Scripture Reading: John 17:1-10, 22-24; 7:29; 12:23, 28; 13:31-32; 14:13; 15:8
We come now to a very mysterious sign — the sign of the divine glorification. We have seen that anything that is divine is mysterious. This is true in particular of the sign of the divine glorification. We can explain what an abode, a vine, and a man are, but who can explain glorification? It is beyond our ability to explain fully something so mysterious as the divine glorification.
John 17:1 says, “These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” This verse is the beginning of the Lord’s prayer, a prayer that is the conclusion of the Lord’s message recorded in chapters 14, 15, and 16. During His message, the Lord does not use the word heaven or refer to heaven. It may come as a surprise, then, that 17:1 tells us that the Lord lifted up His eyes to heaven.
Some who have grasped only part of what we have said in foregoing chapters concerning a so-called heavenly mansion may be troubled and say, “You have said that there is no such thing as heaven, and now you are pointing out the fact that, according to John 17:1, the Lord lifted up His eyes to heaven when He prayed to the Father. Why do you say that there is no heaven?” I wish to make it emphatically clear that I have never said that there is no heaven. Yes, in earlier chapters I did say that there is no such thing as a heavenly mansion, that the Father’s house spoken of by the Lord in 14:2 is not a house in the heavens. But I did not say that there is no heaven. According to the Scriptures, there certainly are the heavens.
Not satisfied with this explanation, some may go on to say, “Brother Lee, we agree with you when you say that you never denied that there are heavens. But didn’t you tell us that, according to the Bible, Christians do not go to heaven when they die?” Yes, I have said that the Scriptures do not teach that Christians go to heaven when they die.
In a previous chapter we pointed out that, according to the physical aspect of the truth concerning Christ recorded in the book of Acts, Christ ascended visibly to the heavens (1:9-11). Now He is remaining in the heavens until the times of the restoration of all things (3:21). This verse indicates that heaven is an actual place. According to the Bible, there is a place in this universe called the third heaven, where God is and where the Lord Jesus went in His ascension and where He still is today. However, in these chapters on the writings of John we are not emphasizing the physical aspect of the truth; instead, we are emphasizing the divine aspect. Nevertheless, even in emphasizing the divine aspect of the truth, we do not say that there is no heaven. We have said that, according to the Bible, there is no such thing as a heavenly mansion and that it is not accurate to say that Christians go to heaven when they die.
When some read the statement that Christians do not go to heaven when they die, they may ask an important question: According to the Bible, where do believers go when they die? Because this is a serious and reasonable question, we would spend some time to consider it before going on to cover the sign of the divine glorification.
A verse that is helpful in answering the question of where believers go after death is Luke 23:43: “He said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” This is the word spoken to one of the criminals who was crucified with the Lord Jesus. This verse indicates that when the Lord Jesus died, He went to Paradise. Many Christians do not know that Paradise is in Hades. A strong proof that Paradise is in Hades is the comparison of the Lord’s word to the saved criminal in Luke 23:43 with Acts 2:27 and 31. The verses in Acts reveal that when the Lord Jesus died, He went to Hades. Matthew 12:40 indicates that Hades is in “the heart of the earth” where the Lord Jesus went for three days and nights after His death. In Hades there is a pleasant section likened to Abraham’s bosom where Lazarus went (Luke 16:23). This is not the Paradise in the heavens; it is the Paradise in Hades.
Luke 16 indicates that in Hades there is a pleasant section, known as Paradise, where believers go when they die. According to this chapter, a sinful rich man died and went to a place of torment. A beggar named Lazarus also died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. Between these two regions of Hades there was a great chasm, and no one could go from one section to the other (v. 26). One section was a place of torment, and the other was a place of comfort. We believe that Abraham is still in this pleasant place. According to the New Testament, the pleasant section of Hades is called Paradise.
Using 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, some have argued that Paul was caught away to Paradise when he was caught away to the third heaven. But 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 does not prove that Paradise is in the third heaven; rather, it proves the opposite. The word and at the beginning of verse 3 proves that Paul’s being caught away to the third heaven and his being caught away into Paradise mentioned in verses 3 and 4 are two different things. (The King James Version’s rendering “caught up” in verses 2 and 4 should be “caught away” according to the Greek.) On the one hand, Paul was living on earth; on the other hand, he was “caught away” to the third heaven and into Paradise. In this way Paul received a full vision of the entire universe. As far as mankind is concerned, the universe is of three sections: the heavens, the earth, and the section under the earth (see Phil. 2:10). Paul came to know the things on earth, the things in heaven, and the things in Paradise. He had the greatest revelation of the universe as it is related to man.
When believers die, they become “naked” in the sense that they no longer have a body. For a human being not to have a body means that he is unclothed, in a condition that is not normal. No one can be in the presence of God in the third heaven in this naked, abnormal condition. Hence, the dead saints must be kept in a pleasant place until the time of their resurrection, when God will clothe them with a resurrected body, and they will be a complete person in a normal condition.
