"See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;" Rev. 21:3
Jn. 14:1-3 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.
1 Chron. 17:9, “And I will make for my people a prepared place, and they shall dwell in their places, and they shall not tremble more.” (Targum on this verse)
Once upon a time in Seventh-day Adventism people used to talk a lot about our future life on the new Earth. Since as all Adventists agree, those who are saved will spend the vast majority of their eternal life on the earth made new, all sorts of interesting questions used to arise about our life on the New Earth. Some with minds geared more to the practical things of life used to wonder if we would still go to the toilet on the new Earth. Some insisted we will still be eating, but others couldn't get their heads around the idea of having to deal with the by-product. Others wrestled with whether we would be able to fly, since they envisaged us travelling to distant worlds, and if so, how would we get there?
I am sorry to say that I cannot answer your queries about if we will or won't use the "little" house, or to put it in even more delicate terms, powder our noses on the Earth made new, and while I fly quite well in my dreams, I am not too sure if that will qualify me for a licence in the age to come.
But what I want to suggest is that over time, and I can think back 45 years in my Adventist life, discussion of our life on the New Earth has diminished and nowadays you almost never hear Adventists discussing the New Earth. What you hear instead is an almost universal reference to Heaven as our future home. "When we get to heaven..." you will hear people say, but there is not much talk of the New Earth. I call this a reversion to the mean, but I will get back to that later. Adventists believe the saved go to live in heaven after the resurrection, for the duration of the Millenium (the thousand-year period mentioned in Revelation 20), and then they return with Christ to live on a re-created earth for eternity. This return to earth would have to be considered a third coming of Christ, something the New Testament never mentions.
Christians almost universally believe they will go to heaven when they die, or, in Adventist terms, when Jesus returns. It is one of the strongest teachings within Christianity and throughout the history of Christianity, that heaven is our place of eventual rest and eternal life. People have no concept of what life will be like in Heaven, but there is a general agreement that that is where we live if we are part of the saved.
As a young Catholic I was never much enamoured of talk about a nebulous spirit world where I could only imagine floating around as a spirit and doing absolutely nuffin! It sounded like the most boring existence imaginable. To a young boy keen on growing wheat, breeding pigeons or sheep, playing tennis, or enjoying a thousand activities in nature – the divide between that and floating around as a puff of smoke in a timeless void was so great that I had no strong desire to get there. I did have a strong belief in God, just the same.
As a new Seventh-day Adventist it was a major, joyous revelation to me that we would spend almost all of our saved lives living on a re-created earth. That prospect sounded fantastic to me, and still does. I love learning about nature and science, and I love working in nature, and to continue that life on a re-created Earth is something I really look forward to.
But did you know that despite the massive emphasis right through most of Christian history and in almost all Christian denominations, the Bible nowhere mentions a journey to heaven, nor is heaven ever mentioned as the dwelling place of the saved, even for a short period. In fact, in the entire Bible there is not a single text to suggest this. But more than the absence of a single text, it is not even a concept entertained in the Bible.
If we want to establish a doctrine we must have two basic things in place. We should have at least a single passage that teaches very clearly what we hold to be true, and secondly, it needs to be an organic teaching through scripture.
What we can definitely say up front is that there are numerous verses that speak about treasure or reward that is stored up for the saved in heaven (Matt 5:12/Lk 6:23; Matt 6:20; Matt 19:21/Mk 10:21/Lk 18:22; 2 Cor 5:1; Col 1:5; 1 Pet 1:4 {note: it is ‘kept’, 'reserved' in heaven for you}), but nowhere is there a single hint that the faithful will go to heaven to receive that treasure. Rather, the NT teaches that Jesus brings the rewards of heaven and salvation with him when he comes (Matt 16:27; 25:31-34; Lk 14:14; Col 3:4; 2 Tim 4:8; Rev 22:12). Note: Phil 3:20 “our citizenship is in heaven” is present tense, meaning it is ours now while we wait here on earth, and retained for us there as our reward.
Matthew 6:20–21 (NRSV) — 20 ... store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
1 Peter 1:3–5 (NRSV) — 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Luke 14:13–14 (NRSV) — 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Jesus told four parables about his Second Coming (The Faithful and wise Servant – Matt 25:45-51; The Ten Virgins – Matt 25:1-13; The Talents – Matt 25:14-30; and The Sheep and the Goats – Matt 25:31-46). They each indicate that the faithful will be rewarded right here on Earth.
Three key passages are used to suggest that we will be taken to heaven.
A) 1 Thess 4:16-17
1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (NRSV) —16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.
