The Gnostic Heresy of Heaven When We Die: Part 1
Pre-Article Note: There were different heavens in the early Judeo-Christian understanding (e.g. Paradise was considered the “third heaven”). When using the word “heaven” in this series please do not confuse it with the third heaven, Paradise, which is where the blessed dead reside within until the resurrection and final judgement of the dead. The heaven here is what some would call the final destination of the believer, rather than the intermediate state prior to the resurrection into a new physical body in the heaven and earth combination after the Final Judgement.
Did you know that it was considered by the early church to be a gnostic heresy that we go to our final destination of heaven when we die? Yes, you read that right. The belief that the righteous immediately ascend into heaven upon the point of death was actually a gnostic heresy. Yet, somehow, this belief has made its way into mainstream Western Christianity as a truth of Scripture when it’s anything but that!
In the first of this two-part series, we shall examine the early Church beliefs about the afterlife and the destination of the righteous. We shall examine scriptures which reveal their temporary and permanent destinations and how the teaching of the resurrection implies an intermediate state.
In the second part, we shall hear the words of the early Church on the gnostic concept of heaven immediately upon the death of the righteous, how these gnostic beliefs were able to slip into mainstream thinking due to issues of translation and how Puritanism’s binning of an intermediate state between death and resurrection has led to an error in the Reformer’s Westminster Confession of Faith.
Early Church Beliefs Regarding Hades
Initially, like those early Jews who believed in the resurrection of the dead (e.g. the Pharisees), the early Christians believed that everyone went to what was known as Hades (the underworld). Whatever your social status, belief system, or standing before the Creator, everyone went to this underworld where the dead resided. Remembering the Hebraic understanding of cosmology was of the heavens above, earth below, underworld – subterranean):
Here are just a few of their words:
“But now we must speak of Hades, in which the souls both of the righteous and the unrighteous are detained…”
Hippolytus, Against Plato & Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades
“All souls, therefore, are shut up within Hades”
Tertullian, A Treatise On The Soul, 58.
“And truly, what lies beneath the earth is not itself void of distributed and arranged powers. For there is a place [singular] whither the souls of the just and the unjust are taken”
Novatian, On the Trinity, 1.
So, as we can see, it was generally accepted that everyone went to Hades at the point of death. But was the quality of the afterlife the same for all? This was clearly not the case as per the teachings of Jesus, especially in places like Luke 16:19-31, the Rich Man and Lazarus. Here, we read of the rich man descending to Hades in the original Greek (not hell – see the issue with translations that substitute Hell below) and Lazarus being taken to Abraham’s Bosom, which Jesus later calls Paradise (Luke 23:43).
Paradise and the Creeds
Even the writers of the Creeds did not accept a final destination of heaven as Paradise:
The Apostles’ Creed that we recite in churches today says, “he descended to the dead”. There are issues with this particular insertion into the Creed, based upon the mistranslation of Hades to Hell (see the second part of this series) – Jesus didn’t go to Gehenna the “Lake of Fire” between his death on the cross and his resurrection. The modern translation of “the dead” is a contextually better way of understanding what was meant by the authors, as it’s based upon the early Church belief that Jesus descended to Hades. In this “underworld” place, the physically dead first arrived here for initial judgement to determine their starting point in the afterlife (see the Apocalypse of Zephaniah 6-10). To understand the journey into the underworld Jesus undertook between his death and resurrection, here is a comprehensive biblically-backed analysis of what took place.
The Nicene Creed states that it was only after the resurrection and the ascension that heaven was entered into by Jesus: “[Jesus] suffered and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father”. This is the ‘highest heaven’, the throne-room of God, spoken of by the heavenly army when they appeared to the shepherds in the fields at the announcement of the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:14).
So, where did the Early Church get their beliefs regarding the righteous not going to heaven but Paradise when we die? The simple answer is Scripture…
Scripture says Paradise is not Heaven
Many today believe that Paradise is actually the highest heaven, the heavenly throne room spoken of by the angels to the Shepherds (Luke 2:14), but this is scripturally inaccurate; indeed, the early Christians never believed that Paradise was that particular level of the heavens!
