“For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.” (2 Cor 5:1, NKJV)
There are still many aspects concerning the Bride of Christ, as the New Jerusalem, which needs to be covered, but it does not fit into the current context. We will later return to the matter in greater detail when, within the unfolding of the tabernacle typology, we reach the Holy of Holies, the third dimension. Within the greater framework that these teachings fit into it is important to remember that we are currently discussing the greater theme of teaching that misleads, and how it functions as one of Satan’s greatest tools in deceiving believers. The case study of such a teaching we are currently busy with, deals with the traditional view that people go to heaven when they die, or at least after the (so-called) rapture, or that we will join Jesus in heaven after the second coming.
We saw how this dogma, carried over from generation to generation, is in no way true. From a Biblical point of view, it has never been man’s destiny to ever go to heaven. Period.
To truly secure this truth it is important to examine a number of related Scriptures which need to be interpreted correctly within this context, words “rightly divided” (2 Tim 2:15).
Most theologians and believers who theorise on the topic of heaven argue that there is a concrete reality to the notion of an ephemeral heaven. Randy Alcorn, for instance, argues as follows – “Jesus said, ‘I go to prepare a place for you’. He didn’t say, ‘I go to an indescribable realm devoid of physical properties, where your disembodied spirit will float around, and which is nothing at all like what you’ve ever thought of as home.” (In Light of Eternity: Perspectives on Heaven, p. 12, his emphasis)
Obviously most believers would not be happy with such an impersonal scenario, and perhaps for that reason there is such a strong reaction in imagining heaven in terms of human perceptions, as if only the visible realm is to be considered reality. This speaks of a spiritual naivety, especially in the light of Heb 11:3 – “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Rom 1:20 states that “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen”, and Col 1:16 argues as follows – “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.” The unseen God (1 Tim 1:17; Heb 11:27) was made visible through Jesus! Yahushua is, after all, “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). In Him even invisible elements are a reality! John Piper, in his book, Future Grace, states it quite beautifully – “Christianity is not a plastic religion that regards material things as mere shadows of reality, which will be sloughed off as soon as possible. Not the mere immortality of the soul, but rather the resurrection of the body and the renewal of all creation is the hope of the Christian faith.”
Yet the seekers of such a concrete, material heaven forget a very important aspect – the spiritual New Jerusalem-cum-heaven descends to the concrete, material earth!
In the teachings of Days 539-541 we already thoroughly discussed 2 Cor 5:1-2, where we pointed out that we need to be clothed with the mansion in the heavens – the heavenly house needs to descend and I need to be clothed with it HERE, as the GNB rightly states – “And now we sigh, so great is our desire that our home which comes from heaven should be put on over us.” This explains the idea of the Bride “descending”!
A very important aspect which needs to be remembered is that this does NOT happen when we die. Remember –“ But ye have come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb 12:22). This is the resurrection which Paul was yearning for, and hoped that he could experience while still part of the body (Phil 3:9-11). This is not the spiritual resurrection in Jesus which occurs with baptism (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12), in the shift from first to second dimension, no – it is the resurrection in Christ which brings us from the second to the third dimension. It is that clothing with the spiritual mansion which takes place because we “have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Job 19: 25-26 also prophesied about it – “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God …” (Read along with Dan 12:2).
This re-clothing which happens while we are still in the flesh, as Job beautifully frames it, is theoretically spelled out in 1 Cor 15:45-48 – “And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.”
The “house” which Yashua went to prepare for us (John 14:2) is our heavenly position in Him. “The eternal God is thy dwelling-place,” says Deut 33:27 (ASV) Therefore Heb 9:24 states that “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us …” Verse 28 then says – “And he will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly wait for him.” (ISV). According to 1 Pet 1:3-4 we received our new birth through the baptism in Jesus (in water and in Spirit), “who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven”. The first baptism could prototypically be likened to the baptism of John, the baptism of conversion which leads to being born again. See for instance how Acts 19:4-5 fits in here – “Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Like all who had left the land of slavery, being baptised in Moses in the cloud and the sea, and this functioning as a prototype for the baptism after conversion for the washing away of sins and arising within a new life in the Spirit, it is also a sign of our baptism in water and Spirit in Jesus. But here we find a mention of the baptism in Christ, where the image of Noah and the ark is used – “in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.”(1 Pet 3:20-22). Selah this mystery.
- Selah: Figure out what the distinction between baptism in Jesus and baptism in Christ is.
- Read: Ps 106-107
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Explain Ps 107:36 in the light of this teaching and Heb 11:10.
- For a deeper understanding: Read John Piper’s book Future Grace.