This is the only passage in the Bible that says we will leave the surface of the earth at the Second Coming (SC) of Jesus. There is no mention of the resurrected going to heaven here, only that Christ has come from heaven. The main focus here is our union with Jesus, forever.
The Greek phrase eis apantesin tou kyriou (to meet the Lord) was used in Hellenistic times describing the leading citizens of a city going out to meet a dignitary to give him an honorary escort for the final part of his journey into the city. So Jesus loyal subjects would be going out to accompany him on the final part of his triumphant return. Several commentators mention ‘apantesin’ as a special term relating to a king or dignitary being welcomed to a city.
But we don't need to go out of the Bible to find Paul's inspiration on this matter. Paul's influence in this matter could well have been the many references in the OT, like Ps. 68:24ff. Or Ps. 24:7-8, where Israel accompanied Yahweh's ark of the covenant and her victorious king into Jerusalem and to the Temple.[2]
And this custom of going out to meet the Lord is also mentioned in Matt 25:1, 6 where the five virgins go out to meet (apantesin) the bridegroom coming to the wedding banquet. Of course this is a parable about Jesus SC, and his disciples going out to meet and welcome him to the great feast of celebration at his return.
The same theme is found in John 12:12-13 where the crowd goes out to meet Jesus on his triumphal entry as he approaches Jerusalem. (also cf. Acts 28:15)[3]. Again, this is a symbolic enactment of Jesus return in glory as King of kings and Lord of lords. His followers go out to meet him, the most important dignitary in history, to escort him back to his city, Jerusalem.
So here we have the OT and NT both with instances where the people of God go out to escort their triumphant Lord to his final destination.
Let's look at the second key passage, and we need to put these verses in their context, so let's start in John 13:33
B) John 14:1-3
John 13:33–14:31 (NRSV) —33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ ...36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.
14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ...
23 Jesus answered him (Judas, not Iscariot), “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. …
This is the second and perhaps the main passage that is used to support the idea that we will go to heaven to live when Jesus returns. The majority assume that “my Father’s house” is a synonym for heaven. But there are several scholars that have seen there is an interpretation that fits the context better, and that also agrees with the general teaching of the Bible. It is important that we find an understanding that fits both the context and agrees with what the Bible teaches generally on this theme. It is not only important to have texts that say something clearly, but this must also agree with what scripture teaches in an organic way in different places.
The truth is Jesus never referred to heaven as ‘my Father’s house.’ He called the Temple my Father’s house, but never heaven. The translation of certain texts are actually heavily influenced by the historical tradition of translation passed down the years.
Jn 13:31-38
Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to glorify the Father (by giving his life on the Cross). After that the Father would glorify him (by raising him from the dead). When Peter suggests he will follow Jesus, Jesus tells Peter that he cannot follow him now, but that Peter will follow later. This is referring to Peter’s eventual death on a cross in martyrdom. Jesus must first “go away,” for Peter’s sake, and for that of the whole world, since what Jesus has to accomplish (for Peter and for the all of us) does not lie in Peter’s power.
Jesus is talking about his departure in death. In one breath Jesus tells his disciples he is going to his death (13:36), and in the next he reveals the reason why he is going to his death (14:2). He is going to his death in order to prepare a place for them with his Father. The context here is that Jesus is going to his death and then returning to his disciples from the grave. Jesus is going to his death on the Cross so his disciples can have a rightful 'place' with the Father. ‘My death will make it possible for you to be with the Father.’
Notice that John 14:6 gives further explanation of why Jesus is going, in response to Thomas’ interjection. Jesus explains that he is the “way” to the Father and that no one comes to the Father except by the efficacy of his sacrifice. That is the import of the verse, and in context it is the meaning of verse 3 as well (see also 14:23 below).
The New Living Translation (NLT) puts it like this,
Jn. 14:1-3 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” (NLT - emphasis mine)
According to this translation Jesus is going to the cross to prepare a place for all who have faith in him, and then at his return in glory "when everything is ready" he will come to us so we can always be with him.
And then look at verse 14:23
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them." [4][5]
The key message here is that God comes to make his home with his people, not the other way around. It is saying that the blood of Jesus makes this room with the Father available to believers.
John 14:23 This is an amplification of what Jesus says in verse 2, and the word “home” here is the same Greek word used in verse 2 (μονή). It is translated variously as home, rooms, dwelling place, abode and mansions. These are the only two occurrences in the entire Bible of this word, so the clarification in verse 23 must interpret verse 2, and we must notice that here, as is always the case in the Bible, God comes to us to make his home where we are, not the other way around. The Bible makes it plain that when Jesus returns the second time he brings with him all the rewards of heaven – life everlasting, the New Jerusalem, and his own presence, and then God will dwell with us for all time on earth.
