After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven the Apostle Peter gave a stirring sermon, recorded in the book of Acts, about Jesus being a descendant of King David and the prophesied Messiah. He quotes from Psalm 110 in which the Messiah is prophesied to ascend into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God. Then he announces: “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb was with us today” (Acts 2:29). And then a few verses later, he says, “For David did not ascend into the heavens” (verse 34). All these people were still living by faith when they died. They had not received what was promised. They were “longing for a better country, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:13-16), just as. Abraham “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
In Genesis 5:24 we are told “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Then Hebrews 11:5 tells us, “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God.” This passage does not say Enoch was taken to heaven. “Taken away” (“translated” in the King James Version) is from the Greek word metatithemi which means “to transfer to another place” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, 1985). We must therefore conclude Enoch was taken away or moved from one place to another and did not see death at that time.
What of Elijah—did God take him to heaven? One might assume 2 Kings 2:11 reports the death of Elijah and his subsequent removal from earth to heaven: “Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” Elijah did not die, as is borne out by the record of a letter that he wrote some years later. See 2 Chronicles 21:12-15. Scripture speaks of three heavens — the first, being the atmosphere that envelops the earth (Genesis 1:8); the second, what we call “space” (Genesis 15:5), and the third, the location of God’s throne (2 Corinthians 12:2). Elijah was supernaturally transported to a different location—through the “heaven” of earth’s atmosphere—allowing his associate, Elisha, to step into the office of the chief prophet to Israel.
God has a plan to perfect all of those who have followed Christ throughout the centuries. The Apostle Paul addresses this In I Corinthians 15 when he explained to the Greeks in Corinth, who were having difficulty understanding what was meant by the resurrection of the dead, that the basis of Christianity is that Jesus the Christ was raised from the dead. In fact, he says Jesus’ resurrection is proof that His followers will also receive a promised resurrection from the dead: “For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen…. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile and you’re still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (I Corinthians 15:13-18). If Christ did not rise from the dead, there is no hope for those who have followed Christ throughout the centuries.
When the Corinthian Christians asked Paul, “How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come?” (verse 35), Paul explained when a person dies, it’s like planting a seed that is waiting to germinate and grow into a new life: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 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. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body” (I Corinthian 15:42-44).
The promise to the followers of Christ is the resurrection of the dead. But that promise is not that your body dies and your soul leaves your body and travels to heaven. The idea that we have an immortal soul that immediately goes to heaven at death is not a biblical teaching. The concept infiltrated early Christianity from Greek philosophy, primarily from Plato. Many of the Christian writers from the second through the fourth century’s including Origin, Tertullian, Augustine, were avid students of Plato’s writings, and their writing show his influence, especially in the belief that there’s an immortal soul that goes to heaven when the body dies.
God promises those who follow Christ will receive a spiritual body, which happens at the resurrection of the dead. Paul says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (I Corinthians 15:51-53). When Jesus returns, the dead in Christ are resurrected, brought back to life, to receive eternal life in a spiritual body: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (I Thessalonians 4:16). They will serve Jesus Christ as He rules on earth as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
