also wrong. He hoped for a time when all men should
live in peace, but he fell for the bullets of a man who had no peace
in himself. And that is a finger of hell held up against all peace.
And in order for man to live at peace with his fellow man, he must
make his peace with God in good time.
Afterwards
it is too late.
Teddy
Donobauer 7th March
2022
The
heading is easily recognized as a line from a song by the BeeGees and
continues: “It’s much harder to come by I’m waiting in line”.
Of course the BeeGees are not considering or entertaining an idea of
the biblical heaven but equate earthly bliss (such as romantic love),
with something ‘divine’ arising out of the ideas that anything
that is very nice is in some sense is ‘heavenly’. Love on earth
is in some sense always a shadow of the Love of God, but most will
settle for the shadow and ignore the source of light that brings
it.
They are not the only one’s confusing the two.
Heaven is taken to mean “the best of everything on earth
concentrated into a permanent state of bliss when we have died.”
Almost as if we could remove all that is perceived as bad now and
then we will be in heaven. Heaven is not a parallel to the
world as we know it. Nor is it a trimmed up version of this
existence. It is a totally other dimension, not even a defined space
or place.
The materialist who denies anything outside of
the now existing natural order rightly interprets the Christian
teaching on heaven as merely “pie in the sky when you die.” And
that the promise of heaven is used to keep people in ignorance,
poverty, slavery and misery while on earth, on the premise: It
will all be seen as worthwhile when you get your heavenly reward
beyond the grave. For the materialist there is nothing beyond the
grave, for the ‘heaven enthusiast’ there is everything, but
mostly beyond death, in the heaven to come. Neither, on careful
examination, is right.
I have no doubt that what I will be
putting to print will upset a few theological apple carts and I am
sure I shall be branded as a ‘heretic’ for some of the
conclusions that I must draw from the evidence at hand. So be it. The
truth is more important than the applause of this or that school of
thought. Nobody gets to any heaven on the strength of their
theological correctness. Only if we have tasted of heavenly realities
here and now will there be a touch of heaven later on. We should
therefore neither be treated contemptuously, or be rejected for
having grappled with the entire revelation of God in the Bible and
have come to different conclusion than many predecessors. For
speaking the truth can never exclude anyone from ‘heaven’, while
speaking lies about it certainly will.
First
things first: what is meant by ‘heaven’?
There are
several different words used in the original languages and they have
overlapping but also extended meanings. The view of the world most
commonly expressed in the Former Testament is of a tri-part world.
Below is the waiting room, the realm, the existence of the dead. In
the middle is earth, and above it is the heavens, considered to be
the created realm surrounding the earth, and so essential to the
earth that it could not exist without the physical heavens, and only
beyond that is the Heaven of Heavens: i e the spiritual realm which
is holding all the physical “in the palm of His hand”. “Heaven
is his throne and the earth his footstool.”
Sheol is that realm where all who dwell there are waiting for what they know nothing of. The poetic book of Job puts it succinctly and in much concentrated form:
“As
water disappears from the sea,
or a river drains away and dries
up,
so man lies down and does not rise;
until the
heavens are no more,
they will not awake
nor
arise from their sleep.
“O
that you would hide me in Sheol ,
and conceal me till your
anger has passed!
O
that you would set me a time
and then remember me!
If a man
dies, will he live again?
Only
as he is grappling with the looming threat of death through illness
and deprivation of health does man begin to face the ‘where-after’.
And all he sees at that moment is a huge question mark, but it is
laced with a possibility. Death may not be the end. Death is not an
if, but the second absolute certainty after being born. And it is Job
himself who works his way through the confusion of living at death’s
door and comes to insight:
“As for me, I know that my
Redeemer lives,
and that as the last
he will stand
upon the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet
in my flesh I will see God,
whom
I will see for myself,
and whom my own eyes will behold,
and
not another.” Job
19:25-27
Another voice from the time before the
revelation in the Lord Jesus Christ is the King Hezekiah. Close to
his demise from the affairs of the world his grappling with the
looming end is turned into a prayer of thanksgiving when the death he
knew would certainly come is temporarily averted.
