Who will go to Heaven?

Hell is a questionable concept. The dead sleep. Upon awakening the unrighteous face differing levels of punishment based upon their deeds and upon their knowledge of the will of God. But if belief and Biblical knowledge lead to accountability, why believe? Why learn the will of God? To this subject we turn next: rewards for those who believe and act accordingly.

In the quote above “we” refers to Christians. This “we” may also refer to Jewish saints. It does not refer to non-Christian gentiles. The few references I find for meeting in heaven refer to followers of Christ. (Devout Jews who follow the written Law might well be considered followers of Christ, given the preexistence passages in John’s gospel, but this is conjecture. Below I will use the word “Christian” or phrase “followers of Christ” without further qualification for flow’s sake; consider this qualification implicit below.) “Going to heaven” is probably an exclusive reward for followers of Christ. But that does not mean non-Christians will all go to hell. (At least, not hell as is popularly portrayed. They do go to Hades, temporarily, but this most likely refers just to being buried as a corpse, though some interpret otherwise.)

And “going to heaven” is also not as usually conceived. Look carefully at the passage above. It says the Lord will come down from heaven. “Heaven” here is some place above the clouds, since the dead in Christ will meet the Lord in the clouds after He comes down. And note that Paul is talking about a future event: the dead shall rise. And this event will occur with a shout and a trumpet blast; it will not be a quiet secret event. Did the trumpet blast occur and no one noticed? Is this a reference to a volcanic explosion that has since happened? I strongly doubt it, for reasons we’ll see below. Just note for now that we can see the tops of clouds from airplanes, and the dead in Christ are notably absent – or at least invisible.

Verse 17 by itself does jibe with popular notions of heaven. It says we will meet the Lord in the clouds and it says we will ever be with Him. Take this quote in isolation and you have a picture of the Christian dead living eternally in the clouds. Throw in the idea of judgment already taking place and you get the idea that the dead followers of Christ are already there. This picture is wrong. It illustrates the dangers of building a doctrine on isolated verses of scripture. Context is important!

Dead Christians are not yet in the clouds. And they won’t stay in the clouds – not if they are going to dwell with Jesus, for Jesus is going to come down and rule the earth after this event. The passage above is a reference to the first resurrection. We need to put it in context with other passages describing this same event.

The First Resurrection

In the previous section, I asked if it really matters whether the dead sleep today or not. Well, Paul considered the matter of resurrection extremely important! He said that being a Christian is pointless if there is no resurrection. Without a resurrection of the dead, ‘tis better to be a hedonist. Paul clearly did not believe in afterlife rewards before the resurrection.

Paul gives his fullest account of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. I highly recommend you read the entire chapter, preferably in more than one translation. Then come back here as we focus on a few more passages from this chapter and relate them to passages in other books of the Bible.

Christ rose first. Later, those who are Christ’s shall rise. Then comes the end when death is abolished – the second resurrection when everyone else rises as we’ll see later. Paul is speaking of two resurrections to come. And note the timing: those who are Christ’s will rise at His coming. Last I checked, the second coming of Christ has yet to occur. The dead in Christ thus have yet to rise.

Recall the trumpet blast that shall announce the Lord coming down from heaven in 1 Thessalonians. Paul refers to the trumpet blast in 1 Corinthians 15 as well, and gives a bit more detail:

Verse 52 states that the dead shall be raised incorruptible at the last trump. For the preceding trumps we must turn to the book of Revelations. In chapter 8 of Revelations we read about seven angels with seven trumpets [8:2] which are blown in sequence resulting in:

1. Hail and fire mingled with blood burning a third of the earth [8:7].
2. A mountain cast into the sea destroying a third of sea life [8:8].
3. A star from heaven burning and poisoning a third of the rivers [8:9].
4. A third of the sun, moon, and stars smitten [8:12].
5. Stinging insects rising out of a bottomless pit [9:1-12].
6. Death of a third of mankind at the hands of 200 million horsemen [9:14-18].
7. Beginning of the reign of Christ [11:15].

These events have yet to occur. The dead still sleep.

