In a recent public comment on Facebook, one believer challenged another to provide scriptural support for his position, as follows:
“Christ is going to return to the earth to establish His kingdom on the earth. Can you please provide me a scripture that indicates that He is going to take us from the earth to a celestial realm? I can provide many that state that His kingdom will be established here and that the saints will be here.”
This same believer went on to state the following in a subsequent comment:
“…yes, scripture mentions that we are seated in the heavenly places, that our allotment is celestial, etc, but that is no different than believing Jews being told by Christ that the kingdom is “of the heavens” or that they lay up rewards in heaven. They are heavenly in origination or character; not in ultimate location.”
The believer’s assertion that “the saints will be here” (i.e., here on the earth) presupposes that every person who has ever lived (or ever will live) who could be considered a “saint” (i.e., in the scriptural sense of the term) will be among “the saints” who will be enjoying eonian life in the kingdom of God after it has been established on the earth. But is that, in fact, the case? I don’t think that it is.
Now, this believer would agree that the company of saints to whom Peter, James, John and the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote will, in accord with what we read in Rev. 5:10, be “reigning on the earth” during the eons to come. He would also agree that, when the terms “heaven(s)” or “celestial” are used outside of Paul’s thirteen signed letters in connection with the expectation of the saints who will be reigning on the earth, they refer to the source and character of their blessings (and not to the location where the blessings will be enjoyed).
For example, in 1 Peter 1:3-5, we read that Peter and those to whom he wrote had been “regenerated…for the enjoyment of an allotment incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you, who are garrisoned by the power of God, through faith, for salvation ready to be revealed in the last era…” What, exactly, is the “allotment” that Peter had in mind here, which he said was being “kept in the heavens” for the believing Israelites (i.e., the “chosen expatriates of the dispersion”) to whom he wrote? It should be noted that we’re not told that Peter and those to whom he wrote would enjoy this “allotment” in the heavens. Rather, it’s in the heavens that this allotment is being “kept.” The fact that it’s being “kept” there doesn’t mean it’s going to remain there.
We know that, during his earthly ministry, Christ was the “Servant of the Circumcision, for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the patriarchal promises” (Rom. 15:8). In accord with this patriarchal promise-based administration, the eonian allotment of which Christ spoke during his earthly ministry – and which he promised those who followed him – is one that will be terrestrial in its location (Matt. 5:5). Keeping this fact in mind, Christ declared the following in Matthew 6:19-21:
“Do not hoard for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and corrosion are causing them to disappear, and where thieves are tunneling and stealing. Yet hoard for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor corrosion are causing them to disappear, and where thieves are not tunneling nor stealing; for wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Did Christ believe that those to whom he spoke would be enjoying their “hoarded-up treasure” in heaven? No; the “treasure” to which Christ was referring here has to do with the rewards that the faithful among Israel will receive from him after his return to earth. Later – in Matthew 19:28-30 – Christ declared the following to his disciples:
Yet Jesus said to them, “Verily, I am saying to you, that you who follow Me, in the renascence whenever the Son of Mankind should be seated on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, on account of My name, a hundred-fold shall be getting, and shall be enjoying the allotment of life eonian. Yet many of the first shall be last, and the last first.”
The “hundred-fold” that Jesus promised his faithful followers would receive after his return to earth will be the “treasures in heaven” that these same followers were exhorted by Christ to “hoard” for themselves through their faithful conduct prior to his return to earth. In Rev. 22:12, Christ declared the following to those whose eonian expectation will involve reigning on the earth (Rev. 5:10): “Lo! I am coming swiftly, and my wage is with me, to pay each one as his work is.” Notice that Christ said that the “wage” with which he would pay the saints was “with [him].” It is after Christ has returned to earth that those whom he had in view will receive their “wages”; until then, this “wage” is being “kept in the heavens” for them.
Later in his letter – and in accord with what Christ himself declared in Rev. 22:12 and elsewhere – Peter explained what he had in mind by the “incorruptible” and “unfading” allotment referred to in 1 Pet. 1:3-5: “…when the Chief Shepherd is manifested, you shall be requited with an unfading wreath of glory” (1 Pet. 5:4). Whether one understands this “unfading wreath of glory” to be a literal or figurative “wreath,” it’s clearly something with which the saints among Israel will be requited at the coming of Christ referred to in places such as Matthew 24:29-31, Acts 3:21 and Rev. 1:7 (which is undoubtedly the “manifestation” of the “Chief Shepherd” to which Peter was referring here). Until then, this allotment – like the “treasure” referred to by Christ in Matt. 6:19-21 – is being “kept in the heavens” for those who are called through the evangel of the Circumcision, and who endure to the end.
