The Hope of the Saints is Not Going to Heaven

The HOPE of the righteous is RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD. It is NOT the hope of “going to heaven,” for nowhere in scripture does it say heaven is our destination when we die no matter how this unbiblical teaching is reinforced in hymns, at funerals, in literature, in the pulpits, and Hollywood movies.

God is going to renew this earth and promised that the righteous are going to "inherit the earth." Jesus repeated this promise: 

"Blessed are the meek, for they are going to inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

This renewed earth is the reward and inheritance of all the saints.

"For evildoers will be cut off, but as for those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the earth. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the earth and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity...The LORD knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will be forever... For those blessed by Him will inherit the earth, but those cursed by Him will be cut off...The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever...Wait for the LORD and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it" (Psalm 37:9-34).

Question:  Just curious....what about when Jesus said, "This day, you shalt be with me in Paradise?"  And, "In my Father's house there are many mansions."

Good question.  There is so much to cover, but I will try to give it to you in a nut shell. 

One of the scriptures you are talking about is John 14:1-3

Concerning preparing a place, it says, 

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1–3).

Just to make some points.

1.  Heaven is never referred to as "my Father's house." (Allusion to the temple)
2. Jesus is not talking about taking them to heaven when they die. If this were so, we would have Jesus “coming back” many times after each person dies and individual resurrections.
3. We know that Jesus is not literally building buildings or mansions (translated “dwelling places”) There is no construction work going on in heaven. :) 

But Jesus does promise to prepare a place for us. A question to ask is, Where is this place? It will be here on earth when he returns, thus fulfilling a prophecy given by the angels in Acts 1:11. It is also in harmony with Jesus in 1 Thess. 4:13-17 where we will be united with Christ at the “second coming.” The coming of Christ fulfills a multitude of prophecies of the “Kingdom of God” in the Old and New Testaments. 

All the saints will have important position of authority in the coming Kingdom, the Millennium, which will be initiated by Jesus’ Coming (Rev.19:11-20:6; Isa. 9:6-9; Ps. 2; Acts 3:21). The saints will judge the world and angels (1 Cor. 6:2-3). Jesus restores life to conditions seen in the Garden of Eden (Rev. 20:1-6; Is. 2:1-4; 9:6-9; 11:1-16; 51:1-8; 60-62; 65:17-25; Ps. 2:6-12; 110:1-7; Mt. 5:5; 6:10; 17:11; 19:28; Acts 1:6; 3:21).

As far as the thief on the cross, this is really no problem. The thief on the cross said to Jesus, 

“Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). 

Again, there is nothing in there that says anything about going to heaven. It's about a “Kingdom.” "...come into your kingdom."

When Christ died, he didn't go to heaven, but was in the grave and it was on the third day that God raised (resurrected) him from the dead. Christ was raised to a life of immortality, which is promised to all those who believe the gospel about the Kingdom that Christ preached. 

Jesus responded to the thief,

“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

We have a system of punctuation in the English that was not used in the Greek language. There is a big difference when a comma is moved or not in the correct place. The translators give us the impression that Jesus went to heaven the day he died, as well as the thief. To get a correct reading, and which “harmonizes” with other passages of scripture, it should read, 

“Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

Now, if paradise is in heaven, neither the thief or Jesus went to heaven that day. Christ was three days in the grave and after his resurrection Christ said to Mary Magdalene, “I have not yet ascended to My Father.” So I can say with confidence that the comma is in the wrong place. That simple comma where the translators has placed it makes other passages of scripture contradict. 

Paul received a vision of paradise (2 Cor.12:3-4), the garden of Eden. Paradise will be the restored garden of Eden, which contains the tree of life: 

“To him who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise garden of God” (Rev. 2:7; 22:2). 

God never promised eternity in heaven as a reward for the saved, but a promise to “enter the Kingdom.” Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of his Father. When Jesus comes again he will reign on earth and we, as coheirs, will reign with him (compare for example - Romans 8:17; 2. Tim. 2:12; Hebrews 1:1-2; 2:5-11; Rev. 5:10; Revelation 21:7). 

So ultimately, we inherit the entire universe, “inherit the earth.”