Some Bible students believe that Paradise, the pleasant section of Hades, was transferred to the third heaven at the time of Christ’s ascension. The original Scofield Reference Bible has a note on Luke 16:23 indicating that Paradise was under the earth before Christ’s resurrection, but that by and with His resurrection and ascension it was transferred from under the earth to the third heaven. This note speaks of Hades before and after the ascension of Christ. According to this note, “Hades was formerly in two divisions, the abodes respectively of the saved and of the lost. The former was called ‘paradise’ and ‘Abraham’s bosom.’” This note also says that the believing dead were with Abraham and that the believing criminal was to be with Christ in Paradise on the very day Christ was crucified. Thus far, the note is almost accurate according to the Scriptures, and in essence we agree with it. However, the note goes on to say that a “change has taken place which affects paradise” and that Paradise is “now in the immediate presence of God.” This note uses 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 as a supposed proof that Paradise has been removed from Hades to the third heaven, the time of which change is presumed to be indicated by Ephesians 4:8-10.
It is a serious mistake to teach that Paradise has been removed from Hades to the third heaven. According to this mistaken understanding, when Christ resurrected and ascended, He took all the Old Testament saints, who were held captives in Hades, and transferred them to the third heaven. Therefore, according to this note in the old Scofield Reference Bible, Paradise and all the Old Testament saints have been transferred from Hades to the third heaven.
However, it is not accurate to say that these saints who have died are now in heaven. On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the Lord’s resurrection, Peter said, “David did not ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2:34). This indicates that even at the time of the day of Pentecost, David was still not in heaven. Concerning this, G. H. Lang, a teacher among the Brethren, says that “the Scripture nowhere declares” that after Christ’s ascension Paradise was transferred from under the earth to the third heaven, “but is wholly against” such a concept. He also points out the verse in Acts 2 where Peter said that David is not in heaven. No, Paradise has not been removed from Hades to the third heaven. Paradise is still a pleasant section in Hades, a section of comfort, where believers go when they die.
When a believer dies, his loved ones may be comforted with the truth that this one is now in Paradise. We should not cheat the believers by telling them that at death a Christian goes to a heavenly mansion. According to the truth of the Word of God, when a believer dies, he goes to Paradise, a place of comfort. On the one hand, we do not agree with the concept of a heavenly mansion and of going to heaven when we die; on the other hand, according to the Bible, we present the truth concerning Paradise.
Today’s church life eventually will consummate in the New Jerusalem. We may say that the church life today is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. Some Christians dream of going to a heavenly mansion, but God’s desire is to be with us in the New Jerusalem. Instead of waiting to go to a so-called heavenly mansion when we die, we have the blessing of dwelling in the church life today. We may say that today’s church life is the best dwelling place, a real mansion, for it is God’s dwelling place on earth. In the church, which is a miniature of the New Jerusalem, we have the golden street, the pearl gates, and the jasper wall. As we have seen, gold signifies God’s nature; pearl, Christ’s death and resurrection; and precious stone (jasper), the Spirit’s transformation. Praise the Lord that in the church life we have a golden street, pearl gates, and a wall of precious stone! We are happy, and God is also happy, to enjoy such a church life, such a dwelling place today.
According to the Scriptures, when a believer dies, he goes to Paradise. Paradise is not a place of labor; it is a place of rest, where believers wait for the physical resurrection. As believers, we have already experienced a spiritual resurrection at the time of our regeneration. When we were regenerated, we participated in a divine resurrection, a spiritual resurrection (John 5). In Paradise the believers rest and wait for their physical resurrection, when their spirit will come out of Paradise and enter into their resurrected body, and they become resurrected persons.
It is wonderful to be saved. Today we have the church life as a miniature of the New Jerusalem. If we die before the Lord’s coming, we will go to Paradise and wait there for our physical resurrection. As saved ones, we may enjoy the church life today and have the assurance of going to Paradise if we die before the Lord’s coming.
Because so many believers are influenced by traditional concepts, we need to talk about these matters in a careful, sober way. We definitely do not teach that there is no heaven. If people receive this impression concerning our teaching, trouble will be caused unnecessarily. There certainly are the heavens. However, according to the Bible, there is no such thing as a heavenly mansion. Furthermore, when a believer dies, he does not go to heaven or to a mansion in heaven; he goes to Paradise to await the coming resurrection.
In 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 Paul says, “I know a man in Christ...such a one was caught away to the third heaven. And I know such a man...that he was caught away into Paradise.” As we have indicated, it is commonly thought that these verses reveal that the third heaven in verse 2 is the same as Paradise in verse 4. This understanding, however, is not correct. The third heaven is a Hebrew expression denoting the highest heaven. The clouds may be regarded as the first heaven, and the sky above the clouds as the second. The third heaven, therefore, must be the heaven above the sky, in biblical terms, the heaven above the heavens, the highest heaven (Deut. 10:14; Psa. 148:4). Today the Father and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, are in this highest heaven (Eph. 4:10; Heb. 4:14; 1:3). According to 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul was caught away to this highest heaven.
