The doctrine of Heaven and Hell is a fundamental teaching in Christianity. On the one hand it provides great comfort to mourners that their beloved one has gone to a better place – to be with God in Heaven. Or have they, for all must admit to the thought that insidiously enters into our mind… ‘what if they were not that good really and have actually gone to Hell’, to join someone else, not so pleasant.

Is this prominent and powerful dogma the truth as taught by the Messiah and the apostles, or is it a false doctrine based on pagan, gnostic and demonic traditions?

Let’s begin with Heaven.

There are three heavens described in the scriptures.

1. Earth’s atmosphere: Genesis 7:11–12, Job 35:11, Jeremiah 16:4

2. Outer Space: Genesis 26:4, Deuteronomy 1:10, Psalm 8:3, Isaiah 13:10

3. God’s abode and throne: which is beyond the matter of the Universe. Maybe it is caught up in dark matter. Either way, it is in different dimensions and spacetime and what the Bible would call the spirit realm – Deuteronomy 26:15, 2 Corinthians 12:2, Revelation 4:1–2.

No human has ever gone to heaven [Acts 2:29, 34].

“No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” [John 3:13 ESV]

Going to heaven when you die is a lie. When an animal dies, it is dead and gone forever. When a human dies, they are dead as in a long sleep [Romans 6:23]. Their spirit is retained by the Creator [Ecclesiastes 3:21].

Similar to a CD or cassette player, which represents the body. It’s only function is to play the cassette which has the required information on it. The Eternal keeps the cassette, our spirit. It is at a later date when all are resurrected that the data on the cassette, our spirit, will be reanimated in a new body [1 Corinthians 15:12–56].

Similarly, there are three hells described in the Bible.

1. Hades or Sheol: refers to the earth beneath our feet and where one who has died is buried – Genesis 37:35, Job 14:13, Psalm 88:3, Matthew 11:23, Luke 10:15.

2. Tartaroo: a specially created place designed to restrain specific angelic beings who rebelled out of time and their demonic offspring who should not have come into existence – Genesis 6:1–4, 1 Peter 3:19–20, 2 Peter 2:4–5, Jude 6.

3. Gehenna: a consuming fire and where the false doctrine about hell originates – Malachi 4:1–3, John 15:6, 2 Peter 3:7–13, Revelation 19:20; 20:10–15; 21:8.

As when we die we do not go to heaven, we do not go to hell either. But, there is a time in the future when all humankind will be given a choice – going full circle to Eden and Adam and Eve – and those who choose not to go with the one that leads to eternal life will be consumed in a fireball of destruction on this planet – a literal hellfire. There will be a new Earth, but anyone not getting with the program will be on the old one that will cease to exist with anyone unlucky enough to be on it [Revelation 21:1–5; 22:1–5].

And that is what the Bible actually says regarding Heaven and Hell.

What is a concern, is that pretty much every doctrine your local Catholic or Protestant church teaches you is incorrect. One wonders why people are disenfranchised with religion? That is why. They are not telling the truth. The problem isn’t with God or the Bible, its with people who claim to represent them and speak their own words and not what the scriptures say.

Based on an edited excerpt in answer to questions on Quora: Is there heaven and hell after death? – Where does a person go after they die? – Is there life after death?

© Orion Gold 2020-2022 – All rights reserved. Permission to copy, use or distribute, if acknowledgement of the original authorship is attributed to Orion Gold

post scriptum

The word rapture is not in the scriptures per se, though the concept certainly is [Matthew 24:40–41, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 1 Corinthians 15:51–52].

Is it a teaching or doctrine of the Bible? Yes, it is and it is not ‘made up’.

A more accurate biblical name for the rapture is the first resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:16, James 1:18, Revelation 20:5].

It applies to all true believers just prior to the Son of Man’s return at the beginning of the ‘Great Tribulation’ and the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ which precedes the ‘Day of the Lord’.

Later, there will be a second resurrection, where all who have lived and died yet not believed, will be given the opportunity to live again [ 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, Revelation 20:11–15].

Many who call themselves christian deny the hope of the resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:16–19].

Based on an edited excerpt in answer to the question on Quora: Someone told me that the word rapture or the rapture is not actually in the Bible and that it is made up. Is that true?