And they will sleep through the first six trumps. Therefore, surviving Christians will endure these and other unpleasant events! If you have one of those “In case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned” bumper stickers, take it off. It’s bad outreach. Besides, you probably won’t be able to find gas for your car long before the Rapture happens. The Christian Way is not a free pass to get out of this unpleasantness – save for the stinging insects. The early parts of Revelations emphasize enduring till the end. Christians have work to do.

And after the Rapture does come, Christians will still have work to do. Though the dead in Christ will meet him in the clouds, this does not imply they will stay in the clouds. Jesus is coming down to rule the earth, and those in the first resurrection will rule with him.

Revelations 20 tells the story. The Devil is to be cast down into a bottomless pit and chained for a thousand years. During this time those who had not worshipped the beast will rule with Christ. The remaining dead continue to sleep during this millennium.

The saints will reign, not retire. They shall be kings and priests. The clouds will be an assembly point for an army to take over the world, not a cottony country club. We who strive to follow Christ’s instructions are training for future leadership positions. I’ll have more to say on this matter in the next article. For now, let’s continue our study of the last chapters of Revelations.

A Description of the Devil

Before moving on to the fate of unbelievers, let’s have a bit of fun with some trivia. Revelations 20:2 has a description of the devil, and it isn’t a red humanoid with horns, cloven hooves and a forked tail. The red guy is a caricature of the Greek god Pan, a minor deity worshipped by rural folk resistant to the rise of Christianity. The early church tried to equate this minor deity to the Devil in order to suppress local pagan religions.

The Bible describes the devil as a dragon or serpent. He is called the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2 – not the king of a fiery underworld. Matthew 4 implies that the devil ruled over the kingdoms of the world, this world.

And if dragons are the sign of the devil, the devil has followers to this day. Dragons are grandly celebrated in China; people parade down the streets holding up hundred foot long dragon puppets. Dragon jewelry is common at renaissance fairs and other New Agey venues. Dragons have become positive creatures in many works of fantasy fiction. (Though not in Tolkien, where they are portrayed as exceedingly malevolent.)

This may all be coincidence and trivial. But it makes me wonder sometimes…

The Second Resurrection

At the end of a thousand years of peace, Satan will be released to resume his acts of deception. And many will fall for it, forming a huge army to attack the camp of the saints. Camp! Once again, the risen saints will not dwell in the clouds.

Then, fire from heaven will destroy this army, and Satan will be thrown into a lake of fire to experience eternal torment. Satan is to be tormented, not be the tormentor.

But yes, the souls of humans will also go into this lake, that is, those not found in the book of life. For them, this is the “second death.” Does “second death” mean they get burned up in the lake of fire? I don’t know.

Verse 6 states that the second death has no power over those who rise up in the first resurrection. I assume this means that they do not face Judgment Day. Verse 15 implies that a subset of those who face Judgment Day will not experience the second death. Who?

Jesus had this to say on the subject:

Charity is a very important factor, apparently. Verse 32 says the Son of Man will sort out the nations. I read this to mean include gentiles. If we consider that Christians are grafted onto the family tree of Abraham [Romans 11:17], then this implies nonbelievers. If so, then Jesus is saying above that charitable unbelievers will pass Judgment. Note how those who passed are ignorant as to why. They unwittingly served the Lord. This fits with what I said in earlier sections about nonbelievers being judged to a lower standard.

There is hope for reasonably righteous nonbelievers. They may live. But they will live under the rule of those who serve Christ.

The Heavenly City

Chapter 21 of Revelation describes a new heaven and a new earth. Here you will find the pearly gates, so often described as being in heaven. Indeed, these gates may be in heaven now. But people will not enter until after Judgment Day. And the city will come down to earth. The eternal afterlife takes place on earth.

But this earth is most likely much bigger than the one we live on today. The heavenly city by itself is to be 1500 miles on a side. And it seems that some will live outside:

If I read this correctly, there will be kings of the earth, who will come to the city to pay tribute. Meanwhile, we still find civil servants in the heavenly kingdom:

This is the reward of those who are called, and follow through. The call is a gift, but it is not a free ticket to an eternal amusement park. It is a job offer. It is a reward of rank that lasts not just through the millennium, but into eternity.

But to qualify for this job requires getting through the internship. To this we turn next. How does the Christian Way train people for such important future leadership positions?