The Son of God Came Into Existence at His Begetting in Mary's Womb

PRE-HUMAN EXISTENCE CONTRADICTS LUKE

 Luke makes it very clear that “the Son of God” was brought into existence in Mary’s womb when Gabriel told her:

 “…for that reason (Gk dio kai) [the creative miracle in Mary] what is born (aorist of gennao = “brought into existence”) will be called holy, God’s Son” (Luke 1:35).

The Greek dio kai means “precisely for that reason.”’ It does not mean ‘for that reason also’ as mistakenly entered in the NWT and KJV. Protestant theologian Wolfhart Pannenburg states that:

In Luke the divine Sonship is established by the almighty activity of the divine Spirit upon Mary (Luke 1:35)… Jesus’ divine Sonship is explicitly established by his miraculous birth…Jesus’ virgin birth stands in an irreconcilable contradiction to the christology of the incarnation of a pre- existent Son of God.   Jesus God and Man (pp. 120, 143).

In volume 1, (p. 105) of his History of Dogma Professor Adolf Harnack also notes that: “The miraculous genesis of Christ in the virgin and a real pre-existence of Christ are of course mutually exclusive.” 

THE EXISTENCE OF THE SON OF GOD WAS CAUSED BY HOLY SPIRIT

Holy spirit at Jesus’ conception was the cause of his becoming God’s Son. Therefore Jesus was never God’s Son at any time prior to his birth. Because Jesus came into existence as the Son of God when he was conceived in Mary’s womb he could not have already been in existence as the Son of God! As Gabriel states:

“This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32). 

Matthew 5:9 and Luke 6:35 demonstrate that “will be called sons of God” means exactly the same as “will be sons of the Most High.” In Luke 6:35 Christians “will be sons of the Most High” and yet they did not pre-exist. Furthermore, this one was going to be great. This means that if he had pre- existed his birth he certainly would not have been great. That goes completely against the idea of him having previously been an archangel or “a god.”

PRE-HUMAN EXISTENCE CONTRADICTS MATTHEW

1.  The Kingdom Interlinear Translation (KIT), under its Greek text of Matthew chapter one, makes it clear that Jesus' very beginning or origin was when he was begotten by God in Mary's womb.  This is right at that beginning of Matthew's description:

“The book of the history (“origin” in KIT. Gk geneseoos from genesis) of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1).

"...the birth ("origin" in KIT. Gk. geneseoos) of Jesus Christ was...Mary...was found to be pregnant by holy spirit" (Matt. 1:18)

In his detailed birth narrative Matthew uses the word genesis in 1:1 and 1:18. In Bauer’s Greek- English Lexicon genesis is defined as: “One’s coming into being at a specific moment, birth."  Also "state of being - existence" and "of ancestry as point of origin."

However, one’s actual origin — one’s genesis — implies the event of one’s coming into existence and so refers to the time of one’s conception in the womb and not to the event of one’s birth. According to all Greek-English lexicons the usual Greek word for “birth” is gennesis and not genesis, although this can also mean “birth.” However, “birth” is not the right meaning in the context of Matthew 1:18 because the next thing stated in verse 18 of Matthew’s account is that “Mary…was found to be pregnant by holy spirit.” So the word genesis, as used in 1:18, does not concern Jesus’ birth but his begetting i.e. his point of coming into existence — his beginning. So because the Greek of Matthew 1:18 has the word genesis and not gennesis it should never have been translated as “…the birth of Jesus Christ was ...” but as: “The origin of Jesus Christ was…” or “The beginning of Jesus Christ was…” Also Matthew 1:1 is best translated as “The book of the origin” of Jesus Christ…” or “The book of the beginning of Jesus Christ…” This shows that Jesus ‘originated’ in a line from Abraham, and so Darby’s translation reads: “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ.” In fact, Associate Professor of Religious Studies Dr. Bart Ehrman states that: “the earliest and best manuscripts agree in introducing the passage with the words: ‘The beginning of Jesus Christ happened this way.’ The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, p. 75.

Also Dr Hagner in the Word Biblical Commentary understands that Matthew 1:18: “Picks up the genesoos, ‘origin’ of 1:1 and suggests that the Biblos genesoos, ‘record of origin,’ now reaches its goal.” So although Matthew 1:1 involves Jesus’ ancestry — his origin because of his line of descent from Abraham through David, yet logically it “reaches its goal” when Jesus comes into actual existence at the end of that line i.e. his begetting as stated in verse 20.

