There’s no one or easy answer to this question. The simplest answer is “we don’t know,” but that’s not particularly helpful.

The Christian conceptions of heaven cannot be separated from their Jewish roots. Originally, “heaven” referred to the physical domain in which God lived, usually conceived as above or surrounding the earth. It was the place for God and all immortal beings, while human beings, with rare exceptions, died and went to Sheol (see below). Heaven and Earth together are the two parts of Creation (the whole universe)– God created “the heavens” at the same time as God created the earth–and God rules over both.

In later thought, heaven and the “kingdom of God/heaven” can refer to a “new creation,” in which the universe as we know it is replaced by something entirely new. God would form a new creation out of the remains of the old heavens and earth and reestablish a new reign of God over this new creation, of which we would be a part. As our understanding of the world grew, we necessarily understood heaven to be outside of both space and time as ancient people interpreted it, but the idea of a separate place/reality outside of our understanding for God remained.

The first Christians initially believed that this new creation, this new earth and the new heavens, would be established in their lifetimes. When that didn’t occur, and the question of what happened after we died became more important, the idea developed that those who died would “rest” unaware until the final day of judgment (this was Luther’s personal belief). Those in this “intermediate state” can be resting in the abstract, or in the presence of God, which led finally to the idea that the souls of the righteous go to heaven after we die and are fully aware. For many Christians, this is the final state–you die, and if you’re good you go to heaven to live forever with God, and if you’re bad, you go to hell to be tortured for all eternity by Satan.

I find this rather common interpretation of life after death in Christianity to be woefully deficient because 1) it is the epitome of works righteousness, the idea that God wants us to “be good” so we can get into heaven, and 2) it wholly ignores what is perhaps the most important teaching of Christianity–the resurrection.

The development of the Christian concepts for the resurrection of the dead also cannot be separated from their Jewish cosmological roots. In early Israelite belief, everyone died and their spirits went to a place called “Sheol,” much like the ancient Greek “Hades”. It wasn’t what we would think of as “hell.” It was neither good nor bad, it simply was. Everyone went there. Later, the belief developed in some parts of Judaism that at the end of time would be a final judgment, when the spirits of the righteous were taken out of Sheol and reunited with their resurrected bodies, asserting God’s power over even death. So you would die, spend some time in Sheol with everyone else, and then later get resurrected.

Because of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, resurrection of the body is a central, defining tenet of Christianity. Our entire worldview and witness is based on resurrection. The Gospel writers made it absolutely clear that when Jesus rose from the dead, he wasn’t just a spirit or a ghost, but a full, living, breathing, physical, fleshy meatbag like the rest of us. We openly proclaim in the three ecumenical creeds a firm belief in the resurrection of the body sometime after death.

How do these two work together? There are three generally accepted interpretations for what happens after we die:
1) Our souls go to heaven to live forever without a resurrection,
2) Our souls go to heaven and our bodies are either resurrected right away, or are resurrected at the last judgment; or
3) Our souls “rest,” waiting for the resurrection at the last judgment.

Personally, I am at a place in my faith and learning where I lean more towards the position held by Martin Luther: that after we die, while our bodies are decaying into dust and star-stuff, “we” are resting in God’s presence (in heaven?), dreaming as it were, outside the bounds of time and space, until this reality, universe, creation has died its last death and God takes the remnants and fashions a new creation. Then we will be resurrected, including our bodies. As for what comes after that? Maybe a strict binary judgment to eternal bliss or eternal torture (I hope not), maybe new life that resembles this life, but different/better because of God’s presence in a new way that makes it “heaven,” maybe something we can’t possibly conceive or imagine in our wildest dreams. I don’t know.

But I cling to the promise of resurrection in a new heaven and a new earth.

— Pastor Ken Ranos