Category Archives: Heaven

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June 21, 2024

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Death, Heaven, Hell, Resurrection

Do the dead have bodies before the resurrection?

A previous article compared spiritual beings with physical creatures, like humans. Many imagine the disembodied spirit of a person is in a worse state than someone who has a body. That a bodiless spirit is not necessarily in a worse state than those who possess is a body is evident from the superiority of God and the angels. God is a spirit without a body. (John 4:24) The angels are spirits without bodies. (Hebrews 1:14) God and the angels are greater than humans. (Psalm 8:4-5) Therefore, being bodiless is not necessarily to be in a worse state.

The hope of the Christian includes the promise of a glorified body. This promise will be fulfilled at the resurrection day. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) The Bible does not teach the Christian to look forward to being without a body, but to anticipate the resurrection when he will receive a perfected body free from sin, sickness and death. (2 Corinthians 5:2) What about the time between death and the resurrection? The Bible teaches that the dead have a conscious existence in Heaven or Hell. Do Christians have intermediate bodies in Heaven while they wait for their glorified bodies?

God made man with a body and a soul. (Genesis 2:7) Some have concluded from this truth that a person must have a body. The Bible clearly teaches man is comprised of body and soul. The Bible declares the body without the spirit is dead. (James 2:26) Scripture never says the spirit without the body is dead, incomplete, or inferior. One can logically conclude from God’s creation of man as a body and spirit that the person must possess a body to be complete, However, that logical conclusion is not necessarily correct.

The Bible does not teach directly about the existence of a intermediate body after death. Twice Scripture says the deceased in Heaven are spirits. Revelation 6:9 mentions the souls of the martyrs stationed at the foot of the Heavenly altar. Hebrews 12:22-23 describes the Heavenly hope of the believer. The Christian’s hope includes being united with, “the spirits of just men made perfect.” These passages appear to indicate that at death the body is left behind and the spirit, or soul, of the saved person enters Heaven. The deceased believer exists in Heaven without a body until the day of resurrection. Nothing in the Bible suggests this disembodied condition is in any way less than ideal.

However, in Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This story is not a parable but a true account of two actual men. Lazarus died and was taken to Heaven. The rich man died and went to Hades, or Hell. In Hell the rich man desired water to cool his tongue. This is compelling evidence the rich man possessed a body in Hell. If the rich man had a body in Hell, then it is likely all the dead have physical bodies in Heaven or Hell.

The problem with this is argument is the complexity of Luke 16:19-31. Some of the challenges in this account include: serious debate about the historical nature of the account, the nature and location of Hades, and the relationship of Hades to Abraham’s Bosom. These uncertainties make Luke 16 a unstable foundation on which to build a body of doctrine. Without strong support from other Scriptures, Luke 16 is not able to uphold belief in an intermediate body.

The New Testament makes at least two specific references to the spirits of believers in Heaven and no clear references to the bodies of believers in Heaven. These references do not necessarily preclude the presence of an intermediate body. Without stronger Biblical evidence the dead are given an intermediate body, the better choice is to conclude that at death the spirits of the redeemed enter Heaven where they await the resurrection when they will once again be embodied.

Most importantly, the Bible does not speak directly to this matter. Clues are found in Scripture which lead to certain conclusions. The lack of direct Biblical teaching requires believers who have an opinion on this subject to hold that opinion with gentleness, without dogmatism, and without debate.

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June 12, 2024

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Death, Heaven, Resurrection

Do people have bodies in Heaven?

Some Christian leaders teach that after death everyone is given a temporary body which will be theirs until the resurrection. At the resurrection all the saved will be given a glorified body which they will have for eternity. Other Christian leaders teach that at death the spirit of the person enters Heaven or Hell where it remains without a body until the resurrection. Which is correct? Are the deceased given intermediate bodies? A handful of passages in the Bible are crucial to this discussion. A later article will answer the question directly, but first the relative values of the spirit and the body need to be discussed.

Many people instinctively imagine being without a body is worse than having a body. Many seem to believe that if a person is a disembodied spirit then he is without a true form. For some, being a bodiless spirit in Heaven is akin to being a lonely ghost who haunts the halls of Heaven and longs for the day when it can finally be whole again.

