Why “Going to Heaven” Is Not the End of the Story

The Soul hovering over the Body – William Blake

Audio Podcast

The Ultimate Hope?

Most Christians, if asked about their ultimate hope, would answer something like this:

“When I die, I’ll go to heaven.”

And in one sense, that answer isn’t wrong.

The New Testament does speak about believers being “with Christ” after death. It speaks of comfort, rest, and joy in God’s presence.

But here’s the problem:

That answer is incomplete.

And when it becomes the whole answer, it quietly distorts the Christian hope.

In this episode, I want to suggest something that may feel surprising—even unsettling at first:

Heaven is not the end of the Christian story. It is real. It matters. (God created it, after all….that’s right, heaven was created too.)

But it is not the final destination.

The Question We’ve Been Asking

For generations, Christians have been taught—often unintentionally—to ask the wrong question.

The question we’ve learned to ask is:

“How do I get to heaven when I die?”

But that is not the central question Scripture is asking.

The Bible’s great question is:

What is God going to do with his creation?

When you follow Scripture from beginning to end—from Genesis to Revelation—you discover that the Bible is not primarily about escaping the world.

It is about God redeeming, renewing, and restoring what he has created..

As N. T. Wright puts it, the idea of “going to heaven” functions as shorthand for something temporary, not ultimate.

The difference between temporary and final is crucial.

What Happens When Christians Die?

Before we go any further, we need to be clear.

Neither N. T. Wright nor G. K. Beale, the two theologians I refer to in this series, deny that believers are with God after death.

They believe that. I believe that.

Scripture, after all, is explicit on this point.

Paul writes in Philippians 1:23:

“My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

And in 2 Corinthians 5:8:

“We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

So yes—Christians who die are with Christ.

But notice what Paul does not say.

He never says: this is the final hope. (Read all of his letters, you won’t find him saying that).

Instead, Paul consistently points beyond this intermediate state to something still future.

Wright summarizes this with a memorable distinction:

There is life after death—and then there is life after life after death. In other words….It’s a two stage process.

The first stage refers to being with Christ at death.

The second refers to bodily resurrection.

And resurrection—not heaven—is the centerpiece of Christian hope.

Resurrection Is Not Optional

If you want to know what the earliest Christians believed about the future, you don’t start with Revelation.

You start with 1 Corinthians 15. Where…

Paul does not treat resurrection as a metaphor.

He does not treat it as poetry.

He treats it as non-negotiable.

He says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 14:

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

And again in verse 20:

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

“Firstfruits” implies more to come. (That would be us)

Resurrection is not about floating souls.

It is about embodied life restored and transformed.

Paul goes even further in verse 26:

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Now. If death were the gateway to our final destiny, Paul would not call it an enemy.

I’ve experienced the death of people that I love, perhaps you have too, and in my case, after they suffered long illnesses, and in a sense there is ‘release’ at that point, but we should never call death our friend, for it is our enemy.

Let me put it this way…..

Death is defeated not by escape—but by resurrection.

Since, in the biblical story, it is the body that dies, if the body is not raised, then death has not been defeated. That’s the description of death. At death, the soul, the invisible part of our nature, is separated from our visible nature, our bodies.

But if the invisible and the visible are not rejoined, then death has not been defeated. It’s just been described.

Again, the separation of body from soul is the definition of death, not its defeat. If the body is not raised. More particularly, if Jesus’s body was not raised (which is Paul’s primary point) then our faith is in vain. Our enemy has triumphed.

Why “Going to Heaven” Shrinks the Story

When Christians collapse their hope into “going to heaven,” several things happen.

First, the material or visible creation becomes disposable.

Why care for the world, the world of space, time and matter, if it’s all going to be “left behind?” (Perhaps you’ve heard that ‘popular phrase.’)¹

Second, the body becomes secondary.

Why does embodiment matter if our future is disembodied? (Some Christians think that our destiny as humans is to become angelic. That’s incorrect. More about that later.)

Third, our mission gets reduced to evacuation.

“Save souls. Get em out of here, successfully. That’s our mission.” So we’re told….

But the Bible tells a different story.

In Romans 8, Paul says that the whole creation itself is groaning—not for annihilation, but for renewal. Let me read that full very important passage:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits (there’s that word again) of the Spirit, [we] groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.

Rom 8:18-24

Paul is not talking about existence in ‘heaven’ as our hope. But the renewal of all creation, the creation that had been given over to corruption, to death, most personally, our bodies.

Creation waits with eager longing, Paul says, for “the revealing of the children of God.”

It’s not waiting for escape.

It’s waiting for restoration.

Think about it….The whole creation, the living beings on this planet, are yearning, longing for what? To be taken up into heaven with the souls of believers?

NO! That’s not the plan.

They are longing for the children of God to take their rightful place as loving overseers, vice-regents of this world of space, time and matter. As imagers of God. That’s what they are longing for. That was the original plan², after all, and God has not changed his mind.

Setting Up the Bigger Story

So here’s where we are at the end of Episode 1.

Heaven is real. But, let’s not forget, or let us learn anew, heaven was created too. That’s what it says at the beginning of the story: “In the beginning, God created the heaven’s and the earth…..” It’s a bi-natured creation.

We’ve also learned that….

Being with Christ after death matters.

But it is not the end of the story.

And finally, the Christian hope is not that we leave earth behind. “This place is not my home…many say.…I’m just a passin’ through.” Actually, that’s not true. It’s not biblical.

The most widely quoted verse in scripture is “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son..”.³ The greek word translated “world” here is kosmos which doesn’t mean humans only, but the whole of creation. God loves all of it.

Sometimes I get the impression, though it may not be their intent, that certain ministers are really saying that “God so HATED the world that he gave his only begotten son…”.

But that, again, is not the biblical story.

In the next episode we will learn more about the Christian hope.

Here is a brief summary:

Heaven and earth will be joined
God will come down and dwell with humanity
And all Creation will be made new

We’ll go all the way back to Eden and follow the biblical story forward—briefly—through temple, exile, Jesus, and finally new creation.

Because once you see that story clearly, you’ll never read the Bible—or your own future—or the future of God’s good creation, the same way again.

Assumptions Challenged

If this episode challenged assumptions you’ve carried for years, that’s okay. I carried many of those same assumptions until I was taught the bigger story.

The Christian hope is bigger than many of us were ever taught.

And that’s good news.

Quotables

N. T. Wright — Heaven Is Not the Final Destination

“Heaven is important, but it is not the end of the world. In fact, it is not the end of anything. It is the beginning of a new world.”

— Surprised by Hope

Life After Death vs. Life After Life After Death

“Life after death is a real and wonderful thing. But it is not the Christian’s final hope. The final hope is the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.”

— Surprised by Hope

Resurrection as the Center

“Resurrection does not mean life after death. It means life after life after death.”

— Surprised by Hope

Death as the Enemy

“If death were the final state God intended for human beings, it would not be described as ‘the last enemy.’ Death is an intruder, not a friend.”

— Surprised by Hope

G. K. Beale — God’s Goal

“God’s original purpose was to fill the entire earth with his glorious presence.”

— The Temple and the Church’s Mission

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.”
Revelation 21:3

Podcast Resources

N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (Logos) (Amazon)
N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Logos) (Amazon)
G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission (Logos) (Amazon)
G. K. Beale & Mitchell Kim, God Dwells Among Us (Logos) (Amazon)

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