In Heb. 3:1 we read of the “celestial calling” of those to whom this letter was written. However, every occurrence of the term “celestial” in the letter to the Hebrews – with the sole exception of its use in Heb. 12:22 (concerning which see below) – is in the genitive case. Unlike the dative case (which denotes the location in which something is found or occurs), the genitive denotes the source or character of something. And not all that is celestial in character or source need be understood as celestial in location (although anything celestial in location is also celestial in character – and can thus be referred to as such). Thus, those who we’re told tasted “the celestial gratuity” (Heb. 6:4) didn’t taste a gift that was up in heaven (for they were on the earth when they “tasted” it). Rather, they tasted a gift that was celestial in its source and character. What, then, did the author have in mind when he referred to the “celestial calling” of those to whom he wrote?
Answer: In Hebrews 12:25-28 we read the following:
Beware! You should not be refusing Him Who is speaking! For if those escaped not, refusing the One apprizing on earth, much rather we, who are turning from the One from the heavens, Whose voice then shakes the earth. Yet now He has promised, saying, Still once more shall I be quaking, not only the earth, but heaven also. Now the “Still once more” is making evident the transference of that which is being shaken, as of that having been made, that what is not being shaken should be remaining.
Wherefore, accepting an unshakable kingdom, we may have grace through which we may be offering divine service in a way well pleasing to God, with piety and dread, for our God is also a consuming fire.
Note the contrast between “the one apprizing on earth” and “the one from the heavens.” The “celestial calling” of which we read in Heb. 3:1 is that which comes from the one who is speaking “from the heavens.” However, on both sides of the contrast being made here, God’s covenant people (Israel) are in view. The words, “whose voice then shakes the earth” refer to what took place in the past, when the old covenant was made with Israel through the mediation of Moses. However, the “celestial calling” that is from “him who is speaking…from the heavens” pertains to events that are yet to come (i.e., when Christ – who is presently in heaven – returns to earth, and the new covenant of which he is the Mediator goes into effect). It is at this time that those to whom this letter was written will receive “an unshakable kingdom.”
With regard to the expression “celestial Jerusalem” in Heb. 12:22, this is, of course, a reference to new Jerusalem. Since this city is now located in heaven, it is referred to as “celestial” in a locational sense (in accord with the use of the dative case). But we know that heaven is not going to be the location of new Jerusalem during the final eon of Christ’s reign. After the creation of the new heaven and new earth, this city is going to be ”descending out of heaven from God.” And after it has descended from heaven (and thereby becomes the home of those who will be dwelling there during the last eon of Christ's reign), it will cease to be celestial in a locational sense; any sense in which it could be considered “celestial” after it has descended out of heaven will be with regard to its character and/or source (hence the use of the genitive case in, for example, Heb. 3:1).
The eonian allotment of the saints in the body of Christ
We know that it is after Christ has returned to earth that the saints among God's covenant people Israel (i.e., those who are in view in Rev. 5:10 and elsewhere) “shall be reigning on the earth.” But will the earth be the only location where the kingdom of God is going to be present during the eons to come? No. In fact, the earth is not even going to be the first location in which the kingdom of God will be present when Christ begins exercising his God-given authority to establish the kingdom and begin his eonian reign. Prior to the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth, the kingdom over which Christ will be reigning for the coming eons is first going to be established “in the heavens” and “among the celestials.”
In Rev. 12:7-12 we read of certain heavenly events that will be occurring before Christ returns to earth and establishes the kingdom of God here:
And a battle occurred in heaven. Michael and his messengers battle with the dragon, and the dragon battles, and its messengers. And they are not strong enough for him, neither was their place still found in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent called Adversary and Satan, who is deceiving the whole inhabited earth. It was cast into the earth, and its messengers were cast with it. And I hear a loud voice in heaven saying, “Just now came the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of our brethren was cast out…Therefore, make merry, ye heavens, and those tabernacling in them! Woe to the land and the sea, for the Adversary descended to you having great fury, being aware that brief is the season that he has.”
Since the events being prophesied in this passage will be occurring before Christ returns to earth, we can conclude that the coming of the kingdom of God in heaven (i.e., the realm from which “the accuser of our brethren” will be “cast out”) will be taking place before the kingdom of God is established on the earth. But will there be a company of saints enjoying an eonian allotment in the kingdom of God in heaven after it has been established in this realm? According to Paul, there will be.