Being a spirit without a body is not a worse state than having a body. The spiritual does not have mass and matter as understood in the physical universe, but the spiritual universe is quite real. The spiritual universe is in on way inferior to the physical. The Bible declares, “God is Spirit.” (John 4:24) He is entirely spiritual and without any physical substance (except in the person of Jesus, but that is a different issue for a different time). None can say God has no real substance. None can say God’s lack of a physical body is an inferior condition. God is the author of all matter. His spiritual existence is more significant and more real than the physical matter which comprises the material universe.

Additionally, angels are spiritual beings who do not possess physical substance. (Hebrews 1:14) At times they are given tangible forms, but their usual state of existence is non-physical. This does not mean angels are less real or less substantial than people. Humans are declared to be, “a little lower than the angels.” (Psalm 8:5) In Ephesians 6 the Bible indicates that the spiritual enemies of the Christian are more forceful than the physical enemies people are tempted to fixate on. Nothing in the Bible suggests that being a spirit is to have a lesser form of existence. Those beings who are greater than humans are purely spiritual beings.

Humans were created as physical and spiritual beings, but the Bible does not teach that being a spirit without a body is to be in a worse state. Human experience is limited to the present physical world. This limitation prevents a proper understanding the nature of the spiritual. Though no living person can understand what it is like to exist as a spirit alone, existing as a spirit without a body is not necessarily a worse state of being.

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April 2, 2024

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Heaven, Humanity, Resurrection

What kind of bodies will people have in eternity?

The Bible promises all who trust Jesus for salvation will be resurrected to life. The promise of the resurrection assures believers this life not is all there is and the sacrifices made for God in this life will be rewarded in the life to come. Because God promises a resurrection, the Christian expects eternal joy.

Many wonder what form people will have after the resurrection. Will everyone be spirits with no flesh? Will people look like they do now? Will people look like angels, wings and all, after the resurrection? First Corinthians 15:35 asks the question, “In what body are the dead raised back to life?” The next fifteen verses answer that question.

First Corinthians 15 says the resurrected body will not be like the body possessed before death. Paul compares the resurrection body to a seed and the plant it produces. A seed looks nothing like the plant which grows from it. Likewise, the resurrected body will be substantially different from that which preceded it.

The analogy of the seed also suggests a continuity between a person’s earthly body and the one he will possess in eternity. A seed has a discernible relationship to the plant it produces. Similarly, the resurrected body will maintain a discernible relationship with the natural body. What that relationship is the Bible does not say.

First Corinthians 15 calls the resurrected body a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:44) This does not mean that after the resurrection everyone will be disembodied spirits floating around in Heaven. Revelation 22 gives a brief description of the life of those in eternity. Those who are raised to life will eat from the fruit of the trees of life. (Revelation 22:2) Disembodied spirits do not eat, but those given a resurrected body do. (Luke 24:40-43)

The spiritual body is a perfect, physical body under the control of the Holy Spirit and not under the control of the sin nature. In Galatians 6:1 the Bible commands those who are “spiritual” to restore those who have fallen into sin. The spiritual ones in Galatia were not ethereal people who had cast off the confines of their physical form. They were people under the control of the Holy Spirit. The resurrected body will be spiritual in that same fashion. Those resurrected to life will live forever in perfect submission to the Holy Spirit.

The resurrected body will be completely free from sin and all its corruption. In First Corinthians 15:53 the Bible says this corruptible flesh will be replaced with a body which cannot be corrupted. This mortal flesh will be replaced with a body which cannot die. This weak body will be replaced with one possessing much greater ability. The resurrected body will be heavenly, spiritual and glorified.

In eternity humans will walk, talk, eat, drink, work and worship in a physical body. They will inhabit bodies of flesh and blood, but those bodies will not possess a sin nature. The resurrected body will be more glorious than can be imagined and will continue forever without fading in strength, health, ability, intellect, glory, or holiness.

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March 5, 2024

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Christianity, Heaven, Salvation

Does Jesus teach the existence of purgatory?

In Matthew 5:25 Jesus warns that a person who owes another and does not settle the debt with them will be thrown into prison until all is paid. What is the prison Jesus warns about? Some have said this prison is purgatory.

According to those who believe in purgatory, if a Christian is not reconciled to his brother during this life, then after life ends the sinner will be held in a place of spiritual punishment until the entire debt is paid. When the sinner is purged of all their sin they will then be allowed to enter Heaven.

