Sunday, March 23, 2008

Heaven and Hell (2)

As a young Christian during my Sunday School days, I was intrigued by the story of Elijah 'ascending up into heaven by a whirlwind' as recorded in 2 Kings 2:11.How then do we reconcile the statement as spoken by the Lord Jesus in John 3:13, 'No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of man who is in heaven' recorded some 900 years after Elijah's era?

In order to do that we need to understand which heaven Elijah was transported to, as there are three heavens recorded in scriptures. The third heaven is where God the Father dwells and our Lord Jesus Christ is now 'seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens' (Hebrews 8:1). The third heaven is 'God's holy habitation' (Deut 26:15). The second heaven is where the planets, sun and stars are located as David described in Psalm 8:3. Also, in Genesis 26:4, God promised Isaac that his descendants will multiply as the 'stars of heaven'. The first heaven is the atmosphere surrounding the earth - Genesis 7:11-12 describes the 'windows of heaven were opened' that rain for forty days and forty nights during the Great Flood of Noah's days, and Job 35:11 speaks of the 'birds of heaven' that fly overhead.

A careful study of the passage in the context reveals that it was in the first heaven that Elijah was transported to. God told Elijah to look for a successor as he will be taken away (1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 2:9). When God took him away, the fifty disciples of the prophet knew that he was merely transported to somewhere as they were determined to search for him, but in vain (2 Kings 2:17).

Some years later, Elijah wrote a letter to wicked king Jehoram, the son of righteous king Jehoshaphat, warning him of a disease that will strike him as a judgment from God (2 Chronicles 21:12-15). Since Jesus said no one has been to heaven and mortal man cannot survive unaided in space, Elijah must be still on planet earth when he was taken away. Besides, heavenly beings do not write letters to mortal beings on earth! Elijah, like all the men of faith died and are still 'sleeping awaiting the resurrection', since they all have yet to receive the promise of eternal life (Hebrews 11:39) but are waiting for the fullness of the church age saints to come in (Heb 11:40).

Another common misunderstanding arise from the passage in Luke 23:43, when Jesus said to the thief that was crucified beside Him, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise'. The word, 'Paradise' is used only in two other instances in the bible - 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 where Paul shared that he was caught up in a vision of Paradise and Revelation 2:7 tells us that 'the tree of life is in the midst of the Paradise' which will be in the New Jerusalem (Rev 22:2) where 'God will come to dwell with men there' (Rev 21:1-3). Hence, this 'Paradise' the Lord was talking about is something of the future - in the age to come.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 tells us that 'Christ died for our sins...and that He rose again on the THIRD DAY according to the scriptures'. Notice that Jesus Himself told Mary in John 20:17, 'Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father'. This shows that Jesus Himself was not even in Paradise three days after He died, as He has yet to ascend into heaven. So how can the thief be in heaven before Him!

So what was the Lord Jesus talking about? The thief was repentant and said to Jesus, 'Lord remember me when You come into Your kingdom' - meaning he understood that the Lord Jesus Christ will return some day to establish His kingdom on earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords. As the thief was not baptised and never receive the gift of God's Spirit, he will probably be resurrected in the second resurrection after the close of the millennila age. By then,planet earth would have been a Paradise with the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven with God dwelling among His creation (Rev 21:1-3). Since the original Bible comes with no punctuation, it was centuries later that translators added in the punctuation marks. A more probable translation would have been, 'Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise'. What Christ was telling him was that a day will come in the future age, when he will be resurrected to see the Kingdom of God on Paradise earth!

Friday, March 7, 2008

Heaven And Hell (1)

As a Christian for over three decades, I have had been to many Chriatian funeral wakes and memorial services. Invariably, as I sat there, I would hear testimonials , sermons and eulogies of the departed believer 'now in the presence of our Lord Jesus in heaven'. Similarly, when I scanned the obituary section of the local newspapers, many would state directly or indirectly that the departed loved one is presently with Jesus in heaven. Several years ago, when I had yet to be enlightened about the truth, I bought into such belief 'hook, line and sinker'. Such misconception was due to the fables of man and preachers who were long on rhetoric, but short on the truth, to frighten audiences into accepting the Christian faith - albeit with good intentions!

