Hello everyone.
It seems that whenever I do a video explaining why all Christians should be partaking of the bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper, I get comments like these:
“But I don’t want to go to heaven. I just want to live on a paradise earth.”
“If everyone goes to heaven, who will be left on earth to rule over?”
Objections like these arise from the belief that we know what heaven is, and what paradise refers to.
The fact is that MANY people do not really understand what heaven or paradise really is. Would you be surprised to learn that the Bible never actually says that good people go to heaven?
Yet whether you’re a Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, or even one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, you have been taught that heaven is a place that the righteous go to when they die. Witnesses restrict that number to 144,000, but they still teach that these ones go to heaven.
If the Bible doesn’t teach that we go to heaven, what would motivate all these religions to say it does? Is it just bad scholarship, or is it something more sinister?
To answer that, let’s start with the largest and oldest organized religion, the mother of all the churches of today: The Catholic Church.
Catholics are taught that humans possess an immortal soul. Most Protestants and Evangelicals also teach that the human soul is immortal. Remarkably, they teach this without recognizing any conflict with the salvation hope that Jesus preached. But belief in an immortal soul makes a mockery of what Jesus promised when he spoke of a resurrection to life at John 5:29. The same is true when he promised this to Martha just before resurrecting Lazarus:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He that exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; and everyone that is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25, 26)
Did Martha respond, “Don’t be silly, Lord. Of course, we’ll never die at all. You know that we all have an immortal soul.”
If we all possess an immortal soul, then our salvation isn’t about receiving eternal life. As immortal souls, we would already have eternal life. So then, how do the churches get around this conundrum? They make salvation about location. You’re going to live forever, so the question is, where?
To show how this works, here’s an experience someone shared with me from her childhood.
“I remember when I was a child and visited an Orthodox church for the first time. At the entrance, there was a painting: on the right side, a beautiful paradise where people ascended, with words like "good," "honest," and "generous" written above them. But on the left side, there was a terrifying image of hell, with demons tormenting people labeled as "thieves," "immoral," "idolaters," and "liars."
From childhood, believers are indoctrinated to believe if they’re good, they will go to a beautiful place called heaven. Being good means obeying church leaders and supporting them with money and labor. The alternative is to roast forever in hell. Not much of a choice, is it?
It's a real estate scam. The churches are selling spiritual property that doesn’t exist.
But are Jehovah’s Witnesses any different? True, they don’t believe in an immortal soul. But has that stopped them from mounting their own version of this spiritual real estate scam?
Witnesses are still taught that 144,000 righteous ones go to heaven. The rest, numbering in the millions, are called other sheep. These look forward to eternal life on a paradise earth.
So even with Jehovah’s Witnesses, salvation is still about location. Their publications are filled with appealing images of life on earth where followers are shown living in mansions, surrounded by picturesque views. Since these loyal Jehovah’s Witnesses will be the first to enter this New World, they’ll have their pick of the best places to live.
I remember being in field service driving past beautiful homes and hearing someone in the car group say, “That’s the home I’ve picked out for myself in the New World.” I’ve heard talks given in the kingdom hall, at the memorial, the Lord’s Supper, where the speaker spent most of the talk extolling the wonderful things we would own and do in the New World.
I’m sorry to be the one to break the news to you, but you’re being scammed. They are acting like real estate agents selling you property in heaven or on earth, based on their interpretation of the Bible. It’s all about location. Location, location, location. It’s a scam. Obey us, support us, and you’ll inherit the earth, but not just any earth, our version of a paradise earth.
They are fleshly, material men, consumed with fleshly, material thoughts. The physical man grasps only physical things, the things that can be seen and measured with human standards. But this material thinking is opposed to the spirit, which sees beyond the physical world. Thinking and reasoning with a fleshly, not spiritual, mind leads to some wacky conclusions. Take, for example, this statement by J. F. Rutherford from his 1928 book, Reconciliation:
"The constellation of the seven stars forming the Pleiades appears to be the crowning center around which the known systems of the planets revolve even as the sun's planets obey the sun and travel in their respective orbits. It has been suggested, and with much weight, that one of the stars of that group is the dwelling-place of Jehovah and the place of the highest heaven; that it is the place to which the inspired writer referred when he said: "Hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven" (2 Chron. 6:21); and that it is the place to which Job referred when under inspiration he wrote: "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?”—Job 38:31” (page 14)
Jehovah has a home near a star in the Pleiades constellation!? I see. And I imagine he has a summer cottage near Alpha Centauri.
