Why do church leaders teach Heaven is available after death?
The passage reads: “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” This seems very confusing for the lay person; Jesus states the above, Lazarus (dead for 4 days) said nothing about Heaven, others that were raised from the dead by Jesus said nothing about Heaven. Take Abraham, the great patriarch, for instance. He spoke to God on multiple occasions and had a strong relationship with Him. If anyone were to be taken up right after death and be whisked away to Heaven, you’d think it’d be Abraham. But the book of Genesis doesn’t say anything about God taking Abraham up to heaven. The only reference that I have found is that the Bible speaks of two men that were translated to heaven without dying- Enoch and Elijah. Where do the church leaders and teachers find this information that you can go to Heaven right after death?
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Asked December 29 2021
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Myron Baska
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Gary Wainwright
In context, John 3:13 was addressed to Nicodemus. Jesus was saying to Nicodemus that “No earthly teacher can really teach us about heaven because none of them have actually been there”. Jesus could teach about heaven because heaven is His home (Jesus had been there, He came from heaven). The New Living Translation of John 3:13 states “No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven”.
Whatever Lazarus said between his first resurrection and his second death, is not recorded in the New Testament. Since the New Testament is silent on this matter, we can only speculate.
As for why God decided to take Enoch and Elijah to heaven but not Abraham, the Bible does not tell us. While Abraham “spoke to God on multiple occasions and had a strong relationship with Him” shows us that good works does not earn anyone salvation, including Abraham (Romans 4:1-3).
2 Corinthians 5:6-8: “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord… we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent (ekdémeó) from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” The context is that our soul/spirit emigrates / departs our body and is present with the Lord.
Strong's Greek 1553: ekdémeó (https://biblehub.com/greek/1553.htm)
1. to go abroad, to emigrate, depart: from the body as the earthly abode of the spirit, 2 Corinthians 5:8.