Millions believe that when they die they will "go to heaven."
Is heaven the reward of the saved?
Have your departed loved ones gone there?
Will you?
Do you have proof?
Are there plain scriptures to the contrary?
Yes—and you are about to hear many!
The World to Come.
The Restored Church of God presents David C. Pack.
By what authority have countless millions believed that they are bound for heaven when
they die?
What assurance do they have?
Be honest.
You probably consider yourself a Christian.
You certainly want to be saved.
You have probably also been assured that you will go to heaven some day.
Should you not demand proof that heaven is really what you seek—and where you will
go?
It is about time you know if you will spend all eternity in heaven!
Romans 10 verse 9 states, "That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."
Verse 13 adds, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Certain popular verses are routinely cited to validate the simplicity of just believing
in Christ to be saved.
This makes salvation seem routine and easy.
Heaven becomes little more than an assumption in a formula that virtually every professing
Christian takes for granted: "Believe in Jesus, go to heaven."
Yet when a famous evangelist was asked, "What will we do in heaven?" he answered, "I
don't know, but it will be wonderful."
Such ignorance!—and if he does not know this much, how can he "know" it will be
wonderful?
Answers like this are why people assume they will "ride clouds"—"walk the streets
of gold before the pearly gates"—"play harps"—"grow wings"—or generally
"roll around heaven all day."
You've heard them all.
All of these ideas are manmade—they are fiction!
The Bible teaches none of them—yet almost everyone believes them as fact.
So, let's get the facts—the truth—of what God teaches.
One of the fundamental rules of Bible study is to always start with the clearest scriptures
on any subject.
Then fit all less clear scriptures into the basic overall picture that has been established.
The subject of going to heaven is a classic example of the need to start with the most
plain, obvious verses.
We will examine a number.
Perhaps the plainest scripture in the Bible regarding "going to heaven" does not even
mention the word heaven.
Few know of this most important verse: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."
Have you ever heard even one minister say that God's purpose for Christians is to
"inherit the Earth"?
I doubt it.
And yet there it is—and at the very beginning of the New Testament.
A second plain scripture adds another element.
The apostle John recorded: "And has made them [the saints] unto our God kings and priests:
and they [still the saints] shall reign on the earth."
The reward of God's saints is to inherit future rulership "on the earth"—as "kings
and priests."
Now that's plain!
I'll ask again: Have you ever heard a minister say that God's purpose for you is to "reign
on the Earth"—as a "king priest"?
Be honest—of course not!
You must at least admit that becoming a king is more appealing than riding clouds, playing
harps or rolling around heaven for eternity.
Now, will you believe the plain words of the Bible—or continue in popular but baseless
assumptions?
Now go to the Old Testament.
The prophet Daniel, amplifying the saints' role as kings and priests, writes about the
Return of Christ and the establishing of God's kingdom on Earth.
Before examining three key verses, some background is important.
Before Jesus' Return, God will officially grant Him the authority to rule the world.
Notice: "And there was given Him [Jesus Christ] dominion, and glory, and a kingdom."
Where will this kingdom be?
Daniel answers, "...that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall
not be destroyed."
It will be on Earth.
But how will God rule the peoples and nations of Earth?
"But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever,
even forever and ever."
The Christian's ultimate destiny is to join Christ and share rulership in the kingdom
of God over all nations and peoples on Earth!
Now verse 22: "...and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time
came that the saints possessed the kingdom."
And verse 27: "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the
whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High...and all dominions
shall serve and obey Him."
Christ and the saints will rule peoples and nations on Earth.
You have surely heard Christ referred to as "King of kings and Lord of lords."
Now you know why!
Let's confirm where this rulership takes place.
Jesus states, "And he that overcomes, and keeps My works unto the end, to him will I
give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron...even as I received
of My Father," and "to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne..."
Christians are overcomers.
They are not idle, "just believing" in Jesus and waiting for heaven.
They recognize that they are in training to become teachers and rulers!
This is why the apostle Jude wrote, "Enoch also...prophesied of these, saying, Behold,
the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all..."
What could be plainer than these verses?
When Jesus returns, the saints rule with Him!
Together, they will reign over the entire world!
Let's turn the coin over.
We have seen what Christ says is the calling and reward of a Christian—but did He ever
say what it is not?
Did Jesus make any plain statements about men in heaven?
He did, and in stunning clarity!
He said, "And no man has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven,
even the Son of man which is in heaven."
There it is!
Jesus did address people going to heaven.
Take this verse for exactly what He said, neither adding to nor taking from it.
"no man" (not a single one) has gone to heaven!
Do you believe Him?
Or do you believe the ministers of this world who virtually suggest, with their ideas about
salvation, that Christ was misleading or did not know what He was talking about?
Now think of all God's servants who had lived during the 4,000 years prior to Jesus'
statement.
They cannot be in heaven.
So says Christ!
If heaven is the reward of the saved, then none of these men made it.
They all must have failed!
Every one of them missed out on salvation.
But, of course, they did not fail.
Heaven is not the reward of the saved.