In Ephesians 1:13-14, we read the following:
“In Whom you also–on hearing the word of truth, the evangel of your salvation–in Whom on believing also, you are sealed with the holy spirit of promise (which is an earnest of the enjoyment of our allotment, to the deliverance of that which has been procured) for the laud of His glory!”
The saints to whom Paul wrote this letter were such that they could be referred to collectively as “the nations” (Rom. 1:13; 11:13, 25; 15:16, 18), and comprised what Paul referred to in Rom. 16:4 as ”all the ecclesias of the nations.” It was those who comprised these various “ecclesias of the nations” who, in Paul’s day, constituted the company of saints that Paul referred to in his letters as “the body of Christ” and “the ecclesia which is [Christ’s] body.” And it’s evident from what we read in Eph. 1:13-14 that the saints who constitute the body of Christ will, at a certain future time, enjoy the “allotment” referred to in v. 14 (see also v. 18). But where will this allotment be enjoyed? Did Paul reveal in this letter (or in any of his other letters) that this allotment belonging to the body of Christ will be enjoyed on the earth, or give us any reason to believe that it will be on the earth? No.
Earlier, Paul wrote that God “blesses us with every spiritual blessing among the celestials, in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). The expression translated “among the celestials” in this verse is “en tois epouraniois,” and occurs four more times in this letter (Eph. 1:20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:10). But what is the meaning of this expression? Some scholars believe that, when Paul used this expression, he was referring to celestial regions, or realms (which is the idea expressed in the more common translation, “in the heavenly places”). Others, however, think the expression refers to celestial beings (or both celestial beings and celestial things). According to this view (which I think is most likely), Paul had in mind the same heavenly beings to which he was referring when he declared that Christ ascended ”up over all who are of the heavens” (Eph. 4:10; cf. Heb. 7:26, where we read that Christ came to be “higher than those of the heavens”). It’s also possible that Paul purposefully chose an expression that could refer to both celestial regions and celestial beings/things.
In any case, it can be reasonably concluded that the location that Paul had in mind when he used the expression “en tois epouraniois” is the location that he referred to elsewhere as “the heavens,” and which the author of the letter to the Hebrews referred to as both “the heavens” (Heb. 4:14; 7:26; 8:1-2) and “heaven itself” (Heb. 9:23-24). This is evident from the fact that the term epouraniois (“celestials” or “heavenlies”) is in the dative case, and thus denotes locality (as opposed to the genitive case, which denotes source or character).
Paul’s use of the expression “among the celestials” in Eph. 3:10 and 6:12 can be understood as further confirmation that the location to which the expression refers is the same location as that referred to by the related expression “in the heavens.” Compare these verses with Colossians 1:16:
“…that now may be made known to the sovereignties and the authorities among the celestials, through the ecclesia, the multifarious wisdom of God…”
“…for it is not ours to wrestle with blood and flesh, but with the sovereignties, with the authorities, with the world-mights of this darkness, with the spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials.”
“…for in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him…”
Since Paul wasn’t referring to “the sovereignties and the authorities” that are on the earth in Eph. 3:10 and 6:12, he must’ve been referring to those who are “in the heavens.” From this consideration it follows that the location to which the expression “among the celestials” refers in Eph. 3:10 and 6:12 is “the heavens.”
Thus, regardless of whether the expression “among the celestials” is referring to celestial regions (i.e., regions that comprise “the heavens”) or to the beings that are “of the heavens,” we can be sure that Paul had in view the entire celestial realm in which Christ presently sits enthroned at God’s right hand (Eph. 1:20). And it is in this realm that the saints who comprise what Paul referred to in Eph. 1:22 as “the ecclesia which is [Christ’s] body” are destined to be “blessed with every spiritual blessing.”
Consider also Eph. 2:4-7:
“…yet God, being rich in mercy, because of His vast love with which He loves us (we also being dead to the offenses and the lusts), vivifies us together in Christ (in grace are you saved!) and rouses us together and seats us together among the celestials, in Christ Jesus, that, in the oncoming eons, He should be displaying the transcendent riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Just as Paul was referring to a future event and reality when he referred to the vivification and rousing of the saints (which is the future aspect of our salvation in grace), so, also, Paul was referring to a future event and reality when he referred to us being seated “together among the celestials, in Christ Jesus.” The time period during which this future aspect of the salvation of the saints in the body of Christ is going to be enjoyed is “in the oncoming eons,” while the location where it is going to be enjoyed is said to be “among the celestials.”