As we’ve seen, the early Church believed that all souls departed into Hades, and thus Paradise must be part of Hades – but not a region within it that is darkness and gloom. Paradise is a place of rest and bliss within which the residents are acutely aware of the presence of Christ. It could be called “heavenly”, but it’s not the final destination of the righteous, as we shall see.
Jesus said to the thief crucified with him that they would both be in Paradise that very day (Luke 23:43)! But Jesus also said that the sign of Jonah was “for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). The “heart of the earth”, in Hebraic cosmology was the underworld, Sheol, which in Greek was translated Hades; even though the Greek word used in the verse is gēs, means ‘earth’ the imagery is that of Hades. Whatever the word used in this verse, Jesus most definitely intended to teach that he was not in heaven between the crucifixion and the resurrection, but in Hades, as Peter’s understanding shows:
But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says concerning him… you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption.
Acts 2:22-27 (NRSV)
We should remember that New Testament beliefs didn’t arise out of nowhere but were shaped by Old Testament and Second Temple beliefs. Bearing this in mind, if we examine the writings of 1 Enoch (which was treated as worthy of input into theological reflections at the time of Jesus), we can perceive a belief that the place of the righteous was in a specific region in the “mountain of the dead”:
From there I travelled to another place. And he showed me to the west a great and high mountain of hard rock. And there were four hollow places in it, deep and very smooth. Three of them were dark and one, illuminated; and a fountain of water was in the middle of it.
Then Raphael answered me, one of the holy angels who was
with me, and said to me, “These hollow places (are intended) that the spirits of the souls of the dead might be gathered into them. For this very (purpose) they were created, (that) here the souls of all human beings should be gathered... And this [hollow place – Paradise] has been separated for the spirits of the righteous, where the bright fountain of water is.
1 Enoch 22:1-3, 9 (Nickelsberg)
By the time of the New Testament, we see this separation within the underworld in Jesus’ account of the Rich Man and Lazarus, where Lazarus received rest and comfort in Paradise (Luke 16:25).
Paul had the belief that the next stage of existence for the righteous was a far better place than the current state of existence in the corruptible flesh:
For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better…
Philippians 1:21-23 (NRSV)
In my Father’s House are Many Monai
Words of comfort spoken to the recently bereaved often include the following Bible verse:
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
John 14:2 (NRSV)
The original Greek word for “dwelling-places” in this verse is monai, which in ancient Greece meant a temporary stopping off point on a journey to another destination – kind of like a motel.
However, readers of certain translations could be forgiven for thinking that this was a permanent destination. In the KJV, we’re told that the righteous will receive a “mansion”; the NIV translates this as “rooms”. Translations which use such words can mislead the reader into thinking they’re permanent dwelling places for the righteous in heaven. But this couldn’t be further from the truth and was not the intention of Jesus when he spoke these words to his disciples.
A further discussion on the caravanserai is in the third part of our Praying for the Dead series.
Paradise and the Resurrection of the Dead
Paradise is not the ultimate destiny of the righteous but a place of refreshment and rest. It is a part of Hades itself, where the dead, good and bad, will be raised from at the final judgement. If the righteous are already in heaven and the unrighteous in Hell as final destinations, then why the need for the resurrection if all they’re doing is being raised to go back to where they already are? To believe in heaven immediately upon death makes the resurrection narratives nonsensical.
Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
John 5:28-29 (NRSV)
Indeed, if the belief is that the dead in Christ are already in heaven and will come back with him, why do they need to be raised and meet Christ at his second coming in the air?
For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NRSV)
In Revelation, we read of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly dwelling place of God, coming down to earth:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea [chaos] was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
Revelation 21:1-4 (NRSV)
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
The highest heaven, God’s throne, comes down to earth; the righteous do not go up to that highest heaven. Heaven on earth is the ultimate destiny, not the immediate destiny of the righteous. Heaven and earth intermingle and permeate through each other, just as it was in the beginning, in the Edenic garden.
