Is the resurrection heavenly or earthly?

by jwfacts 14 Replies latest watchtower bible

jwfacts

I was looking for Scriptures that discuss the heavenly resurrection, and did a google search on "heavenly resurrection". To my surprise almost all links were discussing the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. Apparently Christians simply discuss the resurrection, specify it as a "heavenly resurrection" is very much Watchtower terminology.
The more I looked, the less specific the Bible seems to be about where the resurrection will be. I am looking for Scriptures to indicate the location of the resurrection.
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Sorry for the double post. I corrected my comment and added carriage return formatting.
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Very interesting topic. I read the entire New Testament last year and came away with a clear feeling that much of what the Watchtower Society teaches is completely counter to what the Scriptures actually teach. My understanding is that the Scriptures no where teach that humans are resurrected to live in heaven. Resurrections happen on planet Earth. Every example of resurrections recorded in the Scriptures take place on Earth and the ones resurrected lived on earth afterward. With one exception: Jn 3:13 states that 'no one has ascended into heaven except the One who came from heaven - the Son of Man.' (Holman Christian Standard Bible.)

Revelation chapter 20 describes events happening just prior to and after the 1,000-year reign of the Christ and his elect who also sit on thrones. These elect are the ones who take part in the first resurrection. Note that Revelation 5:10 states that these ones that the Lamb of God bought from the earth will be a kingdom and priests to God and that they will reign on the earth. Rev 20:6 states that these same ones will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for 1,000 years.

After the 1,000 years are over, Revelation describes all the dead, the small and the great, the righteous and the wicked, are gathered before the great white throne and are judged according to their deeds. The Scriptures teach that evil cannot exist in God's holy dwelling, that is, heaven. These righteous and wicked that are to be judged, then, must be resurrected to earth.

Revelation 21 describes the holy city New Jerusalem. It states that this city comes down out of heaven from God and that God will dwell or tent with mankind. This tells us a lot. The symbolic city comes down out of heaven. Therefore, it is not *in* heaven. Rather, the authority of this holy city, or kingdom, comes from God himself. Its authority issues forth from heaven. God will tent with mankind. Mankind -- not angelic spirit creatures. In other words, humans will still be humans after God has made all things new and he will dwell with humans.

Is there a precedent for God dwelling with humans? Absolutely. The Old Testament describes how God tented with his chosen nation in the tabernacle and later the temple. God was with his people as they traveled through the desert and also later once they settled in the land that was promised to them. The ark of the covenant represented God's throne when it was used back then. Genesis even describes how God would walk with and have discussions with the perfect man Adam. All things will be renewed by God and because of Jesus' sacrifice, humans can look forward to having a perfect relationship with God again.
jwfacts

Welcome Tyrannus, thank you for the comment. I would add that the Bible describes it to be a "New Earth".
jwfacts

There are Scriptures that indicate the resurrection is heavenly. For instance:
Hebrews 10:15-22 “Moreover, the holy spirit also bears witness to us, for after it has said: “‘This is the covenant that I shall covenant toward them after those days,’ says Jehovah. ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds I shall write them,’” [it says afterwards:] “And I shall by no means call their sins and their lawless deeds to mind anymore.” Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness for the way of entry into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, which he inaugurated for us as a new and living way through the curtain, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with true hearts in the full assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies bathed with clean water.”
1 Corinthians 15:50-52 “However, this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Look! I tell YOU a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet.”
jwfacts

Ok, I have finally found scriptures specifying heaven, including for those that died prior to Jesus
(Philippians 3:20-21) . . .As for us, our citizenship exists in the heavens, from which place also we are eagerly waiting for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will refashion our humiliated body to be conformed to his glorious body according to the operation of the power that he has, even to subject all things to himself. . .

Hebrews 11:13-16 “In faith all these died, although they did not get the [fulfillment of the] promises, … now they are reaching out for a better [place], that is, one belonging to heaven. Hence God is not ashamed of them, to be called upon as their God, for he has made a city ready for them.”
Matthew 8:11 “But I tell YOU that many from eastern parts and western parts will come and recline at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens.”
These others indicate heaven.
(1 Corinthians 15:50-53) . . .However, this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Look! I tell YOU a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this which is corruptible must put on incorruption, and this which is mortal must put on immortality. . .
(2 Corinthians 5:8) 8 But we are of good courage and are well pleased rather to become absent from the body and to make our home with the Lord.. . .
(Philippians 1:22-23) . . .Now if it be to live on in the flesh, this is a fruitage of my work—and yet which thing to select I do not make known. 23 I am under pressure from these two things; but what I do desire is the releasing and the being with Christ, for this, to be sure, is far better. . .
(John 14:2-3) . . .In the house of my Father there are many abodes. Otherwise, I would have told YOU, because I am going my way to prepare a place for YOU. 3 Also, if I go my way and prepare a place for YOU, I am coming again and will receive YOU home to myself, that where I am YOU also may be.. . .
(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) . . .Moreover, brothers, we do not want YOU to be ignorant concerning those who are sleeping [in death]; that YOU may not sorrow just as the rest also do who have no hope. 14 For if our faith is that Jesus died and rose again, so, too, those who have fallen asleep [in death] through Jesus God will bring with him. 15 For this is what we tell YOU by Jehovah’s word, that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep [in death]; 16 because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. 17 Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the] Lord. 18 Consequently keep comforting one another with these words.
(John 14:3) . . .Also, if I go my way and prepare a place for YOU, I am coming again and will receive YOU home to myself, that where I am YOU also may be. . .
BurnTheShips

