It's a common assumption, isn't it? You die, and if you're "good" (or, more accurately, if you're a Christian, at least according to most Christians), you go to heaven. If you're "bad" (or, more accurately, if you're not a Christian), you go to hell. Simple, binary, black and white. Except, it's not that simple. Not even close. And, frankly, the Bible paints a far more interesting, and far more hopeful, picture.
I want to clarify first, that I call myself a 'universalist'. And that doesn't mean I believe in some wishy-washy, "all paths lead to God" kind of nonsense. It means I believe what Paul actually taught: that Christ died for our sins, that He was entombed, and that He was roused the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4), and that because of this, all humanity will eventually be saved, reconciled to God, and made immortal (1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:18-19; Colossians 1:20; 1 Timothy 4:10).
But here's where it gets interesting, and where most Christians, even most universalist Christians, get it wrong. They assume that "salvation" means "going to heaven." They think that, eventually, everyone will end up in this ethereal realm, "floating on clouds, playing harps, and singing praises to God for eternity." But that's not what the Bible teaches.
The truth is, "heaven" (οὐρανός, ouranos in Greek) is not some mystical, otherworldly dimension. It's the sky, the heavens, outer space. It's the realm above the earth. "Heaven," in the Bible, isn't some fluffy cloud paradise. Birds fly in "heaven," the sun, moon, and stars are in "heaven," and, importantly, God has a throne somewhere out there in "heaven." It's a location, not just a vague spiritual concept.
Now, Paul? He talks about being "caught up to the third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:2). This implies there are levels or regions of heaven. He also mentions "paradise" in the same breath, which, in Jewish thought, was often associated with a restored, earthly kingdom, or even with a garden.
The key is, Paul doesn't say he saw disembodied souls floating around. He's talking about a place, a location, within the created order, even if it's beyond our normal experience. He even says he doesn't know if he was "in the body or out of the body" during this experience, which means it wasn't a typical state of death. Whether it was a vision or an actual, physical journey, Paul's experience points to a structured, organized heavenly realm, not just a vague, spiritual afterlife. It reinforces the idea that "heaven" is a real place, even if it's beyond our current understanding.
And, yes, there is a group of believers who are destined to go there, but it's a specific group, with a specific calling: the body of Christ.
Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, makes this abundantly clear in his epistles. He says that we, the body of Christ, are "seated with Christ in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 2:6). Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We are blessed with "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). This is not metaphorical language. It's about our future destiny, our inheritance, our calling. We are going to be with Christ, in the heavens, reigning with Him and revealing God's wisdom to the "principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10-11).
But this is not the destiny of all believers. It's the unique calling of the body of Christ, those who have understood and believed Paul's Gospel, the "good news" of God's unconditional grace and universal reconciliation.
The rest of humanity, including the vast majority of Christians who don't believe Paul's Gospel, have a different destiny. They're not going to "float away" to heaven. They're going to be resurrected to live on the earth, specifically, on the new earth (Revelation 21-22).
And even before that, there's the Messianic kingdom, the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth, centered in Israel. This is what Jesus was primarily talking about when He preached the "Gospel of the Kingdom." It's what His Jewish disciples were looking forward to. It's the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about a restored Davidic kingdom, a time of peace and justice on earth.
And this kingdom isn't for everyone. Jesus made that clear. He spoke of a "narrow gate" and a "difficult way" that few find (Matthew 7:13-14). He warned of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" for those who are excluded from the kingdom (Matthew 8:12; Luke 13:28). He spoke of "Gehenna," the Valley of Hinnom, a place of judgment and destruction, not eternal torment (Mark 9:43-48).
So, no, not everyone is "going to heaven." That's a simplistic, unbiblical idea. The Bible presents a much more complex and nuanced picture of the future. There's the body of Christ, with its heavenly calling. There's the Israel of God, with its earthly kingdom. And there's the rest of humanity, who will eventually be reconciled to God, but not in the same way, and not at the same time.
The "heaven or hell" dichotomy is a false choice. It's a distortion of the biblical message. It's a way of oversimplifying God's plan, of reducing it to a simplistic, easily digestible formula. But the truth is far more glorious, far more complex, and far more hopeful than that. It's a truth that encompasses all of creation, a truth that affirms God's unconditional love and ultimate triumph over sin and death. And it's a truth that, sadly, most Christians have completely missed.
If you're curious to learn more about this, and to see the scriptural evidence for all of this, as well on how to join the Body of Christ, I highly recommend checking out a website called https://truebiblicalfreedom
.com. It's run by a guy named Drew Costen, and honestly, he's probably the smartest person I know when it comes to understanding these things. He's got a free eBook on there that lays it all out, step by step, with tons of scriptural references and detailed explanations. Even if you don't end up agreeing with everything he says, it's worth reading, just to see a different perspective, a different way of understanding the Bible. It might just change the way you think about everything.
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