This
is the prayer of King Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and then
recovered from his illness:
“I
thought,
‘In the middle of my life I must walk through
the gates of Sheol,
I am deprived of the rest of my
years.’
“I thought,
‘I
will no longer see the Lord in the land of the living,
I
will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the
world.
My dwelling place is removed and taken away from me
as
a shepherd’s tent.
I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls
cloth;
from the loom he cuts me off.
You turn day into
night and end my life.
I cry out until morning;
like
a lion he shatters all my bones;
you turn day into night and end
my life.” Isaiah 38:9-13
Solomon,
arguably the most wise king of Judah and Israel, long before
Hezekiah, established the universal truth in very sombre lines:
“So
I reflected on all this, attempting to clear it all up.
I
concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their works,
are in the hand of God;
whether a person will be loved or
hated—
no one knows what lies ahead.
Everyone shares the
same fate—
the righteous and the wicked,
the good and the
bad,
the ceremonially clean and unclean,
those who offer
sacrifices and those who do not.
What happens to the good
person, also happens to the sinner;
what happens to those who
make vows, also happens to those who are afraid to make vows.
This
is the unfortunate fact about everything that happens on earth:
the
same fate awaits everyone.
In addition to this, the hearts
of all people are full of evil,
and there is folly in their
hearts during their lives—then they die “ Ecclesiastes 9:1-3
In
deed! Or as in many of the Psalms: “No
man can live on without experiencing death, or deliver his life from
the power of Sheol.” Psalm 89:48 But
connected with the inevitability of death is the relentless faith
that “He shall
not leave my soul in Sheol for good.” Or
as Psalm 139 unabashedly proclaims:
“Where
can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee to escape your
presence?
If
I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there.
If I were to
sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be.
If I were to fly
away on the wings of the dawn,
and settle down on the other
side of the sea,
even there your hand would guide me,
your
right hand would grab hold of me.”
The
concept of Sheol as the kingdom of the departed, is never once offset
by a hope of Heaven, not once in either the Old or the New. For the
people of the former covenant it was always Sheol that awaits them.
But the righteous nourished the assurance that there would be a
rescuing from it by Yahweh Himself one way or the other. Of the
unrighteous no more is said than that they also have a future.
“Many
of those who sleep
in the dusty ground will awake—
some
to everlasting life,
and others to shame and everlasting
abhorrence.” Daniel 12:2
Does
all that change in the apostolic writings?
A
number of men and women and children died during the narrative of the
revelation of Christ on Earth. With many of them Jesus Christ was in
direct physical contact and their deaths are recorded because Christ
overruled the seaming finality of death and demonstrated what He came
to manifest: “Martha
said, “I know that he will come back to life again in the
resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I
am the resurrection and the life. The
one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one
who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:24-26
After
death the resurrection is
next on the agenda. Not a going to heaven, not a passport to be in
some location called heaven, but
to be In Him in whom those who died in the faith were at their point
of death. In Him!
We
have noticed the inevitability of the death of all for all mankind in
all times and under all conditions. And when we come to the flat
statement of Jesus that those who believe do not die, even if they
die, brings great puzzlement until we understand that the two major
events of our lives are spoken of in the same terms. We are born and
will die. That is physical reality. But there is as it were a
heavenly backdrop to this double reality. In fact those two things
are either shadow or substance of the other coupling in the
Bible: the second
birth and the second death. That
is why the avoidance of the physical death is impossible, but the
avoidance of the second death is in your own hands. It is volitional.
And it is entirely dependent on the second birth. Which in turn is
mandatory if you want to escape the second death.
“Jesus
replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born
from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus
said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter
his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?”
