After Part II of this series on Heaven Unplugged, I got some questions about what the Bible says about whether believers will spend eternity in heaven. I understand the pushback since heaven has been the promise the church has held up to believers for centuries. But just because heaven has been built into our worldview and the doctrinal culture of Christianity, it doesn’t mean we can ignore what Scripture teaches us about the truth of God’s plan for our eternal destiny and purpose since the foundation of the universe.
God does have a plan for everyone, whether believers in Christ or unbelievers. It’s not what most believers and unbelievers think it is. But that’s why you’re here, to know what is affirmed by the Biblical writers as the truth about heaven and what is referenced by them as cultural accommodation. A good place to begin this episode of Heaven Unplugged: Part III is with a passage that was brought up to me questioning my statement about Paradise, which is interpreted by most people as heaven, not being a place the Bible says believers will spend eternity.
Before we look at these passages, we have to understand the context of the audience’s culture regarding paradise and rewards and punishments. Around 250 years before Christ, a Hellenistic text was known as the Sibylline Oracles. This was a collection of prophetic sayings from the Sibylline priestesses of Greece and Rome. They served in the temples of Zeus and Apollo. These oracles are the first mention of a Paradise, where the just would be rewarded. For several hundred years, these prophecies were influential in Greece, Rome, Judea, and later, even in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of Christianity. The Book of Enoch, written about 200 years before Christ, introduces Abraham interceding for the souls of the dead, and it mentions Paradise as the place where the righteous dwell. In The Life of Adam and Eve, written 150 years before Christ, Paradise is the dwelling place of the righteous. These were very popular from the 3rd century before Christ to four or five centuries into the Christian period.
We need to recognize the influence these writings had on the cultural context of the people of the New Testament. Think of it this way: If, in a thousand years, believers are still waiting for the return of Christ, they will look back on the things we’ve said and written and say, “They believed in dispensationalism because of a 20th-century book called The Late Great Planet Earth.” It’s the same concept. Our beliefs are influenced by so-called theological experts or prophets, which mold our Christian worldview. The same was true in the first century. They had a worldview about the afterlife based on Second Temple writings. How did Jesus view the afterlife?
A good place for us to understand what Jesus said about the afterlife is at his crucifixion (Luke 23:35-43). From the Qumran community within the Dead Sea scrolls, we have this passage from a scroll called “The Messianic Apocalypse,” which says the Messiah will heal the wounded, revive the dead, and bring good news to the poor.
In Matthew 11:1-5, when John the Baptist was in prison, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one to come—the one promised in all the Second Temple writings. Jesus responds by saying the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news.
Why did they report the incident in Luke 13:1-5 to Jesus? Because political tension was extremely high. The nation was filled with a rebellious attitude. If we go back to Luke 11 and Luke 12, Jesus is speaking about the coming kingdom of God and telling them if they don’t change and turn away from their hypocrisy, unfaithfulness, and pride, God’s judgment will come upon them. But the kingdom Jesus was preaching wasn’t the kingdom they were expecting. From the Second Temple Writings, they expected a warrior king. A Messiah that would destroy the Romans and set up a new, powerful kingdom of Israel. They brought this report to him because they believed he was the Chosen One who would lead the rebellion against Rome. But Jesus didn’t even deal with their misconception of him; he dealt with their misunderstanding of God’s judgment. The people in the reports didn’t die tragically because they were more sinful than others. That isn’t what God does, though they believed this because of the Second Temple Writings and the teachings of their leaders. Jesus said, “I tell you no.” Then, he used the report to warn them of something even greater than these two horrible incidents; they will all die tragically if they don’t wake up and believe what he tells them about the coming of God’s kingdom.
Jesus gave the thief of the cross Immediate comfort and assurance that he wouldn’t be separated from Jesus that day. Before the second temple writings, Jews believed from the Torah that everyone went to Sheol – the grave – separated from the presence of God, not knowing what the future held. However, from the Second Temple Writings, the Jews believed Abraham interceded for the souls of the dead and could designate those to be in paradise (Abraham’s Bosom). This was the cultural worldview of the thief on the cross. Jesus gave the thief immediate comfort and assurance that they wouldn’t be separated. With the defeat of death, Jesus would create a new heaven and earth. A new worldview. One where people no longer stayed in the grave, separated from God. That was the truth affirmed by Christ on the cross. Those who believe in Christ will never be separated from him. Not even by death.
