This final section of soteriology is about the ultimate or final redemption and salvation and glorification in heaven. What happens after you die? What is heaven like?

Let’s begin,

I.. Introduction

A.. Let’s set the stage.

You pass away. Your body goes into the ground, but where does your spirit and / or soul go? Further, the Scriptures promise a final resurrection, where you will be reunited with your body. This body is the one you had when you died, but now it has been completely transformed and glorified and made new.

B.. Final resurrection

At the final resurrection you will be reunited with your body, which will be transformed and glorified. Your body will be like Jesus’s body is right now in heaven—immortal and imperishable—and everyone recognizes it is Jesus. Likewise, everyone will know it is you. But heaven is not our final destination because heaven will come down to earth, and we will live forever in God’s new creation of the heavens and the earth.

C.. Where this post belongs

I decided to put it here at the end of soteriology because the last section, eschatology, is about new creation. Redeemed people die before the consummation of the age and new creation. What will heaven be like for them?.

As usual, we begin with important Hebrew and Greek terms.

II.. Hebrew and Greek Words

A.. The Old Testament

This one word has wide-ranging meanings, depending on the context.

The Hebrew noun shamayim (pronounced sha-may-eem or sha-my-im and used 421 times) can refer to the place where meteorological phenomena occur, like rain, lightning, sunshine, and storms (e.g. Gen. 8:2, Is. 55:9-11; Job 38:29; Deut. 33:13; Jos. 10:11; 1 Sam. 2:10; Zech. 6:5; Ps. 147:8). The sun, stars and moon and other astronomical things occur in heaven (Gen. 15:15; Deut. 4:19; Job 9:8-9; Ps. 8:3). Birds fly there (Gen. 1:26; Deut. 28:26; 1 Kings 16:4; Ps. 8:8). Signs and wonders will appear there (Is. 50:3; Ezek. 32:7; Joel 2:10).

The second main meaning of the noun is to the invisible and separate realm where God dwells. God dwells above the heavens, for the highest heavens cannot contain him (1 Kings 8:27). Therefore, God does not live in the space-time universe, where we do.

Yet, his heaven and our heaven intersect. Manna is rained down from heaven (Exod. 16:4), and God will rain down hailstones from heaven (Jos. 10:11). Heaven and earth are often paired together, to describe God’s total universe (Gen. 1:1; 14:19; 2 Kings 19:15; Ps. 115; 15; Jer. 10:11). Heaven is where God dwells, and earth is given to the sons of men (Ps. 115:16).

William Mounce says that generally heaven is not the place of deceased believers, but she’ol is (p. 329).

B.. New Testament

The main noun is ouranos (pronounced oo-rah-noss, and used 82 times in Matthew, and 52 times in the Revelation). In Matthew’s Gospel is it is used in the phrase “kingdom of heaven” (e.g. Matt. 3:2; 13:24; 25:1). The entire book of the Revelation gives a superb panorama of heaven.

It can be translated as “sky” (Matt. 16:3; Mark 13:25). God created the heaven and the earth (Acts 4:24; 14:15; 17:24; Rev. 10:6; 14:7).

C.. Summary

Mounce says it is important to realize that in the NT, the emphasis is not a dwelling place for disembodied spirits. Yes, that is important, but God’s redemption includes all creation (Rom. 8:19-22). The culmination of God’s work is a new creation, a new heaven and earth (Is. 65:17; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).

Jesus prayed: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10). As to the rest of the meanings, they will be looked at next.

III.. Bible Basics of Heaven

A..  It is God’s dwelling place.

In 1 Kings 8:30, during Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the temple, he affirms that God would hear from heaven, his dwelling place, and he would forgive. So there is a big difference between God’s dwelling place and his temple. God promised the glory cloud over the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle, but this was a little of heaven on earth in a holy place.

In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus taught us that our Father is in heaven (Matt. 6:9).

Philippians 2:10 says that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, whether people are in heaven or on earth or under the earth. So there are at least three levels, in Paul’s theology.