Conclusion
The idea of an immediate passage to the highest heaven at the point of death for the righteous is not found in Scripture nor the tradition of the early Church. The Scriptures teach that everyone enters the afterlife, the world of Sheol / Hades, and the righteous enter Paradise, a temporary area within Hades which is a place of rest, refreshment and comfort. By reading Scripture and using reason, we can see the resurrection of the dead at the second coming of Jesus, at which heaven comes down to earth, and Paradise transitions into heaven on earth.
If the case for no immediate heaven for the righteous at death is so strong from Scripture, why do many Christians believe we go there when we die?
In the next part, we shall see how this idea stemmed from gnostic teaching, which the early Church condemned outright. This, coupled with poor Bible translation into English and Puritan ignorance of the biblical case for the intermediate state (abandoned during the expunging of Purgatory from Protestant teaching), led to this error entering the Westminster Confession of Faith, which itself has formed the basis for many Christians believing this gnostic heresy is biblical truth.
Bibliography
Wright, T. (2007), Surprised by Hope, London: SPCK.
I don’t believe that the dead can pray.After all, the scripture says “The dead know nothing”.They don’t even know they are dead.
Ah, we’ve already dealt with this in other articles on our website. Please visit the following:
Ecclesiastes 9:5 and Ghosts – Do the Dead Know Nothing?
Luke 16 – The Rich Man, Lazarus and the Afterlife
Hebrews 9:27 – No Ghosts Allowed? Is there an Intermediate State between death and judgement?
Have a read through, because what we think we know often isn’t the case when we dig deeper into Scripture.
Blessings,
Matt
Looking forward to the sequel to this.
Hi Bob,
The sequel is now up and running here:
https://ghostsghoulsandgod.co.uk/2021/02/gnostic-heresy-heaven-when-die/
Every blessing,
Matt
Matt, an interesting read as always, and though in principle I whole heartedly agree with what you say, I would press you on a few points.
As you point out, Philippians 1: 23 states “I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better…” If I accept your thesis in its entirety, I am forced to concede that Jesus is still in Hades/ Sheol which is not the case as scripture attests to His ascending into Heaven and being seated at the Father’s right hand- the implication therefore is that Paul anticipated being with Christ in Heaven.
At the same time Matthew recounts a curious incident where, upon the death of Jesus, the graves of many righteous people were broken open and they were raised to life, entering the Holy City after Jesus resurrection (Matt. 27: 51-53). We can only assume that these righteous saints had once resided in paradise but were now raise to life- could it be that the resurrection is already happening- after all, when I was baptised, I died to sin and was resurrected to new life in Christ?
Where do you hold with the idea that right now, we- you and I, are seated in Heavenly places; God having raised us from the dead (past tense) with Christ (Ephesians 2:6)- again, the resurrect seems to have already happened.
Finally there is the question of the multitude, wearing white and holding palm branches- they stand before the throne, in front of Christ- who are these multitudes from every tribe and nation IF all are in sheol awaiting the resurrection?
Just a few ponderances.
I am drawn to the Celtic way of thinking, drawn on so wonderfully by C. S. Lewis, that when we die we merely step through the veil, some to the afterlife (the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth) and some to everlasting life with Christ. When He returns those who have already fallen asleep will return with Him and the veil will be removed- Heaven and earth will be as one and those who are still alive will be transformed.
Hi Mike,
Thanks and glad to have stimulated good thinking.
So, for your first point… I get what you’re saying about Jesus being at the right hand of the Father, therefore, how does that link in with Paradise… However, if we read Ephesians 4:8-10, we get the following:
“Therefore it is said,
“When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
he gave gifts to his people.”
(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended[a] into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) ”
My understanding would be that the risen and ascended Christ would fill “all things” – i.e. the “entire universe with himself” (as the NIV puts it). A quick nosey into Strong’s 3956 for “panta” (the “all things”) reveals it’s the “entirety of” something. What “something”? All things. Ie, as the NIV puts it, the entire universe.
If Creation includes Sheol / Hades / Paradise / Gehenna / Tartarus, which it must, as these are not eternal things, then Christ ascended to fill all these things with his presence, hence for Paul to say in Philippians 1:28 that he desired to be with Christ, that would match in with the presence of Christ in Paradise with the “thief on the cross” and that the righteous entering Paradise upon death would meet the presence of Christ in a way not knowable in the corruptible body.