1 Corinthians 15:42-44
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body
On the last day our bodies will be resurrected.
BTS
hamsterbait

I would say that the jews believed in an earthly resurrection.
As for Christians, you can argue either way. Especially if you include the gospels and epistles which the Church had rejected by 390 AD.
jews who became christians tended to carry their prejudices into the new religion.
There was even dabate as to whether Christ was given a spiritual or an earthly resurrection. Of course, by the fourth century we knew who had won. Now the church teaches a "resurrection of the body" where the soul is reunited with it.
Those resurrected to hell, are given bodies which heal perpetually, and cannot be destroyed or consumed by what is done to them.
At the end of the day you choose what to read, and of that, what to believe.
HB
sacolton

Well, we know God is going to purify the earth with fire (2 Peter 3:10) and everything will be desolved (yes, all the KHs too), so the illusion of the JWs rebuilding the earth is not going to happen. So, the resurrection will be in Heaven and then once the earth is prepared the righteous will dwell on it.
I never understood the explaination that JWs are supposed to tear everything down and make the world a paradise. How is that possible? What do you do with all the junk? How do you clean a landfill? How do you clean a toxic waste dump? It's silly.
M.J.

Um, take your pick.

First off, don't confuse the resurrection with the intermediate state.

To quote one of Leolaia's replies to a thread I posted a while back:

"Jews other than the Sadducees commonly believed that the dead exist in an intermediate state between death and resurection. This is what the Pharisees and Essenes believed, and Josephus himself refers to these believes as typical of the Pharisees and Essenes."

The intermediate state in heaven, or being "away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Cor 5:8) comes before resurrection. Also see Philippians 1:23.

I think that the primary conception of the resurrection was earthly, particularly among Jewish Christians.
Yet, 2 Cor 5 might give ambiguous hints of a heavenly resurrection:

Again, Leolaia:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/106284/1844809/post.ashx#1844809

"Paul expected not to experience death but to be 'changed' and pass into immortality in the general resurrection, yet by this time Paul is contemplating the possibility that he may die and thus experience the 'nakedness' of death. What he reassures his followers is that even if this does occur, there will still be the 'eternal house of heaven' that will clothe those in Christ, and that those who die before the resurrection will be 'at home in the Lord'. Note again that Paul is talking about the afterlife immediately after death, because in v. 8-9 'being at home with Christ' is axiomatically the same as 'being away from the body', just as 'being away from Christ' is what happens when one is 'at home in the body'.
What is especially confusing about this passage is that Paul is unclear in v. 1-2 on when a person will be 'clothed with our heavenly dwelling'. The comfort he gives in v. 4 may imply that one would not have to experience the nakedness of death at all, that the presence of Christ will be enough to 'clothe' a person so to speak, such that heaven itself will be his home instead of his former body. Note that this is not a notion of a resurrection immediately after death; the Platonic language and the logic seems to suggest that Paul has given up the idea of a resurrection and has simply adopted a Platonic idea of an immortal soul that will be clothed in a different sense in heaven. But the reference to 'what is to come' in v. 5 and the eschatological judgment in v. 10 clearly suggest that Paul did not give up this idea at all. It is equally possible that Paul means that a person will be naked temporarily after death, but that it is nothing to 'groan' about because one will be 'at home with Christ' and that one will still be 'clothed with our heavenly dwelling' when the resurrection occurs. The text is ambiguous and this ambiguity can give rise to much confusion. I think Paul may be intentionally ambiguous because many Gentile Christians in Corinth had a hard time understanding the notion of a resurrection (which is why Paul expended so much effort explaining it in 1 Corinthians 15), and these converts were already believers of a Platonic eschatology. Thus, Paul may be ambiguous here to allow for both points of view. Note also that he is non-commital in 2 Corinthians 12:2 on whether his journey to heaven was 'in the body' or 'out of the body', the latter being what Platonists would expect."

Is the resurrection heavenly or earthly?

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