B.. His sanctuary is there.

Psalm 102:19 says that God looked down from his sanctuary, from heaven.

Jesus went up into heaven and sprinkled the heavenly tabernacle with his blood and and obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12, 24-25).

So the earthly level reflects, weakly, the heavenly level.

C.. God’s throne is there.

Psalm 2:4 teaches that The LORD looks that the nations conspiring together and the One who is enthroned in heaven laughs and scoffs at them.

Isaiah prays that God would look down from heaven from his lofty and holy and glorious throne (63:15).

Revelation 4:2-10 has beautiful and awesome pictures of the God’s throne, where the twenty-four elders throw their crowns.

D.. Christ ascended there.

In Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:8 say that Jesus blessed his disciples and went up into heaven. “He was taken up” (1:8), so God raised him up.

Hebrews 9:24 says that Jesus did not ascend to a human-made tabernacle, for that was a mere copy, but he entered heaven itself. He now appears for us in God’s presence.

E.. It is where Jesus Christ lives.

In Acts 7:55-56 Stephen was in the process of getting stoned to death, and he saw heaven open up and the glory of God shone and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Some teach that Jesus usually sits on the throne, but here he was welcoming his first martyr.

F.. It will have no more hunger or thirst.

Revelation 7:16 says that those who have been delivered from the great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. They will never hunger or thirst again.

G.. Heavenly praise

Revelation 7:15 says that those who have survived the great tribulation and have their robes washed and whitened by the blood of the lamb will serve and praise God, who sits on the throne. He will shelter them with his presence. But please not that this existence in heaven will not be one of singing and praising only. God will create the new heavens and new earth, and then we will do wonderful things in his new creation.

H.. Question

Is heaven within our universe or outside it?

The universe and the earth are feeble reflections of the heavenly realm.

Millard Erickson is right:

In premodern times the ascension was usually thought of as a transition from one place (earth) to another (heaven). We now know, however, that space is such that heaven is not merely upward from the earth, and it also seems likely that the difference between earth and heaven is not merely geographic. One cannot get to God simply by traveling sufficiently far and fast in a space vehicle of some kind. God is in a different dimension of reality, and the transition from here to there requires not merely a change of place, but of state. So, at some point, Jesus’s ascension was not merely a physical and spatial change, but spiritual as well. At that time, Jesus underwent the remainder of the metamorphosis begun with the resurrection of his body (pp. 710-11).

So, heaven is a place, but with its own dimensions. Though our universe palely mirrors it, it is not as if heaven is a planet. Or where did God dwell before he made the heavens and the earth?

Erickson’s description correctly contradicts Grudem’s claim about heaven. Grudem writes: “It is surprising that even some evangelical theologians hesitate to affirm that heaven is a place or that Jesus ascended to a definite location somewhere in the space-time universe” (p. 617). But then Grudem goes on to say that heaven is invisible to our eyes, as if it is a different dimension. It cannot be part of the space-time universe, where we are on a tiny planet, and be another dimension, which we do not occupy.

One thing is for certain, heaven is not currently on a planet, as some teach. As Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple: “The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you” (2 Chron. 6:18). So I prefer the second option.

IV.. Intermediate State

A.. Brief intro.

What happens to you during the in-between time, between your death and going to heaven and then your being reunited with your transformed, resurrected body? When you die in Christ, your body will go to the grave, but your spirit goes directly to heaven. What will life be like for you immediately after you die and go to heaven? This is called the intermediate state.

Let’s dispense with defective ideas, first.

B.. No soul sleep

Does the soul sleep after you die? No. Some denominations and one cult teach this, and they get it from the metaphor of sleeping. Jesus said the dead Lazarus is only asleep, and Jesus is going there to wake him up (John 11:11). Paul used the same imagery in a discussion of the dead in Christ (1 Thess. 4:15).