Interpreting the prison in Matthew 5 as a spiritual prison is defended on the grounds that the Sermon on the Mount is talking about spiritual things. Therefore, the prison must also be a spiritual prison. Jesus is teaching what is necessary to enter Heaven, but the Sermon on the Mount is not a list of instructions on how to get there. In Matthew 5:20-48 Jesus shows the impossibility of gaining Heaven by following the Mosaic law or a list of religious regulations. To enter Heaven a person has to be as perfectly righteous as God Himself. (Matthew 5:48)

Furthermore, the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5 involved real, physical things. He speaks of marriage, divorce and adultery. He speaks of giving away a cloak and a tunic, of responding to a slap on the cheek and of going the extra mile. Those were all physical realities that Jesus’ first century audience would have experienced first hand. The coerced mile of Matthew 5:41 was not an allegorical mile, but a genuine journey taken at the command of a Roman soldier.

In Matthew 5:29-30 Jesus does use figures of speech when He speaks of plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand. Those two statements are the only ones which need to be understood as figurative. All the surrounding verses make the most sense as literal descriptions of familiar things. Therefore, the prison Jesus referred to is best understood as a real debtors prison, not a spiritual one.

The great problem with applying Matthew 5:25 to purgatory is the assumption of purgatory itself. Those who teach the existence of purgatory teach that the mercy of Jesus enables the person to become righteous. Each person is responsible, by the grace of Jesus, to put away their sin and make themselves righteous. Sin not put away by the person is punished after this life. Because the person has received the grace of Jesus, Heaven is waiting for them. Because the person still has unresolved sin, he must be punished before he can enter Heaven. Purgatory exists as a theological concept because some sin is left unpunished. Those seeking Heaven must have a means of satisfying the demands of justice on their unpunished sin. The Bible clearly teaches otherwise.

In Hebrews 10:17 God says, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Verse 18 adds this most important truth, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” God promises those who trust Jesus as their Savior that He will forgive all their sin: past, present or future. First John 1:7 says, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Since God completely forgives all a person’s sins when that person receives Jesus for salvation, then no more offering, punishment, purging or purgatory is needed.

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January 2, 2024

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Bible Overview, Christianity, Heaven, Jesus

What is the Judgment Seat of Christ?

The Bible speaks of three future, Divine judgments of humans. Two of these judgment take place after death. Hebrews 9 says no one will escape God’s judgment. “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) One judgment is of those who die without having received Jesus as their Savior and is called the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11). The other is called the Judgment Seat of Christ, or The Bema Seat.

The Judgment Seat of Christ is a judgment of Christians, which raises a lot of questions. Will the Christian be judged for his sins? Will the Christian be judged for unconfessed sins? If the Judgment Seat of Christ is not a judgment of sin, what will be judged? Will anyone at that judgment not make it into Heaven?

Second Corinthians 5 gives this judgment its name, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) The verses immediately before this statement are clearly addressed to Christians. This means every Christian will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ to be judged by Him. Because this is a judgment of Christians it cannot be an examination of sin. God promises that at salvation a person’s every sin is forgiven. “Their sins and lawless deed I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17) If God promises that at salvation He will take away a person’s sin and never again bring it to mind, then a later judgment of sin is impossible. The Judgment Seat of Christ cannot be a judgment of sin.

First Corinthians 3 appears to be discuss the same Judgment Seat of Christ when it says, “Each one’s work will become clear; for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work of what sort it is.” (1 Corinthians 3:13) The judgment seat of Christ is a judgment of work done for Jesus. The quality of the Christian’s work for Jesus will be evaluated. Christian work that is ultimately worthless, whether it be selfish, mean-spirited, proud or self-reliant, will be burned up. That which is truly worthwhile will remain.

At that judgment rewards will be given and taken away. (2 John 1:8) However, even Christians who have no rewards enter Heaven. “He himself will be saved, yet so as by fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:15) The reception of rewards at the Judgment Seat will have not cause anyone to boast in their rewards. All will recognize the rewards they received is only because of the grace of God. Revelation 4:10 shows believers laying their crowns at God’s feet in recognition that He alone is worthy of praise.

The Bible does not say exactly when the judgment seat of Christ takes place. Certain indications suggest this judgment happens sometime after the individual’s death and before the full inauguration of Christ’s millennial kingdom. Though a person’s eternal state will not hang in the balance, the Judgment Seat will be a time of great seriousness. Those who have done little for Jesus will be ashamed. Therefore, all Christians must live to please God now so they will be ready for the day when they stand before their Savior and give account for how they have served Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

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August 29, 2023

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Christianity, God, Heaven

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How can Heaven be a place of unhindered happiness if our loved ones are not there?