Most professing Christians believe that the saved go to heaven upon death. Sometimes, I just wonder how many of the millions of Christians who hold on to such belief thoroughly searched the scriptures to find out the validity of their belief.

The Lord Jesus in John 3:13 said, 'No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.' Luke recorded for us in Acts 2:29 that 'the patriarch David is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day'. Following on in verse 34, it states, 'For David did not ascend into the heavens'. So where is David now? He is still 'sleeping in the grave' awaiting the resurrection of the dead, when the righteous shall receive their reward of eternal inheritance. David expressed this hope of a future resurrection in Psalm 16:9-10, 'My flesh also will rest in hope. For You shall not leave my soul in Sheol (grave)'. That is why Solomon penned in Ecclesiastes 3 about 3,000 years ago that there is a time for everything under the sun - including resurrection, judgment and reward!

Do you begin to understand why the Lord Jesus uttered these words in John 8:21, 'Where I go you cannot come', and these same words again in John 13:33. The Jews seemed to understand this concept, as recorded in John 8: 53, 'Abraham is dead and the prophets are dead'. Dead means no life regardless of whether they are believer or not, unless resurrected!

The keen reader may ask, so what is this all about? Well, the confusion arises mainly because theologians mistaken man to have an immortal soul. The truth is that man is a living mortal soul which will die with the body at death. Only God has an immortal soul (1 Tim 6: 15-16) that is eternal and will never die. Only the spirit in man (Job 32:8; Zech 12:1; 1 Cor 2: 11) returns to God upon death (Eccl 12:7; Ps 31:5; Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59). I believe that the spiritual DNA of all the saved who ever lived are presently kept in heaven (Hebrews: 12:23) to be released at the time of resurrection of the dead!

The patriarchs of old (many of them will be greatkly rewarded in the Kingdom of God) fully understood these concepts. Job asked the obvious question in Job 14:14, 'If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes'. Job answered his own question in 19:25-27, that he shall be resurrected to see God and that is when 'his change comes' (14:14) for by then he will be born again into a new spirit body being that is immortal. Following on in Job 14:15, it states 'You shall call and I shall answer You'. Job knew that at the resurrection the last trumpet call shall come from the Lord Jesus Christ at His return (1 Cor 15:52). All the saints who were and are led of the Spirit of God will recognise His voice for He shall raised them up on the last day (John 6:39-40). Remember, only those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Rom 8:14). Otherwise, they are none of His (Rom 8:9).

Make no mistake, heaven is NOT the reward of the saved, inheriting rulership over the earth is. In Psalm 37, David reminded the readers FIVE TIMES that the righteous shall inherit the earth. The Lord Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 5:5 as the first beatitude, which is consistent with Psalm 37:11.

Let's take a look at Daniel 12 13, the closing chapter and closing verse of this great prophetic book. Apparently, an 'Angel of the Lord' told him in verse 13, 'But you (Daniel), go your way till the end (the last days); for you shall rest (sleeping in peace without any consciousness of the passage of time), and will arise (resurrection when the last trumpet calls) to your inheritance (reward of the saint in the Kingdom of God) at the end of the days'. Can anything be more explicit than that?

The book of Isaiah dwells quite extensively about life in the Millennial Age. Yet he lamented in Isaish 53:1, 'Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' Looks like it has gone one full circle, the last days of this current church age is upon us, and few people believe the Lord's message of the coming Kingdom (Mark 1:14), let alone take appropriate actions to live out His commandments. Little wonder He warned in Matthew 7:21, ' Not everyone who says to Me "Lord, Lord" shall enter the kingdom of heaven (God), but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. But what is actually the will of the Father in heaven? That will be the subject of a future blog.