JOHN 14:2-3

Q: Do Christians Go to Heaven?

Although I could find no exact quote in the New Testament to that effect, there are a myriad of scriptures that strongly imply that Christians do indeed go to heaven. Much, of course, depends on your own definition of what heaven consists of and where it is located. I personally prefer the image at the end of Revelation where the believers reside in God's presence in the New Jerusalem on the New Earth. This can still be considered to be “heaven” if that is defined as any place where God dwells.

Nevertheless, consider the following suggestive passages, arranged roughly from the most persuasive to the least:

John 14:2-3 “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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am there you may be also.” Since Jesus was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:11) and went to the Father (John 14:28) and heaven is obviously His Father's house, that is the place where Jesus is preparing a place for his followers and he will gather us to himself there.

The same thought is taught in Hebrews 11:16: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore...he has prepared a city for them.”

Paul echoes the same idea in II Corinthians 5:1: “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens [the singular and plural being interchangeably used in both t he OT and NT].

If our future dwelling place is in heaven, it is hard to escape the logical conclusion that we will go there.

The same is true of the passages describing what else God has waiting for us in heaven.

“You will have treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22)

“Your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:12; Luke 6:23)

“an unfailing treasure in heaven” (Luke 12:33)

“store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20-21)

“the hope laid up for us in heaven” (Colossians 1:5)

“an imperishable, undefiled and unfading inheritance kept in heaven for you” (I Peter 1:4)

If all these are waiting for us in heaven, it would make no sense to say that we are not going there to appropriate them.

Revelation 7 describes a great multitude from all nations “who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” and are obviously believers. They are in the very presence of God's throne, which according to Revelation 4:2 and many other NT passages is located in heaven. The same is true of the 144,000 in Chapter 14. Whether one believes that these events take place before or after the Last Judgment, at some point in time dead Christians have obviously “gone to heaven.”

Then there are the many references, especially in Matthew, to believers “entering the kingdom (or Realm) of heaven.” (see Matthew 5:20; 18:3; 19:23, for example) This can be another way of saying “going to heaven.” Some of these passages undoubtedly refer to us residing in the kingdom of God as soon as we become believers and are still alive. But there appears to be a future aspect to “entering the kingdom of heaven” as well. For example, Matthew 7:21 obviously refers to the Last Judgment when Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Also, consider Matthew 8:11 referring to the heavenly banquet feast: “Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”

Finally, to use a little convoluted reasoning, it is well recognized that “heaven” was a Jewish substitution for “God” used extensively in the OT and also in the NT, especially by Matthew. One could therefore reason that going to heaven is another way of saying “going to God.” And it would be hard to deny that Christians are going to eventually reside with God.