Returning to Heaven when You Die?

Question:

“When a Christian dies, does he go back to heaven? Or to another place? Or any other place?”

Answer:

There are many misconceptions regarding death, especially the death of a Christian. There is much confusion and many questions. Although we don’t have all of the answers, some answers are quite clear from the Scriptures.

One of the thoughts that people have at the time of death is that they go “back” to heaven when they die. If their loved ones remain, they may have the thought that the deceased person “went back” to heaven at death. Is it true that a person goes back to heaven?

This belief is brought out in the obituaries—if you happen to read them regularly. Just today, when a person died, we read, “Larger Than Life, . . . returned to heaven.” Did this person “return” to heaven? The closest thing in Scripture dealing with this matter is Ecclesiastes 12:7b, where the writer says that “the spirit will return to God who gave it.” But no ultimate definition can be found here.

The question is whether the person himself or herself exists before birth. The Mormons, we are told, do believe that “God” does beget a countless number of spirit beings and one by one these are sent to the earth to inhabit bodies.  Thus, the people we see every day—and ourselves as well—didn’t begin here on earth but had a prior existence in heaven!

Scripture, on the other hand, would affirm that at death, a saved person goes to Paradise to be with Jesus (Luke 23:43) and the body goes to the dust (Genesis 3:19b). A person begins some nine months before birth when he or she is conceived by the father and mother. David wrote, “You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” God formed us while we were in our mother’s womb.

Thus, it gives the wrong impression for the person to say that he “returned to God” when he dies. This suggests that the person was with God in heaven before birth. Instead, the person actually begins here on this earth, through the activity of the father and mother. Thus, when we meet someone who says that he is returning to God at death, just ask what the person means.  He may be just uttering something that he has heard before. Or he may be expressing what his parents have told him.

Or, on the other hand, he may have a bizarre teaching that does say that he was created as a “spirit being” in heaven and then was sent to earth. This is the Mormon teaching, as we mentioned above. They believe that the God of this planet (earth) conceived millions of “spirit children” who eventually came to this earth as men and women. In turn, they will return to heaven and be given worlds of their own!

It is utterly important that we go to Scripture to establish our belief. Don’t rely in what your parents have taught you, what your preacher has taught you, or what a radio or TV personality teaches you. Don’t rely on what the Mormon missionaries at your door have told you. God alone has infallible knowledge of what will happen after death!

–Richard Hollerman