The
second death is only obliterated by the second birth. We are born
once, subject to the conditions of the flesh and therefore we shall
all die. But if we are born by the Spirit then the flesh can die
without that meaning that we ourselves die. The spirit within is
stronger than the outward wan in his fleshly imprisonment. The second
death however awaits them who did not avail themselves of the option
and free offer or a spiritual regeneration.
To the Church
the Spirit testified: “ Do
not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. The devil is
about to have some of you thrown into prison so you may be
tested, and you will experience suffering for ten days.
Remain faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the
crown that is life itself. The
one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. The
one who conquers will in no way be harmed by the second death.’And again also in Revelation: “Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshipped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. Revelation 20:4-6
The
importance of this meme is tremendous: Born once only I would die
twice, born twice I will die only once! The
sting of death is only a sting to those who have not been raised to
newness of life in Christ while they were still alive in the flesh.
We have the hope of resurrection, that is not another word for ‘going
to heaven’ but another word for “being in Christ.”
Jairus
daughter was raised from the death, so was Lazarus, but none of them
were brought back from heaven but only from the “deep sleep”. In
both cases Jesus, in response to the common understanding refused to
call them dead but said “they are asleep”. Mark 5:39, John 11:11.
Jesus refused to call them ‘dead’ in the sense of finality that
the people of the time thought of it. And so it goes on. John the
Baptist dies. Note: no promise of him going to heaven. Jesus himself
dies on the cross after he has commended his Spirit to the Father but
leaves the earthly form to the grave and the descent into the
Sheol/Hades in order to minister to those waiting in sleep for His
final coming. As in his exposition concerning Jonah Christ expressly
said that He would not go to heaven but be in the earth for three
days..
“Teacher,
we want to see a sign from
you.”But he answered them,“An evil and adulterous generation asks
for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the
belly of the huge fish 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. Matt 12:38-40
Was it at this time that he did what Peter expressed?
“Because
Christ also suffered once for sins,
the just for the unjust,
to
bring you to God,
by being put to death in the flesh
but by
being made alive in the spirit.
In it he went and preached
to the spirits in prison..” 1 Pet 1:18-20
At
any rate: under no rules of interpretation can be it be maintained
that Jesus after death went straight to heaven. Nobody
who dies during the time of the later covenant is ever said to have
gone to heaven.
And
here comes the great “what about” of paradise.
Hanging
on the cross between
two others who had run into conflict with Roman interests, Christ is
seen and heard to give monumentally important statements about
several matters. One of the thieves is blaspheming, railing against
Jesus and spluttering curses until death. The other turns his heart
to the middleman between man and God and begs to be remembered by
Christ when he comes into his kingdom.
Christ’s answer is
common knowledge: “ Then
(the Thief) he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come
in your kingdom.” And
Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be
with me in paradise.”
On
the basis of this phrase the entire idea of someone dying and going
to heaven has been constructed. It begs many questions. Here is a
list of them:
1 What does the word “today” mean for
someone who on death passes out of all time?
2 Did Jesus on
death go to paradise?
3 Does any other portion of scripture
equate heaven with paradise?
4 What is the meaning of
paradise?
Starting
from number 4.
The word paradise occurs three times in the
Bible. It is the Greek transliteration of a word in pharsi, the
persian language, which means “an ordered and protected, walled
Garden”. It is the description of the Garden of Eden as in Genesis,
which was a place on Earth which God had prepared as a template and
pattern for Adam and Eve to learn and imprint in their minds for the
task of subduing the rest of the earth and tilling it and ruling over
all of it. Adam was not made in that Garden, but brought into it by
God. Listen carefully: Genesis 2:8-17
The Lord God
planted an orchard in
the east, in Eden; and there
he placed the man he had formed. The Lord God
made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was
pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the
orchard.)
Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, ..
The Lord God
took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care
for it and to maintain it. Then
the Lord God
commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree
of the orchard, but you
must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat from it you will surely die.”
This
is paradise, or was. Because as you may know mankind was thrown out
of that paradise. The gates have been shut against us entering it
again as long as we maintain our independence from God and continue
in the idolatry of the self, which is claiming our right to ourselves.