Notice that verse 13 comes only three verses prior to the most universally quoted passage
in the Bible—John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Why is almost everyone willing to believe this verse while virtually no one believes
what is said just three verses earlier?
Now ask: If all the Old Testament figures are not in heaven, where are they?
The apostle Peter answers when speaking about King David: "Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher
[his tomb] is with us unto this day."
You have almost certainly heard the common phrase "dead and buried."
It comes from this passage and is a reference to David's whereabouts!
Some believe Peter's statement was incomplete or he just forgot David was in heaven.
This is a ridiculous twisting of the verse.
Here is what he said five verses later, removing all doubt: "For David is not ascended into
the heavens..."
This is a direct statement.
David is not in heaven.
Yet God said that David was "a man after Mine own heart."
If heaven is the reward of the saved, and David did not make it, then nobody is going
to make it.
David is in the grave awaiting the resurrection of the dead, when the just receive their eternal
inheritance.
When God calls people to repentance, and they are baptized, He gives them His Holy Spirit.
It is this Spirit within the mind that makes one a Christian.
Notice: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they [not anyone else] are the sons
of God."
This much is clear.
What is not so clear—or even known—to most is what verse 17 adds: "And if children,
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together."
A true follower of Christ and the Bible is an heir with Jesus Christ!
Heirs are not yet inheritors.
An heir is one who later inherits what has been promised to him.
We have seen that Christians "inherit the earth"—and "rule with Christ."
How, when, where and why does this take place?
Once the answers are known, the counterfeit salvation about heaven, taught by almost every
professing Christian church, collapses for the fiction that it is!
How does one become a "joint-heir with Christ"?
Did you realize that a Christian is a child of Abraham?
Probably not.
Yet Paul said this to the Gentile Galatians: "Know you therefore that they which are
of faith, the same are the children of Abraham."
The book of Galatians calls Abraham "the father of the faithful."
This is because those "of faith" are his "children."
Understanding the phrase "children of Abraham" is key to understanding what Christians will
inherit.
Long ago, God made a promise to Abraham.
Notice: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made..."
This speaks of specific promises to Abraham and "his seed" or his children.
Here is how this is tied to Christians: "And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's
seed, and heirs according to the promise."
This is a fascinating statement.
All faithful Christians are heirs—not yet inheritors—to whatever was promised to Abraham.
Grasp this.
Your salvation is tied to this promise!
Next, you need to know what was promised to Abraham.
What was it?
The answer is all-important since it explains how you will spend eternity!
Jesus' role, at His First Coming, had a direct bearing on this
supremely important matter.
Notice: "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God, to [get this!] confirm the promises made unto the fathers."
Christ's sacrifice did this.
Now let's identify who the "fathers" are.
Acts 3 verse 13 holds the answer: "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the
God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus."
The fathers referred to are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
You will inherit whatever was promised to them—not some invention devised by the imaginations
of men who neither search nor believe the Bible.
Abraham was obedient—faithful—in all things.
Whatever God told him to do, he did.
Because Christians also faithfully obey God (see Acts 5:32), this is another way in which
he is a father, in type, to them.
Let's begin with what God told him to do: "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get you
out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land
[note that word] that I will show you."
It adds, "...So Abram departed."
He obeyed God without question, setting an example for every Christian.
Obedience qualified Abraham to inherit the promises—and it can qualify you, too.
The entire earth was the land to be given to Abraham.
Notice this: "our father Abraham...For the promise, that he [Abraham] should be the heir
of the world..."
Now you know why we started with Matthew 5:5, "the meek...shall inherit the earth."
It is the whole earth—the world—to which Christians are "heirs."
This will happen because God keeps His promises!
God's promise to Abraham was conditional.
He had to prove that he was obedient to whatever he was instructed to do.
God commanded him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.
Without hesitation, he set out to do exactly what God said.
Notice: "...because you have done this thing [God says], and have not withheld your son,
your only son...I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand
which is upon the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And
in your seed [your children] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed [why?]; because
you have obeyed my voice."
At this point, the promise became unconditional.
Abraham obeyed God in every matter and so must you to inherit what was promised to him.
God then included Abraham's son, Isaac, in the promise.
Isaac's son Jacob was also later included.
Where, in any of these scriptures describing God's promises, is a single reference to
heaven?
God promised that "all nations" would be blessed through Abraham.
This means the promise of salvation is open to all, including Gentiles.
Paul wrote this to the primarily Gentile congregation at Rome.
Notice: "But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first,
and also to the Gentile."
The promise was "to the Jew first."
The covenants and the promises of God are clearly made to Israel.
This is also found in Romans: "Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory,
and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises."
But if the promises are only made to Israelites, how are Gentiles included?
Paul explains this to the mainly Gentile-born Ephesian congregation.
Let's read carefully: "Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh..."
Paul explained that the Greek Ephesians were only Gentiles "in the past."
Upon conversion, they became spiritual Israelites.
The next verse makes this clearer: "That at that time [the past, before conversion]
you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."
I grew up believing that all the Israelites were Jews (that's false, they're only
one of 12 tribes)—that I was a Gentile—and that Christianity is basically a Gentile religion.
