Many Christians believe the Bible says people go to heaven eternally when they die and possibly even become angels. However, the Bible doesn’t really focus on the “afterlife”; it focuses more on the resurrection from the dead so that people can live again forever. Some Christians even object to the concept of going to heaven when we die because it doesn’t make sense for people to die and go to heaven and then get sent back to earth for the first resurrection, only to get taken back up into heaven. This is a good question to ask ourselves: Why would God have someone who is saved die and go to heaven forever, only to send them back to earth to get in their old bodies for the resurrection, so that they can be raptured back up to heaven? The Bible teaches that eternal life starts at the resurrection of the righteous (the 1st resurrection). The 2nd resurrection is for the condemnation of the unsaved, and only they are thrown into the lake of fire afterward for the “second death”.
Christians aren’t looking for an eternal afterlife, but rather the resurrection. The whole point of the resurrection is to have a body in the kingdom (2 Cor 5:3). Believers are looking forward to the new bodies in the end. Paul explains the new bodies in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 and the resurrection in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. If people got new bodies and entered the Kingdom the moment they died, then why is anyone resurrected at all? Resurrection throughout the Bible is always a reference to restoring life on earth. This is presented as either a revival of your old dead body in the grave or a reassembly of it from the dust of the earth (for those whose bodies are destroyed). So why would God send dead people with new heavenly bodies back to Earth to get resurrected if they already have a new one?
When we die, we don’t have eternal life, because we are dead. It’s not eternal “life” if you are still dead; therefore, eternal life must start at the resurrection. God is the God of the living, not the dead (Matt 22:32, Mark 12:27, Luke 20:38), and no one belongs to God in death (Psalm 6:5, Isaiah 38:18-19). This is why no one can get saved after they die. Jesus uses this concept to explain the resurrection to the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in a literal resurrection. In Matthew 22:22-33, Mark 12:18-27, & and Luke 20:27-40, Jesus in his debate with the Sadducees, referenced how God called himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (present tense) to Moses in Exodus 3:6, even though they were long dead before Moses. He said that since God is only the God of the living, how can he be the God of those dead patriarchs? Jesus answers this by revealing that God is looking forward to the future when they (along with all the other Old Testament patriarchs and the New Testament believers) will be resurrected into eternal life at the 1st resurrection. The unsaved will experience the “second death” in the Lake of Fire according to Rev 20:14, and it can’t be a second death unless they have been resurrected from the first death, right? Paul talks about the new bodies the righteous get at their resurrection in Rom 8:23, 1 Cor 15:35-58, 2 Cor 5:1-10, and Phil 3:20-21. This means that we don’t “go to heaven and become angels” as some teach when we die, but instead when we are waiting to be resurrected at the first resurrection. Side Note: We don’t become angels at all, Jesus said we become “like the angels in heaven at the resurrection” (Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, & Luke 20:36) in that we don’t marry anymore, but we will always be humans since we were originally born on earth from earthly mothers. When Jesus returns, believers will be given new bodies with eternal life, and they will be free from sin-nature. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:3 that there are no bodiless spirits in heaven, and everyone who goes to heaven needs a new heavenly body.
One way to make sense of this is to look at the parable of the 10 virgins in Matt 25:1-13. The brides are all standing outside the door of the ceremony hall, waiting for the groom because they can’t go inside until the groom gets there to escort them inside. Likewise, believers can’t go to the Kingdom until our groom (Jesus) escorts them into the Kingdom for the wedding. So, according to the Bible, when Christians die, they are waiting in death for Jesus to return and resurrect them, and then bring them into the Kingdom (1 Thess 4:13-18). How can the five foolish women be locked out of an event they are already a part of? Likewise, if Christians go to the Kingdom when they die, then why are they waiting for Jesus to come back to resurrect them and take them back into the Kingdom? If they are already there with the new bodies, why must they be resurrected? That doesn’t make any sense.
People have different views on what happens between death and resurrection. For some, what is called “Sheol” in Hebrew and Hades/Hell in European languages is simply referred to as the grave where people go into “soul sleep” (a comatose state) awaiting the resurrection, and there is no such thing as an afterlife. For others, we go to a holding place, like in Luke 16:19-31, a story Jesus tells about two people who die and what happens afterwards. Soul-sleep believers say Luke 16 is just a parable, so Sheol is not a real place. However, while parables are not historical scenarios, they are based on real-life circumstances. All of Jesus’ parables are based on practical, real, everyday experiences like harvest crops or getting married, so Luke 16 being a parable doesn’t eliminate the idea that Sheol is a place. There are variations of the afterlife view: One is that the wicked go to the fiery part of Sheol, and the righteous are on another side, separated by a great chasm in Abraham’s bosom or Paradise. This is based on the parable in Luke 16:19-31. Others believe that while the wicked stay in Sheol, the righteous abode of Abraham’s bosom/Paradise was moved to heaven when Jesus rose. The righteous dead are those in Revelation 6:9-11 waiting for the 1st resurrection, while the wicked are waiting for the 2nd resurrection in Revelation ch. 20. The Bible says God is the judge of the assembly of the spirits of the firstborn (righteous men) in heaven, which sounds like a reference to a state of bodiless existence (or afterlife) in Heb 12:22-23, so I believe that there is an afterlife, but it is temporary. Temporary because when both resurrections occur, everyone will stand before God alive with bodies to be sent to their final eternal destination. So maybe believers go to Abraham’s bosom (or possibly a new paradise holding place located in heaven, post resurrections of Jesus) where they don’t need bodies, however, they are not in the actual Kingdom because they need the new bodies to be alive (2 Cor 5:1-10), and they are waiting for the return of Jesus which initiates the 1st resurrection.
Some believers say the events of the book of Revelation happened in the 1st century, and the resurrection is a metaphor or allegory. However, Jesus is against that idea because he already told the Sadducees, who did not believe in a literal resurrection, that it is literal and real. In addition, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 responds to false teachings by some 1st-century preachers that resurrection is not literal. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-23, Paul says if the resurrection is not literal, then Christ never rose from the dead, and Christianity itself is a farce. Furthermore, he says that because Christ rose from the dead, we will rise when he returns. Paul also challenges heretics who say the resurrection happened in 2 Timothy 2:18, saying they have deviated from the truth. Jesus mentions both resurrections in John 5:28-29 and the resurrection of the righteous in Luke 14:14.
According to Bible scholar Jay McCarl, Galilean weddings never had a predetermined date. Other weddings in Israel have a date set about a few months to a year after the engagement. The date is usually set by the father of the groom, who purchased the bride for his son. However, in Galilee, the father of the groom determined the date sometime after the bride and groom had each done their preparations for the wedding. In Matt 24:36, Jesus says, “No one knows the date or hour except for the Father” about his return. According to McCarl, in that passage, Jesus is referencing this “flash” wedding system they had in Galilee.
The bride and groom would take a few months to a year to prepare for the wedding. The bride had to go to various merchants to buy materials for her dress and other things like oil for a lamp (Mat 25:1-13), because the wedding may happen at night. Meanwhile, the groom had to prepare a room for himself and his bride to live in his father’s house. Jesus said he prepared a place for the church (his bride) in his Father’s house (John 14:2-3). He explores this idea in a documentary called “BEFORE THE WRATH”.
Resources:
Jay McCarl’s website
An article about Jay McCarl’s eschatology views
A look at Jewish weddings and Bible eschatology by William Blake