(But the Garden enclosed will make a come back.)
The Thief
is promised that after the death on his own cross that as
he had turned
to Christ, who is the express image of God, he will be in a safe
walled garden ordered by God. Where is that garden? It is promised to
one of the Churches in the first chapters of Revelation. Chapter 2:7
reads:
“The one
who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the one who conquers, I
will permit him to eat from the tree of life that is in
the paradise of God.’ “ Yes,
there will again be a garden with the tree of life, but where? Is it
in heaven? No, emphatically no. It is to be found on the restored
earth.
Listen to the testimony:
Revelation 22
describes the restored Earth under its King of Kings and Lords of
Lords. It does not describe any of the possible heavens.
“Then the
angel showed me the river of the water of life—water as clear
as crystal—pouring out from the throne of God and of the
Lamb, flowing down the middle of the city’s main
street. On each side of the
river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its
leaves are for the healing of the nations. And there will no longer
be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the
city. His servants will worship him, and they will see
his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night
will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the
light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they
will reign forever and ever.”
Which
city? The New
Jerusalem which comes down
from heaven! Read
carefully: “ The
one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my
God, and he will never depart from it. I will write on him the
name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem
that comes down out of heaven from my God), and my new name as
well. The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit
says to the churches.’
The
direction of all movement in the entire later covenant scriptures is
FROM HEAVEN BACK TO EARTH! But not the Earth we know now. Because our
entire world is waiting for the release from present bondage like a
woman in childbirth. See Romans chapter 8 for details of that
birthing process.
As Jesus had ascended to heaven he went
to prepare many mansions for His people, and He would stay there
until the time comes for the full completion of His purpose. See the
clear statement: Acts 3:21 “This
one heaven must receive until the time all things are
restored, which God declared from times long ago through
his holy prophets.”
What
was it that needed restoring? The fallen creature and the fallen
creation. Heaven needs purging from the residue of evil left by the
Devil and His crew. But it is the Earth and that of Heaven which is
indispensable to Earth that is to be reborn and recreated. Belinda
Carlisle is a well known pop singer and stormed the charts with a
song that said that “Heaven was a place on Earth.” She was right
in one sense.. That which is of heavenly character will be
established on Earth. That is not what her lyrics meant to say. But
she is right insofar as Heaven is a heavenly Kingdom yet to be
established on Earth.
By answering the 4th point
we have also answered all the others. The word Today does not refer
to this or that specific date, but to the eternal now of salvation.
“Today if you hear his words, harden not your hearts.. today is the
day of salvation..” The moment we depart from life we depart from
the time-space limitations that
we are set about on all sides. Therefore we have great difficulty in
speaking anything beyond death without using the only terminology we
know. All our language about the things beyond are by necessity
limited by the concepts available on this side of death. Which leads
to the last reference to paradise that we have in Paul’s second
letter to the Corinthian Church.
Paul is attempting to do
justice to an experience that someone had been moved into by the
Spirit of Revelation. Possibly in connection with some close-to-death
experience, he had several, he knew of this man that he had been
brought to the Heaven that is beyond the created Heavens. And coming
to heaven he was ushered in to the enclosed and God ordered paradise
where he was given understanding of things that it was not lawful for
any man to speak. And he was not invited to stay there but was sent
back to minister to the church in all posterity. I would incline to
interpret and understand the “unlawful” things as also
“impossible things” because we here cannot comprehend what is
going to be there, so much speculation about that is mere guesswork
and should not be entertained at all. By us. Paul was told to keep
quiet about what he had been told. (2 Corinthians 12:3-4 “And
I know that this man (whether in the body or apart from the body I do
not know, God knows ),was
caught up into paradise and heard things too sacred to be put
into words, things that a person is not permitted to
speak.
Draw
your own conclusion: is heaven the same as paradise? The kingdom to
come is a kingdom of Heaven ON EARTH.
