Heaven is Temporary
Within Western Christianity, we have put an undue focus on the notion of “Heaven.” At a popular level, heaven is understood to be the place you go when you die. One of peace, bliss, worshipping God, and reunion with those who have gone before. This is a nice image, but an ultimately incomplete one. Heaven, a state where our bodies and souls are separate, is a very temporary place, one that will last for such a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things, it would have barely occurred at all.
Within Christianity, heaven and getting to heaven were never supposed to be the primary focus. N. T. Wright points out in his book Paul: A Biography that Paul's message was not to focus on what happens after death but on the Gospel message being spread during life. Paul was spreading the message that a new King was coming, that the old kingdom had passed away, and that the inauguration of a new Kingdom was beginning. This message was “apocalyptic,” meaning it had to deal with the end of the world. The world that was ending was the one in which Satan reigned and sin and death held sway over all mankind. Paul was announcing that these old rulers are in the beginning process of being overthrown. When heaven was spoken about, it was either a focus as being with Christ, or focused on the resurrection of the dead. To that second point, that is what we will look at in greater focus.
Christianity has always, from the writing of the Gospels until modern day, been about the resurrection of the dead. The Christological hymn in Colossians 1 calls Christ “the Firstborn of the dead,” showing that the early church focused on this theme so early that there was a hymn they taught to Paul as he was learning about the faith. Christ is also called “The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” in 1 Corinthians. This language of “firstborn” and “first fruits” is in reference to Christ’s resurrection from the dead; as he was raised to life in a glorified, perfect body, so shall we also be. We are not people who will be disembodied souls, living in heaven. We are people who will be raised to physical, tangible life during the resurrection of the dead in the last days.
Oftentimes, we can fall into a Neo-Platonic or Gnostic mindset of thinking that the physical world is corrupt and evil, leading us to desire to escape to the more pure, holier, spiritual realm. In reality, we are made to be physical creatures. Adam did not have a soul until God breathed life into his physical body in Genesis 2. Human beings do not exist as souls before our birth, we are created to be both body and soul, completely intertwined. To exist as only a soul is an unnatural state, similar to how sin was unnatural to our created purpose. We will not be bodiless forever. One day, we will live in our perfect bodies eternally, physical beings for all time.
I am tempted here to delve deeper into that, but I believe it is a post for another time. I will at some point be talking on the topic “what will heaven be like?” in which we will go to a greater depth. But for now, I will leave you with this: heaven is temporary, your body is forever. One day you will be perfected in your physical human body, living on an earth that is fit to call Christ King. Until that day, we are charged to be the heralds of Gods kingdom, spreading the message, casting out demons, performing works of mercy and love to our neighbors.