Death, Heaven, and Adam
While there are different views, many if not most Christians believe that when they die, they will go immediately to heaven in their new body. At least, that is how it is usually portrayed at funerals. The purpose of this article is to affirm this belief biblically, and refute alternative ideas.
First of all, what does the Bible say about what heaven is like? Actually, it doesn’t give us much detail. Heaven is described as a place of rest (Revelation 14:13). It is described as a better existence than on earth in the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Hebrews 11:35). It is described as different from earth (Ecclesiastes 5:2; Matthew 5:11-12; 6:10; 16:19; John 3:13; 6:38; Acts 1:11; Philippians 2:10; Colossians 1:20; etc.) and the hope of the believer (Matthew 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:19; Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:5; Titus 1:2). The Bible also describes the afterlife as paradise (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).1
Consider this sampling of passages about heaven:
Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 23:6; 33:13-14; 89:5; Matthew 5:6:9, 19-20; 8:11; 18:10; Mark 12:25; 16:19; Luke 2:15; 6:23; John 1:32; 14:1-6; Romans 6:5-8; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 5:1-10; 12:1-4; Ephesians 1:20; 4:10; Philippians 1:19-23; 3:20-21; Colossians 1:5; 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 8:1; 9:24; 11:13-16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; Revelation 3:21; 4:1; 11:12; 14:1-13; 19:1-9
If you take the time to look up these verses, it should confirm that heaven is not on earth. However, the barrier between the realm of heaven and the realm of earth is sometimes crossed, at least for angels, who sometimes appear on earth.
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:35f asks the question, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” He then goes on to explain that our heavenly body is not the same as our natural, earthly body. The heavenly body is not perishable like our earthly body. He describes the heavenly body as a “spiritual” or “glorified” body. He uses the analogy of a seed―suggesting that the husk is obsolete and stays behind while the kernel emerges and lives on in a new existence. In other words, the earthly body remains in the grave “dust to dust.” Jesus is the only one whose body was promised not to decay (Acts 2:27). This should settle once and for all that resurrection is not re-constituted bodies coming out of their graves.2
Jesus said we will be like angels in heaven (Matthew 22:30). We must have a recognizable corporeal existence in heaven, which we can infer from the visible form of Moses and Elijah that appeared to Jesus and the disciples at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8).
However, as clear as the above passages are, some Christians still think that heaven will be on earth. They may appeal to the Lord’s Prayer that says “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But that statement is a prayer, not a forecast. It simply is a prayer for God’s kingdom (which is spiritual per Luke 17:20-21 and John 18:36) to reach more and more people, in other words for more people to accept Christ.
They may also appeal to Revelation 21, the New Heaven and New Earth. But I prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the New Heaven and New Earth is a Hebraic idiom about the new covenant world (Clues to the New Heaven and New Earth) and the New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ (Revelation 21:9,14), thus the church (New Jerusalem). Revelation 21 does not prove that heaven comes down to earth (or “heaven and earth meld”) or anything of the sort.
Classic dispensationalism has the most bizarre view of this, teaching that the eternal destination (after the millennium) for Christians is heaven while the eternal destination for Jews is earth―a doctrine similar to that of Jehovah’s Witnesses who say that only the 144,000 from Revelation 7 and 14 get to reside in heaven, the rest of the faithful are relegated to earth (Errors of Dispensationalism).
So, when do Christians go to heaven? The best biblical evidence we have is when we die. The Bible teaches that we as individuals are judged at death (Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 2:10; 14:13). The soul-spirits of everyone resided in hades until the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20.3 At that time hades was emptied and abolished. Everyone went to their eternal destiny―the faithful to heaven. Daniel 12 teaches that the general resurrection would occur when the “power of the holy people would be shattered” and the “daily sacrifices ceased.” That happened in AD 70.
Confirmation comes from such New Testament passages about the imminence of the general resurrection as John 5:28-29 and Acts 24:15 which literally says there was about to be a resurrection of the dead (Literal Standard Version). God was about to judge the living and the dead (Acts 17:31; 2 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5, 17 Literal Standard Version) as the New Testament was being written. In other words, the general resurrection took place at the final end of the old covenant dispensation when Jesus came in judgment against apostate old covenant Israel (Matthew 16:27-28; 23:29-24:3, 34; 26:64; Luke 21:20-22, 32; Revelation 22:6, 12).
Let’s consider Adam and in the context of an afterlife. Adam’s death was both spiritual and has implications for human beings’ physical death. Adam was created mortal as evidenced that God gave him food to eat (Genesis 1:29). The text says that Adam would die on the day he ate of it, but he lived to age 930 (Genesis 5:5). Adam did not die physically the day he ate of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:17). So, his immediate death upon eating the forbidden fruit must have been spiritual death, meaning separation from God. In Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13-24, Paul said, “we are dead in our trespasses” (but made alive in Christ). That’s spiritual death and resurrection. Spiritual resurrection is renewed fellowship with God, that is, “justification” in the language of theologians.
What was lost at the Fall was mankind’s innocence (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:22). Missing was the potential for eternal life-after-death in the resurrection (from sheol/hades to heaven), which Jesus provided for believers by his physical death ―his redeeming blood―(Romans 3:25; 5:8-10; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:22; Revelation 5:9-14) and physical resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). It seems that the biblical writers equated being in hades with being dead. They were neither in heaven, nor alive on earth (1 Corinthians 15:26). If Jesus had not saved the faithful, Adam would have been relegated to sheol/hades forever. That helps us understand passages such as John 11:25-26 mean―whoever believes in Him will never die. Believers today die physically but immediately resume life in heaven (since sheol/hades was destroyed and emptied at the Parousia of Christ per Revelation 20:13-14).
What happens to the wicked upon resurrection? There are two views among Christians―either annihilation or eternal conscious punishment. Most preterists believe that annihilationism is what the Bible teaches, but that’s a discussion beyond the scope of this article.
Some Christians are of the opinion that the soul and body will be united at the end of time. But that idea is impossible to support from Scripture.
Because of Christ’s finished work in the first century, believers no longer go to sheol/hades―the temporary abode of the dead, awaiting a future “second coming.” Post AD 70, they go directly to heaven at death in their new imperishable bodies. That’s good news, don’t you think?
See also these articles:
General Resurrection of the Dead
- “Paradise” in this passage and in Luke 23:43 could also mean hades, that is, Abraham’s bosom, the temporary abode of the faithful until the resurrection in AD 70. ↩︎
- It seems apparent, too, that Jesus is now in his glorified body outside of time and space, or at least outside of time. There is a strong implication in the Bible that Jesus has a body in heaven (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-11; Ephesians 4:8-10; Colossians 2:9; Philippians 3:21; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; 10:12; 1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 1:9-18). But at some point, Jesus must have changed from his earthly body to his glorified body—probably at the ascension. After his ascension, Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus in a manner that Paul could see a light and hear the voice of Jesus, but neither he nor his companions actually saw Jesus in physical form (Acts 9:3-9; Acts 22:6-11; Acts 26:12-19; cf. John 17:5; Hebrews 5:7). In Acts 26:19 Paul describes what he saw as a “heavenly vision.” This would seem to be an appearance by Jesus in his glorified state. ↩︎
- Peter refers to those in hades as “spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19). John refers to them as “souls” (Revelation 6:9; 20:12-14). ↩︎
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