I had a conversation with a dean of a seminary…

I had a conversation with a dean of a seminary after he’d preached a message, and said something about ‘going to heaven when you die.’ He said something I kind of knew, but hadn’t worked out of my active vocabulary yet. He said the New Testament never speaks of going to heaven when you die.

The idea of going to heaven when you die is at best inferred from just a little scripture, like a certain interpretation of II Corinthians 5. It is not directly taught in scripture. It is certainly not some kind of doctrinal emphasis in scripture.

The New Testament teaches and emphasizes the resurrection of the dead. Jesus taught the resurrection of the dead and argued for it against the Saducees. Paul said that for the hope of the resurrection, he was bound by chains. He wasn’t bound because of the hope of dying and going to heaven. When Paul writes or speaks of his hope, his hope is the resurrection and the return of Christ.

We who are in Christ wait for the return of Christ, the rapture, and the resurrection. That is our hope. Our hope is not eternal disembodied bliss in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God. The Jews often used words like ‘heaven’ to describe God, because at that time, they did not like to say the name of God out of their sense of reverence.

Our teaching and our presentations of the Gospel shoudl mirror the teaching and presentations of the gospel in the New Testament. We should speak of the return of Christ and the dead being made alive when we present the Gospel, like the apostles did, not dying and going to heaven forever and ever.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church that they should not grieve as them that have no hope. Did he go on to write about disembodied bliss in heaven? No, he wrote that the dead in Christ shall rise first and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. He wanted believers to comfort one another with words of the rapture and resurrection. He did not say to comfort one another with words of dying and going to heaven. So when confronted with the death of believers, we should comfort them with talk of the rapture and the resurrection as Paul instructed us to do.

It is ironic that in the past year or two, I’ve been to one Pentecostal funeral, one Roman Catholic funeral (first ever for me), and one Baptist funeral. The Roman Catholic funeral liturgy and speakes kept talking about the resurrection of the dead. I don’t think I heard a word about it in the Pentecostal or Baptist funerals, but plenty of talk of dying and going to heaven.