In reply, the Scriptures affirm that the soul or spirit (or both) live on (see below). In Lazarus’s case, John clarifies for us: “His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’ Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. Then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead…’” (John 11:12-14). In 1 Thess. 4:15, Paul is using the same metaphor, but it means literal death.

C.. Some sort of a spirit body at our death?

Do we receive a spirit body immediately after we die? Most theologians, as they interpret Scripture, say no. We will be a spirit / and or soul without a body. But a small number of theologians say we will have a spirit-body of some sort. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, Paul writes that when our earthly tent (body) we live in is destroyed, we have an eternal dwelling from God in heaven, not built by human hands.

¹ For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Cor. 5:1-5)

If this eternal building or dwelling is our new body, then there is no intermediate state, no elapse of time. Call it an interim body, a spirit-body of some sort, which will be further replaced at the final resurrection with yet another body, the one you died in, but transformed and glorified.

So these steps could happen:

1.. Death

2.. Interim spirit-body (of some sort)

3.. Resurrected body (the one you had at death, but now transformed and glorified at the Second Coming)

Therefore, this idea of a spirit-body is not all that deficient. They may be right. However, other Scriptures seem to affirm we are a disembodied spirit and soul (see below).

Now let’s shift to doctrines held by the vast majority of theologians and scholars who also believe that the Scriptures are infallible and authoritative.

D.. Early church fathers

What did the early church believe? These church fathers believed that the soul (and / or spirit) lives on in heaven (see Geisler, pp. 1222-23):

Irenaeus (c. 125-c. 202)

Clement of Rome (late first century)

Ignatius (late first century, early second)

Justin Martyr (c. 100-c. 165)

Athenagoras (flourished second century)

Origen (c. 185-c. 254)

Methodius (c. 260-c. 311)

These and other authors were mainly concerned about the resurrection of Jesus (as we all should), but on the occasion that they wrote about the intermediate state they were unanimous that the soul lives on in a disembodied state.

E.. Scriptures

What do the Scriptures say about the spirit / soul living on? On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah, appeared to Jesus, and their bodies had been dead for centuries. It was possibly their soul without their physical body that appeared (Matt. 17:3). Or they may have been embodied temporarily.

In Luke 23:43, Jesus assured the repentant thief on the cross that today he would be with him in paradise. It is not possible that his body would undergo an instant resurrection. His soul therefore would be with him.

In Luke 23:46, Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” His soul (and / or spirit) lived on, without his body being resurrected at that point in time. But his body was resurrected on early Sunday morning (cf. Luke 24:44; 2 Cor. 12:2, 4).

In Acts 7:56, 59 Stephen the first martyr, cried the same words: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. So the spirit (and / or soul) is separate from the body; it survives death, and it will instantly be with the Lord.

In 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul has to turn over a sinful man to Satan, so that even if his body is destroyed, his soul (and / or spirit) will be saved on that day of the Lord Jesus—at judgment that enables him to enter into heaven (probably not the final judgment of good and bad works, when we will have our resurrected bodies).

Second Corinthians 5:8 says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:21 says that to live is Christ, to die is gain. So death gives on a gain, which implies the survival of the soul. It does not sleep, but is conscious.

In Philippians 1:23-24, Paul writes that to depart (i.e. die) is to be with Christ, but he has a mission to carry out in his flesh (i.e. his body). So he is with Christ in a conscious state.

In Hebrews 12:22-23, our spirits will be made perfect in heaven, before God the judge.

In Revelation 6:9-10, John the Revelator sees martyrs in heaven, whose bodies lie on the earth. These souls are alive and conscious and enjoying heaven.

In Revelation 20:4 John said he saw the souls that had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and the Word of God, probably the same ones as in Rev. 6:9-10. They are fully alive and disembodied and conscious in the presence of God.

All these verses teach a conscious state of bliss for the saved souls (and a conscious state of punishment for the unredeemed souls, but that was not covered here in this post).

F.. Question and Reply

But couldn’t those verses teach an interim body before the final resurrection?