God promises He will one day wipe away every tear and take away all sorrow, pain and crying. (Revelation 21:4) In eternity all Christians will have unhindered access to the presence of God where there is full joy and eternal pleasure. (Psalm 16:11)

How can Heaven be a place of happiness without sorrow if those in Heaven remember their own failures? How can Heaven be a place without any crying if those we loved on earth are not in Heaven? How can those in Heaven know unending pleasure while also knowing all in Hell are suffering unending torment? For some the only answer seems to be that the people in Heaven can only have unhindered joy if God removes from them all painful memories and all knowledge of those once known on earth. That solution seems to create another problem. How can anyone retain their distinct identity if they do not remember who they once were?

No full solution can be given to this challenging problem, but an answer can be given which addresses some of the most pressing concerns. The wise person will remember Heaven is glorious beyond comprehension. None should expect to understand on earth what can only be understood in Heaven. The Bible does not present Heaven as a place of great forgetfulness, but of great delight.

These questions can be answered in part with the Biblical promises that the joy we have in Heaven will be so great we will not think on the sorrows of our life on earth. “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) “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) A mother’s pain of childbirth is intense, but that pain is not grieved later because of the joy she has at bringing a new life into the world. (John 16:21-22) The pains of this life are great, but in Heaven they will not be grieved because they will finally be fully understood. All sufferers will in Heaven understand and rejoice because of the great, eternal blessing their earthly pain has brought them. In the presence of God is a joy so great sorrow cannot endure.

In Heaven all will recognize the justice of God. The bringing about of God’s perfect justice will be the basis of great rejoicing. Revelation 19 shows this in action. The saints of God in Heaven rejoice when He destroys the kingdom of the Antichrist. ““Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments.” In Heaven God’s judgment of the wicked will be know by all to be right and just. None will revel in the agony of another, but all will understand and praise the perfect justice of God. Heaven rejoices in God’s judgment of the wicked because it displays His power, righteousness, truth, glory and justice. In Heaven humanity will rejoice because God’s justice will finally be fully understood and His glory will be displayed to all.

Heaven is a place of joy without sorrow because God is the joy of Heaven and the full revelation of His glory will bring delight beyond description.

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January 18, 2022

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Heaven

Is Heaven Real?

In 1998 a country song was released which declared, “There’s holes in the floor of Heaven.” Through these holes in Heaven’s floorboards the deceased can see their loved ones on earth andwatch over them. Songs like this seem to accuratley capture the popular beliefs about heaven. Thoughtful consideration of what many think about Heaven makes it sound like a fictional place. Heaven can seem like a fantasy offered to comfort grieving people. Parents tell misbehaving children, “Santa Clause is coming” and well-wishers tell grieving friends, “She’s in a better place.” For many heaven is in the same category as Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. The Bible treats Heaven as a real place, inhabited by real beings and really reserved for Christians.

Little is said in Scripture about what Heaven looks like, but much is said about Heaven. The Bible declares that Heaven as a real place created by God on the first day of creation. (Genesis 1:1) Heaven is the native home of angels. (Matthew 18:10) Heaven is the resting place of deceased saints. (Revelation 7:9, 14) Heaven is the place where God dwells. (Isaiah 66:1) God descends from Heaven to answer the prayer of his people. (Psalm 18:6-9) Jesus left Heaven from to become a man (John 3:13) and He returned to Heaven after his resurrection. (Eph. 4:7-8) Jesus sent the Holy Spirit from heaven (1 Peter 1:12) to dwell in the Christian. (John 14:17) The Christian’s rewards and treasures are kept secure in Heaven. (1 Peter 1:4) God sends out His judgment from Heaven to fall upon the world. (Revelation 15:5-7) Jesus will descend from Heaven to destroy wickedness and establish His righteous kingdom. (Revelation 19:11)

Heaven is not a fantasy land. Heaven is not another name for Valhalla, the Happy Hunting Grounds, Elysium, Shangri-La or Nirvana. Heaven is not a fool’s paradise. Heaven is a real place created and inhabited by God, described in the Bible and promised to all who receive Jesus as salvation. The assurance that believers go to heaven when they die is not an empty platitude designed solely to make people feel better. The promise of Heaven is unshakable truth on which all can build their lives.

Heaven is for real. God told us so.