Those interpreters of the Bible who regard the third heaven and Paradise as the same place think that Paul was caught away to Paradise when he was caught away to the third heaven. However, Paradise is not synonymous with the third heaven. We have seen that the conjunction and at the beginning of verse 3, an important word here, indicates that Paul is describing two different experiences. First, Paul was caught away to the third heaven. Then he was caught away to Paradise. Hence, Paradise is not synonymous with the third heaven. Instead, it refers to a place other than the third heaven; it refers to the pleasant section of Hades.
Recently, a sister said to me, “I heard a tape in which you said that a certain brother is now with the Lord. The Lord Jesus is in the third heaven, and the dead saints are in Paradise. If this brother is in Paradise, which is far away from the third heaven, where the Lord is, how can you say that he is with the Lord?” This question is related to Paul’s word in Philippians 1:23: “I am constrained between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for this is far better.” To be with Christ is a matter of degree, not of place. While Paul was desiring to be with Christ in a higher degree, he was already with Him continually. Through his physical death, he would be with Christ to a fuller extent than he already enjoyed in this earthly life. When Paul wrote these words in Philippians 1:23, he was in bonds suffering mistreatment. Under those circumstances, we would expect him to long to be with Christ. Any believer in Paul’s situation would have the same desire.
To be with Christ is not an absolute matter; it is a relative one. Even now, we are with Christ. Wherever we are, we are with Him. Of course, while we are in this physical body, we are not as close to Christ as we will be when we die, pass out of this world, and enter into another realm. But this does not mean that believers are taken to the heavens when they die. That will not occur until the day of resurrection and rapture.
No doubt, Paul was with Christ in prison. The fact that he was already with Christ indicates that being with Christ is not a matter of place. But although Paul was with Christ to a certain degree, he desired to be with Him to a higher degree. Paul knew that as a result of physical death he would be with Christ to a fuller extent than in his earthly life. For this reason, he could desire to depart and to be with Christ, regarding this as much better. If we understand this, we will realize that to speak of a brother as being with the Lord does not mean that the brother is now in the third heaven instead of Paradise.
Another portion of the Word related to the question of where the departed saints are is Revelation 6:9-11. Verse 9 says, “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had.” In Revelation 6:9 we see that the souls are underneath the altar. This points to the sacrifices killed on the altar. When a sacrifice was killed on the altar, its blood flowed down to the bottom of the altar and under it. The soul of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). The fact that the souls of the martyred saints are under the altar indicates that, in the sight of God, they have all been offered to Him as sacrifices on the altar and that their blood, their life, was shed there. Now their position is under the altar. In figure, the altar is in the outer court of the tabernacle and the temple, and the outer court signifies the earth. Hence, “underneath the altar” is underneath the earth, where the souls of the martyred saints are. It is the Paradise where the Lord Jesus went after His death (Luke 23:43). This is in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40) and is the comfortable section of Hades (Acts 2:27), where Abraham is (Luke 16:22-26). This Paradise differs from that in Revelation 2:7, which will be the New Jerusalem in the millennium.
We also need to consider Matthew 12:40: “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” The “heart of the earth” is called the lower parts of the earth (Eph. 4:9) and Hades (Acts 2:27), where the Lord went after His death. Hades, equal to Sheol in the Old Testament, has two sections: the section of torment and the section of comfort (Luke 16:23-26). As we have seen, the section of comfort is Paradise. Hence, the heart of the earth, the lower parts of the earth, Hades, and Paradise are synonymous terms, referring to the one place where the Lord stayed for three days and three nights after His death and before His resurrection.
Others may use 1 Thessalonians 4 to argue that the dead saints are with the Lord in heaven. They say that when Christ comes back, He will bring the dead believers with Him, and that this proves that they must be with Him now in heaven. But if we read this chapter carefully, we will see that it says that the “dead in Christ will rise first” and that those “who are left remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds” (vv. 16-17). According to 1 Thessalonians 4, the dead saints will be resurrected and, along with the living ones, will be caught up to the air to meet with Christ. This proves that before the rapture the dead saints are not in the heavens.
If we consider carefully and soberly all these verses, we will be clear from the Word of God what is the truth concerning heaven and Paradise. Although there certainly are the heavens, there is no heavenly mansion, and the believers do not go to heaven when they die.
We should read the Bible carefully and not follow today’s traditional, superficial teachings. We must be clear that the saved ones are not in the heavens today but are in a pleasant place which the Bible calls Paradise, the place the Lord Jesus visited after He died.
According to John 17:1, when the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father concerning the glorification of the Son, He lifted up His eyes to heaven. Although the Lord had spoken in the previous chapters about the Father’s house, the Father did not yet have a house on earth. Because God the Father was still in heaven, the Lord lifted up His eyes to heaven. This action points to the fact that even at that time the Father did not yet have a house on earth.
