“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20
For centuries it has been proclaimed that believers in Christ go either to heaven or to hell at their physical death. At the coffins in the burial chapels it has been trumpeted out that this or that person is now with their father in heaven. The basis for this untruth are an extremely small few excerpts from the Bible texts while the great burden of proof against such a claim is completely left unnoticed and ignored.
Very briefly I will now give you here what the Word of God, God’s apostles and the Lord himself say about those who die. Note first of all how Jesus describes the dead who came his way while he lived and worked.
“..and they came to the house of the synagogue ruler. And he saw a commotion, weeping and wailing loudly. And he went in and said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The girl is not dead, but sleeping .” And they laughed him to scorn.”
Mark 5:38-40
“After he had said this, he added: ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep , but I am going there to awaken him from sleep… Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he was speaking of taking a restful sleep.”
John 11:11, 13
Without a doubt, neither Jairus’ daughter nor Lazarus “went to heaven or to hell.” But, say those who have read too little, what about that other Lazarus in Luke chapter 16? There we (clearly?) see that one was tormented in hell and the other was in the shelter of Abraham’s bosom. Yes, the form that this story has is suspiciously similar to a factual report. But if it were, then we have suddenly left this world and are already in the timeless time after the resurrection of the dead. Before the resurrection has happened, no one is anywhere else but in the kingdom of the dead. (Variously called Sheol or Hades) But for now the judgment has not yet been carried out, no one is in the “orderly garden” called paradise (Paradise is never a part of heaven but a place on earth, before the fall and after the restitution of all things.) And no one is among the condemned who forever, or for all eternity, have their home in the godlessness that they chose already here.
At the death of Jesus, the graves were opened and the dead came out of the Earth. Remember, from dust you are, to dust you shall return? Did they come from heaven, did they come from hell? No, they rose from the dead! When Jesus gave up his spirit, he commended his spirit to the Father. “Jesus.. bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:30 We know that he did not go to heaven then because his ascension did not occur until several weeks later. When Stephen is stoned to death, he dies so in a similar way. “So they stoned Stephen, while he prayed and said, “Lord, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And having said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:60
Even Daniel in the later days of the old covenant knew this for certain that the dead are asleep and will be raised to judgment or life. “And at that time your people will be saved, everyone who is written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Dan 12:1-2
Before the book of life has been opened, no final destination has been decided. It is therefore completely untrue to claim that anyone has “gone to heaven already now.” But the question is justified: how has that idea taken such root, when it is not at all the testimony of the Bible?
The answer is simple. And consequently it is also easy to see how a one-eyed view for the moment seems to say that we are in heaven after our death. For those who have fallen asleep as believers in Christ are in Christ. And Christ is since the ascension at the right hand of the Father, just as Stephen testified and our apostolic confession says. But we have populated the same throne room with all those who have fallen asleep in the blessed. Even though it is never said. It is even explicitly said that “No one has ascended to heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” John 3:13
The spiritual in us is neither time nor space dependent and thus needs no space in heaven or on earth. (The rebodied need space and maybe time, at least a thousand years.) And yet the dead are in Christ in some, at least to me inscrutable, way. But of this I am certain. The Word says it again and again that those who died with Christ while they lived will rise with Christ after death. It never once says that we go to heaven.
Here you have fragments of this absolute core of the Christian faith. As you read in the introduction, Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of Man who is the first harvest of the resurrection. What does the rest of the harvest look like, what does it consist of?
1 Corinthians 15:6 .. most of them are still alive but many have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 11:30 ..Therefore there are many weak and sickly among you, and many have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:17f But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. But now Christ has been raised, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:46-49 But the spiritual was not first, but the earthly. Then came the spiritual. The first man (Adam) was from the earth, made of dust. The second man came from heaven. .. as was the earthly man, so are those who are earthly. And as is the heavenly, so are those who are heavenly.
1 Corinthians 15:51 “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
Philippians 3:10-11 “Then (when we are raised to new life) I may know Christ and the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, in the hope of reaching the resurrection from the dead.
1 Thessalonians 4:13f “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like others who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep.
If we have died with Christ, and that is the actual meaning of baptism, that we have counted ourselves partakers of His death, then we shall also rise with Him to a new life with new bodies in a new and transformed earth and be part of His kingdom on earth. There is no other kingdom of heaven than the one that is coming to Earth. It is in a heavenly kingdom on earth that our life shall be with Him.
Why do we pray “Thy kingdom come” if we constantly believe that it is we who will travel to heaven?
Why does He give us the keys to the kingdom down here if it is not here?
Why does the new Jerusalem come down from heaven if we are to go to heaven? Why do Jesus and all the apostles preach the coming kingdom as being “near” if we are actually traveling there? The kingdom is mentioned 152 times in the gospels. Heaven is never stated as a destination for believers. Not once.
The reason we have moved the kingdom of God to heaven is that it is said that we who sleep in death do so in Christ, and that he is in heaven with his FATHER. So we reason that if we are in Him, we must also be where he is. And that is true to that extent, but disregarding the fact that He and His kingdom will not be there in the future. He is only on a temporary visit to his Father while waiting for all the kingdoms of the earth to be put under him. Acts 3:21 But the fact that we are in Christ now qualifies us as having “fallen asleep in Christ.” Not much activity, in other words. Most of what we like to describe as heavenly life is intended for life in the millennial kingdom.
It will be down here on the transformed Earth. There and here we will reign with Him. Rev 5:10 and 20:4.6 Isaiah 66:22f
When we die we go nowhere at all, we remain where we are at the moment of death. Either in Him or outside of Him!
That is the truth about where we go when we fall asleep in death. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul!
“Examine yourselves, do you not know that Christ dwells in you? If you do not know this, you will not pass the test.”
2 Corinthians 13:5
Teddy Donobauer