Reply: It must be conceded that some of those verses might teach that, as for example Moses and Elijah (Matt. 17:3).  Most of the verses show that when we exist in our disembodied souls (and / or spirits), our souls must have a recognizable form, whatever it is made of and whatever final shape it takes.

G.. No haunting

Can these disembodied souls come back to haunt us? No, despite Charles’s Dickens best effort in the Christmas Carol about Scrooge who repents of his stinginess. Souls go immediately to heaven or hell and await final judgment. If there is any haunting from spirit beings, they are demons. Pray and commit your house to the Lord. Lay hands on the walls as you go room to room. Commit your hose to the Lord.

H.. Spirit and / or soul

Why do you say soul and / or spirit or spirit and soul or spirit or soul? I covered this in an earlier post about the two or three parts of people. Because many teachers, the majority in the Renewal Movement, believe in three parts of humankind: body, soul and spirit. Call it a tripartite human. Others teach that humankind is made up of body and soul, a bipartite human. Heart and spirit and inner being and inner man are just synonyms for soul. In this present post, I did not want to get distracted with this issue, so I split the differences.

I.. Summary

The Scriptures indicate that after the redeemed die, they go immediately into heaven. They are conscious—fully alive in heaven! Their spirits / souls seem to be disembodied. Or they may have an interim body. However, I prefer to take the Scriptures that imply a disembodied spirits / soul. It seems needlessly complicated to believe in an interim body. But how exactly this issue of an interim body (or not) gets sorted out—I leave it in the hands of God. I’ll just be happy that I will, by his grace, get to be in heaven in his presence.

The reason the Scripture is not as full on this doctrine of the interim state is that Scripture is focused on the final victory and vindication of the Messiah, when he comes back and we receive our transformed, resurrected body, just like Jesus had (and has) when he appeared to his disciples in the four Gospels. When he returns, he will make heaven and earth brand new, and we will rule and reign under him on a newly created earth. Heaven as it currently exists before the Second Coming is not the final destination. A new-heaven-and-new-earth “kissing” is the ultimate destination.

One thing is certain. Your body will eventually fade away and die and decompose. On your death, your spirit and / or soul will immediately be with the Lord:

⁶ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. (2 Cor. 5:6-9)

Then these verses teach an immediate ascent into heaven for the redeemed.

²² If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! ²³ I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; ²⁴ but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. (Phil. 1:22-24)

But what happens when Jesus returns?

V.. Final Resurrection

A.. Brief intro.

We will cover this in more detail in the eschatology section, later. Let’s imagine that Jesus has now returned (he has not yet, but let’s explore what will take place when he does). The final resurrection has occurred. What happens next?

B.. The Trinity

The three persons of the Trinity will give you a resurrected body.

God the Father will give you a new body, which is called the redemption of your body (Rom. 8:23). The Father raises the dead (John 5:21)

God the Son is the means or instrument of the resurrection. He will raise you up on the last day (John 6:39-40, 44, 54).

God the Spirit will give life to your mortal body (Rom. 8:11).

C. The next events and changes at the Second Coming

1.. The human heaven dwellers and transformed bodies.

If you are in heaven at his Second Coming, you will descend with Jesus and meet your new body, after it is resurrected.

There is a dual operation when Jesus comes back. You will be in your spirit-soul when you are in heaven. When Christ returns, you as a spirit-soul will descend with him in your spirit bodies and you will reunite with your resurrected body (1 Thess. 3:13; 4:13-16).

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:28-29)

This transformation will take place in a flash. He will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that subjects everything to his control (Phil. 3:20-21). Then you will descend with him and reign on the earth.

2.. The redeemed earth dwellers and transformed bodies.

If you are a believer and alive on earth at Jesus’s Second Coming, your body will be transformed. When you meet Jesus in the air in the rapture, a snatching away (a rapture), your physical, degraded body will be raised and transformed in the twinkling of an eye into a new, resurrected body. You will then descend with the Lord to the earth and reign with him.

⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:51-55)

3.. Where the bodily transformation happens

This transformation will be done in the air, as we are going up to meet him. If you are alive at his Second Coming, you will be snatched up or caught up or raptured, and your body will be instantly transformed in the air (1 Thess. 4:17).

“Rapture” comes from the Latin words rapto (or rapio), “to seize and carry away, hurry away.”

However, the New Testament is not in Latin, but in Greek. And the key Greek word is harpazō, which has the same definition (“caught up”). The Latin and Greek words are synonyms.

So, the word Latin-based rapture does not appear in the New Testament, but the concept and reality are certainly taught in Greek.

¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up [harpazõ] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thess. 4:15-17)

One great aspect of the location of your change is that Satan is and his kingdom is called the prince of the air (Eph. 2:2). Our change there is God announcing to Satan that his time is up.

4… The spirit and / or soul and the body reunite

The soul and / or spirit is not contained in the body like a prison, but the spirit / soul will be reunited with it. The ancient Greek conception of the soul-body is that the soul is in the prison of the body, but this is not biblical. It is true that our body right now is fading away and getting old, but God will reconstitute and restore it in a transformed, resurrected body. None of God’s good and redeemed creation, including your body, is so awful that it will be permanently destroyed.

5.. The glorified and transformed body natural and spiritual

Your new body will not be purely natural but also spiritual. Your resurrected body will be like Christ’s resurrected body:

²⁰ And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phil. 3:20-21)

John the apostle agrees:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

6.. Your mortal and perishable body will put on an immortal and imperishable quality to it (1 Cor. 15:53).

“For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53). You will be able to eat and drink, but somehow the body will absorb the food and liquid without purging out the waste (Luke 24:37-43). The disciples recognized resurrected Jesus when he willed it, for the 500 knew it was Jesus when he appeared to them at one time (1 Cor. 15:6). In another appearance he showed them the wounds and his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord (John 20:20). And so your new, transformed body will be recognizable to your friends and family.

Renewal theologian J. Rodman Williams draws this conclusion from those verses:

Indeed a transformation had unmistakably occurred. There was something unique here. Other resurrections are reported in the Gospels, but none such—for all their wonder—signify a new mode of spiritual existence. They were only resuscitations of corporal existence. They represent transitory returns to physical life, and in due time the resuscitated person died once more. Jesus, on the contrary, was raised not to die again but to continue living. Thus, the resurrection, though it is bodily, is not a continuing physical life but a spiritual one. … Thus while there is an essential identity and a continuity between Jesus’ existence prior to and after His resurrection (there is no transition into a disembodied state), there is also an otherness and a certain discontinuity from what had preceded. (vol. 1, p. 387)

That passage is about Jesus, but your body will be like his, under the guardianship of the Father and the Spirit.

7.. Your body and the spiritual dimension

Your body can enter a spiritual dimension. You will not suffer the limitations of our current space-time dimension. When the resurrected Jesus entered the room where the door was shut and locked, he probably entered the heavenly, spiritual dimension on the outside of the room and left the heavenly, spiritual dimension inside the room (John 20:19).

God will enable you to do the same, but by his will. You will have to surrender your spiritual body to a new set of spiritual rules, just as your physical body has to obey natural laws. God set them up right now, and he has rules in his heavenly-spiritual dimension. Your bodies will also have to obey the rules–whatever they turn out to be–in the renewed and renovated and recreated heaven and earth. All of this will be done by the will of the Father, so redeemed people with transformed bodies cannot do these things on their own. But we will have free will, to a degree which we don’t know yet.

8.. A mysterious quality to your body

Your body will have a mysterious quality to it. Here are some verses about the resurrected Jesus.

¹⁴  At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” (John 20:14-15)

But they were kept from recognizing him. (Luke 24:16)

Mark 16:12: This verse says he appeared in another “form.” Even if one were to say that the verse is not in the best manuscripts, it does reflect early church belief in some quarters.

