The Afterlife is Not what you've been told!

What happens when you die? Most Christians think their soul goes to heaven. But what if I told you that the earliest Christians taught something completely different? And if you've never heard this before, what I'm about to tell you might shake you to the core. It's time to unlearn the lies. The story begins in the garden. The first few chapters of Genesis explain the origin of life, the cause of death, and the need for salvation. We can see from these chapters how everything was created, how sin entered the world, and what the consequences of sin are. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. Notice we don't have a soul. We are a soul. After this, God gave them clear instructions about what they are allowed to eat. These instructions came with a warning about what would happen if they disobeyed. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Death was the consequence of sin. God said, "If you eat from the forbidden tree, you will die." Now listen to the lie the serpent told. Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die." From that moment forward, humanity has wrestled with the same deception that somehow death isn't real, that we just go on living somewhere else. The enemy continues to whisper, "You will not surely die." Now listen to what God said. "In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return." We aren't immortal. God created us from the dust of the earth. And when we die, we return to the dust. No mention of heaven or hell, just death. All go to one place. All are from the dust and all return to the dust. The wages of sin is not eternal life in hell. It's death. But that's not the end of the story. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This verse explains both the problem and the solution. The problem is that we are all under the curse of sin. We will all die, but there's a way for us to have eternal life. Here lies the great hope of the gospel. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The message of the gospel is that we can be saved from the wages of sin. We can have eternal life. Not that we float away into heaven when we die, but that Yeshua will raise us from the dead. Listen to how Paul connects all the pieces from Adam to Yeshua. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order. Christ the first fruits. afterward those who are Christ at his coming. He was the first fruits and we will be the harvest at the end of the age. Yeshua's resurrection wasn't just proof of his deity. It was a preview of our eternal destiny. Yeshua called himself the resurrection and the life. That's why the apostles preached the resurrection so boldly. It was the centerpiece of their message. It's also why they were arrested, why they were beaten, and why they were even killed. Paul even says that without the resurrection, our faith is empty. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is feudal. You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. The Bible assures us that because Yeshua rose from the dead, we will too. In fact, Yeshua spoke about two resurrections. one for the righteous to have eternal life and the second to judge sinners. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. When Yeshua returns, he will judge the living and the dead and give everlasting life to those who belong to him and send the rest to eternal punishment. The Bible's consistent message is that death is not the end. But heaven's not our destination. Our hope is found in the resurrection of the dead. Listen to the conversation Yeshua had with Martha concerning the death of Lazarus. Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live." Did you notice what's missing? There's no mention of going to heaven. Martha expressed hope in the resurrection. And Yeshua affirmed her belief and explained that he is the resurrection. Yeshua called himself the resurrection and the life. For Paul, the resurrection was the hope of salvation. It was the thing that he desired most and the goal he was striving to attain that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead. And this is exactly what the early church believed and taught in AD5. Clement of Rome wrote this. The Lord Jesus Christ, the first fruits, by raising him from the dead showed us there will be a resurrection. In 8110, Polycarp declared, "He who raised him up from the dead will raise us up also if we do his will and walk in his commandments." And in 8160, Justin Martyr made it even more clear by rejecting the idea that we go to heaven at death, saying, "If you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this truth and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls when they die are taken to heaven, do not imagine that they are Christians." Justin says, "It's blasphemy to say we go to heaven and death." And he boldly states that people who believe this should not even be called Christians. Try telling that to your pastor. Even the Apostles's Creed written in the 4th century emphasized the resurrection of the dead and says nothing about going to heaven. Yet today, what was once a heresy in the early church has now become mainstream doctrine. So, how did this happen? Most people assume the Bible teaches that we go to heaven when we die. We hear it all the time. Imagine you're at a funeral. The preacher is standing over a casket and he says, "She's in a better place now, walking the streets of gold, singing with angels, and looking down on us from heaven." It's comforting. It's what most of us have been told our whole lives. But is it really what the Bible says? Have you ever tried to find where this belief comes from? Now, here's the part that shocks most Christians. The Bible never promises that we go to heaven. Not even once. There are a couple of verses that people take out of context to support this belief. But upon closer examination, it becomes clear that this is not what the Bible teaches. For example, people say that Elijah was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot. But if you look at the passage again, you'll see that the chariot separated Elijah from Elisha and a whirlwind carried Elijah into heaven. Now, the Bible refers to the sky as heaven and the other prophets believed Elijah was dropped off on another mountain somewhere. That's why they wanted to go look for him. It's also important to point out that Elijah wrote a letter to King Jehoram 10 years later. So, he couldn't have been in heaven. Elijah sent the letter two years before Jehoram died. And in the letter, Elijah prophesied about the king's death. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, "Thus says the Lord God of your father David, because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa, king of Judah, and you'll become very sick with the disease of your intestines until your intestines come out by reason of sickness day by day." 2 Kings chapter 2 is where the chariot of fire separated Elijah from Elisha. Jehoram became king after this in 2 Kings chapter 3. The letter from Elijah came at the end of Jehoram's reign. shortly before his deadly sickness. This proves that Elijah was not taken out of the world, but was simply taken away from Elisha. People also believe that Enoch was taken to heaven, but the Bible doesn't actually say that. The Bible says Enoch was taken, but it doesn't say he was taken to heaven. In fact, the book of Hebrews lists Enoch among those who have died and not received the promise. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them a far off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. So, Enoch and Elijah didn't go to heaven. In fact, none of the biblical saints have gone to heaven. No one has gone to heaven or received their eternal reward. We will all be made perfect together at the resurrection when Yeshua returns. In fact, Yeshua specifically told us that no one has gone to heaven. No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven. That is the son of man who is in heaven. No one has ever gone to heaven except Yeshua. This means Elijah and Enoch are not in heaven. Peter even explains that King David is still in his grave and waiting for the resurrection. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and in his tomb with us to this day. For David did not ascend into the heavens. Throughout the book of Acts, we find the apostles preaching the resurrection of the dead. Paul even confesses that this is the reason he was on trial because he was preaching the resurrection of the dead. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. Concerning the resurrection of the dead, I am being judged by you this day. The pagans believed that when they died, they went to be with the god of the dead. The Egyptians had Anubis and Osiris. The Greeks had Hades and the Romans had Pluto. In later Norse mythology, hell, the daughter of Loki, was the goddess of death. However, Yeshua reminds us that we do not believe in the god of the dead. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The God of the Bible is the God of the living. And this phrase is directly linked to the resurrection of the dead. So why does nearly every church teach heaven instead of the resurrection? When it comes to this subject, Plato has had more influence on Christian thought than the entire Bible. Plato taught that the soul is immortal and the body is a prison for the soul. He believed that death frees the soul from the body saying only when we are dead and the soul is released from the body will we attain true knowledge. The Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul and they taught that it lives on in the underworld after the body dies. That's why when Paul preached the resurrection they mocked him and thought he was teaching a strange doctrine. Then certain Epicuran and Stoic philosophers encountered him and some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection." The Greeks believe that when one dies, their soul goes to Hades. The good people go to a pleasant area called Elysium, while the wicked are sent to be punished in Tartarus. However, most people are sent to a neutral area known as the fields of Asphodel. So when Paul spoke about the resurrection, some were curious to learn more because they were unfamiliar with the concept of the resurrection. The resurrection is what makes Christianity unique. Nearly all other religions teach some form of heaven and hell, but the Bible teaches everlasting life through the resurrection of the dead. The early Christians all spoke of the resurrection as their hope, not disembodied souls in heaven. However, in the late 2nd century, this Platonic idea that the soul lives on forever, separate from the body, began to shape Christian thought. In the second century, the heretic named Marcian emphasized disembodied spiritual salvation of the soul. He rejected the God of the Old Testament and the Hebrew scriptures, and he altered the New Testament to align with his own theology. Marcian shifted the focus toward a non-material afterlife. This opened the door for Platonic and Gnostic influences that portrayed heaven as the true home of the soul. Early Christians such as Aranius and Toleian strongly opposed him, emphasizing the resurrection as the authentic Christian hope. Then in the 3rd century, a man named origin of Alexandria taught that the soul pre-existed the body and would return to a purely spiritual state when we die. The soul having a substance and life of its own shall after departing from the world exist in a better state. Later in the fifth century, a monk named Augustine reinforced the idea of an immortal soul. He wrote about this in his book called The City of God. Souls when they leave the body are immediately judged and assigned either to rest or to torment. And with Augustine's influence, the emphasis shifted from the resurrection to heaven. As centuries passed, the shift solidified and the mythology grew. In the sixth century, Gregory the Great introduced the idea of purgatory. It is to be believed that before the judgment there is a purgatorial fire for certain slight faults. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinus argued that the soul is naturally immortal. The soul since it is incorruptible remains in being after the body is dissolved. And perhaps the most influential of all is Dante, who gave the church its most vivid pictures of the afterlife in his work, The Divine Comedy, also known as Dante's Inferno. It was only poetry. But Dante's imagery shaped Christian imagination more than the Bible itself. By the middle ages, heaven and hell were at the center of preaching and art. While the resurrection was little more than a creed recited at Easter, in the sixth century, the Protestant reformers began to challenge some of the Catholic doctrines, though not always consistently. For example, Martin Luther rejected purgatory as totally unbiblical, and he emphasized the resurrection of the dead, even describing death as asleep. It is probable, in my opinion, that with very few exceptions, the dead sleep in utter insensibility till the day of judgment. Luther leaned toward the idea that the dead are unconscious until the resurrection. And he said, "We shall sleep until he comes and knocks on the little grave and says,"Dr. Martin, get up. Then I shall arise in a moment and be happy with him forever." Calvin, on the other hand, strongly opposed soul sleep. For the souls of the righteous, when separated from their bodies, advance straight to Christ. It is not right to say they sleep. Some groups like the Antabaptists lean closer to Luther's soul sleep language, stressing the resurrection as the true hope. While the Church of England maintained the heaven and hell model, rejecting purgatory. By the 17th century, most Protestant churches emphasized immediate heaven or hell after death. The resurrection remained in creeds, but was functionally sidelined. That's why today nearly every denomination has forgotten the hope of the resurrection. And they continue teaching what the early Christians consider to be blasphemy. The idea that we go to heaven when we die. So why does it matter? Because the truth matters. And here's the truth. We all die because of sin. The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. But we have hope because Yeshua conquered death through the resurrection. and he promised to resurrect his people when he returns. So, let me ask you a question. Do you believe the serpent who said, "You will not surely die." Or do you believe Yeshua's promise? I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. This is the heart of the gospel. Without the resurrection, there is no eternal life. If you want to go even deeper on this topic, I wrote a book called Immortal, where we explore what the Bible says about life after death, heaven, hell, and the resurrection. I think it will challenge what you've been told and strengthen your faith in the true hope of the gospel. Get your copy on Amazon. I put a link in the description below. Thanks for watching, and remember, the truth will set you free. I'll see you in the next video.