“Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God- I say this to your shame”1
Ignorance of the truth about God is more detrimental than we think. It is on this very ignorance that the devil feeds to dupe us into believing his lies. If we do not know what God says through His word, we are bound to suppose whatever falsehood the evil one throws at us- for that is his intention.2 Know that even the devil himself knows scripture. 3Everything we need to know about life is written the Bible, [the book of life] but it is pathetic how little time we spend, not only reading, but studying scripture. So when life throws us a hard ball, we turn to our human strengths and wisdom. Wrong!
I have done a short personal study on the truth regarding death, Heaven, resurrection and life after. These are my humble thoughts:
The bible, in a number of instances, refers to death as sleep4. Likewise, I have come to believe that when we die, we are indeed asleep. Our soul rests. We are unconscious, as if in sleep, of all that surrounds us.
“Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest and they lie in death”5.
It is from this rest that the Lord Jesus will come to wake us up when he returns. Otherwise, the dead are still in their graves decaying, turning to dust, sleeping until the sound of the trumpet when the Lord returns. All who are buried in Christ will be raised. It is said that King David is still asleep6. He is not in Heaven, he is in the grave waiting as well, to be resurrected.
When we die [sleep]- this the first death is overcome by the resurrection which we have assurance of following Christ's own resurrection. We have victory over it and the second death will not affect us. However those who will be judged and found in the book of the dead will suffer the second death7 and will not be victorious, they will be thrown into everlasting fire for eternity-now this is the death we should be afraid of.
So maybe we should not be as afraid of the current death as we are. We know that we are living a righteous life and now have the assurance of eternal life in the resurrection, death is indeed overcome8, maybe its is the reason the Bible calls it sleep.
We have grown up in the belief that when we die, our soul/ spirit will go to Heaven and dwell with God and Jesus . If this is so, what then would be the use of Jesus final return?
“for the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven..”9
The Lord will come down and judge the living, raise the dead and judge them too.
2 Corinthians 5 speaks of being dressed with Heavenly clothing after the earthly “tent” is destroyed. Further reading up to verse 5 may seem to suggest that this Heavenly clothing is indeed dwelling Heaven. However could it means a clothing from Heaven?
“..because we do not wish to be unclothed but to to be clothed with our Heavenly dwelling”10.
One may ask, what is this clothing? This may be answered in Romans where the same analogy of clothing is repeated.
“Rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”11
The “Kingdom of God” is not in Heaven rather it is on earth. “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” as used in the Bible are synonymous. Note that scripture calls it Kingdom of not in. More like how Uganda during colonial rule was under the Kingdom of Great Britain, but was not in Great Britain.
When John the Baptist12 and Jesus13 announced the Kingdom, they said that it is “near” [or “has come near” in some versions]. This is confirmation that the Kingdom of God/Heaven is here. We should not keep waiting and hoping to go to Heaven. Heaven is not ours to dwell, it is Gods throne. To us he gave the earth and dominion over it; to subdue, fill and rule over all living creatures in it. It is on this same earth that the new earth14 will be created. The old will pass away and there will be no more pain, suffering or death.15 God will then be our God and we will inherit everything, Eden will be restored. The concept that Heaven is “in the clouds” is unbiblical. The concept that we will be “spirits floating around in Heaven” is unbiblical, the belief that we will dwell in the Heavens above till the end of time is also unbliblical.
1-1 Cor 15:34
2-John 10:10
3-Mat 4:6
4-1 Cor 15:18
5-Is 57:2
6-Acts 2:34
7-Rev 12:11
8-1 Cor 15:54
9-1 Thes 4:16
10-2 Cor 5:4
11-Rom 13:14
12-Mat 3:2
13-Mat 4:17
14-2 Pet 3:13, Is 65: 17
15-Rev 21:4