So here in 14:2-3, “my Father’s house” is a place of abode with God, it is God's household, and a place in God’s plan for us to live with him on the Earth made new. It should not be seen as a physical building, but rather a household or family. Jesus makes a place for us with God by going to the Cross for us. And then when Jesus comes the second time, he will make his home with us on earth in the age to come.
Notice Jesus says to Thomas, he is the Way the Truth and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him, meaning through the means of his death on the cross. So the destination Jesus is referring to here is most likely the grave.
If Jesus is referring to his ascension to heaven, this can only be read as his brief ascension to heaven after his resurrection, in order to offer his sacrifice on the cross to the father, in order to make possible the reconciliation of man with God.
We must read this, as every other Biblical text, in context. Jesus devoted a considerable proportion of this speech to his going away and his coming back. To pick out just two of these verses and give them an interpretation out of harmony with the context is not good exegesis.
Was Jesus alluding to a prophecy in the Old Testament?
Some scholars see that Jesus could well be alluding here in John 14:1-2 & 23 to a passage in Chronicles. David had just built himself an expensive mansion, but when he suggested he would now build Yahweh a house, the Lord told him differently.[6] God is speaking here.
1 Chronicles 17:9–15 (NRSV) — 9 I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly, 10 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. 11 When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. 15 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
This passage is surely the key to what Jesus had to say about preparing a “house” for his people. There is a Rabbinical targum, or commentary, on the 1 Chronicles passage, which Jesus may be referring to, which reads like this,
1 Chron. 17:9, “And I will make for my people a prepared place, and they shall dwell in their places, and they shall not tremble more.”
So the meaning here is not about a mansion or any kind of dwelling, but to having protection in a safe haven in God’s household where danger will be excluded.
Certainly what Nathan’s prophecy is referring to is not Solomon, who built the Temple, but the Messiah, Jesus, the son of David coming to establish a house, in the sense of a household, for God’s people. So this passage is almost certainly the passage Jesus is alluding to in John 14:1-3.
The third passage used for suggesting we go to heaven is:
C) Matt 24:30-31
Matthew 24:29–31 (NRSV) — 29 “Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The elect are gathered by the angels from the four corners of the earth, but we are told nothing more than this. If it were not for 1 Thessalonians 4 we would not even guess that they would be gathered to the clouds to meet Jesus.
So the suggestion that we will go to heaven hinges on one passage, that of John 14:1-3. And as we already determined, the context of this passage is Jesus going to the Cross to prepare a place in the Father's houshold, and not to heaven to build us a mansion.
Platonic Philosophy
So where did we get the idea that the saved will go to heaven to live for eternity?
Our concept of heaven has been shaped by a Catholic understanding based on Greek mythology, rather than on what scripture teaches. Unfortunately, many Christians are not serious students of God’s word. The majority have always been reflectors of other men’s thoughts and it is easier to follow the popular crowd. And the popular crowd goes right back to Plato, the father of Philosophy who lived 400 years before Christ. It is from Plato of course that we inherit the idea that man is made up of three parts, body, soul and spirit, and the follow-on of this is the immortality of the soul. In Plato's mind the corrupt physical world is simply a shadow of the real or ideal world which is invisible and perfect. At death the body, which is evil, decays and is no more, while the soul flies to the ideal spirit world.
Augustine of Hippo (St. Augustine) was a pagan convert to Christianity 400 years after Christ, and unfortunately he brought with him into the church many Greek philosophic ideas which have remained part of Christian thinking ever since. The idea that the soul is immortal (that it lives forever) and flies away to heaven or hell at death is part of the legacy of Augustine and was taken directly from Platonic thinking.
1) Biblical Concept – Mankind is physical and our home is Earth
But the biblical concept, based on the teaching that God created this physical universe and us as physical beings is far different. The Bible teaches that the earth was created as our physical home for all time. Sin intervened, but it was dealt with by the death of Christ, and finally the physical earth will be re-created in its pristine form and will again be our home for all time. The resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee of that re-creation, and Revelation 21 says he will come again to make his home with us here on earth.
2) In Judaism there is no concept of Israel (the people of God) travelling to heaven to live.
Judaism knew nothing of living a future life somewhere out in the universe. Heaven was God's home, but earth is our home. In Bible terms there are only two time periods, "this age" and "the age to come", and both are lived here on earth. The "age to come" was always centred on the promised land before Jesus came.
Man was created a physical being to dwell in this precise physical realm of earth (Gen 1 & 2), and the OT always paints redeemed man as living on a restored and perfected earth (Isa. 11; 60-66; Hos. 14:4-7; Joel 3:18-21). It is only here on earth that the “wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat.”