In accord with Paul’s use of the expression “among the celestials” in Ephesians, we read in Phil. 3:20 that “our realm is inherent in the heavens, out of which we are awaiting a Savior also.” The word translated “realm” in this verse is politeuma, and occurs only here in the Greek Scriptures. This term – which is derived from the more commonly-used word “polis” (“a place of many people,” i.e., a city) – most likely denotes a ruled domain. Significantly, although the expression translated “the heavens” in Phil. 3:20 is plural, the term politeuma is in the singular. And since the expression translated “out of which” (ex hou) is also singular (the plural form – which Paul didn’t use – is ex hon), it means that it is from this realm (singular) that we are awaiting our Savior, Christ.
It’s also worth noting that this realm is not merely said to be “in the heavens” but rather “inherent in the heavens.” The word translated “inherent” is huparch’ō (“UNDER-ORIGINate”), and expresses the idea that the realm in view permanently belongs to the heavens. We therefore have good reason to understand the term politeuma to denote the realm (or ruled domain) in which we will be enjoying our allotment during “the oncoming eons,” when God will be “displaying the transcendent riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
What Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-4 provides us with further confirmation that the location in which we’ll be enjoying our allotment is in the heavens rather than on the earth. In these verses we read the following:
“If, then, you were roused together with Christ, be seeking that which is above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Be disposed to that which is above, not to that on the earth, for you died, and your life is hid together with Christ in God. Whenever Christ, our Life, should be manifested, then you also shall be manifested together with Him in glory.”
It’s important to understand what, exactly, Paul was exhorting the saints to whom he wrote to be doing in this passage. Although some understand Paul’s words here as having simply been an exhortation for believers to keep their focus on Christ, that’s not what Paul wrote here. As important and necessary as it is for us to keep our focus on Christ and on what he did for us, the focus of this passage is actually on the location where Christ is presently seated. It is the heavenly/celestial realm itself (i.e., “where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”) that we are to be “seeking,” and to which we are to be “disposed.” And there would be no good reason for Paul to exhort believers to be “seeking” the heavenly realm in which Christ is seated if this wasn’t the location in which we’ll be enjoying our eonian life after we’ve been “manifested together with [Christ] in glory.” Thus, when Paul previously wrote that members of the body of Christ have an “expectation reserved for [us] in the heavens” (Col. 1:5), we can conclude that this expectation reserved for us in the heavens will actually be enjoyed by us in the heavens.
It is “in the heavens” and “among the celestials” that Christ is presently residing and inherently belongs; thus, it is in this same location that we will be “at home with the Lord” after we have come to be “dressed in our habitation which is out of heaven.” (2 Cor. 5:4-8).[1] It is because the location of our eonian allotment is “in the heavens” (v. 1) that we must come to wear “the image…of the Celestial,” and thereby become “celestials” ourselves (1 Cor. 15:48-49). Our mortal, “terrestrial” body must be transformed into a body that is fit for the realm where Christ, the Celestial One, resides and inherently belongs – i.e., the heavens (1 Cor. 15:47). Hence, the future, vivified body that we will possess after “the mortal may be swallowed up by life” is described by Paul as being “eonian, in the heavens.” (2 Cor. 5:1). This expression can only mean that, after we have been vivified in Christ (and have thus become “celestials”), the location in which we will reside in our new, incorruptible “habitation” will be “in the heavens.”
No flesh and blood in the kingdom of God?
Just as Scripture is clear that the kingdom of God is going to be established on the earth, so it is just as clear that many of the saints who will be enjoying an allotment in the kingdom of God on the earth will be mortal human beings (see, for example, Ezekiel 36:8-12; 37:25-26; 44:20-25; cf. Isaiah 11:6-8; 65:20-25; Jeremiah 23:3-6; 30:18-20 [cf. v. 3]; 33:10-11, 19-22; 59:20-21). In these and other passages, we read of things said concerning people in the future kingdom that can only be said of mortal, flesh-and-blood Israelites, and in which only those who are mortal will be involved during this time (such as marrying and “multiplying” in the land). This category of Israelites in the kingdom will initially consist of those belonging to the generation that will be alive on the earth at the time of Christ’s return (such as the 144,000 sealed Israelites and the “vast throng” referred to in Rev. 7:2-17). However, multitudes more will be born into, and grow up in, the kingdom that’s going to be restored to Israel when Christ returns to earth.
