Do Christians GO TO HEAVEN when they die?
Are there really "MANSIONS IN THE SKY" waiting for you?
Read the surprising PLAIN TRUTH about these vital questions
"Going to be with the Lord," it is said of dead churchgoing people today. Is this literally true? Do people really GO TO HEAVEN when they die?
An Ancient Question
Men have puzzled over the perplexing question of what happens after death for many, many centuries!
It has been somehow inconceivable to man, from his earliest beginnings, that death should end everything. Today, the modem world is divided into many major religions, each in its own turn being divided into many hundreds and even thousands of lesser sects and denominations.
The ancestor-worshippers of the Oriental family believe in a life after death with one's own relatives. The Moslems visualize an eternity in beautiful desert oases, surrounded by babbling waters and dancing girls. Different schisms of Hinduism believe in attaining to a state of "great nothingness" in "Nirvana."
Professing Christianity believes in going to "heaven." Either immediately at death, during the millennium, or at some other time.
Everywhere, there is the HOPE of a life after death — of an eternal REWARD. But nowhere, it seems, is there any agreement on WHERE THAT LIFE WILL BE SPENT!
Why Such CONFUSION? Why such IGNORANCE?
Only ONE Source
You don't need to be in confusion — you don't have to guess at the outcome of such a fantastically important question! There is an infallibly accurate, factual, thoroughly proved SOURCE to which you can go!
That source is YOUR OWN BIBLE! The Bible stands PROVED to be the inspired book of Almighty God — His written revelation to man. Paul wrote, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God [is God-breathed), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (II Timothy 3:16). Peter wrote, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Pet. 1:21).
You need to know you can rely on the Bible! You need to know you can TRUST it. You need to know you can put your FAITH in what it plainly says, and reject "feelings" of your own. You need to KNOW you can trust the Bible instead of the teachings of MEN, the assumptions of relatives, or a death-bed vision of a dying loved one!
If you are one who has always just assumed the Bible is true, but have never seen it infallibly demonstrated, then write immediately for the free booklet The Proof of the Bible!
False Assumptions
Every error is based upon a false premise just carelessly TAKEN FOR GRANTED. Most professing Christians have just TAKEN FOR GRANTED "heaven" is the reward of the saved! They have never gotten around to PROVING whether or not this is so from the Bible — but have taken it for granted!
Think for a moment! How many sermons can you recall attempting to PROVE heaven is the destiny of Christians? Probably you can recall MANY where heaven was mentioned, was contrasted to a supposed ever-burning hell, or was described. Probably, you have heard many hundreds of references to heaven as the final reward! But did you ever hear a sermon that PROVED it from God's own Word, the Bible?
No! You never did!
Do you know why?
Because IT CAN'T BE PROVED!
This doctrine — just like perhaps many others people "hold dear" — is merely ASSUMED by most professing Christianity. It is "par for the course," it is a common, unquestioned, basic assumption that is carelessly taken for granted!
You need to quit assuming! You need to see it PROVED, one way or the other! You need to KNOW the truth — and to KNOW that you know, not just carelessly assume certain points to be true.
Perhaps you feel it would be "settling" for a LESSER goal to "settle" for earth, instead of "heaven." Such sentiments are human ARGUMENTS which merely rationalize away, or reject a precious truth of God through RIDICULE, rather than carefully "searching the scriptures daily, WHETHER THESE THINGS BE so"! (Acts 17:11)
Surely you know you can't afford to let preconceived ideas, the concepts of others around you, bias or prejudice, keep you chained with bonds of ignorance.
Remember — the TRUTH of. God can be proved — it can stand on its own feet! God's precious TRUTH does not need lever "catch phrases" or plays upon words to sustain it. It alone stands the test of ALL searching of Scripture — of open-minded, earnest SEEKING for the truth! "SEEK, and ye shall find," promised your Savior!
A Perplexing Dilemma
Jesus talked, as recorded in the inspired Word of God, of a coming resurrection. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (John 5:25). He went on to talk of those who were still in their graves at the time of the second coming of Christ, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation ("judgment," margin)" (John 5:28‑29).
Very PLAIN, isn't it? Jesus said the hour was coming — very plainly referring to a yet future GENERAL RESURRECTION. He also referred to the resurrection of Lazarus and others in the New Testament when He said, "and now is." Reading on into the 11th chapter, you read of this miraculous forerunner of the great resurrection at the end of the age.
Later, Jesus said, ". . . and every one which seeth the Son, and befieveth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40). Read the exact TIME of the resurrection in your Bible! "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I WILL RAISE HIM UP AT THE LAST DAY" (John 6:44).
But what a PERPLEXING DILEMMA!
If Christians GO TO HEAVEN IMMEDIATELY WHEN THEY DIE — IF they are ALREADY in heaven, where they have been living in beautiful mansions for hundreds or even thousands of years — WHY BOTHER WITH A RESURRECTION?
If they have been released from this sin-sick world, from their old, worn-out, disease-ridden, corruptible bodies, and if they have been WITH Jesus Christ IN heaven — why would Jesus take them OUT of heaven, bring them back to earth, plunge them BACK INTO their graves, and then go to the fantastic, laborious effort of RESURRECTING THEM?
Isn't this a little difficult to believe? Does it really make sense?
Never Promised Heaven
SHOCKING though it may sound — the Jesus Christ of your Bible never promised heaven as the reward of the saved! He promised something entirely different!
Let's notice, FIRST OF ALL, the most often-quoted scriptures used by deluded men to preach the ancient, pagan doctrine of "going to heaven."
Perhaps you, like hundreds of thou-'sands of others, have supposed Jesus said plainly, in the "sermon on the mount" that Christians go to heaven when they die. But He didn't!
Let's turn to this beautiful portion of the Bible, the very heart and core of REAL Christianity — and see just what Jesus did say.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit," said Jesus, "for theirs is the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN" (Matt. 5:3). "Why, doesn't that SAY He promised heaven?" you might ask. No, it doesn't!
What if Jesus had said, "for theirs is the Bank OF Morgan"? DOES THIS MEAN He promised the money, and the stocks, bonds, securities, the wealth of the bank which is IN — INSIDE OF — Morgan? Why, of course, this would be ridiculous! Notice the proof right in the same section. "Blessed are the MEEK," said Jesus two verses later, "for THEY shall INHERIT THE EARTH" (Matt. 5:5).
Does this mean the "poor in spirit" (which merely means those who are truly HUMBLE) are to go to HEAVEN, while those possessing a very similar attribute of Christian character, that of MEEKNESS, are to stay here on earth?
No! It means just what it says —that overcomers are to inherit the earth — the kingdom OF heaven — not the kingdom IN heaven!