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Verses used to support the idea that our everlasting future is in Heaven (Endnotes)

1. Actually, according to the Greek text, God wants all people to come to a “full or complete knowledge” of the truth, not just “a knowledge” of it. The Amplified Bible expresses this very well, saying that it is God, “Who wishes all men to be saved and [increasingly] to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the [divine] Truth.” [All italics and brackets are theirs]. Close

2. Although some translations use “air” or “sky” instead of “heaven,” anyone who checks the Hebrew or Greek text will see immediately that the text reads “heaven.” Close

3. Graeser, Lynn, and Schoenheit, op. cit., Is There Death After Life?, p. 85. Close

4. J. Emerton, C. Cranfield, and G. Stanton, The International Critical Commentary: Matthew (T. & T. Clark, Ltd., Edinburg, 1988), p. 631. Close

5. George Wesley Buchanan, The Anchor Bible: To the Hebrews (Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1972), p. xxv. Close

6. This can be verified very quickly in any concordance. The phrase, “the house of Israel” is used 146 times in the KJV, the “house of Judah” is used 41 times, and the phrase “house of David” is used 26 times. Close

7. C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John (The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1978), p. 536. Close

8. Some Christians may be threatened by the thought that they are not “spiritually” in heaven, as if the reason they can hear from the Lord is that they are in heaven with him. God created mankind as earth dwellers. Christians can hear from the Lord because each one has the gift of holy spirit within him. God has always spoken to His people, and the space between heaven and earth does not in any way hinder Him from communicating with people. Close

9. Buchanan, op. cit., Anchor Bible: Hebrews, p. 192. Close

10. Ibid., p. 194. Close