2.  Furthermore, the Kingdom Interlinear Translation makes it clear that Jesus - the Son of God by his begetting by holy spirit in Mary's womb according to Luke 1:35 - did not come into existence until he was 'fathered,' 'generated,' or 'begotten' by God in Mary.

 “… for that which has been begotten (“generated” in KIT. Gk gennethen from gennao) in her is by holy spirit” (Matt. 1:20). 

This Greek word egennesen (from gennao) meaning “fathered,” “was begotten,” “generated,” or “brought into existence” is used for the more than 40 individuals in Matthew’s genealogical list of Jesus’ ancestors who were ‘fathered’ i.e. brought into existence at conception. The rather dated word “begat,” as used in the KJV etc., gives the accurate meaning of gennethen but the New Jerusalem Bible expresses it accurately in modern terms as, for instance: “Abraham fathered Isaac.” Yet none of these 40 individuals had a pre-human existence. So also with reference to Jesus, the word gennethen does not allow for any pre-human existence for him i.e. he did not exist as a person prior to his begetting in Mary’s womb. Matthew’s account in chapter one alone demonstrates that Jesus was not in existence at any time prior to his begetting by holy spirit.

Therefore, at no time do the Matthew or Luke accounts indicate that Jesus was only coming into existence as a human, as though he was first alive and then merely passed through Mary rather than originating in her as Matthew 1:20 states. If these two accounts given by Luke and Matthew under inspiration are taken seriously, they negate all attempts to give Jesus an origin before his conception, which is why Matthew and Luke appear first in the Christian Greek Scriptures. They state that God ‘fathered’ or “brought Jesus into existence’ by miracle at that time and therefore that must, in all logic, be when Jesus became the Son of God as is stated by Luke. In fact, a person is what he is according to his origin and does not change from one species to another — not from angel or any spirit creature to human.  

By By Raymond C. Faircloth

For full detail click here

Jesus Went To Hell?

In the Old Testament we find the word “Sheol,” and in the New Testament we find the equivalent word “hades.” These words are related to the word “death,” “grave” or “gravedom.” We will find them translated as “grave,” “pit,” or “hell.” These two words (Sheol and Hades) have nothing to do with the supposed endless torture in a raging hell-fire, but with “gravedom.”

When Peter made his confession of who Jesus is, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the GATES OF HELL shall not prevail against it.” (Mat 16:17-18)

There are many who think that when Christ died, that he suffered and burned in hell, but God didn’t let him stay there to suffer like that. This is incorrect.

The “hell” mentioned in Matt.16 has nothing to do with hell-fire. Most translations have “hades.” This simply has to do with “death,” “grave” or “gravedom.”

Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10) Jesus was not talking about “hell” as in hell-fire, but about death. Jesus is building a church where DEATH HAS NO POWER. The CEV translation states:

“So I will call you Peter, which means ‘a rock’. On this rock I will build my church, and DEATH ITSELF will not have any power over it.”

What is that rock? The revelation of knowing who Christ is (v.16), believing the gospel he preached.  Jesus didn't go to hell, but to the grave and three days later God raised him from the dead!  Death had no power.

So what Jesus said had nothing to do with the gates of hell as in hell-fire, (which there will be where everything and evil doers will be destroyed), but about death.  He certainly knew about the "gates of death."

“Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?” Job 38:17

“Be gracious to me, O LORD! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death…” Ps. 9:13

“…they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Ps. 107:18

The Dead Still Living?

Scripture teaches us the facts about the dead:

• Psalms 6:3-5 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long? Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

• Psalms 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
• Psalms 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish
• Ecclesiastes 9:5,6  For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

• Isaiah 38:18-19, "For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth."

What is the Law of Christ?

Paul told the Christians in Galatia to carry each other's burdens, and in doing so they would fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal. 6:2)

In Acts 3:22 Peter told the people concerning Jesus the Messiah and what Moses said:

 "For Moses said, 'The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you."  (See Duet. 18:15, 18)

What is the law of Christ? 

The Future as Jesus Saw It in Matthew 24, Mark 13

From Focus on the Kingdom
Vol. 12 No. 12 Anthony Buzzard, editor September, 2010

Many people are rightly concerned with the future, theirs and that of society. The internet is teeming with attempts to tell us what Jesus foretells for the future of our world. Matthew 24, the long Olivet Discourse, is properly the center of attention, since in that marvelous, if alarming, chapter the Lord Messiah answered the crucial question posed by his devoted students.

Supposing you, the reader, to be one such dedicated student of Jesus, you will want to present at that momentous teaching session. We can all chime in with their initial inquiry: “When will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?”

The disciples were not fools! They had been well instructed, and they asked the right question. Jesus had just spoken of desolation in the temple building. Because the disciples and Jesus knew the book of Daniel well, they assume that trouble in the temple will be connected directly with the “coming” (Parousia) of the Messiah and “the end of the age” (misleadingly mistranslated in the KJV as “end of the world”).

Preterism: The Doctrine of Hymeneus

If there is one thing I dislike, are people who hold to a false doctrine such as Preteristism (which means “past fulfillment”), who claim the magic year everything fulfilled was in 70 A.D., which wipes out dozens of prophecies that were not yet fulfilled.

They want you to prove from scripture that what they believe is false.  The request to “discuss scripture” may sound sincere, but the tactic ends up with spiritualizing many passages of scripture and having to redefine theological terms and accept their redefinitions.  They come up with scripture that seems to be persuasive to their position, and if you decide not to engage in the conversation, then you are considered, “not on board,” because you refuse to take their bait.

Are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Alive or Dead?

Question: "How can you say the dead are not really alive? Jesus says that God is not the God of the dead but of the living."

Answer: The Sadducees, who were opposed to a resurrection, asked Jesus a question. (See Luke 20:27-33)

Jesus went on to answer:

And answering, Jesus said to them, The sons of this world marry and are given in marriage. But those counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they are not able to die any more; they are equal to angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses pointed out at the Bush, when he calls the Lord "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him. (Luke 20:34-38)

Look at it this way. God is not the God of the dead, but "of the resurrected.” Look at the context. Even though "living" is present participle, it does not necessarily indicate present time. The participle is used as a noun. It’s not saying they are living now or living in the future, or lived in the past. "The living" simply names a class of people. We have to determine from the context to know when they are living. The context is “in the resurrection.”

"...and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage."

The context does take us to a time in the future… Jesus is talking about "in the resurrection."

It Wasn't Just Jesus' Body That Was Dead

We can thank Plato for the unbiblical idea that when a person dies, the “soul” would still survive, thus immortal soul.  We have been programmed to think that the body is distinct from the person's  identity, i.e., individual personality - physical life. But to the Hebrew mindset the body or flesh, the person, were all one being.  When God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life, it says he became  “a living soul.”  Not that Adam had a soul implanted in him.  And people may not be aware, but animals are called “souls” as well.  We don’t have a soul, we are a soul.

We are not just a body.  We are a whole human being that is able to think, reason, communicate, and have emotions.  These are not separate from our body.   

What About the Person Who Has Never Heard the Gospel?

I saw a video clip where Oprah Winfrey asked one of the people in her audience about the Jungle man who has never heard the gospel.  She could not believe that God would condemn someone to hell if they never heard the gospel.  I will have to say, it was a good question.  I believe Romans 2:14 is the answer.

“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:”

They do by nature the things contained in the law.  There is a moral law within all of us. We know that when we do something that is not right; our conscience will condemn us. God gives man a conscience to know the difference between good and evil, and the choice to choose what path we will follow (Exodus 20:6, Micah 6:8; Isa. 55:7; Psalm 50:23, 97:11, 103:17-18, Prov 28:18; Acts 17:26-27; Acts 10:34-35, Romans 2:14-15, ).

The Rich Man and Lazarus

From Life, Death and Destiny ( 1st Edition) by Warren Prestidge

Does the Rich Man and Lazarus teach that the wicked pass at death to torment in hell?