“Asleep
in Christ”
As
we know that those under the former covenant fell asleep (or even
closer to the truth: into oblivion) and are waiting for us to catch
up as it were, we must now quickly investigate where those who die in
Christ are, once death has ‘shuffled off this mortail coil’. The
later covenant states it with absolute clarity.
“For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that
God will bring with him those who
have fallen asleep as Christians. For
we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who
are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not
go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For
the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will
rise first.” 1 Thess 4:14-15
“ And if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is useless; you are still in your
sins. Furthermore, those
who have fallen asleep in Christ have
also perished. For if only in this life we have hope in Christ,
we should be pitied more than anyone.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man.”1 Cor 15:14-19
And again let us hear the deliberation that Paul has with himself in the letter to the Church in Philippi: “My confident hope is that I will in no way be ashamed but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. Now if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean productive work for me, yet I don’t know which I prefer: I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more vital for your sake that I remain in the body. “ Phil 1:20-24
Paul
has no notion of going to heaven. He understood totally that the body
he lived in was not what would be with the Lord. So all his scars and
brokenness was a mere nuisance, but of no ultimate account. He has
every notion of experiencing what Christ promised the disciples
before Calvary: “ I
want you to be where I
am, with me and in me.” And again: “Jesus
replied, “If
anyone loves me, he will obey my
word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take
up residence with him/ make our dwelling place with him..”
The
question asked “Where do we go at death” is based on a
misunderstanding. Death is the end of all motion and movement. We
become utterly and totally still. We remain where we are at death.
God does not wait for our death and then sends us somewhere of which we knew nothing. He has
set before all mankind his paths and invites all mankind to enter it
and stay on it. If they have, then when that road comes to the end,
then we will be on “The Kings High Way”. If we have chosen to
ignore that option and walked in the paths of evil, then evil will be
our awakening. God
does not send anyone to any other destination than the one they opted
for in this life.
There is no second option after the death. Those who refused Him here
will be refused by Him there. God does not need to send anyone
anywhere, he leaves that choice to the living, and respects their
choice when they
have died. What you sow you will reap and the path you chose is the
path to your exit door. But there is no motion beyond.
“Thy
Kingdom come”
There
are 272 passages in the later covenant speaking of heaven and
heavenly things. In 93 of them the word is in plural form. And this
is especially true of nearly all the things said about the “Kingdom
of Heavens”. Many times Jesus started by saying “The Kingdom
of heavens is like” and then gave image after image of that kingdom
to come, and suggested that the Church was responsible to pray for
the coming of that kingdom. In utter opposition to the idea of going
to heaven is the teaching of the Word that says that the kingdom of
heaven is to come here!
This outstanding fact pinpoints the deep confusion which has resulted in an attitude that our goal is heaven and Earth is merely an endurance race until we get there. Most of the teaching about the church on earth is therefore ignored and the result is a mere bare-bone-gospel which is aimed to bringing people to heaven but ignores that the entire purpose of salvation is to bring redemption and reconciliation where it is most needed. Here. Heaven has no need of salvation. It is already perfect. The alienation between man and God, man and creation, man and his fellow human beings and between man and himself, is here, not in heaven. And although we have an eternal inheritance laid up for us in heaven, it is kept there for us because we need it when the kingdom comes. We are even now, while here, blessed with all riches in the heavenly places. But live as paupers because we are told that that is only for later and laid up for when we get to heaven. Again ignoring that “heaven came down and glory filled my soul.”
What
we teach is what we feed. What we feed determines our ability to
testify of the ‘kingdom of God that is within and among you’. The
initial BeeGee qoute was “Nobody gets too much heaven no more and
I’m waiting in line” is uncanny in its double stroke. Hoping to
go to heaven does not equip you to allow heaven to come here. You
simply don’t expect it, and most likely you will be taken aback
when it comes. “We
didn’t see that coming.” He
is coming to earth to judge the living and the dead and to reign with
his people. The whole earth must again be filled with the glory of
Lord. Heaven is already complete and needs nothing from earth.
