That Isn’t Biblical Part Three: Going to Heaven?

*Perhaps Belinda Carlisle was right….

Reinvigorating my “That Isn’t Biblical” series, I want to go over a topic that is quite contentious within Christian circles.

That topic being the afterlife. I want to use verses that aren’t as common to argue this point.

Before I get into this post, I want to say that I do believe in life after death in some capacity, because the Bible doesn’t describe the intermediate state as something without some form of existence.

But if you think we go to heaven or hell when we die, can you give me just one verse that supports your belief?

That idolatrous, drunkard guy drinking his life away at the local bar every night—if he gets into a car accident and dies—will not go to the mythical hell most Christians seem to believe in.

I’ve covered that here a few times already, so I won’t get into it.

But conversely, regarding the sweet elderly lady who feeds the stray cats and keeps God’s commandments to the best of her ability—she will not go to heaven when she dies.

Say that to any mainstream Christian and they freak out and call you a heretic.

But this notion is a Gnostic notion that crept into the faith during the days of the early Church and the Catholic mass control of the population.

I have no issue with Catholics of our time, but they were quite fierce in their ancient heyday on the general populace. But I believe in forgiveness and repentance, and they’re certainly not doing that in 2026 (despite what apocalyptic evangelicals would have you believe).

When Jesus’s ministry starts, notice something interesting He says about going to heaven.

“No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13 [ESV]).

When Jesus made this statement, it was around 27-33 A.D.

There were thousands of years of people dying—even the righteous—and yet they had not ascended into heaven.

Something tells me Christianity is mistaken on such topics. I’ll always believe Jesus Christ over any modern theologian or those of the past 2,000 years.

Is it possible that we have been misled or are reading into the text?

This one statement alone destroys the common notion of disembodied, harp-playing spirits riding on clouds (which only Yahweh can do, by the way).

The Kingdom of Heaven, as a proper title, will be a universe-spanning rulership with Jesus on a renewed Earth.

“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus, it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:42–49 [ESV]).

Once we are resurrected back to life, we will receive an eternal and perfected body. If Jesus’s feats after His resurrection are anything to go by, we will be able to do some cool things with these bodies.

The Book of Daniel speaks of the resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12, after the events of Daniel 11 leading through the end times and the Great Tribulation.

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2 [ESV]).

This last part of Daniel shows believers will be resurrected, and notice they are in the dust of the Earth. What it does not say is that they ascend to heaven. This event happens after the Great Tribulation, which begins around Daniel 11:31.

This long sequence of events from Daniel 10-12 is a roadmap of the last days, and why I currently believe we aren’t quite in the end times just yet. In a previous post, I said we could see the start of the birth pangs of the Messiah, but I am leaning toward it not quite being the case yet. I said current events are highly weird right now, but that doesn’t mean Jesus will arrive by Fall 2028 on the Feast of Trumpets. Anything’s possible, I suppose, but my instinct is to say we have a while to go before the resurrection.

The reason I bring up eschatological events such as Daniel’s account of the resurrection is because there is a glaring issue that I noticed.

In Revelation 12, we are told Satan makes war on those who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus (Christians who keep the Torah).

This is after he is kicked out of heaven by Michael the Archangel (because Satan hasn’t lost access to the heavens as of the time of this writing).

Wouldn’t it have made more sense to make war on all the supposed Christians in heaven if he was already there?

Do you get what I mean?

If heaven were full of millions of the righteous dead, and he’s a supernatural being, wouldn’t it make more sense to make war up there against them? But it is angels that receive his attacks.

Why does Satan make war on mortal people on Earth? Which, mind you, would fill heaven with more souls and be counterproductive to his goals.

The common notion of Christians floating around in heaven (which is usually referring to the universe out there most of the time, anyway) makes no sense.

Believers will be resurrected and live in the New Jerusalem on a new Earth. Whether we get to explore the rest of creation is something that remains to be seen (and would be highly cool), but every instance in the Bible that describes the eternal state shows us on Earth.

“The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from My God out of heaven, and My own new name” Revelation 3:12 [ESV]).

New Jerusalem descends from the heavens and lands on Earth. Meaning the eternal state is focused on the new Earth.

Why isn’t earthly Jerusalem rising toward outer space if that is where we go when we die or are resurrected?

Every time you see people dying in the Bible, it says they “fall asleep” or “rest.”

In Revelation 6, the souls of those who have been martyred cry out to God for vengeance, meaning there is some form of conscious existence on the “other side” of reality.

But we aren’t in either heaven or hell after we leave this mortal coil.

I hope this has made you ponder some things.

Shalom and blessings!