‘Heaven’ is never in fact used in the Bible for the destination of the dying: it stands for the dwelling place of God and of Christ and of those who even now share his eternal life.
— John A. T. Robinson, In the End God
[…] it will not do to suppose that Jesus came to teach people ‘how to get to heaven’. That view has been immensely popular in Western Christianity for many generations, but it simply won’t do. The whole point of Jesus’ public career was not to tell people that God was in heaven and that, at death, they could leave ‘earth’ behind and go to be with him there. It was to tell them that God was now taking charge, right here on ‘earth’; that they should pray for this to happen; that they should recognise, in his own work, the signs that it was happening indeed; and that when he completed his work, it would become reality.
— Tom Wright, Simply Jesus
The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is in your midst.
— Jesus of Nazareth, Luke 17:20-21
Discuss.
