Where will we spend eternity? Is It In Heaven or On Earth?

The great thing about “rightly dividing the word of truth” is the clarity it gives on all the Scripture. It helps us to recognize and divide the purposes of God’s two people groups and their two different eternal destinies.

  1. The focus of Scripture in three quarters of the Bible is set upon “the earth.” God’s purpose in and through the Nation of Israel is to establish His eternal “Kingdom of Heaven” to come ‘on the earth.’ 

 

For it was through the lineage of the Nation Israel that Jesus Our Savior was born to die and resurrect to become our eternal life. Yet, His first objective concerned Israel and His kingdom to come on earth. That objective is clear in the prayer that Jesus of Nazareth taught Israel with the following words.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

Thus, God sent Jesus specifically and only to the Nation Israel (Matt. 15:24) as He then sent His 12 Apostles (Matt 10:5-6), to proclaim that “the gospel of the Kingdom was “at hand.Of course, we know Israel had rejected God the Father and then rejected “the Son,” and then ultimately rejected the Holy Spirit in stoning Stephen in Acts 7. With that Israel was fallen (Rom. 11:10-11, 15, 25), so God sent His salvation in Christ to “the Gentiles” as seen in Acts 28:28.

  1. Therefore, on the other hand, God’s purpose for the ‘Gentiles church,’ that Paul calls the “Body of Christ is NOT earth focused. It involves reconciling ‘the heavens’ back to God’s direct authority. The current evil occupants of ‘the seats of rank and authority in the lowers heavens,’ are here referred by Paul;

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but Against Principalities, Against Powers, Against The Rulers Of The Darkness Of This World [Grk. aion, age], against Spiritual Wickedness in high [heavenly] places.” (Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)

 

Job, in his oldest book of the Bible, implicitly refers to theseprincipalities, against powers… the rulers of the darkness of this world” who reign over the earth, as that which first corrupted the heavens. Here Job refers to the fallen Lucifer and his fallen angels.

“Behold, he [God] putteth no trust in his saints [the now fallen angels]; yea, the heavens are NOT CLEAN in his sight.” (Job 15:15 (KJV)

The purpose of the Gentile “Body of Christ” according Paul’s epistles concerns the heavens. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 5:1b saying our new home is “eternal in the heavens,” which is the place of our citizenship - “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phili. 3:20-21).

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 says when we grace believers of this age are Raptured, we will be raised to ‘meet the Lord in the air,’ taking us to heaven “so shall be ever be with the Lord” in the heavens. This is why I Corinthians 15:40, 49, 50-53 teaches we will “be changed [metamorphosized] to “bear the image of the heavenly.”

When we as grace believers first believed to be saved ‘by His grace through faith,’ He inwardly regenerated (Titus 3:5) and enlivened us in our spirit, making us spiritually well suited to sit “in the heavenly places.” – replacing Satan and his fallen angels in the seats of rank and authority in the heavens.

Ephesians 2:5-7 says: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened [enlivened] us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: [so] That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

During the “ages to come” (plural) meaning; the Tribulation, the 1,000-year Millennial reign, and the eternal ages that follow, we will “be seated in the heavenly places as a testimony of God’s grace.

It is God’s intent for the members of “the Body of Christ” to fulfill His purpose in Christ to make Him preeminent in all things (in heaven and on earth), reconciling all things in heaven and on earth to himself (cf. Colossians 1:15-20 and Eph. 1:10).

Note Revelations 12:7-8, which refers to the time of the Mid-Tribulation:

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon [The Devil]; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed Not; Neither Was Their Place Found Any More In Heaven.”

With the Body of Christ” Raptured out of planet earth and into heaven, the ‘corrupted heavens will then be reconciled directly to God … as they take up ‘the seats of rank and authority in the lowers heavens,’  

“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is HIS BODY, [which is] the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23 (KJV)

The reason the Dragon and his angels place is No More found in the seats of the heavenly government is because “the church, Body of Christ” will have filled those seats of rank and authority.

Today, Only God’s Freely offered “Salvation” Can Bring us to Heaven:

According to Ephesians 3:1-5 during today’s “dispensation of the grace of God,” His Grace is God’s undeserved, unmerited favor toward usWe cannot ‘earn’ our Salvation.  God’s saving favor comes to us through faith in Christ and His work on the cross on our behalf. 

Paul explains explicitly, in order for Salvation to be grace, it cannot be ‘of works.’ And since it is by grace (not ‘religious works’ or ‘good works’) “faith” is the only way of receiving God’s gift of salvation.

“And if by grace, then is it NO More of works: otherwise grace is no more grace …” (Romans 11:6a (KJV)

5 But to him that Worketh Not, But Believeth On Him that justifieth the ungodly, His Faith Is Counted For Righteousness.” (Romans 4:5 (KJV)

This then comes together in Paul’s Ephesians 2:5-10. 

“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened [spiritually enlivened) us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:5-10 (KJV)

After the Rapture we are to actually be ‘seated together in heavenly places in Christ’ as a display of God’s grace (to the remaining angelic beings). In order to be a display of grace we can only be saved by grace

Thus, Paul says of the Raptured grace believers in heaven, we will in effect “judge angels”;

“Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” (1 Corinthians 6:3a (KJV)