Heaven: Encyclopedia II - Heaven - Heaven in Protestant Christianity

Heaven - Heaven in Protestant Christianity

Historically, Christianity has been divided over how people gain entry into Heaven. From the 16th to the late 19th century, Christendom was divided between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox views on the one hand, and the Protestant views on the other.

In the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, entry into Heaven depends upon the Christian receiving God's grace through the activities of the church. This would include sacraments such as Baptism, the Eucharist and Confession. Roman Catholics believe that entering Purgatory after death cleanses one of one's sins and makes one acceptable to enter Heaven. Many within the Anglican Church also hold to this belief, despite their Protestant history. However, in Oriental Orthodox Churches, it is only God who has the final say on who enters Heaven, and not the Church.

In the Protestant tradition, entry into Heaven depends upon the Christian placing their faith in Jesus. Protestant theology holds strongly that when Jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself the punishment for the world's sins. Therefore, any person who has faith in Christ and asks for his forgiveness will automatically be granted forgiveness for their sins and has the promise of going to Heaven.

Within the Protestant tradition there are two further strands of thought. Calvinism argues that entry into Heaven has already been predetermined by God - that all those who are Christians have in fact been chosen from the beginning of time to be saved. Faith in Christ is still essential, but the reason why a Christian has faith is because God has chosen them beforehand. Arminians hold a modified form of this doctrine. In this case, a person can choose to have faith in Christ out of their free will and is not compelled to by divine power. A detailed examination of the differences between these two protestant strands of thought are examined in their respective articles. A third, less prestigious view often overlooked between Calvinism and Arminianism is that of the Biblicists. Biblicists since the time of the Apostle Paul and Polycarp have contended that there is no paradox between the true God's sovereignty and mankind's ability to perceive and choose. Holding both these truths as taught clearly in the Bible to be accurate; they teach that eternal salvation in Heaven with God, is a supreme free gift divine grace made available to "whosoever will" trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for His full payment. Biblicists reject outright the imaginative view of Universalism as non-Biblical and creative.

While these divisions still exists within the Protestant church, since the early 20th century few Protestant churches have adopted a Universalist approach.

Even within religions, such as Catholicism and Protestantism, which dictate faith in Christ and receipt of the sacraments as a prerequiste for Heaven, there still exists in some opinions a "human factor" which prevents the blatantly evil from entering Heaven even if they are a practicing member of a faith. An example of this would be the case of the American Mafia, in which known mobsters and killers may be seen attending church on a daily basis and professing a belief in Christ. However, since such people choose to ignore the majority of the Church's teachings and engage in evil acts, there are those who believe that such persons will be denied entry into Heaven based on these acts. It is widely believed that it is insufficient to simply belong to a faith and verbally express a belief in Christ, but one must also live by His teachings and live a good and decent life. Only the biblicists contend that salvation is by divine grace (alone) through faith (i.e. trust, alone) in the person and work of Jesus, alone. See also Salvation.

Heaven is an especially interesting doctrine in Christian thought, which has the resurrection of the body dominating the concept of afterlife. The intermediate state (between death and the resurrection) is unclear in Christian thought (see the article on psychopannychism). However the final state of believers is in an incorruptible, resurrected, and new body, living in the New Jerusalem, which descends from Heaven to the Creation. The person was never meant to be disembodied. Death is not a natural part of life, but was allowed to happen after Adam and Eve disobeyed God (see original sin) so that mankind would not live forever in a state of sin and thus a state of separation from God. The Greek "hê basileia tous ouranous", usually translated as "the Kingdom of Heaven", is indeed more literally "the rule of the skies", with "the skies" a codeword for God. Thus most Christians interpret it as a state, rather than a place.

The present Roman Catholic teaching regarding Heaven is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever... This perfect life with [God]....is called heaven. [It] is the ultimate end and fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness." Jehovah's Witnesses reject the idea of heaven as the final hope and home for humanity; in their view only a few people including the Apostles (John 14:1-3; Rev. 5:9,10; 14:1-5) will go to Heaven to rule the remainder of good people (including David and John the Baptist), who will inherit the Earth to live forever (Matt. 5:5; Acts 2:34; Rev. 21:3-5). Christadelphians believe that all who are saved will live on Earth for eternity after the resurrection.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons", have a more complicated view of heaven. They view the traditional paradisical heaven and fiery hell as lasting only until the final Judgment Day, at which point the righteous (and not so righteous) will be separated into three "Degrees of Glory", or Kingdoms: the Celestial Kingdom, where God dwells, the Terrestrial Kingdom, which will be visited by Christ, and the Telestial Kingdom, which will be ministered to by the angels. The truly evil (the "Sons of Perdition", Satan, and his fallen angels), will be cast into Outer Darkness. For more detail, see The Plan of Salvation.

Many Christians believe that the "wealth" of heaven is nonmaterial; its blessings are forever, and cannot be tarnished, destroyed or taken away. Some of these will be enjoyed by redeemed people after death such as enjoying the actual presence of God (Rev 22.3-4) and the absence of pain and sorrow (Rev 21.4), while some are enjoyed in the present life, such as peace (Ph 4.7) and joy (Jn 16.22).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Heaven in Protestant Christianity", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki