kingdomready.org

One of the most deceptive beliefs of modern Christianity is that people go to heaven at the moment of death. The Bible simply does not teach this doctrine, rather the goal is always the kingdom of God which one enters (on earth) through resurrection on the last day (when Jesus comes back). The problem with the heaven-at-death idea is that it stands out in front of the kingdom idea, effectively eclipsing it. One might say, “yeah, that sounds interesting that we will eventually be on earth, but what really matters to me is that I go to heaven when I die.” The heaven hope shifts our focus from this world to another place. Rather than yearning for the day when God sets this world right, we instead fall into an “escapist” mentality, believing that we’ll get taken out of here. After all, “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through.” Jesus simply did not talk like this at all. He was concerned about the poor, the outcasts, the lame, the lepers, the afflicted, marginalized, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He did not promise them that at death they would enter “heavenly glory.” No! Jesus promised that they would inherit the earth, they would possess the very kingdom of God, they would finally gain mercy, comfort, and would be called the children of God. The gospel is good news because God is going to act through Christ on the last day to make everything wrong with the world right. I found the following quote about heaven to be quite encouraging:

Jesus Before Christianity
by Albert Nolan, pages 57-58, 1992
The gospel or good news which Jesus brought to the poor and the oppressed was a prophecy. He prophesied a future event which would be a blessing to the poor. This event was not merely the coming of God’s “kingdom” but the coming of God’s “kingdom” for the poor and the oppressed. “Yours is the kingdom of God” (Lk 6:20).

Jesus’ basic prophecy is contained in those passages of the gospel which we call the beatitudes:

     Blessed are the poor
     because yours is the kingdom of God.
     Blessed are you who are hungry now
     because you shall be satisfied.
     Blessed are you who weep now
     because you shall laugh. (Lk 6:20-21)

…If great hopes for the future were awakened in the poor by Jesus’ activity, even greater hopes must have been awakened by his prophetic words. But these hopes had originally nothing whatsoever to do with heaven–at least not as a place of happiness and rewards in the after-life. Heaven in the time of Jesus was a synonym for God. The “kingdom” of heaven means the “kingdom” of God. Having rewards or treasures in heaven means being in the good books of God. Literally heaven was the sky, the place where God and all other spirits dwell. All dead people go into sheol, i.e., the underworld or the grave. Even those who believed in rewards and punishments in the after-life (before the general resurrection) pictured this as something that happened in two different departments of sheol. The virtuous were in the bosom of Abraham in sheol, and a great chasm separated them from the wicked, who were in another part of sheol (compare Lk 16:23-26). The Christian belief in heaven originated after the death of Jesus with the idea that he had been taken up into heaven or exalted to the right hand of God.

But the good news of the “kingdom” of God was news about a future state of affairs on earth when the poor would no longer be poor, the hungry would be satisfied and the oppressed would no longer be miserable. To say “Thy kingdom come” is the same as saying “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10 par).