This would also match up with things like Psalm 139:8 – “If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there” (incidentally, the Sheol here is translated “hell” in the KJV – tut tut!).
The resurrection of the holy ones in Matthew 27:51-53 is fascinating isn’t it? It’s only recently I read it slowly and realised that they actually were raised to life at the crucifixion “It is finished!” cry and the powerful earthquake, but waited in the tombs for the resurrection of Jesus before going into Jerusalem. I can only imagine the sense of wonder and amazement at these figures reappearing.
We have to ask though if they were raised from the dead or resurrected, I’ll explain the difference between the two: “Raised from the dead” – i.e. re-united with a corruptible (i.e. going to die again) body, like Lazarus, the little girl Jesus raised, and so on. Whereas resurrection bodies are “spiritual” (incorruptible – not airy-fairy “spiritual” nebulous wisps of spirits, but physical incorruptible (like Tolkien’s elves). They were raised before Jesus was raised, and as Jesus was the “first-fruits of those who have died” (1 Cor 15:20), ie the first of the harvest. If these raised in the tombs were given incorruptible resurrection bodies, then they would be the first of the harvest, not Jesus.
Also, 1 Corinthians 15:22-26 gives the order in which resurrection happens:
“for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Currently there are rulers, authorities and powers in the spiritual realms which are still hanging out in the “mopping up operation” after the resurrection, as Paul says: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” the present tense of the passage suggests these powers are still active, albeit bound.
At Jesus’ second coming, there is the resurrection of the dead (“some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” Daniel 12:2).
At “the end”, the last enemy to be destroyed occurs at the throwing of Hades and death into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14) which occurs at the last judgement with the opening of the great books.
So, I’d say the resurrection of the righteous dead into their incorruptible (spiritual) physical bodies is not happening currently (time in Paradise seems to be going along at the same rate as in this dimension), and those who were raised to life went on to die again at some point in the future. But, could they relay what they’d seen in Paradise? Who knows, it’s a mystery. I wish someone had written it down, it’d be fascinating reading!
Ephesians 2:6 – the word ἐπουρανίοις is used for “heavenly realms”. Five times it’s mentioned in Scripture, and each of those six are in Ephesians. I would need to know why this is the case, and what culturally was meant by that word. Was Paul using a word that was Ephesian in dialect / understanding? From a quick scout around on Google, someone else has written on this so I’ll point you in their direction, rather than repeat it here, but he goes on to look at all five instances: https://perideblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/pauls-use-of-%E1%BC%90%CE%BD-%CF%84%CE%BF%E1%BF%96%CF%82-%E1%BC%90%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%85%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%BF%CE%B9%CF%82-in-ephesians/
Regards to the multitudes in white robes from every tribe and nation…
Firstly, Revelation isn’t a linear chronology of time (e.g. “the great day of their [the One seated on the throne and the Lamb” (Rev 6:16-17, comes before Revelation 12:4-5 with the woman and the dragon and the birth of Jesus and his ascension, and so on). So, we have to remember that things are out of order in Revelation (much to the chagrin of the Dispensationalists 😀 ).
But, there are certain time cues which say “after this” which imply some bits are chronologically linked together. The great multitude stand before the throne of God in Revelation 7 follows two “After this…” in 7:1 and 7:9… So what’s 7:1’s “After this” referring to ? Revelation 6:16-17, the Final Judgement. So the great multitude are the righteous who have been in Paradise awaiting resurrection, the resurrection has occurred at the Final Judgement, they’ve been given incorruptible, resurrection bodies, and are now standing before the throne of God, which in Revelation 21:2-3 states clearly that the dwelling of God is now with man, spoken from the throne in the New Jerusalem.
Once you get away from a linear chronology of Revelation, things tie up much better.
Hope this helps :).
And I’m Celtic in my Christian spirituality too – we step through the veil into the afterlife where Christ is already there in Paradise, having filled all things with himself, welcoming us with open arms :).