Heaven, Is It A Promise For Us?
There is a song which states, "when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be." And it seems almost every sermon on TV and radio contains some references to it. Bible commentaries, such as Matthew Henry's, are full of such statements about our going to heaven,
Bible commentaries, such as Matthew Henry's, are full of such statements about our going to heaven, and it seems almost every sermon on TV and radio contains some references to it. In one such incident, Matthew Henry takes a verse where God promises the land of Israel to Abraham and his seed and says this is our promise of going to heaven.
Such a statement comes from deciding before you study what conclusions you are going to come to. It destroys the very purpose of studying; to examine the facts and to accept what they reveal to us. We are instructed to study the scriptures to show ourselves approved unto God, so we need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (II Timothy 2:15) God expects us to study and we can understand the truths of the scriptures if we study with a right attitude. We do still have things to learn.
It is interesting that although there is a wide acceptance of the idea of going to heaven at death or at the return of Jesus, there is not one verse in the Bible which promises that. God goes into great detail to describe the promises to Abraham, that it was to be all the land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. The third chapter of Galatians tells us that we as Believers are also the children of Abraham. The prophesies of the Old Testament also go into great details to tell us that it is to be the same land Jesus is going to come back to setup his kingdom, and that he shall rule the earth from Jerusalem. The nations are to be judged from there. At the end of the 1,000 years there will be an uprising to try to overthrow his throne. No such actions could possible happen if this was in heaven at God's throne.
Ezekiel 47 tells us that when this kingdom if first set up there will be a river issuing from under the city which will flow eastward down to the sea (the Dead Sea) and heal the waters so that fishermen will fish there as they did in the Mediterranean Sea.
But the marshes and miry places will still be too salty to support life. These things could not possibly refer to anything in heaven, and the Dead Sea certainly hasn't had any fish in it so far. These are literal things yet to happen.
Where did the idea of going to heaven first originated is impossible to tell. Many pagan religious believe that when we die we go to another word. That is why they have often buried people with their horses, so they would have an easier method of travel to that new place, or in boats with plenty of provisions aboard for those who were seafaring people and believed that if they were buried with their boats they would sail to the next world. Perhaps it was from the pagans that the idea of going to heaven was borrowed. At any rate, such an idea was not in the mind of the people of God in Biblical times. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham was a man who looked for a city whose builder was God, but was told that his inheritance was to be in the land where his feet traveled and his eyes saw, to the east, west, north, and south of where he stood. He was not in heaven, but standing in the middle of the land of Israel.
Jesus further described this future time as a time when the 12 disciples would sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. We, as Believers, are also told that we will be kings and priests, and shall inherit the earth. This will start, not when we die and go to heaven, but at the trump of God when the dead are resurrected and Jesus comes to the Mount of Olives to defeat the armies that are invading Jerusalem. We who are alive at that time will be caught up, not to go to heaven, but to meet Him as He comes here to earth. The heavenly Jerusalem, which has streets like gold, is to come down from heaven to us, we are not to go up to heaven to it.
In several places Jesus refers to the kingdom of heaven. In none of these places does he describe Believers as going from the earth to a kingdom in heaven. It is a kingdom OF heaven. God still rules this earth, and has control of the nations. He sets up who he wants to fulfill the prophesies. But, one day, He will establish Jesus on his throne in Jerusalem and the kingdom OF heaven will become the kingdom on earth. In the second chapter of Daniel we find God's outline of world history since about 600 B.C. and it's culmination with Jesus' kingdom here on earth. Notice that in verse 35 that His kingdom will find the whole EARTH, not heaven. Damoe; revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar that He and the Babylonian kingdom was the first division of this symbolic image, then another three world dominating kingdoms would exist before it was divided up prior to the coming of a permanent world ruling kingdom. In the fifth chapter Daniel interprets the handwriting on the palace wall to mean that Medes and Persians would overthrow Babylon. Later in life Daniel had a dream which God had interpreted for him showing that the Greeks would overthrow the Medo-Persian kingdom before a fourth kingdom would overthrow them and become a persecutor of God's people for long period of time. Three of these kingdoms are history, the fourth will continue until the Saints possess the Kingdom. (Daniel 7:22-23)
Right now God deals with his people as strangers on this earth, waiting for that kingdom to come in it's literal form as it now exists in our hearts in a spiritual sense. If Jesus now reigns in our hearts as Lord of our lives then we have a hope that we will also someday reign with him when he comes to set up his kingdom. Even the thief who was crucified with him recognized that Jesus' kingdom was a future thing and asked to be remembered when he came into that kingdom. Jesus' reply to the thief is often quoted as proof that we are to go to heaven, just as the thief went to heaven when he died that day. While Jesus' statement gave assurance of eternal life to this repentant man, that he was to go to heaven with Jesus that day was not what Jesus meant, for Jesus did not go to heaven that day. In John 20:17, when Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, he told her not to touch him, for He had not yet ascended to his Father. It had been more that three days since He had spoken those words to the thief on the cross (cruel tree), and yet He had not gone to be with His Father, so the words Jesus spoke to the thief meant something different than a promise to be in heaven with Him that day. It may well be that the translating of this passage is just a misplacing of punctuation by the translators and should read, "I say unto you today, thou shalt be with me in paradise." Jesus was telling him that he was certain of eternal life with Jesus when that time came. But, to be sure, it was not going to happen that day, and he did not say they would be in heaven. Just as Hebrew 11 tells us about all the faithful down through the ages, these all died in faith (verse 13) and received not the promise (verse 39) ,but will receive their reward when Jesus returns the second time. The thief on the cross who repented will also answer the call of the trump of God at that day and rise to meet Jesus as he comes to the earth to set up His kingdom.
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