Are They Going to Heaven?

This past week three famous people died, and the usual media attention was given. These people will live on in some's personal memory and perhaps for awhile in our cultural memory. Those of us professing to be Christians have this notion that after dieing, good people go to Heaven and bad ones go to Hell.

Is that the case? In Ecclesiastes, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing." "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going."

In Psalms, "The dead do not praise the Lord, Nor any who go down into silence."

The Scriptures talk about death as sleep. It doesn't say anything about people passing from this life and going to Heaven. What it does say, is that Heaven will come to us. From Revelation, "Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Continuing in Revelation, "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there; They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever."

It doesn't look anyone is going to Heaven immediately, or soon. Plus, Jesus said no human has ever gone to Heaven. He said, "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." This is a pretty amazing statement to those believing that when a loved on dies, he/she goes to heaven, is in a better place, and is smiling down on us. In Peter's sermon in Acts, he says, "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is of the dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day...For David did not ascend into the heavens..."

When we die, we go to sleep. Then Christ returns. In Thessalonians, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall aways be with the Lord."

It seems that by going into a deep deep sleep, one would not be aware of the passage of time. When Christ returns, no matter if centuries passed, to the awakened it would only seem a moment had passed. It would seem to them that they had ascended immediately.

In the end though, we will all be with God.