In Luke 16:19-31, we find Jesus’ famous story about a rich man who went to torment after death, while Lazarus, a poor man who had passed a miserable existence outside the rich man’s gate, went to “Abraham’s bosom”. Does not this passage, then, teach that the wicked pass at death to torment in hell, while the righteous go immediately to bliss? My answer, and that of most reputable scholars today, is: no.

Gone Home To Be With The Lord?

When someone dies, the expression “Has gone home to be with the Lord” is a phrase that should never cross our lips of those who say they are believers.  Many are given the false comfort that their departed loved one is now in heaven with God contrary to the fact that there is no teaching in scripture that says the soul is separated from the body at the moment of death.  But yet today the world, as well as those who call themselves Christian, say that somehow disembodied souls go to heaven or hell when they die.  The bible never teaches a separation of a conscious soul from its body at the moment of death and its immediate departure to heaven or hell, thus teaching disembodied souls.

The Bible Shows No Covering In Jesus’ Righteousness

Nowhere in the Bible does it say we are covered or imputed with Jesus’ righteousness.  Not one verse.

Moral character cannot be transferred.

The false doctrine of Once Saved, Always Saved (OSAS) would have us believe that Jesus’ righteousness is imputed to us. Nowhere does the Bible say this. One's faith is imputed or counted as righteousness. (Rom. 4:5)

One of the passages used to try and prove Jesus' righteousness is transferred to us is the phrase “the righteousness of God.” That says nothing of Jesus’ righteousness imputed to us (by "impute" they mean transferred).

Neither sin nor righteousness can be transferred between humans or between Christ and man.

No Fellowship? No Problem!

By Chip Brogden

You will never truly appreciate or benefit from fellowship until you have learned how to live without it.

There already is a fellowship of saints.  It is a spiritual fellowship, and it is based on Christ having the preeminence - not the fellowship having preeminence.  All this yearning for fellowship and being with others is the result of being hung-over from the religious system.  You're trying to fill a void that religion used to fill.

Are They Telling You the Truth About the Gospel?

By Anthony Buzzard  

Restoration Fellowship

Ask any student of the Bible and he will probably tell you that the Gospel message of salvation consists of two great truths:

1. Jesus died for our sins.
2. Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the Father.

Few have stopped to ask themselves: Is this only what the Bible teaches?

Open a Bible and begin to read the accounts of Jesus’ preaching of the Gospel. Remember that Jesus was commissioned by God to give us the Gospel of salvation (Heb. 2:3). What facts did Jesus present to the public as the Gospel? Did he urge people just to believe in his death and resurrection?  He did not. Not according to Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus began in Galilee with an announcement of the Gospel. He called it the Gospel about the Kingdom of God:

The Shorthand Way of Saying "The Gospel of the Kingdom of God." ("The word" or "word of God.")

Excerpt from book by Anthony Buzzard: The Amazing Aims and Claims of Jesus - What you didn't learn in church.

I invite you, if possible with open Bible, to notice the verses which immediately follow Jesus’ great and classic statement about the whole point of his mission and about Christianity, in Luke 4:43. You will find in Luke 5:1 that people listening to the Gospel of the Kingdom were listening to what Luke calls the “word of God.” Now that phrase “word of God” is one which you really must understand, if you are going to make sense of the Bible and especially the New Testament books.

Our Righteousness As Filthy Rags?

How many times are we told "Our righteousness is as filthy rags."

People like to take passages of Scripture and apply them to the wrong people.  It may be true that the sinner who thinks he can buy his salvation by doing good deeds; that his own goodness will merit points while his heart is far away from God, his righteousness is as filthy rags.  His motive is not pure.  There are a lot of sinners who are capable of doing good deeds, but this does not score points with God when they think they are doing Him a favor by their good deeds.

The Prodigal Son

Last night when I went to bed, I was thinking about the story of the prodigal son. I was also thinking how Jesus went about preaching the Gospel, which is the “Good news!” This Gospel he preached was about the Kingdom of God. Jesus gave many illustrations of what the Kingdom of God is like. This Gospel Jesus preached for 3 ½ years before he was crucified. The disciples (along with seventy others) preached this Gospel before Jesus went to the cross, so the Gospel is more than about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (this is important just as well). 

John preached to “repent and believe the Gospel” and Jesus said, “Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven has drawn near.”

"Repent" is not just about “sin management” by threatening hell over the heads