Williams writes:

Thus all the resurrection narratives are on the mysterious borderline between the commonplace and the unusual, the natural and supernatural. Another dimension of human reality is for the first time becoming manifest. There is both identity and otherness, continuity and discontinuity, familiarity and unfamiliarity. It all suggests that something new and inexplicable has for the first time come about. This is the transformation of physical existence into a higher order of spiritual existence: the spiritual body of the resurrection! (p. 388)

9..  No degradation of the body.

You will have no more disease or physical degradation. This is true by the nature of the case. With your new, glorified, transformed body, you will not suffer physical pain or disease. You will have thrown off our degraded and weak “mammal” body and enjoy a new, glorified body that will never grow old or decompose. As noted, your body will be like that of Jesus.

10.. Avoiding errors

At your death and ascent into heaven by God’s redeeming grace and then at the final resurrection, you will not become angels. Angels have no bodies like ours will be, because they are purely spiritual bodies, though they can manifest in bodily shape. Your body will be corporeal, but transformed and glorified. “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matt. 22:30).  Nor do you or your dead relatives become ghosts, which are demons in disguise.

VI. Application

A.. Have hope.

Let’s imagine that you have recently lost a loved one, say, your mother or favorite aunt. But she is not lost to God. So how can she be lost to you, when you know where she is? She feels fulfilled and complete. She is home now. She doesn’t feel the pain and sorrow of missing you. She thinks of you often, but she wants you Up There, and she will not visit you as a ghost! That’s an insult to God, her, and Scripture.

Don’t grieve as the world does, who have no hope. You do have hope. So get your hopes up!

B.. Do not contact the dead.

Don’t try to contact your deceased loved on by seances or the occult. You will instead hear from satanic spirits. NO!

Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Fortunetelling

C.. The deceased are not lost and wandering around.

You have loved ones who have died. Right now they are with the Lord in their spirit-soul bodies (of sorts). They are not lost, because you know where they are. Lost things or missing persons are in an unknown location.

D.. How they feel.

Right now they are perfectly fulfilled and complete and happy and blessed. They are home, but you are not yet home. Don’t pity them or wish they were with you—though that is a natural reaction. Instead, you must eventually celebrate their home-going and coronation. When it is your turn to die, you will be with them forever.

E.. No suicide from grief

And do not try to go Up There prematurely (suicide). Find your purpose and serve and live it out until God calls you home. Lean into God during your grief of temporarily losing your mother or aunt (or anyone else). Don’t reject or get made at God. He’s got them in his arms, now. He wants you to see them again. You do that best by getting intimate with God through Christ and removing all bitterness against him.

F.. Bringing heaven down to earth right now?

Jesus prayed that God’s will should be done on earth as it is in heaven. This should be our prayer, too. But how is it done? By preaching socialism or the gospel? The gospel is not a gigantic redistribution program. Yes, have a safety net, but caution must be used in bringing the “gold” of heaven down to earth. Yes, charity is good, but people can do this better than sending a welfare check to healthy people.

The answer is that everyone on the planet must be saved. If they were to be saved, their lives would be transformed from the inside out. God would lead them towards prosperity and growing crops and livestock if they live out in the plains of Africa, for example. If they live in the city, then honesty and noncorruption would prevail, but only if they enjoyed the Holy Spirit’s presence and purifying process changing them. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the best person to bring heaven to earth by regeneration of your soul and spirit. Then let his power transform society one soul at a time through the gospel of grace which you proclaim, by the same power of the Spirit.

G.. Summary

The spiritual existence in heaven is called the intermediate state, because it comes between our physical bodies (now) and our resurrected bodies (at the Second Coming). Your loved one who has died will descend with Jesus and be reunited with his body, but it will be transformed to become immortal and imperishable. When Jesus returns and you are alive down here on earth, your body will be caught up or raptured. It will be transformed into a resurrected one, as quick as a twinkling of the eye. Now your deceased loved one and you will be together forever, equal and in the same eternal and healthy state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I borrowed heavily from J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, vol. 1, chapter 15, on the Exaltation of Christ.

Works Cited