Heaven — And Who Will Go There
Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Most people are surprised when they
learn that the Old Testament, though three times as large as the New, does not
contain one single promise about going to heaven. God’s people, in Old
Testament times, looked forward to a glorified earth, with Messiah as its
Ruler.
This was so even when our Lord was
on earth and continued to be so through Pentecost. Peter, addressing his
kinsmen just after Pentecost, said in essence: “Repent, and God will send Jesus
down here” (See Acts 3:19-20), but Paul, in his epistles, says by divine
inspiration: “Believe, and God will take you up there.”
This apostle of grace teaches us
that God has already given believers in Christ a position and “all spiritual
blessings” in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-6; 1:3). And he teaches
further that at the close of this dispensation of grace “the dead in Christ
shall rise” and “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together …to
meet the Lord… and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians
4:16,17).
Thus it is that Paul, God’s special
apostle for our day, declares that “our conversation [or citizenship] is in
heaven” (Philippians 3:20) and writes of “the hope which is laid up for you in
heaven” (Colossians 1:5). Thus it is that he encourages persecuted saints,
saying: “Ye…took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing…that ye have in
heaven a better and an enduring substance” (Hebrews 10:34). And thus he writes
even of death:
“For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dis- solved, we have a building of God, an house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Corinthians 5:1).
“…to die is gain….to depart and to
be with Christ…is far better” (Philippians 1:21,23).
Les Feldick Ministries
30706 W. Lona Valley Rd.
Kinta, OK 74552
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