Of course, there will be some immortal people enjoying eonian life in the kingdom of God on earth. But this category of saints will be constituted exclusively by those believing Israelites (and certain believing “God-fearers,” such as Cornelius and his household) who died before Christ’s return to earth. It is these who are going to be restored to life in what is referred to in Scripture as the “resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14) and the “former resurrection” (Rev. 20:4-6; cf. John 5:29). And – as I’ve argued elsewhere (http://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-commentary-on-1-thessalonians-413-18_90.html) – this is a resurrection that will occur 75 days after the return of Christ to the earth. Those who are raised from the dead by Christ at the “former resurrection” will be “neither marrying nor taking out in marriage” during the eon to come, “for neither can they still be dying, for they are equal to messengers, and are the sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:35-36).
In contrast with those who will take part in the “former resurrection,” the rest of the people who will be enjoying an allotment in the kingdom of God after it’s been established on the earth will be mortal, flesh-and-blood human beings. In fact, both before and after the “resurrection of the just” takes place, the mortal, flesh-and-blood Israelites who will be enjoying their eonian allotment in the kingdom of God on earth will likely far outnumber the resurrected Israelites and God-fearers who will be enjoying their eonian allotment there. This will also be the case during the fifth and final eon as well (and likely to an even greater extent). For, in addition to what we read concerning the kingdom of God on earth during the next eon (which will include the “thousand years” referred to in Rev. 20), it can also be reasonably inferred that there will be mortal human beings living on the new earth during the final eon, as well. Not only is this implied by Paul’s words in Eph. 3:21 (where we read of “all the generations of the eon of the eons”), but it accounts for the fact that the “log of life” will be present in the New Jerusalem to provide its life-sustaining fruit and healing leaves for those who will need it during this time (see Rev. 2:7 and 22:2).
Keeping the above points in mind, let’s now consider the following argument:
1. Mortal, flesh-and-blood humans will be enjoying an allotment in the kingdom of God that’s going to be established on the earth after Christ’s return.
2. However, according to what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:50, “flesh and blood is not able to enjoy an allotment in the kingdom of God.”
3. In 1 Cor. 15:50, Paul was not referring to the kingdom of God on the earth.
If Paul had in mind the kingdom of God as it will exist on the earth when he wrote what he did in 1 Cor. 15:50, then he would’ve been contradicting the scriptural fact that there will, in fact, be mortal, flesh-and-blood humans in this kingdom during the eon to come. But of course, Paul wasn’t contradicting Scripture. He simply didn’t have in mind the kingdom of God as it will exist on the earth. But if the future location of the kingdom of God that Paul had in mind in 1 Cor. 15:50 is not going to be the earth, then what location did Paul have in mind? Answer: Paul had in mind the heavenly realm, where Christ is presently located.
It is in contrast with the conditions that will characterize the kingdom of God on earth during the eons to come that Paul told those in the body of Christ that “flesh and blood is not able to enjoy an allotment in the kingdom of God.” Rather, what Paul had in mind in 1 Corinthians 15:50 was the kingdom of God into which the saints in the body of Christ will be entering after the snatching away and meeting in the air – i.e., the kingdom of God as it will exist in the heavenly realm (and which he referred to in 2 Tim. 4:18 as the Lord’s “celestial kingdom”). It is the kingdom of God in heaven – not the kingdom of God on earth – in which “flesh and blood is not able to enjoy an allotment.”
[1] The term translated “out of” in 2 Cor. 5:2 is ek. This same term was used by Paul in 1 Cor. 11:8 (where we read that “man is not out of woman, but woman out of man”) and 1 Cor. 15:47 (where we read that “the first man was out of the earth, soilish”). In these verses, the term ek denotes the source from which something is made. In 1 Cor. 11:8, the idea being expressed is that Adam was the source of that which God used to form Eve (see Gen. 2:21-23), while in 1 Cor. 15:47 the idea being expressed is that the earth is the source of that which God used to form Adam (see Gen. 2:7; 3:19). In the same way, the idea being expressed in 2 Cor. 5:2 is that the heavens will be the source of our glorified body (and thus of we ourselves, since our body is the quantity of matter that composes us). It is because the heavens (and not the earth) will be the source of our immortal, spiritual body that we’ll be suited for eonian life “in the heavens.”
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