The truth of the Bible is that Gentiles must become spiritual Israelites.
Since most modern descendants of Israel (or Jacob) think they are Gentiles, the world
believes the very opposite of what the Bible actually teaches.
In other words, those who are actually physical Israelites (and professing Christians) think
that upon accepting Jesus they became "spiritual" or "Christian" or "saved" Gentiles.
The truth is that those who really are physical Gentiles can only be true Christians by becoming
spiritual Israelites!
Can you see how God's truth seems upside down to the world?
The Gentile Ephesians had become spiritual Israelites.
They went from being "strangers" from God, His promise and without hope, to being
included in God's Plan.
Notice: "But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made near by the
blood of Christ..." and "Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God."
Recall Jesus said, "...no man has ascended up to heaven."
In John, He twice confirmed this, telling His disciples "[Where] I go, you cannot
come."
Moments later, He added, "I go [to heaven] to prepare a place for you."
But exactly where is the place He is preparing?
Some assume He meant heaven.
This is because they do not read the very next verse: "And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again."
Christians will not join Christ in heaven—He will "come again" to Earth.
The rest of verse 3 removes all doubt about where Christians will be: "...that where
I am [Christ is], there [not anywhere else] you may be also."
We will be with Christ in the place that He has "prepared."
Again, where is this prepared place?
In Matthew 25, Jesus describes His Return to "...sit upon the throne of His glory:
and before Him shall be gathered all nations."
He is pictured in this parable of the sheep and goats as ruling all the nations of the
earth.
At that point, He says to the saints (get this), "Come, you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you."
We are to inherit the kingdom of God.
What a marvelous future for the saints.
If men would only take Christ's words for exactly what He says!
Will you grasp them—understand them—and believe them?
When the kingdom of God is established, the whole world will learn God's truth.
Only a few now know of the peace, happiness and abundance that come from obeying God and
living His Way.
Eventually, universal prosperity, joy and peace will literally "break out" all over
the world.
Everyone will be taught God's wonderful law of love.
Satan will be bound, sickness will disappear and sin will not be tolerated.
Now when do Christians become inheritors—and no longer heirs?
Notice this remarkable statement.
Every Christian must grasp and live by it: "These all died in faith [all past Christians,
including the fathers], not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth."
The land that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sojourned in never became theirs during their lifetimes.
They died "in faith," but they did see God's promises "afar off."
Jesus taught the gospel of the kingdom of God.
As with the truth of salvation, the ministers of this world have created a substitute gospel
about the Person of Jesus.
But the truth is that Jesus announced that an all-powerful, world-ruling supergovernment
would one day come to Earth.
It would be preceded by a time of terrible world trouble and confusion, however—our
time now!
The saints would receive their inheritance at His Return, and the establishing of His
government.
Honest seekers of truth cannot get around the plain meaning of the Bible!
Jesus told Nicodemus that, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God."
When Nicodemus was confused by this, He added, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh"
and "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
God's Word teaches that a resurrection of the dead occurs at Christ's Return.
Some will not believe this though, preferring to believe the dead go straight to heaven.
Paul wrote, "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which
are asleep."
Most are completely ignorant about the resurrection.
Now notice why Paul taught this: "...that you sorrow not, even as others which have
no hope."
Now let's see when the resurrection occurs: "For the Lord Himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump[et] of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever
be with the Lord."
Clouds are only a few miles above the earth.
Airplanes fly much higher than this.
So this is not a picture of people in heaven, but rather of those who are resurrected to
be with Christ on Earth—where the clouds are.
Remember, Christ said, "I will come again."
Isaiah in the Old Testament also wrote, "The Lord God will come with strong hand,
and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him,
and His work [this Work of God you have come in contact with] before Him."
Of that time, Daniel said, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake...to everlasting life."
The knowledge that the dead are asleep in the ground has been understood long before
the New Testament.
Do you now understand why Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David and so many others have not
inherited God's promised reward?
They are dead—asleep in the grave—awaiting promises that they only saw "afar off"
during their lifetimes.
Without a resurrection, none of them—or you and I—can inherit anything.
All that they did would have been in "vain."
Ask yourself some questions.
Do you believe that the clarity and number of the scriptures you have read—and there
are many more—can be ignored?
Do you believe they can be explained away?
Will you do this?
Most people read the Bible with preconceived ideas.
They study it to find verses that support what they already believe.
Heaven is a classic example.
Vast millions would not believe they were going to heaven unless they had been told
"the Bible says so."
By now, you know the Bible says no such thing.
However, there are various supposed "proof texts" that are most often cited to prove
the "saved go to heaven" fallacy.
To understand how easily these verses are correctly explained, and to learn much more
about the subject, read this thorough booklet, Do the Saved Go to Heaven?
Heaven has never been the reward of Christians.
Your real destiny is infinitely greater—to rule the nations beside Jesus Christ—on
Earth!—as a resurrected spirit-member of God's family.
What could be more incredible?
Until next time, this is David C. Pack saying, "Goodbye, friends."
This program was made available by Restored Church of God members and donors from around
the globe.
Explore our vast library of literature and other World to Come programs, which are all
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