Rutherford should have read his Bible. There he would have discovered these words of King Solomon:
“But will God really dwell on the earth? Look! The heavens, yes, the heaven of the heavens, cannot contain you; how much less, then, this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27)
Why couldn’t Rutherford grasp this concept? Why couldn’t he examine the deep things of God? Paul tells us:
“But as it is written, The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not conceived the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10 Lamsa Aramaic version)
Without God’s spirit, we can’t even begin to understand these things. Yet, all the religious leaders in Christendom claim to have God’s Spirit. So why do they all teach different things about salvation? Further, as we’ll see in a moment, the things they teach don’t match with what the Scriptures reveal. What does that say about those men? Paul tells us:
“For the things which we discuss are not dependent on the knowledge of words and man’s wisdom, but on the teaching of the Spirit; thus explaining spiritual things to the spiritually minded. For the MATERIAL man rejects spiritual things, for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the SPIRITUAL man discerns every thing, and yet no man can discern him. For who knows the mind of the LORD, that he may teach it? But we have the perception of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:13-16 Lamsa Aramaic)
Those religious teachers are really material-minded people. The material person rejects spiritual things because they cannot know them. They must be examined spiritually. When people lack God’s spirit, they rely on physical reasoning. But they don’t realize they are doing that. They fool themselves into believing they are being guided by God’s holy spirit. Then, when they encounter truly spiritual people, they misjudge them, assigning evil motives to all they say and do. Why? Because the material person cannot discern or understand a person who reasons spiritually.
But bear in mind that we too were once upon a time material-minded people, lacking God’s spirit. Paul reminds us of this fact so that we don’t become prideful.
“Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other.” (Titus 3:3 NLT)
We were foolish, disobedient to God, and misled by false religious teachers. But now we have woken up to the truth. But hold on, are we fully awake?
Let me explain it this way. When I wake up from an afternoon nap, I’m not immediately fully awake. It takes me a little while to clear my head. The same applies to a spiritual awakening. Our minds have been clouded by years of indoctrination. Religious indoctrination causes us to accept the definition of words and concepts unthinkingly. We must be aware that there are deeply implanted biases which we have to seek and root out. So, when examining Scripture, we must lay everything on the table.
So, let’s start with the word “heaven”. What do you think of when you hear the word “heaven”? Do you think it refers to a place or a location? The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses certainly does. Accepting that as a fact has led them to make a number of false assumptions. Those false assumptions have even influenced the way they translate the Bible.
Take, for example, this single verse from the English edition of New World Translation.
“…you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.” (Revelation 5:10)
So, based on Jehovah’s Witnesses’ theology, if you are an anointed child of God, you’ll go to heaven to live there, and you’ll be a king and a priest, ruling from heaven over the earth. Now we can see why some Jehovah’s Witnesses resist the heavenly calling. They view heaven as a place far, far away that you go to and from which you never return. They believe the anointed will rule from heaven over the earth, because that’s how they interpret this verse. But who wants to abandon all their family and friends and go to heaven never to return. That’s not very appealing, is it?
But this also creates a logistical problem. How exactly will the anointed act as priests to reconcile billions of unrighteous people resurrected to earth? Won’t those people need hands-on, face-to-face instruction?
Instead of reevaluating their understanding of what heaven actually is, the Governing Body misapplies a prophecy of Isaiah:
“Look! A king will reign for righteousness itself; and as respects princes, they will rule as princes for justice itself. And each one must prove to be like a hiding place from the wind and a place of concealment from the rainstorm, like streams of water in a waterless country, like the shadow of a heavy crag in an exhausted land.” (Isaiah 32:1, 2)
The king is obviously Jesus Christ, but who are the princes? According to JW.org, they will be the elders of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“We can also expect that [Christ] will choose some of today’s faithful elders to take the lead in the new world as “princes.”—Isaiah 32:1.” (ws14 2/15 p. 14 par. 17)
Notice that Isaiah only mentions one King who rules, not many. But he does mention princes, and according to the Watchtower, these princes will rule on the earth. So, where are the kings of Revelation 5:10?
