Do We Go To Heaven When We Die?

 

 Today I am going to attempt to explain my understanding of what happens to us when we die. I will not claim that what follows is Biblical doctrine, because there are verses that appear to be contrary to what I believe while there are also verses that seems to support what I believe. While this can be said of virtually any topic, a lot of times that has to do with whether or not one is reading the Word in context or not, and also whether one is trying to read their beliefs into Scripture instead of getting their beliefs from Scripture. This is somewhat different in that I think that God has left this topic intentionally vague for us. I can't presume to understand why He would do so, but I do know that there are some things that we just don't need to know yet. That doesn't mean that we can't develop a theory on these things. The main point of the following is to recognize that we need to use Scripture to interpret Scripture. If your understanding of a verse is contrary to another verse, but merely examining the first verse in a different light causes the meanings of the two verses to align, then your understanding must align with the shared meaning of both verses. That seems like a mind-bender; I hope that made sense.

I have recently written articles about the judgment that is to come for every person, my belief that there will not be a pre-tribulation rapture and the nature of death and Hades. This article may touch on some things that I wrote about in those articles, but I think that this topic is one that stands by itself. It will seek to shed some light on the question of what the short-term afterlife looks like. 

I think (and hope) that all believers understand that we will spend eternity in paradise with God, which would be the long-term afterlife, but eternity is not yet, as strange as that may sound. For now, we are still in the clutches of time, whereas eternity is outside of time. We serve a God that is eternal; He always has been and He always will be.

Humanity exists in time and space. We need to have a where for us to be, and we need to have a when for us to be. Time does not pause for us. Even if we are not conscious of the passing of time, time is inevitably passing for us. Before we arrive on this earth time has been, and after we are gone time will continue to be. Time will end after the Millennial Reign of Christ; when time ends, eternity begins. This is not the case for God. He exists outside of time, and since He exists outside of time, He already exists in eternity. Our finite human mind can't truly grasp what this means, but some years ago I came across an explanation that helps me to understand it somewhat better. The reason that God knows the end from the beginning, the reason He knows what will happen in the future and what our decisions will be, the reason that predestination exists, is that God is above time, looking down on the entire timeline of the earth at one and every moment.

Imagine, if you will, a string laid out on a table. The string has two ends. It doesn't matter how long that string is or even if that string is laid out straight or in a curving or winding manner; there is a beginning and there is an end. As you stand and look down at the string on the table, you can see the beginning of the string and you can see the end of the string. You can also see any point of the string between the beginning and the end. This is how I believe it is with God as He views time. He is not affected by time, but He can see any point in time at all times.

Whatever you may think of him, Kent Hovind has spent a lot of time thinking about God, and in a debate a number of years ago, I think he gave an excellent answer that touches on the timelessness of God. Following is part of a transcript of a video clip of that debate:

“Your question, “Where did God come from” assumes that you're thinking of the wrong, obviously it displays that you're thinking of the wrong God, because the God of the Bible is not affected by time, space or matter, if He's, if He's affected by time, space or matter, He's not God. Time space and matter is what we call a continuum. All of them have to come into existence at the same instant, because if there were matter but no space, where would you put it? If there were matter in space but no time, when would you put it? You cannot have time, space or matter independently; they have to come into existence simultaneously. The Bible answers that in ten words; in the beginning, there's time; God created the heaven, there’s space; and the earth, there's matter. So you have time, space, matter created, a trinity of Trinity's there. Just as you know time is past, present, future; space has length, width, height; matter has solid, liquid, gas. You have a Trinity of Trinity's created instantaneously, and the God who created them has to be outside of them. If He's limited by time, He's not God. The guy who created this computer is not in the computer. He's not running around in there changing the numbers on the screen, okay? The God who created this universe is outside of the universe: He's above it, beyond it, in it, through it. He's unaffected by it.” “Your question, where did God come from, is assuming a limited God; and that's your problem. The God that I worship is not limited by time, space, or matter; if I could fit the infinite God in my three-pound brain, He would not be worth worshipping, that's for certain. So that's the God that I worship.”

So God is outside of the realm of time in which we operate. We have a beginning, conception, but we do not have an end. Scripture tells us that our soul is eternal, at least from the time of conception, only the destination is in question. The question is what happens in the realm of time between our death and our resurrection?

I will start with what seems to be the common belief among Christians. It is commonly believed that at the moment of death, our soul is released from our body and is united with Christ. Many believe that angels come and escort our soul into Christ's presence, and that His presence is in Heaven. There are several verses that can be used to support this belief, though I think the premise of this belief based on these verses is a little weak.

The first passage that I can think of is at Jesus' crucifixion, where the one thief accepts Jesus as his Saviour. Jesus' final words to the thief are recorded in Luke 23:43, "And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." We can add to this 2 Corinthians 5:8; "we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord", and Philippians 1:23-24, "But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake". Both were written by Paul, where he seems to indicate that to leave our body is to be with the Lord. If that was all that Scripture had to say about the matter, I could accept that and leave it, but there is more that is said which can at least be perceived as being contrary to this idea. Before I get to those passages, though, I will poke a little bit at these above passages.

When Jesus says, "today you shall be with me in paradise", He could be saying that the thief would literally be with Jesus in paradise that very day, or He could be saying that "as of today", the thief would be with Jesus in paradise. This means that the transaction has been made, but not yet fulfilled. Transcribing a spoken word can be tricky. I realized that with the transcript of the video above. I had to make some decisions on where to place a comma or a semicolon as I wrote what was spoken, trying to determine what the speaker was trying to say. In the case of the above video, it wasn't too difficult and there are no eternal consequences; in the case of this passage of Scripture, it isn't really as simple and there kind of are eternal consequences. 