In the NT the theme does not change. The inheritance of the faithful is a renewed and re-created earth. Jesus clearly tells us that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” (Matt.5:5 cf. Matt 5:12). (c.f. 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21-22). Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that believers go from earth to heaven to live. In Scripture it is always God who comes to fallen man, not the other way around. God came to fallen man in Eden; he came to men at the Tower of Babel, and to the Hebrews at Sinai. Jesus came in the flesh to Bethlehem, and he will come again to earth at the close of this present age.
Revelation 21:1–27 (NRSV) — 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;
Tradition has much to say about the souls of the saints going to a heavenly home somewhere out in the ether, but the Bible does not teach this. It is a myth like the many others that came to Christianity through the Medieval Church. This myth has a Greek pagan origin. It is a Platonic idea.
It is also interesting that in my 45-plus years as an Adventist the focus has subtly shifted from seeing and speaking about the New Earth as our everlasting home, to speaking only of our time in heaven. Some may see this as a shorthand way of talking about our stay in heaven for the thousand years of the millennium followed by an everlasting life on earth, but if we never speak of our life on earth, then this aspect slowly disappears from view. Because the universal drift of belief has always been towards the ancient idea that we go and live in heaven. This is Platonism, and this is where Catholicism picked it up, through Augustine of Hippo.
I am sure you may have many questions around this theme, and I am happy to field them afterwards. I have not broached the subject of the Millennium at all, or that of the fate of Enoch, Moses or Elijah, and I have not mentioned how our pioneers understood last day events or the prophecies. I have only had time to outline the basic texts and ideas here. So please feel free to come and discuss it afterwards.[7]
Conclusion
“Throughout the entire Bible, the ultimate destiny of God’s people is an earthly destiny... Biblical thought always places man on a redeemed earth, not in a heavenly realm removed from earthly existence.” [8]
That quotation is from a Baptist theologian, George Eldon Ladd, in his commentary on Revelation. Non-Adventist theologians can see this, and there are many of them from various denominations, and they can see this because they are divesting themselves of previous Christian tradition and being very honest with scripture.[9]
The Bible teaches that we need to start living the eternal life Jesus has procured for us now, here on earth. This is where we will live it, and the only thing that will interrupt that eternal existence is the short sleep of the first death. “Surely I am coming soon. Come Lord Jesus!" (Rev. 22:20)
[1] This sermon is based on a study by Ritchie Way, subsequently published in Good News Unlimited. [2] God is a Warrior. Longman, Tremper III, And Reid, 2195 [3] The Christians of Rome going out to meet Paul and escort him into Rome. [4] Some exegetes have interpreted οἰκία in a corporate sense, in the light of the concept of the Church as a spiritual house or temple of God (cf, e.g., 1 Cor 3:16–17; Eph 2:20–22; 1 Pet 2:5, also John 2:19–21); the promise in vv 2–3 is then thought to relate to the fellowship which will be possible through Christ’s departure and return through the Spirit. {Or, primarily his return at the Second Coming} [From Logos, WBC Vol. 36, John, Beasely-Murray, G.R.) [5] From Logos word search of John 14:2, 23 μονή, ῆς f: a place where one may remain or dwell—‘place, dwelling place.’ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ πατρός μου μοναὶ πολλαί εἰσιν ‘in my Father’s house are many dwelling places’ Jn 14:2; ἐλευσόμεθα καὶ μονὴν παῤ αὐτῷ ποιησόμεθα ‘I will come and live with him’ (literally ‘… and make my dwelling place with him’) Jn 14:23. [6] From Logos, NICNT, Luke, Green, J.B. “S. Aalen…thinks that the present passage (Jn. 14:1-3) is dependent on the targum of 1 Chron. 17:9(-14), “And I will make for my people a prepared place, and they shall dwell in their places, and they shall not tremble more” (NTS, 8 [1961–62], p. 238). The words in italics indicate the close resemblances. [7] "There is no excuse for anyone taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation... E.G. White “Shall we drive our stakes of doctrine one after another, and then try to make all Scripture meet out established opinions?...Long-cherished opinions must not be regarded as infallible…Those who sincerely desire truth will not be reluctant to lay open their positions for investigation and criticism, and will not be annoyed if their opinions and ideas are crossed. This was the spirit cherished among us forty years ago. We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible… Selected Messages 1:37 E.G. White [8] Commentary on the Revelation of John. G.E. Ladd. (1972), 275 [9] Herman Ridderbos and N.T. Wright are other notable examples.
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