The Governing Body proudly proclaims that they will be those kings.
“And as long as there have been human kings, well, lies be told to the populace. The Greek philosopher Plato said this, “the rulers of the state may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.” So, on review, how can we identify a lie? Look for the zero. Any component in a statement or a teaching that cancels out a Bible truth, and what table can we trust? The table surrounded by our future kings, the Governing Body.”
You see how this works? We’ve been conditioned to believe that the 144,000 are kings who rule from heaven, not on earth. So, when we come to read Isaiah’s prophecy, we have to invent another group of people who will be princes and who will rule on the earth.
Well, what are we going to do? Revelation 5:10 does say that kings will rule from heaven over the earth, doesn’t it?
Wait a minute: This isn’t a Bible. It’s a publication of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. It’s just a translation. It even says so on the cover. “New World TRANSLATION of the Holy Scriptures.” So, we cannot blindly trust everything written here, because the bias of the translators is almost sure to creep in.
Does the Bible actually say that the anointed children of God will be kings, as Breaux claims? Let’s reread Revelation 5:10 in the English edition of New World Translation to have it clear in our mind.
“…you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.”” (Revelation 5:10 NWT)
Now here’s the interlinear of that verse:
Do you see the word “kings”? I don’t.
There is no mention of being kings. What’s even more interesting is that the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the New World Translation also don’t include the word “kings”. So, it’s not as if the Governing Body can claim ignorance of this addition to the text. But wait a minute, is it really that bad? Doesn’t the Bible say elsewhere that the children of God will be kings? For example, when Paul wrote this to the Corinthians (Reading again from the New World Translation):
“Are you already satisfied? Are you already rich? Have you begun ruling as kings without us? I really wish that you had begun ruling as kings, so that we also might rule with you as kings.” (1 Corinthians 4:8 NWT)
Now we’ll check this out in the Interlinear.
They’ve done it again. They added a word that isn’t there in the original. And they do the same thing in Revelation 20:4, 6 where the word “kings” is added, but does not appear in the Greek.
Why? You might say that the word “king” is implied. But is it? Let’s take another look at Isaiah 32:1, 2. There we see only one king is mentioned. That would be Jesus. But there are multiple princes mentioned. Could that be referring to the anointed brothers of Christ? It makes no mention of kings, only princes, right?
When Queen Elizabeth of England was Queen, her Son Charles was called Prince Charles. But when she died, Charles ascended to the throne and became King Charles, but his two brothers, Andrew and Edward were not also kings. They continued to rule as princes under the authority of King Charles. He rules over them, they don’t rule apart from him.
Now look again at Isaiah 32:1
“Look! A king will reign for righteousness itself; and as respects princes, they will rule as princes for justice itself. (Isaiah 32:1)
Princes rule under the reigning king.
Now, as we move to verse 2, we read:
And each one must prove to be like a hiding place from the wind and a place of concealment from the rainstorm, like streams of water in a waterless country, like the shadow of a heavy crag in an exhausted land.” (Isaiah 32:2)
How exactly are these princes going to be a hiding place if they are far away in some distant heaven? Remember when Jesus was resurrected, he spent forty days with his disciples. He appeared to them in human form, then disappeared again even when they were all in a locked room. Remember the incident on the seashore around the fire when he ate fish with his apostles. Remember how he restored Peter’s confidence and lifted his guilt by allowing him to walk back his three earlier denials of knowing Jesus. Could he have done that if he were not physically present with them?
Jesus is a life-giving spirit according to 1 Corinthians 15:45, but he took on flesh to communicate with his disciples. Then he left. However, before leaving he appointed his slave to feed his domestics. Why? Because he wasn’t going to be present anymore to do that.
But Jesus promised to return. And when he returns, he will again be able to minister to his flock directly, but he will have others helping him. Those others are the princes who will serve as a hiding place from the wind, and a place of concealment from the rainstorm. They will be like streams of water in a waterless country.
Do you see how translator bias has allowed the Governing Body to preach a false hope? But the addition of the word “kings” is not the only misleading translation in Revelation 5:10. Here’s a different rendering of that verse:
“You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." (Revelation 5:10 BLB)
The New World translation uses the word “over”: “and they are to rule as kings over the earth.” The Greek word is epi. The NAS Exhaustive Concordance defines epi as “on, upon”. Scanning through the dozens of English translations on Biblehub.com we find that they all concur that it should be translated “on the earth” or “upon the earth”.