If Luke had written it as follows, "Truly I say to you, today, you shall be with me in paradise", it probably wouldn't actually have any effect on this discussion; it could really have two different meanings depending on how you read it. It could be the literal meaning or the figurative meaning. 

If Luke had written it "Truly I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise", then we would know for sure that the inference was that due to the transaction that had taken place "today", the thief would be with Jesus in paradise at some point in time. This would be a figurative meaning of today which we could glean from the context.

But those are not what we have. Instead, we have, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise." This third iteration leaves at least a little room for interpretation. On its own, it seems pretty clear, but we need to interpret according to all of Scripture. It seems to be literal, but there is definitely the possibility that the word "today" was used figuratively. We also only have this story in Luke's account, so we cannot compare one passage with another. The placement of a comma can absolutely change the meaning of a sentence.

There is also the matter of the linguistics of the word "today". In English, that can be pretty clear, but sometimes the context is needed to shine a light on the actual usage of the word. In Greek, there is some obfuscation due to the nature of the language itself, especially when the literal or figurative usage of the word is in question, as seems to be the case above. The original word used for "today" in Luke 23:43 is sēmeron; G4594, and it doesn't add clarification. The meaning can be "(this) day (or night current or just passed); genitive now (at present, hither-to)"; hither-to complicates things, as it is defined as "to this place or point" - could that also mean from this place or point? I really don't know; I am trying not to read what I want into the Scripture, but this can be difficult to ascertain. 

Further, the definition of G4594 refers to G2250, "hēmera (with G5610 implied) the time between dawn and dark, 24 hours; figuratively a period (always defined more or less clearly by the context)". So the literal definition is a 24 hour period, but the figurative definition is a period (of time), contextually defined. And it doesn't help if we look at G5610 (hōra) as referred to in the definition of G2250 as being implied, because G5610 is defined as, "literal or figurative; day, hour, instant, season". It is the possibility of the definition of 'season' that throws a wrench in this. I like digging into the linguistics of the verses that I am studying in order to gain clarity, but this does not gain us any clarity. We really don't know if Jesus is speaking literally or figuratively, as either could be the case.

Looking further at the other two passages in 2 Corinthians and Philippians, again, if this was all that was stated in Scripture, I think there would be no argument, but there are other passages which call that interpretation into question.

 First, I want to start with John 3:13, which are Jesus' own words; "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man." Jesus is discussing spiritual things with Nicodemus, but Nicodemus isn't able to understand them. Jesus is the Son of Man, and He is saying that only He has ascended into Heaven, and that is because He had first descended from Heaven. Can we assume that this also means that no man has ascended to Heaven, even in spirit form, before or after death? Maybe; maybe not. We do not understand spiritual issues either, just like Nicodemus.

But looking into Paul's letters, we may see a contradiction to what he stated elsewhere which we looked at above. Whereas in some of his letters, he seems to indicate that absence from the body is presence with Christ, here Paul is talking about those who have died being "asleep". 1 Corinthians 15:52, "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed" and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." In 1 Corinthians, Paul is referring to those who are dead as being asleep, when he says that not all of us will be asleep at the last trumpet, but we will all be changed, even the dead will be raised imperishable; awoken from sleep. Then in 1 Thessalonians, Paul is telling those who are alive not to worry about those who are not alive, they are asleep. They will also be lifted up to join Christ, so we have no reason to grieve like those who do not have the hope of resurrection and eternal life.

Going back to Jesus' words, in John 5:28-29, He says, "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." Jesus is talking about those who are in the tombs being resurrected and brought to Him, much in the same way that we are told that we will meet Him in the air in I Thessalonians 4:17, "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."

So are we with Jesus in paradise, or are we asleep, our bodies in the ground and our souls in a waiting place such as Sheol or Hades? Are we with Christ in Heaven, and when He returns to earth, we return to our graves to be lifted up to be with Him again, or are we waiting to be with Him when He resurrects us? We know that Jesus has conquered death and the grave has no power over Him. When He raises us again to be with Him, He will have granted us that same victory over death and the grave. This is why death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:14; there is no longer a use for them. The souls of the dead had been released from the holds of Sheol/Hades in order that they could be judged according to their deeds, whether good or bad. If the use of Sheol/Hades exists until the time of the judgment of the dead and it can then be thrown into the lake of fire as it is of no more use, then does it not make sense that all of the dead are waiting there? Or is it the case that only the dead under the old covenant are waiting in Sheol/Hades and the dead under the new covenant are with Jesus in paradise? Does that make sense if Paul's letters to the church, living under the new covenant, refer to those who have died as being asleep and waiting to be awoken to resurrection?

Let me add this thought to the mix. In 1 Peter 3:18-20a, Peter seems to tell us that during the three days that Jesus' body was in the grave, His soul went to Sheol/Hades to preach His salvation to those who had died before, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah". Is it possible that Jesus visits those who are in Sheol even now, allowing us to be in His presence even there?

I really have no firm answers to this, but I wanted to present the contrary positions so that you, the reader, can be aware of both of them and consider the possibilities for yourself. My personal belief is that we will be waiting until the last trumpet sounds, when our souls will be called to Christ's side and we will re-inhabit our bodies, which will be raised from the grave and changed to a semi-spiritual state, much as Jesus was when He first presented Himself to the disciples in the upper room in John 20:19-31. I could be wrong; I will waste very little effort besides this article presenting this theory to others or arguing its veracity. There are some things that we just won't know until the end.

If you have learned anything from this article, please let me know in the comments section below.