Is it necessary to resurrect to go to Heaven?

[gmanon]

According to the bible Jesus die and went to Paradise. At the third day, he resurrected and after about 50 days, He was taken by two angels to Heaven.

Why is that the Christian say when believers die, that they went to Heaven? Jesus also says that God is not God of death, but of living.

If Jesus is alive in Heaven, why the deaths are going to be there and why the resurrection if they are already with The Lord?

On the other hand, Paul says that those who die in Christ, will resurrect first and then those who are alive will be transformed to meet Jesus in the clouds.

Isn't that those who die, are sleeping waiting to be resurrected?

 

[ProphetMark]

I think some people believe that Paradise and Heaven are different places, and that we go to Paradise when we die and Heaven after the resurrection.
I'm not sure exactly what the bible says about this though. I'd be interested to learn more about this myself.

 

[Drew]

I suggest that there is rampant misunderstanding about this topic. Here is what I believe to be the Biblical picture:

1. When a believer dies, they indeed go to "Heaven". There, they exist in some non-bodily form. Buth they are only there for a while;

2. As 1 Corinthians 15 teaches, when Jesus returns, the residents of Heaven will be given resurrection bodies. What happens to them next?

3. They "come down" to earth and enjoy an embodied immortal existence on a re-made and transformed earth.

4. Heaven, therefore, is not any kind of eternal abode - it is a "waiting place".

5. There is no rapture - people have taken metaphorical language as literal. There will be no event where living believers are caught up into heaven.