An airplane flies over a city, but it doesn’t fly on a city. If heaven is a PHYSICAL place, then you can’t rule on the earth and be in heaven at the same time. BUT What if heaven isn’t a place, but something else ENTIRELY ? If so, then other parts of the Bible start to make sense. For instance, Revelation 21 tells us:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)
When speaking of the first heaven and first earth passing way, it is not referring to physical places, but rather what heaven and earth represent. Earth represents the world of humanity and heaven represents that which is ruling over humanity.
The tabernacle was the tent that the Israelites carried with them when travelling through the wilderness. For hundreds of years, it was where God dwelt with them, where the ark of the covenant was kept. Later, it was replaced by the temple that Solomon built which was in the city of Jerusalem. God resided in the most holy, naos, of the temple which was in Jerusalem. But now we see the New Jerusalem, where the temple or tabernacle of God exists, coming out of heaven down to the earth. God is with us, dwelling with humankind.
We have to get rid of the idea that heaven is a physical place. It’s not easy, because the New World Translation isn’t the only Bible that suffers from biased renderings. Take for example how most Bibles render Mark 12:25.
“For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Mark 12:25 NKJV)
That’s from the New King James Version, Mark 12:25. That certainly makes us think of a place, but because we don’t take anything for granted anymore, let’s check the interlinear.
It says: “like angels in the heavens”. What!? Are there now multiple heavens?
I’ve claimed that the Bible never says that we go to heaven. To check that out, I used the Watchtower Library search engine and typed “go to heaven” into its search field. This is the result:
Well now, I see hundreds of matches in the publications, but only one in the Bible. Let’s check that out.
Aha! It’s in the notes. It’s not in the Bible at all.
Next, I went to Biblehub.com and did the same thing: I found only two matches. The first, at Deuteronomy 30:12, is part of a metaphor that Moses is using to reason with his people. The second is at Acts 1:11 where it is clearly talking about the sky.
So how should we think of heaven and why is it sometimes “heaven” and other times, “heavens”?
Instead of thinking of heaven as a place, as the Material Men leading the religions of Christendom would have us believe, let’s think of it as a state of being, a spiritual realm beyond the physical world we live in. Does the Bible support this understanding? Let’s see for ourselves.
1 Corinthians 15:50 (NLT) – “What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.”
This emphasizes that flesh and blood cannot enter heaven, suggesting it is a transformed reality, not a physical destination.
Corinthians 15:42-44 (NLT) – “It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies.”
This passage reinforces that the transition to "heaven" involves a change in nature, not a relocation.
Ephesians 2:6 (NLT) – “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
Notice the past tense—this suggests that believers are already seated in the heavens spiritually, even while still on earth.
Philippians 3:20-21 (NLT) – “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own.”
"Citizens of heaven" suggests an identity transformation, not a geographic relocation.
All this may seem confusing, especially if we’ve been taught to think in physical terms, believing that heaven is a location. But consider this: Jesus slipped into our physical reality and talked to his disciples, then slipped out again. In that state, as a spirit, he preached to spirits in prison as Peter tells us:
“In this [state] also he went his way and preached to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient when the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed,…” (1 Peter 3:19, 20)
We’re talking about dimensions beyond our physical perception. Let us not presume we can figure this out with our physical, fleshly mind.
Think of it this way. When God dwells with us, when the tent of God is with humankind, when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, won’t heaven then be with us then? Won’t that mean that the anointed children of God will be with humans on earth?
We’ve all heard the phrase “heaven on earth” from the lips of poets and singers, but we can see it is more than JUST a catchphrase.
I try to keep these videos to a reasonable length and this one is about as long as I like them to be, yet I haven’t fully covered the question of what “heaven” and “the heavens” represent, let alone the meaning of “paradise”. Perhaps you are wondering about other verses that imply a place in heaven, such as John 14:2 which reads:
“In the house of my Father are many dwelling places. Otherwise, I would have told you, for I am going my way to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)
So, we’ll get to all that in part 8b.
Thank you very much for watching to the end and for your support.