We
will be given the keys to the Kingdom of heaven here so that we may
enter when that Kingdom comes. When will it come? When the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords comes again. It has pleased the Father to
give that kingdom to “the Little flock”. Not in heaven but here
in his future reign. “Inherit the kingdom which has been prepared
from before the foundation of the world” Matt 25:34 Where is it
going to be? Here.. not in heaven..
A Swedish Singer Song
writer called Timbuktou has made a statement that fits well
here: “Everybody
wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.” The
issue of death is alive and well on the lips of the crooners of the
world. Death is avoided and tabooed by and large among most
people. And that against the fact that all will come to it. Is it not
with utter disbelief that we must watch this concrete refusal to face
the fact of our own imminent demise from this life? And how have we
done with our preparations for what lies beyond? And for the record,
no one gets to be in the future heavenly kingdom who has not died at
least once and been born twice. (Unless he or she is alive on earth
at the coming of the King.)
Holding out a hope of heaven
and having very little to realise on earth is a serious cop out from
the entire and coherent teaching in the Bible. It is true that we
have our true nationality in heaven. Our citizenship, our ‘politeia’
is there, (Phil 3:20) and that is why we are on earth and in the
world, but not of it. And the point of that is that we , while here
should infuse the realities of the eternal kingdom here in
preparation for when the Kingdom comes. It takes all of heaven now to
live on earth as God’s people. (I
have a Swedish citizenship but live in England. My citizenship is not
a description of where I live.)
Epilogue
In
Johns gospel, at chapter 3:13 we are told that “No
One has gone into heaven except he who came down from heaven, the Son
of man.” Note:
no not One except Christ himself. And He will stay there until the
time is at hand for the restoration of all things. “On
earth as it already is in heaven.”
That
is what Stephen saw as the hail of lethal rocks whizzed around him.
He saw the glory of God and the Lord Jesus at His right hand. And he
ended his life giving back his
Spirit to the Lord whom he saw. He did not go to heaven, he died and
is preparing to come back to earth with his Lord and all His saints.
Acts
7:55-56, 59-60
But
Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently toward
heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right
hand of God. “Look!” he said.“I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
..
“They continued
to stone Stephen while he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit!” Then he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud
voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”When he had said
this, he died.
What
has a beginning will have an end
From
the 1st Corinthian
letter we are told that Jesus must reign on Earth until his enemies
have been brought in under His sovereign rule. But then that is not
the end. When everything is under His control He will hand it all
back to the Father, So that as in the beginning all things came from
the father through the Son and by the Spirit, so the reverse will
happen. All things will by the Spirit be given to the Son and brought
back to the Father of Lights.
“ But
each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ
comes, those who belong to him. Then comes
the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when
he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. For
he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The
last enemy to be eliminated is death. For he
has put everything in subjection under his feet. But
when it says “everything” has been put in subjection, it is clear
that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection
to him. And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son
himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to
him, so
that God may be all in all.
This
is the Alpha and the Omega of the plan of Salvation. As
it was in the beginning so it will be in the end. And truly when that
comes then there will no longer be any Heaven or Earth, and no Sheol
or Hell. All will be regained and brought into the perfection that is
only found in
God Himself. Even eternity is not a place in
which God dwells, He is the Everlasting God, everything else is less
than God. Eternal life is His and is given to us by him. Restoring
the image of God in mankind. Made in his likeness, returning back
into him.
What was spoken into existence by His word will
return to Him having accomplished all that was planned before, and
outside, of when any time-space continuum existed.
Faith sees it
clearly, science dimly. We have this hope because of Him who died and
rose again.
“Imagine
there is no heaven, its easy if you try..” But
John Lennon was also wrong. He hoped for a time when all men should
live in peace, but he fell for the bullets of a man who had no peace
in himself. And that is a finger of hell held up against all peace.
And in order for man to live at peace with his fellow man, he must
make his peace with God in good time.
Afterwards
it is too late.
Teddy
Donobauer 7th March
2022
