Is heaven the saint’s future home? The answer is NO.  The problem relative to the heaven issue is that church people focus on God’s “headlines” but ignore His “fine print” which explains what the “headlines” are telling us, which is usually not what the church teaches.  Nowhere in the Scriptures are we told that anyone other than Jesus Himself has ever or will ever live in heaven.  Neither Jesus, nor His prophets of old, nor His New Testament apostles, nor His modern day apostles taught or teach that man will go to heaven at any time.  The false teaching was borrowed by the Catholic Church from Babylonian heathen religion and embraced by the so-called “protesters” when they followed Martin Luther out of the Catholic Church, thereby making themselves the “harlot daughters” of the “great whore” called “Mystery, Babylon the Great” in Revelation 17:1-5.

Is Heaven The Saint’s Future Home?

The Gospel of John was written between 70 and 90 A.D., 40 to 60 years after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.  In chapter 2 we find the apostle writing about what Jesus had done and said before His death and resurrection.  In verse 22 John wrote: “When therefore He was (earlier) risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He HAD SAID (before His death) this to them and they believed the Scripture and the Word that Jesus HAD SAID” (before His death).  In 3:13 we find John repeating what Jesus had said to Nicodemus concerning entrance into the KINGDOM OF GOD, NOT HEAVEN.  Christ’s Words are printed in red in many Bibles.  John records that Jesus had told Nicodemus that in order to enter God’s kingdom one had to be born again (changed from flesh to spirit bodily composition).

Is Heaven The Saint’s Future Home?

Then Jesus added: “And NO MAN HAS ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN EXCEPT HE WHO HAD COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN–THE SON OF MAN.”  At this point John has stopped quoting Jesus and wrote in his own words: “Who IS in heaven” (at the time of John’s writing–70-90 A.D.).  Publishers incorrectly recorded John’s comment (“Who is in heaven”) in red which was wrong, for John, not Jesus, said: “Who is in heaven.”  From that point on John is quoting Jesus’s Words to Nicodemus which are printed in red as they should be.  Then, in 3:22 John continues to write about what happened after the conversation, WHICH HAD TAKEN PLACE 40-60 YEARS EARLIER.  HE CONTINUES TO DO SO THROUGHOUT THE EPISTLE as he chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth until His death.

The Institutional Church teaches the heathen “truth” that when Jesus was resurrected and returned to heaven He took all of the saints who had died prior to His death with Him.  The Scriptures do not teach this, but rather the opposite–that dead saints remain in the ground until the return of Christ to earth.  In 1 Thessalonians 4:16 we are told that during the first resurrection God’s true saints will rise to meet Him in the air.  The “DEAD IN CHRIST” we are told, will rise first, then those who are living in Christ will follow them.  IF THE DEAD IN CHRIST RISE FROM THE EARTH TO MEET HIM IN THE AIR, THEY CANNOT HAVE BEEN IN HEAVEN PRIOR TO HIS ARRIVAL.  Read Life After Death and The Three Resurrections.  Key words–Death and Resurrections respectively.

One would assume that if anyone had gone to heaven with the resurrected Christ, David–“a man after God’s own heart”–would be that one.  Scripture tells us that at the time of Paul’s ministry David was still “dead and buried, and his sepulcher (box containing his bodily remains) is with us to this day” (Acts 2:29) and that “DAVID HAS NOT ASCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS,” but that Christ had ascended into heaven (vs 31)–WITHOUT DAVID OR ANYONE ELSE.

Ephesians 4:8 has been misunderstood and has therefore been spun to mean that Jesus took all dead saints with Him when He entered heaven and that thereafter, all saints, upon their deaths, have gone directly to heaven.  We are told that only those who are members of THE (fill in the blank) church will go to heaven.  The passage states that when Jesus ascended into heaven He “led captivity captive.”  The “captives,” we are told from pulpit and podium, were those of The church along with the saints of old.  These Jesus took with Him to heaven when He ascended into heaven.  However, this is not what the Scriptures tell us.  In verse 9 it states that Christ first descended into the lower parts of the earth where, the church is incorrectly told, He talked with saints who had died beginning with Abel and then “led those captives to heaven where they are today along with all those in “THE church” who have died and immediately ascended to heaven.  None of which is Biblically true.  So where did Jesus go and to whom did He talk?

