Not Heaven-Going But We Will Settle On Earth

The Bible teaching concerning who has gone where at death is very clear in the minds of brethren and sisters world-wide. The Bible states “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). And right now, Jesus Christ is the one who has ascended to heaven after he had by himself purged our sins, and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3).

So the idea of some people that people are going to heaven, or are already there, is wrong because the dead are asleep waiting resurrection when Jesus comes back as promised in Acts 1:11; Acts 3:19-21 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15, 17. And Paul also wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:50 that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. So those who are dead and others who are still alive are all waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus himself was preparing to leave, he prayed as recorded in John 17 v 6 “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me, out of the world; thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word” And, Jesus adds in verses 14 “I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Jesus means that those disciples and others who have received the word of his Father are baptized into his death. I mean to say that those who have been planted together in the likeness of his death (they and us who have been buried with him by baptism into death) shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. The old man of the flesh is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed and that henceforth we should not serve sin. Not that we are going to heaven. And remember that in verse 15, Jesus was requesting his Father not to take them out of the world, but that they should be kept from evil. But he was not only making his request for those disciples but even for us; see also John 17:20.

The Acts of the Apostles states that David is not ascended into heaven (Acts 2:29,34). Even faithful Abraham did not go to heaven (Hebrews 11:13, 39, 40), nor did Moses whom God buried in the land of Moab (Deut. 34:5-6).

Jesus answered one of his disciples by saying that if a man loves him, he will keep his words, the Father will love him too, and he and his Father will come unto him and make their abode with him (John 14:23). He did not promise them heaven-going. So let us prepare to live and settle on earth.

Alex Aboyo (Muhoroni, Kenya)