In 1 Peter 3:18-20 we are told that He preached to the “spirits in prison” who had been disobedient during the days of Noah.  Notice in verses 11-16,24 that, upon His ascension Jesus gave various governmental offices to certain people “for the PERFECTING of the saints” so that WE (God’s people on earth) would not be fooled by false prophets and would GROW UP to be like Christ and form a perfect church whose parishioners would “COME TO the unity of the faith and COME TO the knowledge of the Son of God and would BECOME A PERFECT MAN,  having COME TO the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ON EARTH IN THIS LIFE, HAVING PUT ON THE NEW MAN WHICH, LIKE GOD, IS CREATED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND TRUE HOLINESS.”  None of which would need to be done in heaven where everything is already perfect.  The Ephesians 4:11-16,24 passage TELLS US WHAT WE MUST DO IN ORDER TO JOIN JESUS AND THE FATHER IN HIS KINGDOM WHICH IS ON EARTH WHERE IT WILL REMAIN FOREVER.  AGAIN, NO HUMAN BEING EXCEPT JESUS HAS LIVED OR WILL EVER LIVE IN HEAVEN.   So, who were the “captives” Jesus took “captive?”

In 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 Paul writes about those in the church who did not believe that there would be a resurrection of the dead.  Therefore they lived in fear of death.  Therefore these saints, who had been held “captive” by that fear, upon His resurrection, realized that, because He had been resurrected, they would also be resurrected, therefore releasing them from their captivity to fear.  He led them out of that captivity by taking them captive to His Truth.  This is made clear in Hebrews 2:15 where we are told that Christ’s resurrection “set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.” Read Life After Death.  Key word–Death.

While teaching His disciples to pray, Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom of God was at that time in heaven, but would at some unknown date be brought down from heaven to earth.  Let us do some “fine print” work on His prayer.  “Our Father, Who is IN HEAVEN, holy is Your name.  YOUR KINGDOM COME (TO WHERE JESUS WAS–ON EARTH), YOUR WILL BE DONE (WHERE?) ON EARTH as it IS (at that time) IN HEAVEN” (Mat. 6:10).  Why would God’s kingdom be brought to earth if saints were going to heaven?  Jesus came preaching the Gospel (good news) about the Kingdom of God, not about heaven (Mk. 1:14).  He commanded that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, then the end would come (Mat. 24:14).  He never told anyone to preach about heaven.

Jesus also said that one must “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven IS (at that time) at hand.”  The kingdom of heaven is God’s church, the training ground for entering the soon-coming Kingdom of God.  Jesus established the kingdom of heaven (the church) soon after His death.  He will establish the Kingdom of God on earth upon His return.  For more information, read The Kingdom of God.  Key word–Kingdom.

Our reward (salvation/  crown/  mansion, etc.) is now in heaven and will come to earth with Christ’s return.  Recall that “a certain Nobleman” (Jesus) went into a far country to receive His KINGDOM.  But note that upon receiving it, he returned to his home country WHERE HIS KINGDOM WAS LOCATED (Lk. 19:12-27).  Jesus will inherit the earth where He labored and established God’s true church.  He is in heaven where He will receive His kingdom (inheritance) and will return to earth to take control of it.  He and His Very Elect will then rule it–the earth–for 1000 years.  Then they will rule the universe forever.  Read God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe.  Key word–Caretakers.

In 2 Kings 2:11 we find the story of the Prophet Elijah being carried up into heaven in a horse-drawn chariot during the reign of Ahaziah, King of Israel.  This, we are told, is proof that he was taken to heaven where he has lived in his natural body until this day.  If that is true, how did he later send a hand-written letter to King Jehoram, who succeeded Ahaziah as Israel’s king as recorded in 2 Chronicles 21:12?  Enoch was also taken up into heaven (Gen. 5:24).  But we are not told where they went from there.  If Jesus is the only human to live in heaven, they must have been deposited somewhere on earth.  L.J.